ST. PAUL (MN)
Catholic Spirit – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
February 4, 2020
By Maria Wiering
The Congregation for Bishops in Rome has authorized Archbishop Bernard Hebda to further investigate claims that Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston interfered with an investigation of clerical sexual misconduct, according to a Feb. 4 statement from the archdiocese.
Judge Tim O’Malley, director of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will oversee the investigation, serving as the archbishop’s delegate.
The statement says that the investigation will continue to look into claims that the bishop, “had engaged in ‘acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil or canonical investigations of clerical sexual misconduct’ as prescribed by the motu proprio, ‘Vos estis lux mundi.’”
Pope Francis promulgated the “motu proprio,” meaning an edict personally issued by the pope, in May 2019 to set new worldwide norms for reporting sexual abuse and to hold bishops accountable for abuse and/or its cover-up. It states that if a bishop is accused of misconduct, the Holy See will mandate his metropolitan archbishop to investigate the claim. As archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Hebda is metropolitan archbishop of the bishops in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Bishop Hoeppner, 70, is reportedly the first sitting U.S. bishop to be investigated under the new norms. In September 2019, The Catholic Spirit reported that Archbishop Hebda had been mandated to conduct a preliminary investigation of Bishop Hoeppner’s actions. Archbishop Hebda noted at that time that he had engaged qualified laypeople, including staff from the archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment and its Ministerial Review Board, to conduct the investigation.
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