MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: January 18, 2015
Catholic parishes take steps to limit fallout from archdiocese’s bankruptcy in wake of clergy abuse
Twin Cities Catholics going to mass this weekend saw something waiting for them along with the bulletins and hymnals — fliers explaining their church’s bankruptcy.
The incongruous fact sheets were a stark outline of the reckoning that has come to the spiritual home of 850,000 Minnesota Catholics after decades of sexual abuse by priests, a scandal that has rocked the faith of some believers and the patience of all.
Reflective and questioning, those coming to mass were still coming to terms with a step that their archbishop said Friday had been made necessary by the damage done to victims and to the church.
Some believers, like Amy Holtan of Maple Grove, kept the news firmly within the framework of their faith.
“We have sinners who lead the church: We’re all sinners,” said Holtan, who attended St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis shortly after the bankruptcy announcement. “But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. God is in the midst of this.”
Other Catholics, like Mary Schrankler of Woodbury, aren’t planning to set foot in a church anytime soon.
“We need to understand better why this decision was made now,” Schrankler said. “Was it in the best interest of the people abused, or in the best interest of the archdiocese?”
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