MICHIGAN
Lansing State Journal
– Greg Guggemos is a former longtime East Lansing resident and adjunct professor of law at Cooley and Vermont Law Schools. He is a standing member of SNAP.
I recently saw the movie “Spotlight,” along with my wife, Mary. It’s a suspenseful, accurate portrayal of how a team of dedicated Boston Globe reporters began exposing what eventually became more than 250 accused child molesting clerics in one archdiocese and the shrewd cover up of those crimes for years by top Catholic officials. “Spotlight” made a lasting impression on us for many reasons. First, it emphasized the absolute necessity for a free press. Second, it spoke to the courage of editors and their dedicated journalists to a commitment for investigative reporting. Third, it exposed the hypocrisy of the Catholic church leadership and its centuries-old policy of protecting pedophile priests and its complete disregard of the emotional trauma suffered by countless children who were and continue to be victims of this insidious policy.
Just last week an incident occurred in Western Michigan again demonstrating the need for a free press and investigative reporting. John Nienstedt, a recently resigned former Archbishop from Minnesota, was appointed as pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic parish in Battle Creek. After announcement of the appointment, representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued two press releases denouncing the appointment. Following considerable public pressure after the announcement, Paul Bradley, Bishop for the Kalamazoo diocese, which includes Battle Creek, rescinded Nienstedt’s appointment and publicly apologized to his parishioners.
While Bradley’s recession appears laudatory, the real question is why would the hierarchy of the Catholic church allow Nienstedt’s reassignment to occur in the first place? Nienstedt has been credibly accused of committing several acts of sexual abuse in Minnesota. The Archdiocese of Minnesota currently faces criminal charges for refusing to report child sex crimes by pedophile priests which occurred during Nienstedt’s watch. Victims of this sexual abuse have filed affidavits in these criminal proceedings, detailing the suffering they sustained as a result of Nienstedt’s conduct as Archbishop. Was Bradley, the Bishop for the Kalamazoo diocese, not aware of the widely reported criminal proceedings in Minnesota and Nienstedt’s resignation?
I was sexually abused by a priest when I was 5 years old and living at St. Vincent’s orphanage in Lansing. The exposure by the Boston Globe and its courageous reporters of the scandal in Boston, together with the assistance of SNAP, gave Mary and me the courage in 2010 to publicly share the sexual abuse I suffered as a child, after I settled my sexual abuse claim with the Lansing diocese.
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