MICHIGAN/MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Associated Press
Archbishop John Nienstedt is leaving a Battle Creek parish as some members of the southwestern Michigan diocese became angered to learn that he led a Minnesota archdiocese during a clergy sex abuse scandal.
Pastor John Fleckenstein wrote in a letter Thursday to members of St. Philip Catholic Church that Nienstedt decided to discontinue his work there “in light of the unintended discord that his presence was causing.”
He stepped in at St. Philip earlier this month while his friend Fleckenstein recovered from an illness.
Nienstedt resigned the Twin Cities post after Ramsey County prosecutors charged the archdiocese with failing to protect children from a predatory priest.
The charge followed two years of revelations about the failure of the archdiocese to protect children from sexual abuse at the hands of clergy.
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