LAANSING (MI)
Legal Examiner blog
March 25, 2019
By Mick S. Grewal Sr.
Sexual assault attorney Mick Grewal discusses sexual abuse in Michigan Catholic churches and what Michigan officials are doing about it.
Earlier this month, I wrote about the global crisis of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. This crisis is now in our back yard. Archbishop John Nienstedt – listed as one of the Catholic Church’s top 5 offenders in the world who most deserves to be expelled from priesthood – is now living in Michigan after being forced to leave the archdiocese he ran in Minnesota. Nienstedt had to resign after the church he ran became bankrupt due to a legal settlement it had to pay because of its cover-up of sexual predator priests.
There are numerous allegations against Nienstedt that include sexually assaulting young boys and covering up suspected clergy sexual abuse. The reason watchdog group Bishop Accountability wants Nienstedt removed is because he has a long history of protecting priests who are sexual predators.
Here in Michigan, Nienstedt was appointed pastor in White Lake Township in the 1980s, and in 1988, he became rector at Sacred Heart. During his time there, he covered up a subculture of sexual abuse, and in the early 1990s, half the seminarians wrote the archdiocese a letter, asking that Nienstedt be removed. It was agreed that Nienstedt would take a sabbatical, but he was allowed to continue his clergy duties and was appointed pastor at Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak. Nienstedt was then made an auxiliary bishop (1996), and for 5 years, he served as director of the archdiocese’s “medical moral committee.” During the mid-1990s – 2000, Nienstedt carried the title of “assistant professor of moral theology” at Sacred Heart.
In 2001, Nienstedt was suddenly transferred to Minnesota to run a diocese, and in 2007, he was assigned to direct the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis – and this is where his most notorious role in a child sexual abuse scandal occurred. Anne Doyle of Bishop Accountability stated that here, Nienstedt “covered up for egregious offenders.” Furthermore, as a director of the archdiocese, Nienstedt was involved in making special cash payments to perpetrator priests, according to a Minnesota public radio investigation. When one of his priests was charged with molesting numerous children, Nienstedt asked the judge to dismiss the charges due to statute of limitations problems, and he also asked the judge to have the alleged victim pay $64,000.00 in legal costs.
It was 2015 when Nienstedt was forced to leave his Minnesota post with the archdiocese because he had played a large role in covering up clergy sexual abuse, and because the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy. In addition, Nienstedt has been banned from exercising public ministry in Minnesota until allegations surrounding him are resolved.
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