Nienstedt Should Resign

By Kevin O'Brien
The Waiting for Godot to Leave
October 13, 2013

http://thwordinc.blogspot.com/2013/10/nienstedt-should-resign.html

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Archbishop Nienstedt should step down, not only because of his handling of recent abuse cases in the archdiocese of St. Paul, but because he has done nothing to curb slush fund payments to child molesting priests, like the one portrayed here, who lives in luxury at Church expense at the very location where he buggered little boys.

Why is Nienstedt paying extra money to retired child abusers - money above and beyond their pensions?  What possible reason could he have for rewarding the behavior of such men?  And if this is not a decision Nienstedt himself has made - why has he allowed it to continue, even after it has been brought to his attention?

There is a systemic evil at work in the Church - in many dioceses, in many orders, and sometimes you'll see it parish to parish, school to school.  There is a deliberate turning away from Christ and an embrace of utter depravity, all the while mouthing pious platitudes.

Can we not recognize that yet?  Do we not know that these shepherds are not calling us with the True Shepherd's voice?

"He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.  (John 10:3-6)

Do we not understand?  When bishops enable child molesters, reward them with extra pensions (as Nienstedt is doing), and when bishops condone the flouting of canon law, bad catechesis and liturgical abuse (as so many of them are doing), they may still be our rightful shepherds, but they are speaking with a stranger's voice.

And that voice is getting stranger and stranger.