UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register
by JUDY ROBERTS 04/03/2014
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A decision last month not to charge Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection with an allegation that he inappropriately touched a boy during a group photo was good news for a Church battered by scandal in recent years.
The determination by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota that there was insufficient evidence to support a charge against the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis was announced March 11, days before another priest, Father Eugene Boland of Northern Ireland, returned to ministry after his acquittal on sexual-assault charges involving a teenage girl.
Both cases raise questions about the nature of such charges and how the process for resolving them affects those who are accused, particularly when they are found to be innocent or when the allegations lack sound evidence.
Even before Archbishop Nienstedt was cleared, the Catholic League’s president, Bill Donohue, called the allegation involving an unidentified male into question, saying the archbishop had been “the subject of a nonstop crusade orchestrated by ex-Catholics, and Catholics in rebellion against the Church, simply because he stands for everything they are not: He is a loyal son of the Catholic Church.”
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