The Good Priests Deserve Better Archbishops
By Joe Soucheray
The average parish priest is a working stiff who is on call 24 hours a day. They hear confessions, celebrate Mass, visit the sick, write sermons, lead prayer groups, organize fall festivals, collect money to stoke the boiler, and, generally speaking, don't have two nickels to rub together for a golf game. Some of these working stiffs go off the rails and commit sins against humanity, but certainly not the majority of them. Why, given the weakness of their leaders, their bosses, it is a miracle of the church that these working stiffs even still have a ship to run. Archbishop John Nienstedt has been absolutely worthless in meeting the crimes against humanity -- the abuse of children -- square in the face. He thought everything had been taken care of by his predecessor, Harry Flynn, who was a gregarious guy out in public, to the point where you could feel comfortable calling him "Arch," because maybe you saw him at the next table at The Lexington and you picked up his check. Now, Flynn's testimony has been made public and it is sad to realize that he is just as worthless as Nienstedt in facing up to the priests who have gone off the rails, the priests who are giving the average parish working stiff a bad name. In a deposition as part of a lawsuit against the archdiocese and former priest Thomas Adamson, we learned that Flynn doesn't remember a thing about allegations of sexual abuse by priests. He didn't know anything, was hearing names for the first time, was out of town a lot, he supposed. Per his company's form, he figured that any issues were settled by his predecessor, John Roach, who can no longer speak for himself because he is in a grave. And if passing the buck to Roach wasn't thorough enough to get him off the hook, he tossed it forward to Nienstedt. Both of them, Flynn and Nienstedt, are comfortable throwing former Vicar General Kevin McDonough under the bus.
If the archdiocese was a company in which people had stock, the shares would be as worthless as the leadership. Flynn most certainly would have been the guy to go to for confession if you ever had some really serious sins to get off your chest. You could see him the next day and he wouldn't have remembered a thing. So they just sit there, festering, these sins committed against humanity by the very few of them who taint the larger group who are being so shamefully failed by their bosses. These bosses should get down on their knees and pray for two things. First, they should pray for the strength that will finally enable them to take this smoldering, rotting problem by the scruff of the neck and drag it out it into the open and get it over with. Because right now all they are doing is reading from scripts that their lawyers are handing them. The typical Catholic in this town has heard more legalese the last couple of years than the words of the Gospel. Second, these weak bosses should get down on their knees and give thanks that the vast majority of their employees are solid working stiffs who keep the whole church afloat. If it wasn't for them, they couldn't be living in high style or be able to hire expensive lawyers or serve on boards and then, when their feet are held to the fire, suddenly have memory loss. What an utter shame and disappointment this has been and continues to be. And yet, we still show up at Mass. Why? Because the guy running the ceremony is innocent of crimes against humanity. He is a working stiff just doing his job and he deserves the loyalty of his flock. It is not his fault that some bums rose into positions of power. He is too busy to worry about a lousy boss. He has a church to run. Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5474. Soucheray is heard from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays on 1500ESPN.
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