MINNESOTA
Daily Mail (UK)
Breaking news: Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, resigns amid sex abuse cover-up claims against Archdiocese
By KATE PICKLES FOR MAILONLINE
The Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota has resigned following claims of a sex-abuse cover-up.
Archbishop John Nienstedt and deputy bishop Lee Anthony Piche submitted their resignations to Pope Francis today, a release said.
They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other ‘grave’ reason that makes them unfit for office.
Earlier this month, prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation of having ‘turned a blind eye’ to repeated reports of inappropriate behavior by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys. No individual was named in the indictment.
In his letter to Pope Francis, the Archbishop says his leadership became a distraction from the good works of the church following investigations into alleged priest sex abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.