MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
D.J. Tice is at Doug.Tice@startribune.com.
On Monday, John Nienstedt ended his fight to retain leadership of the 800,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Church and state in Minnesota have been united by recent events — united in disgrace, that is, as each finally has been called to account for long-standing and long-denied injustices.
Real reform and recompense will be difficult for each of these sinfully proud institutions. But at least the truth has come out.
Archbishop John Nienstedt and a chief lieutenant resigned last week after years of pressure culminated in criminal charges against the Twin Cities archdiocese, alleging that church officials covered up and essentially tolerated clergy sexual abuse of children for decades.
Meanwhile, at long last, state government’s decisive day in court also arrived last week, when federal District Judge Donovan Frank found the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) unconstitutional and a threat to “the moral credibility of the criminal justice system.”
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