More Rats Leaving the Sinking Ship?

By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
March 24, 2015

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

It appears that a few more departures are imminent among the more senior staff and advisers of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

One resignation that I am told has been received but not announced involves a relatively longstanding employee in the office of what is now called 'Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment'. Interestingly, this employee was involved early on in the 'witch trials' of which I have recently written, including in the matter of the trumped up charges against the priest who secretly recorded Archbishop Nienstedt.

Other significant resignations include members of the Archdiocese's Clergy Review Board (which handles accusations involving minors) and the Ministerial Standards Board (which handles all other issues of clergy misconduct). According to an email sent to priests earlier this month by Tim O'Malley, the Director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment, the Archbishop has accepted the recommendation of the 'Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force' that the two boards be combined, which will bring the Archdiocese back exactly to the disastrous situation that led to the horrid decisions with which we are all too familiar (remember the Clergy Review Board recommendations regarding Father Michael Keating, and the implementation or non-implementation of those recommendations?). Perhaps in acknowledgement of the fact that this move is unlikely to result in the application of ministerial standards or the creation of a safe environment, O'Malley's email also indicated that while

'some current Board members will continue to serve; others have chosen not to'.

It is unclear who will be departing and who will be remaining, because the full composition of neither board has ever been publicly disclosed. In fact, many priests with whom I have spoken, and whose 'cases' have been reviewed by these boards, are themselves in the dark as to who is counted among the members. Some of have even reported that they had to sign agreements prior to meeting with the board promising that they would not disclose who was present.

It is unclear to me why there is this secrecy involving the members of these boards. Other dioceses publish the names of board members, as well as the required composition of the boards. You can find the list of Review Board members for the Archdiocese of Chicago here; the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's here; and the composition of the USCCB's National Review Board here.

It seems a little odd to me that here, in the W.D.O. E, where the guiding principle is said to be 'transparency', the compositions of the Review Board and Misconduct Board are such closely guarded secrets. Surely the faithful (not to mention the victims and the accused) have a right to know who is advising the Archbishop on such serious matters, and what those individuals' qualifications are for doing so.