News Story of the Day

Advocacy group decries ‘risk’ of Lincoln Diocese hiring disgraced bishop

By Michael O’Connor, January 21, 2016, Omaha World-Herald, Omaha.com

An advocacy group for clergy abuse victims is raising concerns about the appointment of a retired bishop to a chaplain’s post in the Lincoln Diocese.


A Shady Church Sex-Abuse Shell Game?

KATIE ZAVADSKI,  01.19.16, The Daily Beast

An archbishop accused of covering up a major sex-abuse scandal is moving to a new church—and local residents are not pleased.

A battle is brewing in Battle Creek, Michigan, where residents are less than pleased that an archbishop accused of covering up a sex-abuse scandal has now embraced a second calling as a pastor in their town.


Catholics, community react to priest's arrival amid sex abuse backdrop

By Rosemary Parker | [email protected] January 19, 2016  MLive Michigan

BATTLE CREEK, MI -- A pastor was sick. Another priest was available.

When Archbishop John Nienstedt celebrated three Masses at St. Philip Catholic Church this weekend, he was merely helping out his old friend Fr. John Fleckenstein, who is ill. He plans to continue to help as needed for about a six months.


WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU HIRE ARCHBISHOP JOHN NIENSTEDT?

BY MIKE MULLEN, MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016,  CityPages.com

It's hard enough getting a job these days. Here's a tip: You don't have to include all of your work experience, especially if you're not sure listing a previous gig will help you get the new job. Say, for example, your former employer is in bankruptcy, and you've been indicted as a lead figure in a conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of children. That might be something you would leave off your resume.


Boston: Truth and Complicity

Garry Wills, January 15, 2016, New York Review of Books

Investigative reporting got a boost in 1976, after the movie All the President’s Menshowed what a small team (two men) could do if an editor and owner like Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham at The Washington Post let them keep digging for a long time. Another such coup was brought off by The Boston Globe in 2002, when its own investigative team of four people, called “Spotlight,” broke the story of Cardinal Law’s protection of priests who sexually preyed on children.  


Archbishop John Nienstedt, Bishop Robert Finn have new homes outside former dioceses

By Brian Roewe, Jan. 14, 2016,  National Catholic Reporter

Two U.S. bishops who prematurely resigned their posts amid clergy sexual abuse scandals each have found new landing spots outside their previous dioceses.

A southern Michigan parish announced over the weekend that Archbishop John Nienstedt, formerly head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, will help out temporarily in the coming months, while Bishop Robert Finn, former head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo. diocese, began last month as chaplain for a Nebraska community of women religious.


Catholic Church Admits Prov. School Aide Arrested for Sexual Assault Worked at Cathedral

GoLocalProv News Team and Kate Nagle, Wednesday, January 13, 2016, GoLocalProv.com

A teacher's aide at a Providence Middle School who was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor had been working part time at the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul in Providence, GoLocal has learned. 


Another judge criticizes Jehovah’s Witnesses’ court tactics

By Trey Bundy / January 11, 2016, Reveal, the Center for Investigative Journalism

A panel of judges in Philadelphia has ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses used an “abusive tactic” to delay a trial in which a woman accused the religion’s leaders of covering up her abuse as a child.  


Victim of priest waits for Phila. Archdiocese to help him before he dies

Mike Newall, Inquiry, January 10, 2016, Philadelphia Inquiry

Brian McDonnell lies in his small, dark room under the crucifix on his wall, praying Hail Marys on his blue plastic rosary beads. Symbols of a church that had forsaken him, but one that he has never abandoned.

He worries that he is dying. It is all he thinks about.


Even death doesn't diminish former bishop's arrogant legacy

By David Rutter, January 8, 2016, Chicago Tribune Lake County News-Sun

In 2005, this was a snippet of Bishop Joseph Imesch's then-sealed sworn deposition detailing two decades of child sexual abuse by Joliet Diocese clerics under his management:

Imesch: "As far as I can remember, I think (priest) Gary (Berthiaume) admitted to me that he had done it before the conviction."

 

SNAP Network is a GuideStar Gold Participant