MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
JON TEVLIN , Star Tribune Updated: October 30, 2013
Thomas Lyons virtually grew up in the Catholic Church. He attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Chicago through the fourth grade and served as an altar boy at St. Edward, where he also sang in the choir.
Lyons still attends mass at Church of St. Peter in North St. Paul and he has contributed money to the many good charitable efforts of his parish and the church at large.
But after a string of allegations and subsequent resignations by some of the top officials of the archdiocese, Lyons is done giving.
“I used to contribute to the archbishop’s appeal,” said Lyons, a Vadnais Heights attorney. “But now I don’t want [Archbishop John Nienstedt] to have access to any of my money.”
Given his long-held faith, Lyons may be an unlikely church rebel. Like a lot of church members, however, he’s concerned that the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is not handling the crisis over allegations of priest abuse openly, and he doesn’t want his money used for damage control.
Lyons made the news last week when he took the dramatic step of starting a petition on change.org calling for Nienstedt to resign for the good of the church. As of Tuesday, it had 188 signatures.
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