Latest on Church Abuse: Whistleblower: Right Move to Resign

Seattle PI
June 15, 2015

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Latest-on-church-abuse-Ex-archbishop-has-a-clear-6327433.php

FILE - In this July 30, 2014, file photo, St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt speaks at his office in St. Paul, Minn. On Monday, June 15, 2015, the Vatican said Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche after prosecutors charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest. Photo: Craig Lassig, AP

The whistleblower who accused Catholic leaders in Minnesota of mishandling clergy abuse cases says Archbishop John Nienstedt's resignation was "a necessary and prudent step."

Jennifer Haselberger was an archdiocese lawyer when she came forward in 2013 to accuse Nienstedt and others of doing too little to rein in problem priests. Nienstedt resigned Monday, 10 days after a prosecutor filed criminal charges that accuse the archdiocese as a corporation of failing to protect children.

Haselberger says those charges and the civil petition prosecutors also filed made it impossible for Nienstedt or another bishop, Lee Piche (pih-SHAY'), to stay in their jobs.

She says any support the two might have had to stay would have disappeared from anyone who read the criminal complaint.