Pray for Archbishop Nienstedt July 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Holy suffering, manhood, persecution, scandals, secularism, sexual depravity, sickness, Society, Spiritual Warfare, the enemy, unadulterated evil.trackback
The Archdiocese of Minneapolis is one of the most thoroughgoing progressive dioceses in the country. For several years, the not nearly so progressive Archbishop John C. Nienstedt has been ordinary there. He has earned numerous enemies for his strong (compared to many other bishops) defense of marriage, his attempts to curtail the influence of the numerous “homosexual” priests and religious in the archdiocese, and generally taking a firmer stand with regard to many moral issues than the progressive katholyc denizens of that locale would prefer.
He’s had a huge target on his back. Late last year, some patently false allegations were posited about feeling up a nine year old boy in a group photo taken after the boy’s First Communion. At the time, I said: “this reeks of a set up. Even someone totally lost in sin would have to be pretty stupid or pretty high to try to grope a kid at a public event like is being claimed here. It seems most likely to me that this is, at best, someone making a radically abusive interpretation of an accidental movement, or at worst an open play to crush another conservative-ish bishop. As happened with Bishop Finn in Kansas City.”
Several months ago, Nienstedt was cleared on this First Communion allegation. But that has not stopped his enemies from attempting to drive this most inconvenient prelate from their midst. There are now supposedly more allegations, which have been made as part of an ongoing investigation of how Nienstedt and the Archdiocese dealt with some alleged and convicted boy-abusing priests. The former top canon lawyer of the Archdiocese has added her voice to the fray, claiming she resigned in April 2013 because Nienstedt was not doing enough to drive the priests from ministry. But she has a serious note of sour grapes surrounding not just her concerns over handling abuse, but also the Archbishop’s strong stand on moral matters and how he dealt with various personalities (including, one would assume, her own).
I’ll excerpt the article below just to provide some background on some of the key figures involved (there are also others not quoted below, who are playing a big role in this mess and who are long time enemies of Archbishop Nienstedt. I will say unequivocally that there is a cabal in Minneapolis that is dedicated to destroying him at all costs) and to show how much of the secular and progressive katholyc media is spinning this story, pushing the bounds of libel in strongly implying Nienstedt guilty of something, anything, that will rid them of this meddlesom prelate:
ARTICLE STARTS BELOW. Format fixed. Whatever format that dumb “mintnews” site uses is the most toxic I’ve ever come across.
[First, I want to lambast the title of this article: “Anti-Gay Archbishop Investigated for Sexual Misconduct with Men” “Anti-Gay……” so many lies in those 8 characters!]
Nienstedt has denied the allegations, saying they are “a personal attack against me due to my unwavering stance on issues consistent with church teaching, such as opposition to so-called same-sex marriage.” [Look, I am not someone who doubts there are many sodomite priests and bishops. I know there are many. The above is only part of Nienstedt’s denial. He is vociferous in proclaiming his innocence. That, and some other factors, lead me to strongly doubt these latest allegations. I think everything possible is being thrown at him in order to destroy – in total or in effect – his effectiveness as a bishop. But I find so much of this dubious. There are probably at least 80-100 bishops about whom such allegations could be made, whose evidence of sodomy is way out in the open, who are almost proud of their role in flaunting the moral law (I’m looking at you Tampa Bay Bishop Lynch). This guy is only being attacked because he is relatively orthodox. There is also the matter that the news coverage last week when this broke appeared highly coordinated – dozens of articles appearing within minutes containing virtually verbatim coverage. This smells like an Alinskyite frame job, and there are many Alinskyites in Minneapolis] He couldn’t fully explain some of the allegations, but he claims that in at least one instance, the accusations of improper touching concerned a person’s neck — not genitals….
…..Given that priests have historically stepped down while they were being investigated, [no, some have, some haven’t] some priests such as the Rev. Mike Tegeder, [an extreme leftist, heretic, pro-sodomite and inveterate enemy of +Nienstedt and the entire Church] pastor of the St. Frances Cabrini Church in Minneapolis, has questioned why Nienstedt has not been asked to step down or opted to do so, like he did during the first investigation. [Who would ask him, Pope Francis? To who else is he accountable?]
“People are just tired and discouraged,’’ Tegeder said. “If he would step down, it would be the most healing thing he could do.’’ [No, it would rid you of an ordinary you despise. Every interview I have seen on this matter, of priests and others in Minneapolis, has always, in every case, been a progressive enemy of Nienstedt. That also points at a political attack job. Maybe the people are tired and discouraged because they have lousy, leftist priests?]
[Get this abysmal closing paragraph:] The number [of sodomite priests] was reportedly higher among younger priests, [oh, I believe its incredibly high among priests ordained from ~1980-2000, because that was all the sodomite cabal in charge of almost every seminary, especially in leftist locales like Minneapolis, would ALLOW to be ordained! So, it that’s what you mean by “young,” OK] possibly because Pope Francis has been much more welcoming to gay people, saying that “if someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge” — a departure from Pope Benedict XVI’s order that men with strong gay tendencies not become priests. [Wow, that Pope Francis, he never ceases working wonders! Even though seminary generally takes 7 years, already there are scads of young sodomite priests as a result of his 16 month pontificate! Amazing!]
Rucke – Catholic hater?
END QUOTE
I asked the author, KATIE RUCKE, with regard to the title of her article, why she was such a raging anti-Catholic bigot?
I do that because I think it time we push back against the blithe cultural assertion of many progressives that to believe what essentially everyone believed 10-15 years ago is now to be “anti-gay.”
Archbishop Nienstedt may be guilty, but I doubt it. I don’t think Bishop Finn was really guilty, either. I am 99.5% certain that these allegations are nothing more than an attempt to destroy a bishop that greatly annoys the Minnesota left. I do not get the sense that Nienstedt is a sodomite.
And this is just one small forewarning of how the sodomite lobby will behave towards its enemies when its ascendancy is complete.
In any case, he needs many prayers. As do his enemies, whose conversion is vital.
So do we all, for when the persecution really gets started.
I decided to cover this, because I have seen virtually no coverage among orthodox/faithful Catholic blogs – that I read, anyway.
Comments
Sorry comments are closed for this entry
A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics 
Unfortunately, my brother and sister-in-law lost their faith as Catholics while living in the Minneapolis diocese. I recall visiting them once in the late 1980s, attending mass, and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. The mass itself appeared to be some kind of a sideshow… Very very sick place.
Don’t you mean “flout,” not “flaunt?”
While Rucke’s article commits a fair deal of journalistic malpractice, I do think we can’t so readily dismiss these charges.
There’s no question that plenty of people in Minnesota are gunning for the archbishop, including some of his own priests and staff. He has made enemies. What’s worrying now, however, is the large number of new allegations. Quantity does not make a sure case, but having numerous plaintiffs in a case like this makes it all a little harder to dismiss.
There’s a larger concern I have here about wagon-circling. It’s very tempting to assume the best of one of your own when they face allegations like this. We have seen it many times on the other side of the fence, as writers at progressive Catholic outlets like NCR and Commonweal went to bat repeatedly for bishops like Weakland and Mahoney despite overwhelming evidence that they had covered up and enabled abuse on a wide scale by their priests. Bishop Finn, unfortunately, is suggestive of a similar pattern among conservatives and traditionalists. As a former Kansas Citian I remain a great admirer of how he cleaned house in the archdiocese, and his vigorous support for tradition (giving St Patricks to the ICK, such a wonderful gift to traditionalists in KC). But it’s also clear that he handled the Fr Ratigan case carelessly, and at a time when it was clear that there was zero tolerance for these kind of cases, or slack handling of them by bishops. The Ratigan case was the abuse equivalent of vandalism, next to horror shows like we saw in Boston, LA, and Milwaukee, but it was still unacceptable behavior. We have to be willing to call our own to account when it’s necessary.
I hope these charges against Nienstedt are unfounded. But notwithstanding the campaign against him, I’m not prepared to simply assume they’re baseless.
Tantum, one little nitpick to make – it is, technically, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In fact, until 1966, it was simply known as the Archdiocese of St. Paul. The Cathedral is in St. Paul (the Basilica in Minneapolis is a co-cathedral, built when it was anticipated that Minneapolis might eventually become a diocese of its own). The Arch and his staff live and work in St. Paul.
The reason this is important, I think, is that St. Paul is the more “Catholic” of the two cities. St. Paul is home to several good churches – not only the justifiably famous St. Agnes, but St. Louis, St. Augustine (for many years the indult parish) and Holy Childhood, as well as the (now closed) St. John. Not to say that St. Paul is all good, nor that Minneapolis is barren of orthodoxy (as you know, the FSSP just moved into a parish there), but I think if one were to take the temperature of the area’s Catholic life, St. Paul and its suburbs would provide a far more accurate measure than Minneapolis and its suburbs. And compared to DFW, I’d say there are more parishes that would fall into the “orthodox” category In the Twin Cities than there are here. (But I like it here better anyway.)
Politically speaking, St. Paul could also be thought of as somewhat more conservative than Minneapolis (conservatism being a relative term here), but considering the atmosphere in the Twin Cities, which is blue to an extreme, I think we’re fortunate that the Archdiocese isn’t even more liberal. There is no question, I think that under Archbishop Nienstedt, it could be said that the Archdiocese has taken something of a hard-right turn (again, relatively speaking). And – surprise, surprise – vocations are booming.
Richardmalcom makes a very good point that so many, from within as well as without, are out to get Archbishop Nienstedt, but I agree with him as well that I would not simply dismiss the allegations either. At the very least, he could have handled the abuse situation better, but again he was not helped out by the actions of his predecessors nor by some of his subordinates.
I am aware of the difference, but it’s kind a hassle to keep typing Minneapolis-St. Paul. I am that lazy.
I did say the allegations may be true. But that doesn’t mean there’s also not a coordinated effort to destroy that man. So this situation could be one of two things: enemies of Nienstedt reacting to a situation that is favorable from their standpoint and increasing the pressure to the utmost they can, or it is more or less a witchhunt (which I understand some faithful Catholics in Minn-St. Paul think it is) that has been entirely ginned up by his enemies. I found the accusation of fondling a boy in public that caused Nienstedt to briefly step down ludicrous……these seem to have more “ooomph” to them, but I remain pretty skeptical.
Another aspect I did not mention, is how the efforts against Nienstedt mirror efforts to destory conservative politicians in neighboring Wisconsin. Scott Walker has faced a witch hunt of illegal and immoral liberal prosecutors filing dubious suits – this action has extended even to many small conservative political action groups. Sealed accusations, threats of jail time if people go public – it’s been a frightening scandal. Maybe that’s coloring my thinking too much in this case, but I see some faint parallels.
A good prayer for priests (just substitute ‘bishops’):
http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/pm/PMprayerforpriests.php
I agree with MItchell H. that Richardmalcolm makes a good point. Truth is best, regardless. Yes, we can complain that the heterodox get all the breaks and are doing actual evil, and it is unfair that the orthodox must be Simon-pure and perfect, but there it is. For now, at least.
And we were going to be perfect, anyway, right?
Those are all fine points. But my job as blogger is to comment on current affairs in the Church, and I have a strong suspicion these allegations are false or enormously exaggerated.
One thing I’ve observed over the years is that a lot of the men ordained in the period 1970-2000, even if not same-sex attracted, were just weird. Odd balls. They did and do strange things. Nienstedt could be one of those. Touching someone’s neck, especially another male’s, in certain ways would make many very uncomfortable, especially in the present context where everything is taken in a sexual way. I have a child that, for reasons the “experts” cannot fathom, just doesn’t pick up on social cues. She is just clueless, poor thing, when it comes to the myriad little signals people use to communicate non-verbally. And so she sometimes says things that are really off the wall, and that has resulted in a great deal of pain for her. I have seen some priests that behave similarly. Because of the embedded hostility towards normal, orthodox men in seminaries for decades, those that got through tended to be a little bit strange in one way or another, even if not an active sodomite. I have several priests in mind, so very different from most traditional priests, as I type this. Nienstedt being that type could well explain what we see here.
Or he could be guilty as heck. I pray not. It would be a real black eye to have one of the few bishops willing to take a stand on a critical moral issue wind up being that way. But I guess that guy in Scotland – O’Brien? – was the same way. Even then……why Nienstedt? Dozens of bishops could be so accused. Obviously, because he is at least somewhat orthodox.
Archbishop Neinstedt came from the Archdiocese of Detroit,where he was born and raised. I attend church at the parish where he grew up. Archbishop Neinstedt is a holy and pious man who has a deep intellect. No wonder the liberal anti-catholic bigots in Minnesota want to destroy this champion of orthodoxy. Mark my words, Archbishop Neinstedt will be vindicated of these false and heinous allegations brought forth by the spawn of Satan. The American Catholic Church needs more bishops of his moral character.