MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Apr. 24, 2014
Shortly after becoming coadjutor archbishop of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese in 2007, John Nienstedt held a meeting with core staff officials to discuss the state of safe environments in the archdiocese.
During that two-hour meeting, “it didn’t occur to me,” the now-archbishop said in a deposition released Tuesday, to ask for a copy of the John Jay list — those priests the archdiocese listed as credibly accused in the 2004 John Jay College of Criminal Justice study on clergy sex abuse.
Nor did it occur to Nienstedt to document the names of priests currently enrolled in a monitoring program or to record any of the discussion among his delegate for safe environment, Fr. Kevin McDonough; his chancellors for civil and canonical affairs; and him.
“It was verbal,” the archbishop said.
Non-documentation would become an occasional norm for him and McDonough when discussing sensitive matters, Nienstedt said.
Through 200-plus pages of testimony, Nienstedt, who described himself as a hands-on manager, instead frequently appears as a leader unaware of information concerning abuse, who at times failed to follow up on child-protecting protocols, and who saw no need to discipline his staff or priests for their handling of abuse allegations.
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