MINNESOTA
Wandervogel Diary
The rolling wave of outrage has recently been hitting the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, my home of 30 years, over charges that pedophile priests were for decades constantly moved (and not taken out of circulation) by their higher-ups in the Catholic Church.
John Nienstedt, as a sacrificial lamb for the archdiocese’s history of obfuscation and evasion. But he has just announced that he will release instead a list of some living priests who still reside in the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and who have been determined by the archdiocese to be guilty of abuse.
Nienstedt did not say how many names would be released, and it’s unclear if the list would include any priests not already known to the public through lawsuits and media reports. It has been reported that all priests on the list have been relieved of their priestly duties. Less than a day after he made this commitment, Neinstedt has begun backing off from this promise… so the list may not be released at all.
Chances are, the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will remain embroiled in this issue, not because this particular archdiocese is any worse than any other with respect to clergy abuse, but because the Twin Cities is the home of attorney Jeff Anderson, who has built his national practice around clergy abuse. Jeff Anderson & Associates pioneered the use of civil litigation to seek justice for survivors of child sexual abuse and is recognized as the nation’s premier law firm in that specialty.
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