Archbishop's “first Job,” SNAP Says: “stop Record Shredding”

SNAP
March 13, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_archbishop_s_first_job_snap_says_stop_record_shredding

Now that Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt is back on the job, he should immediately stop the destruction of church abuse records and fire – or at least publicly denounce - the staffer who recently admitted doing it or others who have done likewise.

[nytimes.com]

In an MPR report just over two weeks ago (in paragraph 11 of a 13 paragraph story), an archdiocesan official made a disturbing revelation:

Setter, who carried out investigations of priests for the archdiocese for more than a decade, told police that he had a policy of destroying records after five years and therefore no longer had his final report summarizing the investigation. Setter also said that he recently changed his policy and now destroys records after two years.

[mprnews.org]

For ten years, this man, Richard Setter, has done 'investigations' of child sex abuse reports for the archdiocese. It's not clear to us whether he's still with the archdiocese. If he is, he should be fired. If he is not, Nienstedt should still publicly denounce him.

We hope Nienstedt will take strong, clear and public steps to stop the destruction of abuse documents and publicly instruct other church staff and volunteers to stop doing it.

Children are safer and justice is possible when records are preserved, not destroyed.