MINNESOTA
Religion News Service
Affidavit of Thomas E. Ring – Redacted
July 7, 2014 Memo
By Emily McFarlan Miller
(RNS) A Vatican spokesman says the release of documents alleging its former ambassador to the U.S. stopped an investigation of a Minnesota archbishop “is a very complex issue” that will require further study.
“We need more information before we can make any comment,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.
The spokesman’s remarks came in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday (July 21), the day after a new collection of documents regarding clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was made public.
Among them was a memo that detailed sexual misconduct and harassment allegations against former Archbishop John Nienstedt, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
It also said the Vatican ambassador in 2014 had told bishops to stop their investigation. When those bishops responded with a letter saying that “would rightly be seen as a coverup,’’ the memo published on the Star Tribune website said, then-ambassador Archbishop Carlo Vigano told them to “destroy” the letter.
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