MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Beginning in the fall of 2013, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (“the Archdiocese”) faced a crisis arising from media reports that it had mishandled complaints of sexual abuse of minors by its clergy. The media reports suggested a betrayal by the Church of its fundamental duty to protect children entrusted to its care. These allegations were irreconcilable with the commitment of the Church to provide a safe environment for all children, stated in The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (“Dallas Charter”) adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in June 2002. The reports were also shocking and confounding given the Archdiocese’s difficult experience with similar misconduct decades before and the damage it caused to both victims and the Church.
Archbishop John C. Nienstedt responded on October 5, 2013, by establishing a new Office of Episcopal Vicar for Ministerial Standards to assume full responsibility for all issues related to clergy sexual misconduct. In turn, the Episcopal Vicar established “an independent, lay task force to review any and all issues related to clergy misconduct and to make specific recommendations regarding actions to be taken and policies and procedures to be implemented.”
The volunteer, seven-member Task Force appointed by the Episcopal Vicar agreed from the outset on a single overriding goal for its work: the protection of children. The Task Force did not undertake to investigate specific allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors; rather, its focus was on the efficacy of the Archdiocese’s Safe Environment organizational structure and its processes related to preventing and detecting such abuse. The Task Force met 23 times between October 2013 and March 2014. Its members interviewed 32 individuals (including Archdiocese officials, parish priests, experts and advocates experienced in child abuse issues, and other members of the community) and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.
The Task Force’s work revealed serious shortcomings in the Archdiocese’s implementation of
the Dallas Charter:
1. For many years, the Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.
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