MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
[Affidavit of Thomas E. Ring – Redacted
July 7, 2014 Memo]
By MARINO ECCHER | meccher@pioneerpress.com
PUBLISHED: July 20, 2016
From the outset, Daniel Griffith assured the investigators the church didn’t want “a white-wash or a witch hunt,” but the unvarnished truth.
One priest had already been convicted of sexual abuse. John Nienstedt, the sitting archbishop, was facing allegations of misconduct. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis hired the law firm Greene Espel to get to the bottom of it, promising free rein and seeking an investigation that would be beyond reproach.
But when confronted with early results, a top Vatican official sought to snuff out the findings and plunge the archdiocese into what Griffith — a priest dismayed and disillusioned by the church’s maneuvering — deemed “a good old fashioned cover-up,” according to documents released this week.
Announced Wednesday, the archdiocese struck a deal with Ramsey County prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution for its handling of sex abuse cases but to confess wrongdoing and improve its practices. The same day, Jeff Anderson, an attorney who has represented hundreds of people making sex abuse claims against the church, made public more than 100 pages of related documents.
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