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Minnesota archbishop and deputy resign after child abuse coverup charges Minnesota bishops resign in Vatican crackdown on sex abuse by priests
(about 5 hours later)
The archbishop of St Paul, Minnesota, and a deputy bishop have resigned after prosecutors charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a paedophile priest. An American archbishop in Minnesota and a deputy bishop have resigned from the Catholic church just days after their archdiocese in St Paul and Minneapolis was charged by prosecutors with systematically turning a blind eye to sex abuse by a pedophile priest.
The Vatican said on Monday that Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and auxiliary bishop Lee Anthony Piche. They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other “grave” reason that makes them unfit for office. The resignations were announced by the Vatican in Rome on Monday, as the church said it was moving ahead with a criminal trial against Józef Wesołowski, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic who was found guilty last year of sex abuse involving young boys in a canonical trial.
Earlier this month, prosecutors charged the archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation of having turned a blind eye to repeated reports of inappropriate behaviour by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys. No individual was named in the indictment. Related: Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up child abuse
The resignations came just days after Francis approved the creation of a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops who failed to protect children from sexually abusive priests. “This will be a delicate and detailed procedure, requiring the most careful observations and insights from all parties involved in the trial,” the Vatican said in its bulletin.
Francis’s decision followed years of criticism that the Vatican had never held bishops accountable for having ignored warnings about abusive priests and simply moved them from parish to parish rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry. The two sex abuse developments arrived less than a week after Pope Francis approved the creation of a new tribunal that will be devoted to investigating cases in which senior church officials are alleged of covering up or ignoring acts of child abuse by priests.
In April, Francis accepted the resignation of American bishop Robert Finn, who had been convicted in a US court of failing to report a suspected child abuser. Abuse survivors praised the Vatican tribunal as the most concrete step Pope Francis has taken to institute accountability within the church hierarchy after many allegations of abuse. Pope Francis and his predecessors have faced scrutiny from victims’ advocacy groups for not doing enough to stamp out alleged cover-ups of sexual abuse.
The criminal charges against the archdiocese stem from its handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St Paul, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and faces prosecution involving a third boy in Wisconsin. While the Minnesota resignations and the Dominican Republican trial are sure to be welcomed as a sign that the church is being more responsive to such allegations, there remain other cases – including claims that Australian Cardinal George Pell sought to silence victims of abuse – that have not been formally addressed. Pell has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and is expected to be called to testify at a commission examining the claims in Australia.
Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to “numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct” by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015. Related: Minnesota archdiocese faces charges over mishandling of sex abuse claims
The criminal complaint says many people including parishioners, fellow priests and parish staff reported issues with Wehmeyer, and many of those claims were discounted. The resignations in Minnesota were directly related to criminal and civil charges that were brought on 5 June against the Minnesota archdiocese by Ramsey County attorney John Choi – the first such indictment against an archdiocese to be filed in the US in a decade.
Choi has alleged that the archdiocese “time and time again turned a blind eye” to the actions of an abusive priest named Curtis Wehmeyer, who was convicted in 2013 for molesting two boys and is serving a five-year jail sentence.
In a statement, Archbishop Nienstedt said he was resigning to give the archdiocese a “new beginning amidst the many challenges we face”.
“I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults,” he added.
The charges against the archdiocese followed a report by a whistleblower, Jennifer Haselberger, who formerly served as its chancellor for canonical affairs.
According to a report in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, Haselberger approached authorities in 2012 to expose a widespread cover-up. She reported that she had warned Archbishop Nienstedt not to appoint Wehmeyer as a pastor in St Paul and directed him to look into Wehmeyer’s file, which included an evaluation the priest had received at a treatment centre for clergy with sexual disorders.
Wehmeyer was appointed anyway.
The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January following a slew of lawsuits. In April, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted three years ago of failing to report a suspected child abuser.
On Monday, Vatican said Wesołowski, the former Dominican ambassador for the Vatican, was facing charges of sex abuse of minors during his five-year tenure in the Dominican Republic and, since his arrival in Rome in 2013, possession of child pornography.