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Breaking news: Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, resigns ...
By Kate Pickles
Breaking news: Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, resigns amid sex abuse cover-up claims against Archdiocese The Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota has resigned following claims of a sex-abuse cover-up. Archbishop John Nienstedt and deputy bishop Lee Anthony Piche submitted their resignations to Pope Francis today, a release said. They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other 'grave' reason that makes them unfit for office. Resignation: St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt (pictured) submitted his resignation to Pope The Vatican said that Pope Francis had accepted both resignations. Earlier this month, prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation of having 'turned a blind eye' to repeated reports of inappropriate behavior by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys. No individual was named in the indictment. In his letter to Pope Francis, the Archbishop says his leadership became a distraction from the good works of the church following investigations into alleged priest sex abuse. He added he quote, 'leaves with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults'. Nienstedt asked for prayers for the Archdiocese and its future leaders. The Catholic archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis connects 188 parishes, 91 schools and 825,000 members and a handful of charities. He had been under growing pressure to step down because of how the archdiocese handled priests who sexually abused children. But Nienstedt previously said he would leave only if the papal nuncio, the pope's representative in the United States, 'took action' on his leadership. The resignations came just days after Pope Francis approved the creation of a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops who failed to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Pope Francis has accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche Francis' decision followed years of criticism that the Vatican had never held bishops accountable for having ignored warnings about abusive priests and simply moved them from parish to parish rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry. In April, Francis accepted the resignation of U.S. bishop Robert Finn, who had been convicted in a U.S. court of failing to report a suspected child abuser. The criminal charges against the archdiocese stem from its handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and faces prosecution involving a third boy in Wisconsin. Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to 'numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct' by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015. The criminal complaint says many people — including parishioners, fellow priests and parish staff — reported issues with Wehmeyer, and many of those claims were discounted. In January, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in wake of the huge sex abuse claims. The total amount owed to victims is said to top $100 million, however the church has declared assets totaling ten to fifty million dollars. The lawsuits will be put on hold while the bankruptcy issues are resolved, which could take two years. It is the 12th U.S. diocese - out of around 200 nationwide - to seek such action in the face of sex abuse claims.
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