MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 09/15/2014
More than half the tenured faculty members of the University of St. Thomas theology department have sent an open letter to Archbishop John Nienstedt insisting the “pastoral state of the archdiocese is not sustainable” without significant changes.
“The people of God rightly expect bishops to be good stewards of the Lord’s household,” said the letter, sent to Nienstedt on Friday and distributed publicly Monday morning. “Recent events have shown how badly the pastoral leadership of the archdiocese has failed to meet those expectations.
“We refer not only to the multifaceted sexual abuse scandal itself but also to the manner in which these scandals have been handled,” said 12 theologians who signed the letter.
The letter does not call for Nienstedt’s resignation; Assistant Professor of Theology Massimo Faggioli said Monday that the group is not taking a position on that matter.
Aside from a similar letter from women faculty members this summer, the missive is unusual, he said.
“I don’t recall a history of other statements of this kind, but I don’t think there has been a crisis as serious as this one in recent history, either,” Faggioli said.
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.