Mn Archbishop Is Accused; SNAP Responds

SNAP
December 17, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_archbishop_is_accused_snap_responds

The Twin Cities archbishop is now accused of abuse.

[CBS Minnesota]

Archbishop Nienstedt is right to step aside. We hope police and prosecutors investigate this thoroughly and promptly. We also hope that anyone else who might be able to shed light on this allegation will quickly step forward, contacting secular authorities, not church authorities.

Twin Cities Catholic officials should do in this case what we’ve urged in virtually every other case of accused clerics: They should beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered misdeeds or crimes by Nienstedt to call police.

We hope this mandated reporter is disciplined. He or she should have called police directly. It is disturbing that even now, two decades after Twin Cities Catholic officials pledged to "reform" their handling of clergy sex cases, a Catholic staffer apparently still reports suspected abuse first to archdiocesan officials instead of law enforcement officials.