MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Joe Soucheray
jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/21/2013
It was an additional and surprising revelation that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was not cooperating with St. Paul police concerning investigations into alleged sexual improprieties by clergy, but now they are. Rather than send only lawyers into the front parlor to meet with investigators, the archdiocese this past week sent its vicar general, the Rev. Charles Lachowitzer, to meet with police. Yes. Lachowitzer was accompanied by one of the lawyers, but at least there was a high-ranking collar in the room.
That is progress. Progress seems to have been jump-started by the allegation made last week by an unnamed male that Archbishop John Nienstedt inappropriately touched the fellow on the butt during a photo session following a confirmation ceremony in 2009. Confirmations are, in their aftermaths, clamorous affairs because everybody has a camera these days and everybody wants a chance to get a photo or a bit of video stream with an archbishop posed with a new young soldier of the faith.
It might be foolhardy to say that I am not buying it — the alleged touching — because we have been surprised at nearly every turn, including Nienstedt’s apology last week when he delivered sermons at Our Lady of Grace in Edina. Here, again, we simply had a failure of modern public relations.
Nienstedt said he failed to pay close enough attention because he said he was told upon his arrival as archbishop in 2008 that sexual abuse by clergy had been contained and taken care of. That was a ridiculous position for him to take. It wasn’t exactly a non-apology apology, so common today in America’s cultural swoon, but it did not meet the standards expected of a boss.
No less ridiculous is the suggestion that Nienstedt did what he is alleged to have done. Come forward, young man, and tell us exactly what you mean when you charge that the archbishop inappropriately touched you. What exactly is an inappropriate touching of the butt — a pat, a slap, a brushing against? A brushing against is entirely plausible giving the clamorous nature of the post-confirmation excitement.
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