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The Vatican on Monday (June 15) launched a major housecleaning of the scandal-plagued Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, accepting the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt along with that of Nienstedt’s top aide, Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché.

The moves come little over a week after authorities charged the archdiocese for failing to protect children from an abusive priest and days after Pope Francis unveiled the first-ever system for disciplining bishops who do not act against predator clerics.

In April, Bishop Robert Finn of Missouri, who three years earlier became the first bishop convicted of failing to report a priest suspected of child abuse, was forced to resign, effectively the first bishop in the decades-long crisis to lose his job for covering up for an abuser.

Observers say this latest move seems to signal an unprecedented effort by Rome to hold bishops accountable in the abuse crisis.

Almost from the time he took over in the Twin Cities in 2008, Nienstedt, 68, became a polarizing figure as an outspoken conservative, especially with his focus against gay rights and same-sex marriage.

But in the past few years questions about his alleged failures to take a hardline on abusive clerics, especially a former priest not in jail, Curtis Wehmeyer, have made him a target of criticism from all sides.

Persistent questions about Nienstedt’s own personal conduct also became an issue; last year Nienstedt gave Piché, 57, the job of investigating allegations of misconduct against him, one of two separate probes of Nienstedt’s personal behavior.

In charging the archdiocese earlier this month, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said prosecutors were alleging “a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior” over the course of decades at the highest level of leadership in the archdiocese.

Nienstedt was not personally charged, but authorities said the investigation was continuing and further charges could be filed.

Francis appointed Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who is currently in New Jersey preparing to take over the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., next year when Archbishop John Myers is expected to retire, as the interim leader in Minneapolis-St. Paul until a permanent replacement is found.

A brief note from the Vatican provided no details on Nienstedt’s resignation. It said only that he resigned under under the provision of canon law that states that a bishop “who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office.”
Complete Article HERE!

June 13, 2015June 20, 2015

Bernard Lynch – the ‘Aids Priest’

by AMY SMITH

IT’S no surprise that Father Bernàrd Lynch’s life fills not one but three Channel 4 documentaries. Nicknamed by newspapers “The Aids Priest”, Bernàrd, 67, spent almost four decades ministering to people with HIV and Aids in America and the UK. Based in Camden since 1992, he chairs the Camden LGBT Forum and the London Irish LGBT Network.

“Camden Town reminded me of New York – Greenwich Village and the East Village. It had all that bohemianism and artistic edge,” he says. “I’m at home here because it is truly catholic in the secular sense of the word.”

Bernàrd has publicly railed against inequalities in the Catholic Church and society. As an openly married gay man, the Church revoked his licence in 1989 yet he continues to perform mass at the behest of parish priests and works as a psychotherapist. A handsome, softly spoken man, the only outward symbol of his faith is the Celtic sign of hope he wears on a chain, subtly bringing it up to his lips at the mention of the gospel.

“I prefer to be called Bernàrd but I don’t make an issue of it,” he says. “As a priest, like a doctor or all caring professions, people come with all kinds of expectations, and some people need to call me ‘Father’ because that is the kind of relationship they want and that’s OK but it’s not my choice.”

The lightning speed at which Aids ravaged communities in the 1980s has already been relegated to history; the misinformation, the rumours, slurs and prejudice somehow mislaid. “But I will never forget,” he says. “I read in First World War memoirs ‘how does one go back to bagging corn from being in the trenches?’ Well, I’m back bagging corn. No one knows and that’s part of the pain.”

It was sectarian violence in Northern Ireland that triggered Bernàrd ’s campaigning spirit. Aged 17, he began training in the African Missions college near Belfast. There he found a definite separation between the seminary and contemporary politics. “I didn’t start out as a radical or a rebel, anything but. I was radicalised by what I saw,” he says. “I happened to be in Northern Ireland for Bloody Sunday in 1972. The seminary was a very closed community but after seeing that massacre of 14 unarmed teenagers shot in the back they released us en masse to march against the atrocity and that was my first exposure to politics.”

Bernàrd cared for hundreds of men dying from Aids in New York. Time and time again he would encourage mothers to touch their sons. “It was incredible, the sense of contamination,” he says. “I was literally taking their hands and saying you cannot get it, it’s OK. And they would thank me like I had done a miracle.” A week later he could be officiating at the funeral, always introduced as “a friend of the family”.

He remembers working with Mother Theresa in New York. She and her sisters would not allow gay partners at patients deathbeds because they were “occasions of sin”.

“My own church blamed people for getting the disease. Can you think of anything more unchristian? A lot of Catholic men died in despair because of their church. At a time when the church should have been their hope, their way of easing them into their death, it became in fact the arbiter of hate.”

Yet Bernàrd’s faith stayed strong. He continues to separate his belief from the religion, distilling it into two words – “love and justice”.

Last month Bernàrd, with the London Irish LGBT Network, watched the results of the Irish marriage equality referendum at Ku Bar in Soho. It was a mixed crowd and though ecstatic at the overwhelming victory Bernàrd was moved by the stories he heard. Young men and women told how they had moved to London away from homophobic discrimination.

“I couldn’t delight more with the result and that isn’t anti-Catholic,” he says. “It’s good for the Church and that is certainly better for the Irish nation. The Church, in my mind, has no right to get into bed with anybody, that is not its business.”
Complete Article HERE!

June 10, 2015

Paedophile priests: Pope Francis set up tribunal

Pope Francis has approved the creation of a tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up child abuse by paedophile priests.

The unprecedented move followed a recommendation from the Pope’s newly created panel on clerical sex abuse.

The tribunal will have the power to punish bishops who failed to protect young victims.

Survivors’ groups have long called for the Vatican to do more to make bishops accountable for abuse on their watch.

Last year, the UN strongly criticised the Church for failing to stamp out abuse and for allowing cover-ups.

A statement from the Vatican said the department would come under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Its aim would be “to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors”, the statement added.

Catholic Church abuse scandals

•Germany – A priest, named only as Andreas L, admitted in 2012 to 280 counts of sexual abuse involving three boys over a decade

•United States – Revelations about abuses in the 1990s by two Boston priests, Paul Shanley and John Geoghan, caused public outrage

•Belgium – The bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned in April 2010 after admitting that he had sexually abused a boy for years

•Italy – The Catholic Church in Italy admitted in 2010 that about 100 cases of paedophile priests had been reported over 10 years

•Ireland – A 2009 report found that sexual and psychological abuse was “endemic” in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages for most of 20th Century

Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said bishops could also be judged if they had failed to prevent abuse from taking place.

Initially the complaints would be investigated by one of three Vatican departments, depending on whose jurisdiction the bishops were under.

They would then be judged by the doctrinal department.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the UK’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said the move was good news for victims.

“We would welcome anything which looks closely at clerical abuse and shows more openness from the Church,” she added.

NAPAC’s founder Peter Saunders is part of the Vatican advisory commission which recommended the step.

The panel was set up by Pope Francis in 2013 to help dioceses improve abuse prevention measures and support victims. It is made up of 17 clerics and lay people from around the world.
Complete Article HERE!

June 5, 2015

Criminal Charges Filed Against Minnesota Catholic Archdiocese Over Mishandling of Sex Abuse Claims

by Hemant Mehta

Twin Cities (Minnesota) Archbishop John Nienstedt (below) spent years arguing against LGBT rights. In 2007, he wrote that “those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts… formally cooperate in a grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin.” He condemned Brokeback Mountain when it came out. And he spent $650,000 of the Church’s money trying to convince Minnesota voters to pass an amendment banning same-sex marriage — an amendment that ultimately failed.

Cover it up, Archbishop… cover it up

It’s hardly surprisingly, then, that Nienstedt was under investigation for having sex with other priests. More importantly, he retaliated against anyone who didn’t respond in kind or questioned what he was doing. He denies all of these allegations, of course.

But there was another aspect to the story that was even more disturbing: One of the men promoted by Nienstedt to become a pastor, Curtis Wehmeyer, ended up molesting kids while in that role. If Nienstedt and his colleagues knew about it and didn’t put a stop to it, they deserve to be punished.

That’s why we’re seeing government officials come down on the Roman Catholic Archdiocese today:

Prosecutors in Minnesota filed criminal charges on Friday against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, accusing church leaders of mishandling repeated complaints of sexual abuse by a priest.

…

Though there have been several allegations of sexual abuse over the years by priests in the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Friday’s charges focus on the church’s handling of “numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct” by Curtis Wehmeyer, who was dismissed as a priest in March.

Mr. Wehmeyer, 50, was sentenced in 2013 for criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography. He is in prison in Minnesota, and he has been charged with sex crimes in Wisconsin.

…

In a statement in March announcing Mr. Wehmeyer’s dismissal from the priesthood, Archbishop John C. Nienstedt expressed support for sex abuse victims.

“I am deeply saddened and have been profoundly affected by the stories I continue to hear from victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse,” the archbishop said in March. “My focus, and the focus of the Archdiocese, is to do all we can to keep children safe while offering resources for help and healing.”

They’ve done a horrible job of it so far and their irresponsibility may finally be catching up to them.

For the sake of the victims, let’s hope justice prevails if the Church leaders are guilty of the allegations against them.
Complete Article HERE!

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015

Same-sex marriage: Catholic bishop warns marriage equality could see children of gay couples become ‘next Stolen Generation’

By Natalie Whiting

A Catholic bishop has issued a warning about legalising same-sex marriage, saying children of gay couples will see themselves as another Stolen Generation because they have been denied a mother and a father.

South Australian Bishop of Port Pirie Greg O’Kelly is one of a number of clergy who have spoken out against same-sex marriage in response to recent moves to legalise it in Australia.

Bishop O’Kelly wrote to his parishioners saying that comparing same-sex and heterosexual relationships was like comparing apples and pears.

“The nature of a marriage between two same-sex people and the marriage between a man and a woman open to life … are two very different things,” he wrote.

“A pear is not an apple, no matter what you say, even if you start to redefine the term from its traditional one, it doesn’t alter the reality.”

Bishop O’Kelly’s letter said that children of homosexual couples would feel like a Stolen Generation.

“Can’t you imagine a situation that when there’s a falling-out between a child and a parent, as can happen, that’ll be one of the lines they use?” he wrote.

“You deliberately intervened so that I would not have a father present in my upbringing, or not have a mother present in my upbringing.

I don’t think that our children are in any way disadvantaged or struggling as a result of not having a father.

Amanda Pickering, homosexual parent of two

“And that was a deliberate intervention by you, it wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t illness or anything like that.”

Advocates for marriage equality like Rodney Croome from Australian Marriage Equality say the remarks are offensive.

“Many same-sex couples and their children will be deeply offended by the Catholic bishop’s drawing a link between their loving families and the Stolen Generation, such a traumatic episode in Australian history,” he said.

South Australian couple Jodie McRae and Amanda Pickering have been together for 13 years and have two children.

Ms Pickering said they would support the children if they wanted to meet their donor father in the future.

“I don’t think that our children are in any way disadvantaged or struggling as a result of not having a father,” she said.

We have to remind ourselves that the Marriage Act does not require marrying heterosexual partners to want to have children, or to be able to have children.

Rodney Croome, Australian Marriage Equality

“We have a very large extended family with grandfathers and uncles and cousins and a community at school that’s very supportive.

“I don’t think they’re missing out.”

Bishop O’Kelly told 891 ABC Adelaide procreation is a key part of marriage.

“There’s two elements to marriage: one is the love between a man and a woman, the other one is the procreative thing, the openness to birth and life,” he said.

But Mr Croome disagrees with that statement.

“We have to remind ourselves that the Marriage Act does not require marrying heterosexual partners to want to have children, or to be able to have children,” Mr Croome said.

“There is no legal link between marriage and children. But I understand that in many people’s mind there is a cultural link.

“Marriage can be good for children, because it provides them with a greater sense of security and stability in their lives.

“If that is the case, then why would we deny the children being raised by same-sex couples the opportunity to have married parents?”

Countries most similar to ours have marriage equality: Croome

Mr Croome has also spoken out against Bishop O’Kelly’s position that same-sex marriage is unique to the West and not an issue in Middle Eastern, Asian or African countries.

“The standards we need to judge ourselves by are the standards set in countries most similar to ours, and the countries in the world most similar to ours all have marriage equality,” he said.

New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Britain have all legalised same-sex marriage and Ireland was the most recent country to make the change.

“I don’t think we should be judging our human rights standards according to those set in the Middle East or parts of Asia where homosexuals not only aren’t allowed to marry, but are put to death,” Mr Croome said.

Ms McRae said she and her partner would like to get married at some point.

“I say that this is a society that’s moved far beyond the idea that the sanctity of marriage is some sort of Christian construct,” she said.

“Just as I pay taxes, I vote, I do all the things, abide by in terms of the law, I think I have the right as an individual to have that.”

The House of Representatives has voted to adjourn debate on Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s private members bill to legalise same-sex marriage.