MINNESOTA
Twin Cities Daily Planet
By Grace Kelly, Minnesota Progressive Project
November 13, 2013
The Head of Catholic Church, Pope Francis is leading in a new direction that moves from a preoccupation with sex and back to the principles that Jesus taught – like caring for the poor. However, the head of local Catholic Church, Archbishop John Nienstedt, is the ultimate in a preoccupation with sex. Not only has Archbishop Nienstedt been involved in condemning gays and condemning women, he lobbied against the Child Victims Act that removes the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases going forward. One of Nienstedt’s priests has been convicted of child molestation but went free because the statue of limitations ran out. Over a million church dollars has been spent since since the year 2000 in lobbying for laws that allow priests to get away with sexual crimes while trying to force sexual laws on everyone else. Not only did the Archbishop Nienstedt coverup and defend priests accused of sexual crimes, he rewarded them with extra funds. His actions put others at risk.
While many have left the Catholic church, an amazing grassroots group called Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) is striving to reform the church from within. Even on a cold blustery day, many brave souls gathered to ask Archbishop Nienstedt to resign and to urge people to write to the Papal Nuncio about the choice for the new pope (address at bottom).
The CCCR wants Archbishop John Nienstedt to resign from the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese after the way the church handled accusations of sexual misconduct. The most profound statement is coming from Bob Beutel, “We need healing, but healing cannot begin with the knife still in the wound.” Indeed as victims speak out and church priests have not been brought to justice, the case for resignation grows. New allegations have added more concern. Basically, the Archbishop has tried to make priests untouchable by law, while the CCCR holds that “Religion is no defense for criminal actions.” What is even worse, is that no warning, no supervision and no controls were put on the priests in question. In fact, at least one priest was given immediate retirement with extra money and complete lack of supervision.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.