UNITED STATES
GlobalPost
Jason Berry
The complex story unveiled by MPR this week offers a clear look of Catholic clergy coverup of sex abuse
As Pope Francis’s confessional apology to clergy abuse survivors in Rome made global headlines in early July, Minnesota Public Radio was reporting on a scandal surrounding St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt.
The pope’s remark, “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable,” soon receded from the 24/7 news cycle.
But Nienstedt’s reported behavior, and that of his predecessor, Harry Flynn, beg the lingering question of how Francis will hold bishops accountable.
Many dioceses have instituted safe-touch training for teachers and students. Bishops have removed scores of perpetrators who were never prosecuted. But the “zero tolerance” plank in the US bishops’ 2002 youth protection charter rests on voluntary compliance.
That flaw fueled the MPR investigation under lead reporter Madeleine Baran and producer Sasha Aslanian. The radio series explores how past mistakes become time bombs. Various reports were edited into in a one-hour documentary.
A lengthy web narrative, “Betrayed by Silence: A Story in Four Chapters,” based on the radio series, details the scope of coverage:
For decades, the archbishops who led the Catholic archdiocese in the Twin Cities maintained that they were doing everything they could to protect children from priests who wanted to rape them.
Reporters picked up those assurances and repeated them without question. Police and prosecutors took the assurances at face value. Parents believed the assurances and trusted priests with their children.
But the assurances were a lie, and the archbishops knew it. Three of them — John Roach, Harry Flynn and John Nienstedt — participated in a cover-up that pitted the finances and power of the church against the victims who dared to come forward and tell their stories.
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