MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Tom Scheck, Laura Yuen, Mike Cronin · St. Paul, Minn. · Dec 17, 2013
Archbishop John Nienstedt, leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has voluntarily “stepped aside from all public ministry” while police investigate an allegation that he touched a boy on the buttocks in 2009.
In doing so, Nienstedt becomes the first sitting U.S. bishop to voluntarily relinquish some of his duties because of a police investigation into alleged sexual misconduct, said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a priest and canon lawyer who worked at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C. Nienstedt denied the allegation.
“I must say that this allegation is absolutely and entirely false,” the archbishop wrote in a letter posted on the archdiocese’s website. “I have never once engaged in any inappropriate contact with a minor.”
The St. Paul Police Department began its investigation at 2 p.m. Monday after the archdiocese encouraged a person within the church who is required by law to report allegations of abuse to contact authorities. In a statement this morning, archdiocese officials said they learned of the allegation from that person.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.