Twin Cities Archdiocese Eyes Panel to Examine Priest Misconduct

Pioneer Press
October 6, 2013

http://www.twincities.com/stpaul/ci_24252899/twin-cities-archdiocese-eyes-panel-examine-priest-misconduct

The dome of the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

Archbishop John Nienstedt has named a law professor who also is a Dominican priest to form a lay task force to investigate new claims of sexual misconduct by priests.

Reginald Whitt, one of the founding faculty members of the University of St. Thomas School of Law, will name the lay committee -- he won't serve on it -- according to a "Pulpit Announcement" that Nienstedt asked his priests to read at church services over the weekend.

"There can be no question: Our standard is -- and must always be -- zero tolerance for abuse," Nienstedt wrote in the letter.

He went on to ask that everyone "pray for all victims of sexual misconduct in church ministry and in our society."

The announcement did not say how big the task force would be. But it said the panel would make recommendations that would be released to the public.

The archbishop said panel members would convene this week and "will have full authority and all the resources needed to complete their work."

Bob Schwiderski, director of Minnesota Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement Sunday saying he doubted the task force would be truly independent given that Nienstedt appointed the person who will assemble it and that the task force is expected to get to work this week.

"That suggests it has already been appointed," Schwiderski said in a statement. "Either way, there will obviously be no public input into the membership or the parameters of this task force. So once again, it's a largely secretive, top-down approach."

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis had announced plans for such a task force Friday. On Saturday, a former archdiocese official released a statement calling for an external review of all clergy -- and saying priests who have engaged in sexual misconduct or who may pose a threat to children should be removed.

Jennifer Haselberger, who left her job in April as the archdiocese's chancellor for canonical affairs, claimed she had raised concerns about such issues in the past but nothing had come of her efforts.

Since July, she has been providing information to Minnesota Public Radio "regarding acts of sexual and other misconduct involving several members of the clergy. ... My hope was that by making this information public it would serve as a warning about predatory priests currently serving in the archdiocese," she wrote in a statement.

Among them : the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, 52, formerly at St. John the Baptist Church in Hugo. In 2004, a computer he owned had thousands of pornographic images stored on it.

The archdiocese did not report the matter to police. Eventually, Haselberger told Ramsey County prosecutors, and they got St. Paul police to investigate.

The police inquiry ground to a halt Sept. 29 when investigators said they found no child pornography on disks the archdiocese had provided. But Friday, the Hugo man who told the archdiocese about the computer in 2004 turned over to police copies of what he said were portions of the computer's hard drive.

Friday's statement from the archdiocese was critical of media reports it said were "incomplete and leave a false impression about the commitment of the archdiocese to identify and address misconduct by priests."

Nienstedt's pulpit announcement referred to "disturbing news."

"It is understandable to be distressed by what you are seeing and hearing," he wrote. "Addressing these serious allegations is the top priority for the archdiocese. It is also critical that the assessment of this situation is done by an independent group so that there can be no question of the integrity of the review."

Whitt will "oversee the current administration related to clergy misconduct" and will also appoint members of the task force, the announcement said.

He said the panel will "review any and all issues related to clergy misconduct and ... make specific recommendations regarding actions to be taken and policies to be implemented."

Whitt was one of the founding members of St. Thomas' law faculty when the School of Law reopened in 2001. (The university had opened a law school in 1923 but closed it 10 years later.)

His biography on the school's website says that in 2003 he took a leave to serve as president of the pontifical faculty at the Dominican House of Studies, located in Washington, and returned to St. Thomas in the fall of 2007.

He has taught at the law schools at Villanova University, the University of Kentucky, Duke University and the University of Notre Dame.

The bio says he is known for his research "in African-American Catholic concerns," and that his other research interests "embrace the ministry of the bishops, liturgical law, Catholic colleges and universities, and ecclesiastical structures, property and governance."