MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

03/09/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

On December 12, 2013, Archbishop Nienstedt met with the priests of one of the geographic deaneries in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The purpose of the meeting was for the priests to be able to share with the Archbishop their thoughts on what was then a blossoming sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese. Unbeknownst to the Archbishop, or to Bishop Piche (who accompanied him to the meeting), the conversation was being secretly recorded. Within days the recording had made its way to the news media and to law enforcement, and the unguarded statements of the two bishops would become important pieces of information as various organizations attempted to put together who knew what and when. To this day, neither the transcript nor the full recording of that meeting has been made public.

Perhaps not surprising, one of the first questions that…