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A few months ago, the St. Paul police chief noted that the Minneapolis and St. Paul Roman Catholic Archdiocese hadn’t been cooperating with the ongoing investigation into both decades of child abuse and the diocese’s subsequent cover-up. Unfortunately, it appears the archdiocese has continued to place obstacles within both the investigation and any public contrition it could possibly show.
Minnesota Public Radio recently released the latest chapter of its investigation into the diocese’s decades-long cover-up, and the piece continues to highlight the archdiocese’s transgressions and hindrance. MPR found that the list of priests “credibly accused†of sexual abuse, published late last year, isn’t even half of those that the archdiocese deemed to be likely offenders. A total of 70 priests were “credibly accused†of sexual abuse during their tenure as priests in the archdiocese, and represented “nearly every parish in the archdiocese.â€
As MPR reports:
The list of 33, it turns out, was just one of many. There were handwritten lists and emailed lists and memos about lists stored on computers and in filing cabinets at the chancery in St. Paul. Some men appeared on every list, others on one or two. All of the lists obtained by MPR News contain information that police have never seen. Chancery officials later stopped writing lists for fear they could be obtained in lawsuits, former chancellor for canonical affairs Jennifer Haselberger told MPR News.
A review of these lists, court records, private settlements, police reports and hundreds of internal church documents has found that the archdiocese dealt with allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse involving at least 70 clergy members since 1950.
MPR News also found more than a dozen other priests referred to as possible child abusers in private lists and memos but could find no information about their alleged crimes. MPR News is not naming those men.
Of course, the archdiocese continues to remain silent on why it didn’t publish the full list of names. And its attempts at silence, stymying local investigators, have continued beyond this paltry list. Only a few days after a District Judge confirmed that Archbishop John Nienstedt, who oversaw the most recent portion of the archdiocese’s cover-up, must testify on his role, the archdiocese filed an appeal with the State Court of Appeals. Likewise, the archdiocese is asking that additional names of priests accused of abuse be kept secret. These priests, according to the Church’s own methodology — whatever that may be — were not “credibly†accused, and should thus be kept hidden from public recrimination.
To be fair, the archdiocese did release a handful of additional names of priests accused of abuse on Monday – but even this move smacks of an intransigence, made all the more disingenuous by MPR’s investigations.
As KAAL notes:
Most of the priests’ names released on Monday were already known and it’s left some wondering why those names weren’t included on a list that was released by the church in December. Also, Monday was Presidents Day, a nationally recognized holiday. Some speculate the names were released [on Monday] because there might have been less scrutiny.
Additionally, three of those whose names were released have already died. But as MPR continues its work, it grows more and more unlikely the archbishop – one of the nation’s most acidic anti-gay Catholics – can keep silent on the rest, and on his role.
