MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
By James Walsh Star Tribune JUNE 15, 2015
Shortly after delivering a homily about turning the other cheek, the Rev. Jim Schoenberger asked the 50 souls who had gathered Monday for noon mass at the Church of the Assumption to say a prayer for Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piché.
Hours earlier, the two Catholic Church leaders had resigned in the wake of the archdiocese’s oversight of sexually abusive clergy members. For some sitting in the pews of St. Paul’s oldest church, that news came as a shock. For others, the announcement came much too late. Several, in fact, said they had lost confidence in Nienstedt’s leadership long ago.
“It is a sad day, but it’s sad that things happened like that, that people had to suffer here,” said Ray Kieser, a member of the parish, located downtown, for 20 years. “It is going to take a new person to come in here and do what they can to repair it.”
Another parishioner, an 83-year-old woman who asked not to be named, said she was “dumbfounded” by the news but “I am glad he resigned. I think he was covering up for people doing terrible things.”
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