MINNESOTA
MDST 485 Class Blog
Once again, the Catholic Church is making headlines for its continued mishandling of abuse covered up over many years. What brought these issues to light this time, is a woman who filed who filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Rev. Michael Keating, a professor at the University of St. Thomas. The article can be seen here. As a whole, the Archdiocese is under the microscope. Since this lawsuit has been filed, Keating has taken a leave and former Archbishop Harry Flynn recently resigned from the St. Thomas Board of Trustees. Prior to this, the Rev. Kevin McDonough also resigned his position as vice chairman of the St. Thomas Board also. Essentially, they did not want their positions within the board and the Catholic Church to interfere with ongoing investigations. So many high-profile positions in such a short time makes one contemplate such actions.
Now, one man in St. Paul has started a petition on change.org calling for the resignation of Archbishop Neinstedt. The Petition is here. I urge you to read the articles in this blog post and sign the petition if you feel. The petition is short and to the point in calling for Neinstedt’s resignation. As Neinstedt himself states he is not stepping down, perhaps the popular voice of the public may change his mind. This may be a necessary step to show members of the Catholic church they have been heard and continued change is happening.
Perhaps now, with Pope Francis as the head of the Catholic Church, a new kind of change that has already been noticed with him will continue to filter throughout the church world-wide. Some of the changes and Francis’s demeanor can be seen in this article.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.