QUOTE TO NOTE: “Fun to Be Catholic Again”
In a Washington Post “On Faith” blog post about how Pope Francis is re-shaping the Catholic Church, Father Thomas Reese, SJ, a senior analyst for The National Catholic Reporter quipped:
“It’s fun to be a religion reporter again. For a while it felt like being on the crime beat. It’s fun to be Catholic again.”
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
You bet!
Take another look, Tom, at the emerging story in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
John, I’m trying to figure out what you’re referencing here. Is it the following story? Please explain more fully:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/137358543.html
I’m referring to the story about a new claim that a priest had porn on his computer, some of which may have been child porn. The Vice Chancellor for Civil Affairs unsuccessfully tried to get Archbishop Nienstedt’s attention to this but failed. and recommended the priest not be promoted to pastor. Subsequently, the Vice Chancellor found other instances of neglect in dealing with claims of priestly misconduct and resigned. The former Vice Chancellor revealed much of this in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio and other things came tumbling out of the secret vaults implicating the former AB and the former Vicar General. The current Vicar General resigned. Nienstedt created a new panel to investigate these claims and to go through all the files to determine if misconduct claims were being handled in accordance with diocesan policies. Before the ink was dry on that decree, another priest, on the faculty of the University of St. Thomas, was accused of improper conduct some years ago with a teenager and a second former teenager has also come forward. These stories opened up other stories about a recent priest whose activities with young boys was overlooked for years and who was recently sentenced to 5 years in prison and one additional police investigation underway on another priest. Then there was the non-ordained former accountant who embezzled almost a million dollars from the Archdiocese. Nienstedt is also fighting in court to prevent release of a list of 38 priests who have been accused of misconduct but whose names have never been revealed. So the crime beat is still fairly busy here.
Yikes! I had no idea things were screwed up so badly in Minnesota. Doesn’t Pope Francis have the sovereign authority to order a bishop to resign, and to replace him with someone whom the Pope personally trusts? It sounds to me like it’s high time for this to happen.
Nobody has been indicted yet.
It’s wonderful to see the “Bishop of Rome” smiling. It’s like a dark cloud has lifted.
Amen!
There is a lot I love about Pope Francis, but I do not care for his recent remarks about women. We desperately need women priests and a total acceptance of GLBT people.