MINNESOTA
Twin Cities Daily Planet
By Andy Birkey, The Colu.mn
July 22, 2014
The investigation of alleged cover-ups of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has brought a flurry of court documents which reveal some details of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s war on gay marriage. In one case, the Archdiocese allegedly considered having a priest labelled disabled to silence his support of marriage equality.
Father Michael Tegeder of St. Francis Cabrini and Gichitwaa Kateri has been an outspoken critic of Nienstedt’s assault on LGBT rights. He was sharply critical of the anti-gay marriage amendment that was on the ballot in 2012.
He was so outspoken, Nienstedt threatened to remove him from ministry.
“If you choose not to offer your resignation, but continue to act openly or speak publicly about your opposition to Church teaching, I will suspend your faculties to exercise ministry and remove you from your ministerial assignments,” Nienstedt wrote to Tegeder in a letter in November 2011.
But behind the scenes, Nienstedt was considering other measures to silence Tegeder. According to an affidavit by whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger, Nienstedt has the authority to label a church employee as disabled:
However, both the Archbishop and Mr. Haws would be aware (as would others) that the determination of who is considered disabled under the terms of the Priests Pension Plan is the exclusive prerogative of the Archbishop. It is a matter for his prudential judgment. Furthermore, there are no restrictions on the Archbishop’s designation- no medical diagnosis is necessary, and it need not correspond to, for instance, a similar designation by the Social Security Administration. In other words, not only is the Archbishop qualified to evaluate who can be classified as disabled, he ís the only person who can make that evaluation.
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