The Question on Everyone's Mind...

By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
May 11, 2015

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

Those of you who regularly read this blog may recall that this past Wednesday, May 6, was the rescheduled Clergy Study Day for priests and deacons of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The topics of the day were 'Focusing on our Core Purpose as Church While Going Through Reorganization' ( subtitled 'Lessons Learned with the Archdiocese of Boston'), and 'Revisioning the Next Chapter in the Life of our Archdiocese'.

Priests and deacons who would be in attendance were invited to submit questions in advance, and perhaps not surprisingly one question that came up was when and if the report by Green Espel into Archbishop Nienstedt's personal conduct would be released to the public. To his credit, the Archbishop did respond to this question at the Study Day, although his answer raised more questions than it resolved.

I have heard from several sources that the Archbishop's response to the question was to say that from the beginning he had removed himself from the investigation, entrusting it to the handling of his auxiliary, Bishop Piche. Therefore, according to Archbishop Nienstedt, it is out of his control as to whether the report is released or not- that question, like the investigation itself, is in the hands of Bishop Piche. Of course, as I have stated before, when I was interviewed by Greene Espel I was shown two documents- one from Nienstedt entrusting the investigation to Bishop Piche, and another from Piche entrusting the same to Father Daniel Griffith.

Regardless, the Archbishop's response borders on the ridiculous. Are we truly to believe that he does not have the authority to release the report of an investigation which he himself authorized and which the Archdiocese which he governs paid for? If that is truly the case, who is running the show in Saint Paul?

Perhaps even more troubling is the efforts by the Archdiocese to try and turn attention towards moving forward rather than addressing the problems that remain. Is it possible that anyone on Summit hill thinks that this Archdiocese will be able to move forward, revision itself, or even focus on its core purpose while the current Archbishop and his staff remain in leadership? I find that possibility extremely unlikely and so, I believe, do many priests as demonstrated by the recently announced list of retirements and the even greater number of priests who have privately expressed that they are considering retiring early if this situation continues.

As the soup and sandwich lunches between the Archbishop and his priests continue, let us hope that the Archbishop begins to understand that the repeated calls for his resignation should be heeded. If not, we may have to resort to placing an ad in the legal notices of the local papers. Apparently the Archdiocese and its attorneys consider that an effective way to convey important information.