Joe Soucheray: Archbishop Is Going about This All Wrong
By Joe Soucheray
If I were the archbishop, and the chances of that are certainly off the board, I would call a news conference. In fact, I would call one every day if I had to just to keep pace with attorney Jeff Anderson and the St. Paul police, who have reopened an investigation of a child pornography case involving a former Hugo priest. I was made privy to a letter that Archbishop John Nienstedt apparently sent to Catholic school principals assuring them that the archdiocese is on the job and taking full responsibility for its failure to act more thoroughly on past charges of abusive priests. It was ... wooden. It was too written by committee without heartfelt personality. It was boilerplate, is what it was. This is not the time for boilerplate. The vibe emanating from the chancery offices is off key. The church authorities are not out in front of this mess; they are entangled in it, as though they are peeking from behind the drapes wondering what is going to hit them next. A thought of admonition, which is not at all to excuse abusive priests, who should have been thrown out of the church and not moved around. That is the significant downfall that compels the current misery, that church authorities for too many years did not properly address low-functioning or even criminally bent employees. Oh, the admonition. As depleted as modern newsgathering institutions are, they will find the energy to go after the Roman Catholic Church. That is just the way it is. The church is seen as white, powerful and wealthy. And we live in a time when the discipline and ritual of theology is seen as folly, at least through the eyes of post-modernism. And now, because we have the police involved in the suspicion of the church's higher-ups involved in an alleged cover-up, there will be no holding back, nor should there be. Afflicting the too comfortable is an age-old dynamic of the press, and right now there is no fairer game in town than Nienstedt. He needs to come out swinging, but he is up against the ropes and getting pummeled. I am not suggesting that Nienstedt is unfairly targeted. I am suggesting that he is now in an arena with which he is apparently wholly unfamiliar and is taking the blows like what the boxers used to call a tomato can. Call that news conference, Archbishop. Call one every day. Hold them in different locations. Get out on the street. The press will remain ravenous on this, again, as well they should. You have to get in the game and quit believing that long elegant letters vetted by some inner circle of the sanctimonious will suffice to tell your side of the story. You have good priests to defend and bad ones to condemn. Get with it, man. You could tell the people that, for too long, the main driving force of the church was to protect the church, but that those days are done. They are gone. That the world will not stand for the harming of children and that you are incensed and embarrassed. You've said these things, but too carefully and not quickly enough. This is all a great shame, but great shames have to be dealt with. The buck has to stop somewhere, and you happen to be the guy at the desk right now where the buck stops. If you can't handle it, if you can't cut ties right now with that faction of abusive priests who are bringing the church down, then step aside and let somebody else try to salvage what is obviously the truth; the vast majority of priests are good and sound and dedicated. Make no mistake, Archbishop. The press will keep coming after you, as well they should. Contact: jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com
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