MINNESOTA
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Yesterday, I mentioned in passing the story now breaking in the Catholic archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, where officials of the archdiocese have known from 2004 that a parish priest under their authority, Rev. Jonathan Shelley, has pornographic images of boys on his computer, but kept him in his position as a parish priest. For Minnesota Public Radio, Madeleine Baran published a run-down of the story yesterday. The details are absolutely damning.
They show archdiocesan officials debating for years the definition and details of child pornography, while they were in possession of evidence that Father Shelley had contravened laws making the possession of child pornography a criminal act, and while they had the obligation to report him to the authorities for possessing child pornography. And all this after the American bishops had made a solemn oath to the Catholic people of the U.S. that they would clean up the child abuse situation in the Catholic church and would stop exposing Catholic children to danger . . . .
As Jerry Slevin points out in two hard-hitting postings at his Christian Catholicism blog (here and here), credit for blowing the whistle in this case goes to a courageous woman, Jennifer Haselberger, a canon lawyer who was formerly archdiocesan Chancellor for Canonical Matters, but who has been vilified by the officials of the archdiocese after she alerted the police and the media to the Shelley story, and who has now resigned her position. Jerry writes,
The female Chancellor bravely quit in protest. She is holding her ground against her bishop, an arch anti-gay marriage activist. She is proving, single handedly, what a difference a woman makes, in a world of childless celibates, when it comes to protecting children, among other things.
She is also likely giving many in the Catholic hierarchy in the USA and the Vatican some real nightmares, since she likely knows even more “secrets”. This bold woman is not clamming up like Philly’s Cardinal Rigali’s Secretary, Msgr. Lynn, did.
Pope Francis should appoint her immediately to the Council of Cardinals, instead of only the “usual suspects”. He would then at least get the full truth. She probably already even owns a red dress, but may need to buy some cufflinks.
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