John Clayton Nienstedt

This is an accepted version of this page John Clayton Nienstedt (born March 18, 1947) is an American retired prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2008 until his resignation in 2015 due to his role in the clergy child sex abuse crisis.

Nienstedt asked for early retirement as Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis after a local prosecutor announced plans to indict the archdiocese due to its failure to protect children from sexual abuse by its priests.

[1][2] Nienstedt accompanied Cardinal Dearden to the August 1978 papal conclave in Rome, where he met the future Pope John Paul II.

He was named temporary assistant pastor at St. Regis Parish in Birmingham, Michigan, and adjunct professor of moral theology at SS.

[10] Nienstedt received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Pope Benedict in St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, 2008.

[11] Shortly after becoming archbishop, Nienstedt discontinued the gay pride prayer service held at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis.

"[15][16] In February 2014, with Nienstedt's approval, the archdiocese hired an outside law firm to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against seminarians and other young men.

On March 11, 2014, Ramsey County officials announced they had concluded an "intensive investigation" of the touching allegation and would not file charges against Nienstedt, citing insufficient evident.

The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior.Nienstedt was criticized in 2014 for the way "his diocese has dealt with sexually abusive priests".

Despite Nienstedt's denials, court documents showed that he had received several updates over the years on LaVan's pastoral work.

Minnesota Public Radio reported in October 2014 that LaLonne Murphy, a parish music director, had written to Nienstedt in 2008 about Gustafson's criminal record and his continued work with the archdiocese.

[26] On June 5, 2015, Ramsey County prosecutor John J. Choi announced that he was bringing criminal charges and initiating a civil suit against the archdiocese for failing to protect children from sexual abuse.

Choi alleged "a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the course of decades".

Since Nienstedt was several years under the mandatory retirement age of 75 for archbishops, he invoked a provision of canon law that allows a bishop to resign when some "grave reason" makes it impossible for him to continue to fulfill his duties.

Nienstedt issued a statement that said he resigned "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".

[31] In 2016, he served briefly as substitute priest in the Diocese of Kalamazoo,[32] but quit after only a week due to objections from local parishioners in Battle Creek.

One document identified the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, as ordering the investigation be closed down.

[44] Nienstedt has described homosexuality as a "result of psychological trauma" that "must be understood in the context of other human disorders: envy, malice, greed, etc.

"[45] In 2005, Nienstedt warned that the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain was part of a so-called agenda that "severs the connection between marriage and gender".

He summarized the plot–"one man makes a pass at the other and within seconds the latter mounts the former in an act of wanton anal sex"–and called it "a story of lust gone bad".