Twin Cities Catholics Get Rare Chance to Make Archbishop Recommendations to Vatican

By Jean Hopfensperger

Note: This article was first published October 5, 2015 by the Star Tribune.

An often-outspoken group of Twin Cities Catholics packed a conference hall Monday for a rare opportunity to tell church leaders what they think of the archdiocese and what they want in their next archbishop.

With the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese reeling from a sex abuse scandal, bankruptcy and a theological divide, acting Archbishop Bernard Hebda hosted the first of seven “listening sessions” at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. [NOTE: For a list of all seven listening sessions, click here.]

It’s an unusual strategy, as archbishop recommendations typically are made by church leaders selected by the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C.

It wasn’t a bashful group.

“There’s a lack of trust, both in management and finance,” said Paul Mandell of Inver Grove Heights, one of about 200 people attending. “There’s a frustration with not being heard. There’s morale problems among priests and laity who don’t feel empowered.”

Mary Beth Stein told the archbishop that the sex abuse scandal, clerical cover-up and financial woes were among burning issues the next archbishop must address.

“There’s a strong sense of polarization in this archdiocese,” said Stein, of Shoreview. “We need to find a way to bridge Catholics, from conservative to progressive.”

Hebda spent two hours with the group that gathered at tables where they discussed three questions: What are the strengths of the archdiocese? What are its challenges? What should the Vatican consider when appointing a new bishop?

The key recommendations from all seven sessions will be summarized and sent to the Vatican Embassy as it makes its recommendations to Pope Francis.

It’s an unusual move, Hebda acknowledged. Ordinary Catholics aren’t typically asked their opinions on such matters. The usual process is for the embassy to seek insight into an archbishop appointment by sending questionnaires to local archdiocese leaders, said Hebda.

Both will be done in the St. Paul, where former archbishop John Nienstedt resigned in June after the Ramsey County attorney’s office filed criminal charges against the church for failing to protect children.

Hebda said the listening sessions reflect the spirit of the pope, who encouraged bishops who met with him in Washington, D.C., last month “to engage in dialogue.”

“We’re going to be looking at common themes in these listening sessions,” he said, joking that people in this group were the “guinea pigs” testing out the method.

At each listening session, the crowd will be divided into small discussion groups that will offer their input to Hebda.

Archdiocese strengths were first on the docket Monday, and answers were varied: Passionate, educated laity. Strong Catholic schools. Strong social-justice focus. Diverse members who cross differences of race, theology and geography.

“And we’re patient,” joked one group member.

Emotions ran a little higher when folks laid out the archdiocese’s challenges: Church members burned out and pained by the sex abuse scandal. Distrust over financial integrity and church credibility. Lack of recognition of women. Young adults and disaffected Catholics bailing out. Doctrine trumping understanding.

“There’s been more promotion of [religious] rites than personal relationships,” said Denise Anderson of St. Paul.

When describing preferred traits for the next archbishop, “humility” was mentioned most often. He must be a good listener, knowledgeable about church finance, a “bridge-builder,’’ a “communicator,” transparent.

“I think what you said will resonate with Pope Francis,” Hebda told the group.

Hebda said he spoke with the pope briefly in Washington and asked him to pray for the archdiocese. “It’s clear that he understands the urgency of the situation here,” said Hebda.

On Tuesday, Hebda will hear from Catholic priests and sisters in St. Paul, and then lay folks at Pax Christi Church in Eden Prairie. The last session is November 4.

Not all Minnesotans are waiting for listening sessions to speak their minds. Hebda joked that the papal envoy in Washington tipped him off that he has already received “more than one or two letters’’ from Twin Cities Catholics.


Related Off-site Link:
Twin Cities Catholics Weigh In on New Archbishop – Madeleine Baran (MPR News, October 6, 2015).

See also the previous PCV posts:
• Good News! – Archbishop Hebda to Hold Listening Sessions on Leadership Needs
• CCCR Representatives Meet with Archbishop Hebda
• Our Next Archbishop: What Would You Ask a Candidate If You Knew Your Voice Would Be Heard?
• We Need a New Way of Choosing Bishops
• Tom Flannery in Minneapolis
• "Our Voices Are Growing"
• Creating a Liberating Church
• Let Our Voices Be Heard
• Papal Appointment of Bishops is Not Traditional

Good News! – Archbishop Hebda to Hold Listening Sessions on Leadership Needs

Interim-Archbishop Bernard Hebda and his staff have announced a Fall listening session series aimed at gathering lay feedback in helping shape the archdiocese's future.

Reporting on this development for The Catholic Spirit, Maria Wiering writes:

Archbishop Bernard Hebda is asking for Catholics' input on the strengths and challenges of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the qualities hoped for in its next archbishop, through a series of listening sessions to be held in October and November.

The sessions are "taking a page from Pope Francis' playbook," he said.

"It's an opportunity for our local Church to be able to offer some input to Pope Francis and those with whom he'll be collaborating in making a decision about the next archbishop," he said. "I think it's important that we see how consultative Pope Francis has been from the beginning of his pontificate. Consider, for example, his use of a committee of cardinals to advise him and the emphasis that he has placed on the Synod process. We're hoping that we might be able to assist him - in all humility - along those lines by giving him some information from those who know the archdiocese best."

Archbishop Hebda, the archdiocese's apostolic administrator since the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt in June, acknowledged that the effort to obtain widespread feedback ahead of a new archbishop may be somewhat unusual, but suggested it could be something other dioceses adopt if it proves helpful.

The sessions will be hosted at parishes and Catholic institutions in several areas of the archdiocese in hopes that every Catholic who wishes to participate can. The locations were chosen for geographic diversity, their ability to accommodate large groups and as "parishes where different kinds of people would feel comfortable," Archbishop Hebda said.

"Some of the sessions will be in non-parish settings, so even those who feel some distance from the Church might feel comfortable in sharing their views with us," he said.

Feedback gathered during these sessions will be shared with those responsible for advising Pope Francis as he makes this important choice and with the new Archbishop whenever he is named. Summaries will be published in The Catholic Spirit.

For many of us, this is the opportunity we've long been waiting and working for: the chance to step up and let our voices be heard about the type of leadership we want to see in our local church!

Please do all you can to attend one of the listening sessions and encourage family and friends to do likewise.

Following is the schedule of listening sessions.


Schedule of Listening Sessions

Monday, October 5
1:00–3:00 p.m., Rauenhorst Ballroom, Coeur de Catherine, St. Catherine University, St. Paul
7:00–9 p.m., St. Stephen, Anoka

Tuesday, October 6:
1:00–3:00 p.m., Carondelet Center, St. Paul (NOTE: For women and men in consecrated life)
7:00–9:00 p.m., Pax Christi, Eden Prairie

Monday, November 2
7:00–9:00 p.m., Saint Peter, Forest Lake

Tuesday, November 3
7:00–9:00 p.m., Divine Mercy, Faribault

Wednesday, November 4
7:00–9:00 p.m., Woulfe Alumni Hall, Anderson Student Center, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul

Additional listening sessions are being scheduled for Latino Ministry parishes (in Spanish) and priests.


See also the previous PCV posts:
• CCCR Representatives Meet with Archbishop Hebda
• Our Next Archbishop: What Would You Ask a Candidate If You Knew Your Voice Would Be Heard?
• We Need a New Way of Choosing Bishops
• Local Catholics Select Three Priests for Bishop/Archbishop
• CCCR Responds to the Resignation of Archbishop Nienstedt
• Tom Flannery in Minneapolis
• "Our Voices Are Growing"
• Creating a Liberating Church
• Let Our Voices Be Heard
• Papal Appointment of Bishops is Not Traditional

CCCR Representatives Meet with Archbishop Hebda

Above: St. Paul-Minneapolis Interim Archbishop Bernard Hebda (center) with CCCR board members (from left) Art Stoeberl, Michael Bayly and Paula Ruddy – September 3, 2015.


On Thursday afternoon, September 3, three board members of the Twin Cities-based Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR), Art Stoeberl, Michael Bayly and Paula Ruddy, met with Interim-Archbishop Bernard Hebda. By all accounts, it was a very cordial and productive meeting.

Following is part of Elizabeth A. Elliott's National Catholic Reporter coverage of CCCR's meeting with Archbishop Hebda.

As the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese prepares for a new leader, the Vatican-appointed interim administrator has met with a Catholic reform group that the former archbishop had warned his flock against joining.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda, appointed apostolic administrator following the resignation of Archbishop John C. Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee A. Piché in June, met September 3 with members of the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) of Minnesota.

"I was pleased to meet with three members of the CCCR and was delighted to learn that they share my interest in engaging in a wide consultation of the faithful in assessing the needs of the archdiocese," Hebda said in a statement to NCR. "I was also happy to share with them some of the preliminary plans for that consultation, and appreciated their input and offer of collaboration."

Hebda met with Paula Ruddy, a member of the CCCR board, Michael Bayly and Art Stoeberl.

Ruddy told NCR, "We are interested in having a lay voice, a broad and open consultation for who the next archbishop will be. We are asking that [Hebda] would expand the process of choosing the archbishop to include all people in the archdiocese at an open meeting."

The coalition co-chair, Bob Beutel, wasn't at the meeting with Hebda, but he said he was pleased to hear that the archbishop was cordial and had heard of their organization. "It was nice to get that recognition."

Beutel said the organization was waiting to hear about the listening schedule the diocese has in the works which will be eight sessions at four different locations. [NOTE: Click here for an update on the times and venues of these sessions.] He said the organization would "like to see people make known what kind of person the new bishop should be, the kind of vetting that should be done and suggestions of people who might be a good bishop might be."

To read Elizabeth A. Elliott's NCR article in its entirety, click here.

Our Next Archbishop: What Would You Ask a Candidate If You Knew Your Voice Would Be Heard?

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The following is from the leadership of the Twin Cities-based Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR).


We are currently seeking an opportunity to express our needs and desires to those who are appointing our next Archbishop, with the hope that they care what we – and, indeed, all Catholics in the local church – need and desire.

Can you imagine an organization that depends for its bread and butter on people’s voluntary contributions not caring what those people think?

Can you imagine an organization that preaches loudly that Jesus is its Lord ignoring the people it is its mission to serve?

Let’s hope that the Papal Nuncio who is the organization’s man in the U.S. and Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda, the temporary administrator, will accept CCCR’s offer to set up an open and broad consultation process before the appointment of the new Archbishop.

In the meantime . . .

If you had a seat on the selection committee in Rome, making a recommendation to the Pope for appointment, what would you look for in a candidate for St. Paul and Minneapolis?

Please let us know by sending as e-mail to PCV editor Michael Bayly at mbayly1965@yahoo.com.

Michael is continually adding to this post the feedback he receives on what local Catholics are looking for in their next archbishop.

Listed below (in most recent to earliest order) are the comments received to date.

I would like to see a rare presence - one who doesn't have the spirit of timidity in speaking about the deep misogyny in the Church, and exposing it as not of Christ.

– Elizabeth Rainsford-McMahon

Many critical attributes have already been offered and I agree with all of them. Most importantly, I think, is someone who has a welcoming attitude to all Catholics as well as the greater community. Someone who recognizes that many of the faithful have been hurt, disenfranchised, condemned, and turned away from the Church they love. Someone who embraces all, recognizes the beauty and value of diversity, and listens carefully and respectfully. And someone who has the intellect and courage to lead us (at both the local level as well as within the world Church) to a Church more fully embracing of gospel values for all God’s people.

– Kathy Andrus

I would like to see the next bishop (whether male or female) be one who acts first to help the victim of abuse rather than trying to protect the person causing harm; I would like to see the next bishop work as a pastor - spending a month (from time to time) serving as a parish priest in different places in the archdiocese.

I would like to see the next bishop:

• address changes in the formation of candidates for the priesthood by revising the curriculum; hiring lay
couples to teach courses; to require extensive hands on internships in social justice agencies

• establish ministries by and for LGBT people, homeless people, and non-Catholic/former Catholic people

• open discussion on the elimination of celibacy rules

• rent a "double wide" trailer for a residence and donate the bishop's throne at the Cathedral to the Pentecostal church in Brooklyn Center ( the current priests residence would make a great emergency shelter and short term rooms for homeless teenagers.

– Art Stoeberl

At the risk of replicating some of the qualities that others have suggested, I offer my thoughts on the ideal person for the position. He (I suppose it has to be a male) should be someone whom the majority of people respect because of his proven record of trying to create a community of the faithful. To this end, he needs to actively listen and respond with compassion to what he hears. He needs to identify with the real concerns of the people and to interpret the teachings of the church in light of the 21st society in which we live. To this end, he will need to understand that the findings of scientists and psychologists mean we must change our understanding of the environment and human behavior. Finally, he will need courage to take a position that may sometimes be opposed to those of higher standing in the church.

– Patricia Mulrooney Eldred

After reading the comments and suggestions already offered concerning the next Archbishop and the qualities people would like to see, I concur with what has been said. The quality I want to raise up is looking to the possibility of the next archbishop being from here. I think part of the difficulties encountered by the two previous archbishops – Flynn and Nienstedt – were that they were outsiders. I don’t know if they ever caught up with this culture. There was an article in the NCR a few weeks ago that spoke about the Old Boys’ Network that was/is involved in how men become archbishops. Nienstedt was used an example in how he ended up here.

With this in mind, I strongly urge the powers-that-be to name a local person to be the next Archbishop – either a bishop elsewhere whose roots are here or someone is not yet a bishop. I believe we need someone whose roots are here and knows our culture.

– Mark Scannell

For too long, our archdiocese has suffered from a "small tent" mentality. An atmosphere of exclusion has alienated large numbers of Catholic who experience their faith in ways different from the archbishop. This has created polarization and caused a fragmented and divided local Church.

Our new archbishop must be someone who welcomes all Catholics. He must create forums whereby he can dialog with and listen to Catholics with diverse lived experiences. He must be a bridge builder who leads our local Church into an atmosphere of diverse conversations, loving inclusion, and Christ-like welcome. Our next archbishop must create a tent large enough for all!

– Mary Beth Stein

Give us one who is transparent, accountable, and responsive to the needs of the people, acting with Love and Compassion as Jesus lived and taught; doctrine and dogma be d----d.

– John Chuchman

It would be great if the new Archbishop knew how the laity has longed for dialog with him and longed for his visibility to all of us; how we have been saddened and alienated by our leader traveling constantly away from his people; and how we are discouraged by the Catholic flock diminishing before our eyes. And he needs to know that there is a great need for healing - and it has not begun for many of us.

– Bonnie Strand

Yes to what has been previously presented, and . . . a bishop who fulfills Pope Francis's "missionary option" as expressed in #27 of The Joy of the Gospel. "...a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the churches customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today's world rather than for her self preservation.... To make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with him."

– Don Conroy

I would look for a man with the Christian vision "Here comes everybody!" All are welcome. We are on the move to co-create the Kingdom of God, so let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

– Paula Ruddy

I'd like to see as our next archbishop an educated person who is generally perceived to be mature, stable and pastoral in style. Someone familiar with the spectrum of theological thought, but who relates well to young people and disenfranchised people, and has an understanding of the economic, social, psychological, and technological challenges they face today. Someone who might aspire to soothing the hearts and souls of people living in a wounded culture. Someone who might represent Church as a beacon of hope in an increasingly hopeless world. Leadership, kindness, empathy, intelligence, and humility might be good starting points. A very big order.

– Mary Lynn Murphy

The next archbishop should have compassion, and mercy. He should be familiar to this area, the culture and history. It is important that the new leader listen to the many voices that love their church. The archbishop must be skilled in healing and at the same time progressive in stimulating new growth.

– Nancy Gotto

I think we’d all be looking for someone from our region that knows the people and their outlook.

I would want someone willing to talk to their own staff, interact with both ordained and lay people, and have open forums throughout the diocese from time to time so they would always have their finger on the pulse of the community.

Someone willing to be open about structure, budget items, costs, income, and expenditures of the diocese.

Someone aware that the ordained are not above the people, but were ordained to serve the people.

Someone willing to make the changes and adjustments necessary to see that abuse is never again ignored

Someone willing to agree with the pope that we are not called to judge people, that God can handle that all alone.

– Frank Meuers

What we desperately need in a new bishop is someone who can relate to our young people. It has been brought to my attention that very few weddings are taking place in church, that young people see Confirmation as a graduation from having to learn anything more about their faith, and that anyone who attended Easter Vigils were made painfully aware of how few people joined the church

I think it is absolutely necessary to convene a panel of young people, teenagers as well as 20-30 year-olds to seriously listen to them and heed their concerns. If we do not do something soon, I don't see much hope for the future of the church. What is desperately needed is visionary leadership - the time is ripe, let's take advantage of it.

– Mary Beckfeld

Share your thoughts by e-mailing a comment to
mbayly1965@yahoo.com

We Need a New Way of Choosing Bishops

By Robert Mickens

Note: This commentary was first published June 22, 2015 by the National Catholic Reporter.

Certain Catholics love to repeat ad nauseam that the church is not a democracy, especially when it comes to decision-making and the selection of leadership.

And thank God it is not.

Nor should it aspire to be if the democratic model is the dysfunctional political and electoral system at work in places like the United States.

But that doesn't mean all is well with the way the Roman church makes its pastoral-administrative decisions, discerns the call of the Spirit, or chooses its bishops.

Quite the contrary.

The inadequate leadership displayed by too many bishops in the United States and other parts of the world the past couple of decades has made that point painfully clear. One wonders how some of these men were ever put in a position of such weighty responsibility.

The most recent case that has American Catholics scratching their heads is that of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

The 68-year-old Detroit native resigned June 15 after seven disastrous years as the head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese. (He had an extra year there as the coadjutor archbishop.)

Some may think it uncharitable, but, no, it is not unfair to call his time in the Twin Cities a true disaster. And one that ended even worse.

Just about anyone in New Ulm could have predicted this. That's the smaller Minnesota diocese where the Vatican sent Nienstedt in 2001 to prepare him for promotion to the state's major see. His task was to "clean up the mess" (a favorite expression of conservative American monsignors in the Roman Curia) that Bishop Raymond Lucker left behind.

Lucker was a St. Paul native and was auxiliary bishop in the Twin Cities when he was appointed to New Ulm in 1975. Lucker was named when Belgian Archbishop Jean Jadot was apostolic delegate to Washington, and he came to be seen as one of the leading Second Vatican Council progressives in the U.S. hierarchy.

But within a few years after the election of John Paul II in 1978, he and other so-called "Jadot bishops" were being replaced by a more conservative crop of priests.

During Jadot's tenure (1973-1980), the tendency was to appoint "homegrown" bishops; that is, men who were natives of the diocese or area they were sent to be ordinary.

But when Archbishop Pio Laghi followed him as papal delegate (and then nuncio), that trend was gradually reversed. With all but rare exceptions, new bishops were appointed to dioceses that many of them had never even visited before and in states in other parts of the country.

It was a deliberate and, some say, cynical policy decision made by the cabal of cardinal-members and other officials of the Congregation for Bishops to keep the new "shepherds" more loyal to their masters in Rome than the unknown people they were sent to rule as if on a foreign mission.

Only a tiny minority of the priests and an even more miniscule section of the people in these dioceses were ever consulted about the candidates to be their new bishops. That trend has continued right up to the present. Who in New Ulm had ever heard of John Nienstedt? He was from Detroit, in a totally different ecclesiastical region, where he had been auxiliary bishop since 1996.

"Imported" to New Ulm and then to the Twin Cities, he was typical of most of the bishops in the United States.

In fact, only four of the 32 Latin Rite metropolitan archbishops in the country are "homegrown." The situation is similar in other parts of the world. Pope Francis was one of those who actually led his home diocese when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In any case, this is only one and perhaps the least bad feature of a very problematic episcopal appointment system.

While the apostolic nuncio is supposed to make discreet inquiries among a representation of the diocesan clergy and respected laypeople when he draws up the terna (or list of three names) of candidates that he submits to Rome, the process is extremely subjective and arbitrary.

There is an old boys' network of current bishops that tends to act as a self-preservation dynasty by promoting their protégés and friends to the episcopacy. Cardinals, especially those who are members of the Congregation for Bishops, are fundamental in pushing forward a candidate, especially for promotion to major posts.

Cardinal Edmund Szoka, for example, was largely responsible for making Nienstedt (his former secretary) a bishop. The late cardinal was known to have catapulted a number of other Michigan priests into the episcopacy, as well, including the current archbishops in Detroit and Hartford.

When Nienstedt resigned last week, the Vatican appointed Archbishop Bernard Hebda as temporary administrator of St. Paul and Minnesota. The mechanisms surrounding this appointment make it problematic, too. Hebda, a church centrist with degrees in both civil and canon law, not even two years ago was named coadjutor to the embattled Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J. With some sort of acrobatics, he evidently intends to make frequent three-hour flights each way and do both jobs.

Perhaps Hebda, who was bishop of Gaylord, Mich., from 2009-2013, has become the Vatican's new troubleshooter to sort out problematic situations. But is he the only and wisest choice?

It certainly follows the same familiar pattern of the old boys' network.

Hebda, 55, is a priest from Pittsburgh, where he was personal secretary to then-Bishop Donald Wuerl (Rome classmate of Myers, who is originally from Illinois). Well aware that loaning a priest to the Vatican is an investment for a future dividend, Wuerl sent Hebda to Rome, where he worked for more than a dozen years at the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. Incidentally, Myers was a member of that council.

And Wuerl is now Cardinal Wuerl, the latest (transplanted) archbishop of Washington and a member of the Congregation for Bishops.

How many priests and other baptized faithful had a voice in any of these appointments? Where are the concerns of any of them listened to seriously? The "election" of bishops (that's what the Holy See calls such appointments, underlining the more ancient practice) need not be done by widespread popular vote. In fact, that would be disaster.

But there should be a more serious and involved process that involves a significant representation of the entire community in identifying the most qualified and gifted leaders. And it should be the rule, not the exception, that the choice (or recommendation) of candidate generally be from the local clergy, especially in long-established dioceses.

Such an "election process" needs to be re-established, albeit with provisions for changed modern-day situations. While it is true that the church is not democracy, neither is it an oligarchy.

Robert Mickens is editor-in-chief of Global Pulse. Since 1986, he has lived in Rome, where he studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University before working 11 years at Vatican Radio and then another decade as correspondent for The Tablet of London.


See also the previous PCV posts:
• Local Catholics Select Three Priests for Bishop/Archbishop
• CCCR Responds to the Resignation of Archbishop Nienstedt
• Tom Flannery in Minneapolis
• "Our Voices Are Growing"
• Creating a Liberating Church
• Let Our Voices Be Heard
• Papal Appointment of Bishops is Not Traditional

CCCR Responds to the Resignation of Archbishop Nienstedt

The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR)* has issued the following media release in response to today's news of the resignations of Archbishop John C. Nienstedt and Bishop Lee Piché of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform and the Council of the Baptized welcome the news of the resignations of Archbishop Nienstedt and Bishop Lee Piché. Healing can now begin.

Leadership change will not be enough, though: this diocese, and the Church as a whole, needs to shed the cloak of clericalism and adopt a new attitude of inclusiveness. The faithful need to step up and play active roles in the governance of our Church as prescribed by the Open Windows principles of the Second Vatican Council.

CCCR has called for the re-establishment and empowerment of an effective Archdiocesan Pastoral Council to consult with and to guide the bishops, and for the adoption of the Standards of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, the same standards of accountability and transparency in governance and management adopted by many of our parishes.

CCCR has already submitted to the Papal Nuncio, the Pope’s representative in Washington, DC, the names of proven senior pastors in our diocese who are outstanding candidates to be named bishop. Rome needs to hear the voices of experience and judgment of local Catholics in the selection of our next leader.

For more information, contact Bob Beutel, CCCR co-chair at 651-324-0577 or bob@anthrolaw.com.

* The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform is an organization in the Twin Cities metropolitan area that envisions a church fully alive, locally and universally, that radiates Jesus’ core teaching of radical equality, unabashed inclusivity, and transforming love.


See also the previous PCV post:
• In the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, "Regime Change is Not Enough"

Related Off-site Links:
Archbishop Nienstedt and Bishop Piché Resign – Maria Wiering (The Catholic Spirit, June 15, 2015).
Archbishop Nienstedt Resigns After Twin Cities Archdiocese Charged with Failing Children – Joshua J. McElwee (National Catholic Reporter, June 15, 2015).
Archbishop Nienstedt Resigns – Grant Gallicho (Commonweal, June 15, 2015).
Archbishop Nienstedt Resigns After Sex Abuse Coverup Charges Against Archdiocese – Inés San Martín (Crux, June 15, 2015).
Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt Resigns After Charges Over Abuse Scandal – David Gibson (Religion News Service, June 15, 2015).
In Twin Cities, A Clean Sweep – Archbishop and Auxiliary Take the Fall – Rocco Palmo (Whispers in the Loggia, June 15, 2015).
Minnesota Bishops Resign in Vatican Crackdown on Sex Abuse by Priests – Stephanie Kirchgaessner (The Guardian, June 15, 2015).
Minnesota Archbishop Steps Down After Rocky Term – Amy Foriti (The Associated Press via Yahoo! News, June 15, 2015).
Catholic Archbishop and Aide Resign in Minnesota Over Sexual Abuse Scandal – Mark S. Getzfred and Mitch Smith (New York Times, June 15, 2015).
John Nienstedt, Archbishop of St. Paul, Resigns After Archdiocese Charged with Cover-Up – The Associate Press via NBC News (June 15, 2015).
An Open Letter to Archbishop Nienstedt – Hank Shea (Star Tribune, June 13, 2015).
The Line in the Sand – Jennifer Haselberger (CanonicalConsultation.com, June 10, 2015).
It Will Take a New Leader to Repair Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis – The Editorial Board (Star Tribune, June 8, 2015).
Twin Cities Archdiocese Charged with Child Endangerment – Grant Gallicho (Commonweal, June 7, 2015).

Local Catholics Select Three Priests for Bishop/Archbishop

Following is a media release from the Twin Cities-based Catholic Coalition for Church Reform.

Members of the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) Lay Network have “voted” and selected three priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to be bishop/archbishop.

The three priests who rose to the top of a slate of seven are Frs. J. Michael Byron of St. Pascal Baylon, St. Paul; Paul Feela of Lumen Christi, St. Paul; and Timothy Wozniak of St. Thomas Becket, Eagan. None of the priests on the slate were consulted, nor did they give their consent to be included in this initiative. Those that voted believe these men would be able to unify polarized factions in this archdiocese and bring Catholics together to accomplish the Church’s mission. (Learn about the selection process at www.cccrmn.org.)

Lay Catholics can’t actually elect their own leadership (hence, vote in quotes), but the CCCR’s Bishop Selection Task Force created the opportunity for local Catholics to “vote” for several reasons:

• To help local laity identify the priests in this archdiocese in whom they have confidence to be effective leaders

• To promote lay Catholics’ ability to raise a unified voice in support of a healthy, sustainable local church

• To begin to re-establish the teachings set forth by the Second Vatican Council, which called for lay Catholics to actively participate in their church

• To help increase the Vatican’s awareness and understanding of the needs of this archdiocese

Of the 1,540 local Catholics registered in the CCCR Lay Network and, therefore, eligible to vote, 410 votes were received. “I’m delighted with the response,” said Bob Christensen of the Bishop Selection Task Force. “That’s almost 30 percent participation – pretty impressive for the first time we’ve done anything like this.”

Lay Catholics, whether or not they voted in the selection process, are now being urged to write to the papal nuncio with their recommendations for leadership. The papal nuncio is the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S., who decides which names will be forwarded to Rome when bishops and archbishops are needed in this country. Those who write may recommend the priests identified by the vote, other priests they feel are credible choices for bishop/archbishop, and/or qualities they feel are essential to reunifying the archdiocese and refocusing on the mission of the church.

Correspondence to the papal nuncio should be sent to:

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò,
Papal Nuncio to the U.S.
3339 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008-3687

nuntiususa@nuntiususa.org

“We’d like everyone to write to the nuncio by December 15,” said Paula Ruddy of CCCR. “We want him to be aware that we’re concerned about this archdiocese and care enough to contact him about it. We hope a lot of correspondence from our archdiocese within this timeframe will get his attention. The CCCR has written to give Archbishop Viganò a heads up, but the power is in the voice of the people. The people are who he needs to hear from.”

Those who write may choose to frame their letters in the context of the upheaval in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, but this initiative started long before the archdiocesan woes came to light.

Carol Tauer of CCCR said, “Our group was established in 2009 to stimulate lay interest and participation in our local church. Vatican II called for all Catholics to step up and take responsibility for the future of the church - not just the clergy. Those Vatican II teachings have been forgotten over time. We want to see them come alive again and be strengthened through active lay engagement.”

The CCCR was formed in 2009 to help re-establish a healthy, sustainable Catholic church in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It is building a Lay Network and encouraging a growing community of Catholics to take action and be heard on issues including evolutionary Christianity, sexual ethics, gender inclusivity, transparency and accountability, bishop selection and lay involvement in church leadership.

Tony Flannery in Minneapolis

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By Michael J. Bayly


We’re at a moment in time when reform-minded Catholics must let their voices be heard.

This was one of a number of messages that both inspired and challenged the 300+ Catholics who gathered at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Minneapolis on the evening of Wednesday, November 5, 2014. It was a message delivered by Irish priest Tony Flannery.

Minneapolis was the tenth stop on Flannery’s 18-city speaking tour of the U.S., and was significant as it will be the only time he speaks on official Catholic Church property. This is because bishops throughout the country have banned the 68-year-old Redemptorist priest from church premises, or, perhaps more accurately, have warned parishes against hosting him. Flannery’s tour is sponsored by the Catholic Tipping Point Coalition, which offers the following explanation for the hierarchy’s inhospitable attitude.

Fr. Tony has been ordered to remain silent and forbidden to minister as a priest because of his refusal to sign a document that violates his conscience: namely that women cannot be priests and that he accepts all Church stances on contraception, homosexuality, and refusal of the sacraments to people in second relationships. After a year during which he attempted to come to some accommodation with the Vatican without success, he has decided to take a public stance on the need for reform in the Church. . . . Rather than remain silent, Fr. Tony and all people of conscience are ready to dialogue.

In Minneapolis, Flannery’s talk and the dialogue it facilitated took place on official church property due to St. Frances Cabrini pastor Mike Tegeder's decision to defy a directive from Archbishop Nienstedt. (Tegeder has a long history of criticizing and defying the archbishop. See, for example, here, here, here, and here.)

Responding to Nienstedt's concerns about Flannery's presence on Catholic property, Tegeder had the following message posted on the podium.

Tonight's speaker, Tony Flannery, is not to be perceived in any way as being sponsored by the Catholic Church. This announcement comes from Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, Chief Catechist of the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis.

Of course, the first part of this statement is only true if one reduces "the Catholic Church" to its clerical leadership. Large segments of the local church, representative of the church as the people of God, clearly have no problem with supporting, welcoming, and, yes, sponsoring, a speaker like Tony Flannery.


Implementing Vatican II

Flannery first came to the attention of many outside his native Galway when, in response to the Irish bishops' “total lack of leadership” in dealing with the clergy sex abuse scandal, he co-founded the Association of Catholic Priests in 2009.

The association works toward the “full implementation of the vision and teaching of the Second Vatican Council,” with special emphasis on the primacy of the individual conscience, the status and active participation of all the baptized, and the task of establishing a Church where all believers are treated as equal.

Such work corresponds with the activities of Catholic reform groups around the globe, as do the specific objections of the Association of Catholic Priests, which include:

• A redesigning of ministry in the Church in order to incorporate the gifts, wisdom, and expertise of the entire faith community, male and female.

• A re-structuring of the governing system of the Church, basing it on service rather than on power, and encouraging at every level a culture of consultation and transparency, particularly in the appointment of Church leaders.

• A culture in which the local bishop and the priests relate to each other in a spirit of trust, support and generosity.

• A re-evaluation of Catholic sexual teaching and practice that recognizes the profound mystery of human sexuality and the experience and wisdom of God’s people.

• Promotion of peace, justice and the protection of God’s creation locally, nationally and globally.

• Recognition that Church and State are separate and that while the Church must preach the message of the Gospel and try to live it authentically, the State has the task of enacting laws for all its citizens.

• Liturgical celebrations that use rituals and language that are easily understood, inclusive and accessible to all.

According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Flannery’s (and by extension the Association of Catholic Priests’) views on ordination, contraception, and homosexuality could be construed as "heresy" under church law. During his talk in Minneapolis on November 5, Flannery noted that the Vatican had been particularly alarmed by two views he had expressed in his writings for the Association: that the priesthood as we have it now is not of the mind of Jesus, and that the hierarchical, monarchical structure of the church as it exists today is not what Jesus intended. As a result of these statements, Flannery has been threatened with "canonical penalties," including excommunication, if he does not change his views.

Yet Flannery has no intention of backing down, noting that “the Vatican hasn’t got the Holy Spirit in its pocket.” To those who insist that he must submit in total obedience to the Magisterium, the legitimate teaching authority of the church, Flannery counters by stating that “any authority that tramples on the dignity and basic human rights of its members has long lost claims to legitimacy.”

In his recent book, A Question of Conscience, Flannery recounts his treatment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.


Two central issues

Flannery believes that as Catholics we are living through extraordinary times with the papacy of Francis. In 100 years time, he says, historians will be writing volumes on this pivotal moment in the history of the church. The bulk of Flannery's November 5 talk was focused on what he identifies as two central issues facing the church at this important time.

The first of these issues is the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the church. Flannery says that there is currently a conflict between two notions of the Magisterium – a narrow notion and a broad one. The narrow notion sees the Magisterium as being composed solely of the bishops (including the pope as Bishop of Rome). The broader version recognizes that the church’s teaching authority depends on recognition of and dialogue among three groups: the bishops, Catholic theologians, and the collective wisdom of the Catholic people (the sensus fidelium).

Flannery contends that Pope Francis is doing the best he can to move the church from the narrow view of teaching authority to the broader view. Francis, says Flannery, wants to hear the voice of the sensus fidelium, and to embed in the structures of the church the broader view of the Magisterium.

Flannery was quick to point out that he’s not an academic, yet his grasp on theology, says Eugene Cullen Kennedy of Chicago’s Loyola University, is better than those in the hierarchy who have attempted to silence him.

Flannery’s condemnation by the Vatican, writes Kennedy in his January 25, 2013 National Catholic Reporter column, should be “recognized as a harbinger of the kind of problem that sure-of-their-infallibility Vatican authorities will encounter in their relationships with the rising generation of theological scholars, most of whom are laymen and women who will not accept condemnations such as that now imposed on Father Flannery.”

Continues Kennedy:

Even well-educated Catholics know as much or more theology than these veiled Roman enforcers. That also goes for the American bishops, who are wonderful men in general but who are unprepared for theological conversations with their people. One of the reasons the bishops have difficulty in communicating effectively with ordinary Catholics arises from their discomfort and/or inability to discuss theological issues with them. . . . Flannery's condemnation is an augury of the deepening estrangement that will take place if the Vatican does not respect the growing theological understanding of its members. The bishops are sincere in wanting to establish better channels of communication with their people. The best thing they can do to achieve that is to master the language of modern theological and scriptural studies that so many Catholics understand better than they do right now.

In his 2013 column, Kennedy also examines two of the issues that Flannery “is being forced to sign off on if he wants to continue his work: Christ's having established the church in hierarchical form and the assertion, employed constantly by bishops to legitimate their authority, that they are the direct descendants of the apostles.”

“If anything,” writes Kennedy “Christ called together a college of apostles, and the collegiality to which Vatican II returned is a far better image than the hierarchical form that was adopted from the hierarchical cosmological view of the universe and expressed in secular kingdoms, including the Roman Empire, whose provinces and proconsuls provided the model for laying out the governance of the church.”

In should be noted that Kennedy highlights an interesting discrepancy in the rhetoric of those who unquestioningly assert that the current structure of church governance is somehow ordained by God and has thus always been. The Vatican’s doctrinal chief Cardinal Gerhard Müller, for example, recently declared that Pope Francis’ Synod on the Family, which for Flannery is a prime example of the pope’s efforts to move the church from a narrow understanding of authority to a broader one, is evidence that the bishops are being “blinded by secularism.” Yet as many Catholics now recognize, the feudal and monarchical structure of the church is itself based on a secular structure from a specific historical era. If the church could adopt an organizing and leadership structure from secular society at one point in its history, why can it not adopt another, namely democracy, from a more current time? And as Robert McClory has compellingly documented, modern democracy actually is more aligned with the democratic impulse and egalitarian spirit of the early Christian church than the Vatican’s model of leadership, fashioned as it is around Roman imperial power of the fifth century.

Decision-making in the church was the second central issue highlighted by Flannery in his November 5 talk in Minneapolis. As with the issue of authority, two understandings of decision-making are currently in conflict – decision-making through authoritarian, top-down edicts vs. decision-making through discernment by the whole community through a process that honors conscience.

Flannery acknowledges that decision-making through discernment can initially cause confusion. But he is adamant that, over time, truth is discerned, “the Spirit’s voice heard.”


“Not a time for reform people to sit back”

Despite his obvious affinity for the group he co-founded, Flannery acknowledges that with the steady decline in the number of priests the true hope for future reform of the church lies with lay reform movements and groups, and with the growing number of intentional Eucharistic communities.

Flannery said he is impressed by the number and vitality of Catholic reform groups in the U.S., but cautioned that, despite the hopeful signs from Francis’ papacy, it is “not a time for reform people to sit back.” We need to do everything we can to ensure our vision of church is heard at the highest levels of church leadership. “Bishops should not only hear from conservative Catholics,” Flannery said, especially in over the next year in the lead-up to Synod on the Family 2015.

One way local lay Catholics are making their voices heard is through a process being facilitated by the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR). Through this process local members of the clergy are being nominated for the next archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis. CCCR leadership notes that the lay people of Chicago spoke out about the kind of leadership they needed and that many believe they were heard, as evidenced by the appointment of their new archbishop, the moderate Blase Cupich.

After voting concludes on November 15, CCCR will announce the top three names in the polling. Local Catholics will then be encouraged to write to the U.S. papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, to let him know their thoughts about the kind of leadership needed in the St. Paul/Minneapolis Archdiocese. The goal is that when next there’s an opening for bishop/archbishop in the archdiocese, Archbishop Viganò will not only know that lay Catholics here are paying attention, but will also be aware of the names of men that Catholics have confidence in. (Note: In order to be eligible to vote in CCCR’s Bishop Selection Campaign, registration with the group’s Lay Catholic Network is necessary. You can register here.)

It is activities like CCCR's Bishop Selection Campaign – proactive and voice-raising – that encourage Tony Flannery and many others. Such activities are time-consuming, unglamorous, and more-often-than-not slow to yield results. Yet they are vital for reform-minded Catholics to engage in and spread the word about.

We truly are at a time when our voices need to be heard!

Recommended Resources for Letting Our Voices Be Heard:
The Lay Network in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis – The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform.
Where Do We Go from Here? – Writing to Our Bishops – New Ways Ministry.

Recommended Off-site Links:
Controversial Priest's Visit Exposes Rift in Catholic Church – Jon Tevlin (Star Tribune, November 4, 2014).
Silenced Irish Priest Tony Flannery Touring U.S. – Dennis Coday (National Catholic Reporter, October 21, 2014).
A Review of Tony Flannery's A Question of Conscience – Dermot Keogh (The Independent, September 15, 2013).
Fr. Flannery's Grasp of Theology Better Than That of His Silencers – Eugene Cullen Kennedy (National Catholic Reporter, January 25, 2013).
Irish Priest Receives Support from Near and Far in His Vatican Struggle – Francis DeBernardo (Bondings 2.0, January 23, 2013).
Vatican's Demand for Silence is Too High a Price – Tony Flannery (The Irish Times, January 21, 2013).
Dissident Irish Priest Fears Excommunication Over Views on Women Priests – Patrick Counihan (IrishCentral.com, January 21, 2013).
Irish Redemptorist Father Tony Flannery Gets the Ray Bourgeios Treatment from the CDF – Colleen Kochivar-Baker (Enlightened Catholicism, January 20, 2013).
Priest Is Planning to Defy the Vatican’s Orders to Stay Quiet – Douglas Dalby (The New York Times, January 19, 2013).

See also the previous PCV posts:
• "Our Voices Are Growing"
• Creating a Liberating Church
• Let Our Voices Be Heard

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Message from Catholic Coalition for Church Reform

Don’t complain, Organize!

If lay people want a voice in the Church, they have to organize to make themselves heard--about leadership, about accountability, about the future of parishes.  We are organizing a network to take responsibility for a strong and united voice in our Church.

How can you connect up with the network?  It’s easy.  Go to www.cccrmn.org and give us your name and parish and email address.  We will connect you with others in your parish and your deanery and together we will speak out on how our local church addresses its mission.

While you are there, nominate a local pastor for bishop/archbishop.  We need leadership to pull the Archdiocese together behind its mission.

Besides joining the network, you can step up to do more.  CCCR is calling for two or more people from each parish in each deanery to create a lay email network among the 15 deaneries of the Archdiocese.

First out of the shoot, Deanery 14, comprising 15 parishes in South Minneapolis, has a network in the making.  Forty-five people from 10 of the 15 parishes held their first organizing meeting on March 26, at Spirit of St. Stephen Catholic Community.

   

Go to www.cccrmn.org, Lay Networking in Deaneries and Bishop Selection.  Find out what you want to know, then call 612 (379) 1043 to help grow the network.

Lay Network Organizing in Deaneries

Who is doing the organizing?

Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR)* is organizing an email network of lay people in the deaneries of the Archdiocese. A Lay Network Organizing Team has been formed to implement the plan.  Members are Bill Bailey, Sabrina Mauritz, Mary Jane Mitchell, Bernie Rodel, Eileen Rodel, Paula Ruddy, and Mary Beth Stein

What is a deanery?

The priests of the Archdiocese are organized in a deanery system. There are about 12 to 15 parishes to a deanery, and there are 15 parish deaneries in the Archdiocese, grouped geographically. The pastors meet regularly. Each deanery has a dean; one of the pastors serves in that role. We plan to use this Archdiocesan structure for parishes to form our network of parishioners.

We are beginning to organize our lay network with Deanery 14, the parishes in South Minneapolis. Since this kind of networking has not been done before, we are building a model from scratch. With your help, we can succeed.

Why are we doing this?

People usually have a strong parish identity, and that is a good thing. But we are thinking that an inter-parish email network with a deanery identity would give lay people a much stronger voice in the direction of the Church. It would provide a channel for feedback to the Church decision-makers-- pastors, deans, the Archbishop. At this time, there is no organized way for the lay people to communicate with them.

We want to target the Church decision-makers and bring the people’s voice to them. The network of parishioners within deaneries is our strategy to make the voice of the people heard in one campaign after another.

What campaign will be first through the network?

For example, one decision-maker in the institutional Church is the Papal Nuncio, the Vatican diplomat in Washington, D.C. One of his jobs is to send recommendations to the Vatican for bishops in the U.S. Through our deanery network, we can invite people to nominate and elect candidates to suggest to the Papal Nuncio for his next recommendation for bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

CCCR has a Bishop Selection Task Force, formed at Synod of the Baptized 2013, planning a campaign to nominate and elect candidates for bishop to send to the Papal Nuncio.

The Lay Network Organizing Team will use the bishop selection campaign as the first campaign to engage the lay deanery network.

Check on the website, www.cccrmn.org , for the Bishop Selection Task Force information and the nomination form.

The people’s voice in the election of bishops is part of Church tradition.  The Council of the Baptized** published a position paper entitled People’s Participation in Selection of Bishops in January, 2013, giving the history and the rationale for the election of bishops.  It is available free of charge at www.councilofthebaptized.org.  Click on “Publications.”

OK, what is the plan?

Step one: We are forming “seed teams” in each parish. A seed team is two or more people who will step up to lead the email network in their parish. It involves talking to people about 1) joining in the network and 2) nominating a candidate for bishop.  CCCR Lay Network Organizing Team will get the parish teams together in a deanery meeting.

Step two: After the first organizing meeting, the seed teams will invite as many people as they can from their parishes to join the network and at the same time invite them to fill out a nomination form for Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Step three: The network will channel emails with information and other campaigns, and we will get together from time to time.  Never can tell what the Holy Spirit will lead each deanery to accomplish. 

Step four: CCCR will network all the deaneries together and serve as the clearinghouse for the concerns of the laity. The network will bring the concerns of the people to the decision-makers.  The Council of the Baptized will continue to provide the firm grounding in scripture, Church tradition, and contemporary theology for the positions the laity takes.

  

What is your next step?

·        If you want to be part of the network, go to www.cccrmn.org and nominate a local pastor for bishop/archbishop.  You may list qualifications you value if you do not have a nominee in mind.

·         If you want to build the network, email us at info@cccrmn.org or call (612) 379-1043.

*CCCR is a MN non-profit with federal tax exempt status. It was established in 2009 to join all the organizations working for a Vatican II model of church in coalition.  See www.cccrmn.org for more information.

**Council of the Baptized was formed by CCCR in 2012 to listen to the concerns of the faithful and to give voice to their concerns in position statements and position papers. Programs proposed to be implemented by the proponents are brought to the Council for endorsement.

Our Responsibility to Call Church Leadership

Nominate a candidate for Archbishop! 

Since Vatican II (1962-1965), people in the pews have been talking about electing Roman Catholic bishops, but centuries of practice are not easily changed. We think the time has now come to begin.

In 2014, Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are taking a first step to electing bishops. It is a first step in that we are proposing a hybrid process of initial nomination/election combined with finally sending the names of candidates to the Papal Nuncio for appointment in accord with current Canon Law.

Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) is asking Catholics to nominate local pastors who are capable of pulling the Archdiocese together to work for the mission of the Church in the world. The nominations are due by June 30. You can find the criteria we are suggesting and a nomination form at www.cccrmn.org.


The nominations will be sifted according to the criteria into a slate of candidates by a committee of ordained and lay men and women. Then in November, people will be asked to vote on the slate to produce a list of three names which they will suggest to the U.S. Papal Nuncio for his investigation. It is the Papal Nuncio’s job to recommend names of ordained men to the Pope for appointment as bishops of vacant sees.

The first step is about building a sense of our own responsibility and the possibilities for action. Building our electoral strength will take a while.

What is the hope of having one of the men we recommend appointed Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis? The See of St. Paul and Minneapolis may not be vacant for another 8 years. Bishops serve until age 75, and the current Archbishop is 67. Nevertheless, we think beginning to get accustomed to having a voice is necessary. As it happens, archbishops and bishops are frequently moved to larger dioceses or to positions in which their skills are needed without notice to the people. We want to have readiness to elect a successor archbishop when the time to act arrives.

What makes us think the Papal Nuncio will listen? Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the current U.S. Nuncio, responded to a letter from us that he is always willing to receive recommendations from the people for bishops and archbishops. You will find his message in a letter from Archbishop Nienstedt to us in May 2012 on the website. We understand that the names have to be sent by individuals to him by U.S. mail or by email.

In 1974, the priests of our Archdiocese organized to name three men to succeed Archbishop Leo Binz who was retiring. The priests invited the current lay organization to participate but they were not ready to do so. The priests’ senate sent the name of John Roach, a local man, to the Papal Nuncio and he was appointed Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Perhaps Roach was also the choice of Archbishop Binz. Only the Vatican archive knows. Nevertheless, that initiative by the priests of our Archdiocese 40 years ago gives us courage to move forward today.

Can the Archdiocese Continue Under the Leadership of John C. Nienstedt?

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The Editorial Team


Are we headed for a SOSO (same old, same old)? Here we have an archdiocesan situation in which the current archbishop, though he has management skills, has been alienating people by his inability to relate and his consequent poor judgment since he took charge in 2008.

Now it is revealed that he ignored warnings of his chief legal officer that a priest might sexually abuse minors and appointed the priest pastor of two parishes where he did abuse minors.

What should happen? Is it about acknowledging failure, doing penance, and moving on? Or is it about sliding by with appearances of authority intact?

The cynical among us think that SOSO will happen. No need for detailed application of SOSO. Everyone has read the media reports, and everyone knows how SOSO works. The big money men get together and broker a deal. There have to be a certain number of resignations to assuage the community’s sense of justice. There have been enough media stories about various bad actors to weary and sicken the public so they will be satisfied if some heads roll and the subject leaves the front pages. There have been enough secondary heads to blame. Which of these also blameworthy officials can be enticed to resign their managerial functions, not giving up any priestly perks, to save the archbishop?

SOSO says law enforcement agencies and county attorneys are not brave enough to buck the huge institutions of religion. It is much easier to come in with insufficient evidence to charge with a crime.

Another requirement of SOSO is a Task Force to study the policies. We have one of those in this archdiocesan situation too.

Call us “unsophisticated,” but we are hoping SOSO does not happen. Jennifer Haselberger, the whistleblower, local law enforcement, and the local media have inspired us with hope that not all is SOSO.

Choosing hope rather than taking the cynic’s stance, we trust that the law enforcement agencies will do a thorough job and make an honest assessment of the evidence.

We trust that the Archdiocesan big donors will look at the best spiritual interests of the Archdiocese in wielding their influence on church management.

We trust that the officials who have already resigned will give interviews about what really happened, their roles in the debacle, and their hard won new understandings of how the church should operate.

We trust that even if he is not charged with a crime, Archbishop John C. Nienstedt will step down from the role of Archbishop for which he is not suited. If he were to emerge from the clerical culture, there are many roles in which he could serve admirably.

We trust that after John Nienstedt’s resignation, the Task Force will design and implement a working procedure for removing immature men from the priesthood and putting them in safe environments.

We trust that Pope Francis, as a first step, will instruct his U.S. delegate to seek recommendations from all the people in this archdiocese in replacing the Archbishop. We hope that he will continue that practice in each diocese when appointing leadership for them.

Who knows what other reforms could follow?


Related Off-site Links:
Retired Archbishop Harry Flynn Resigns from St. Thomas Trustees – Madeleine Baran (Minnesota Public Radio, October 19, 2013).
Could Archbishop Nienstedt Face Charges or Lose His Job? – Beth Hawkins (MinnPost.com, October 14, 2013).
Archdiocese of Wobegon – Grant Gallicho (Commonweal, October 14, 2013).
Under Fire, Archbishop Nienstedt Scrambles to Respond – Jean Hopfensperger (Star Tribune, October 6, 2013).
In the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, the Unravelment Continues – Michael Bayly (The Wild Reed, October 6, 2013).

See also the previous PCV post:
"Trust Your Shepherds"

Taking Action to Decentralize the Church

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A new global group is educating Catholics about an important early church tradition and inviting them to sign a letter to Pope Francis, urging him to once again allow Catholics to elect their own bishops.


Catholic Church Reform is a global community supporting decentralization of the Roman Catholic Church, primarily by advocating a return to the early church practice that saw the people elect the bishops of their diocese.

Two local groups, the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform and the Council of the Baptized, have formally endorsed Catholic Church Reform's call for lay participation in the selection of bishops.

On its website Catholic Church Reform notes that:

Pope Francis has brought a breath of fresh air to the Roman Church. And he is rekindling the hopes of millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike who had felt increasingly discouraged and alienated from the Church in the past. For decades, reform groups globally have been working to promote some aspect of Church reform, but they have been met with a Church that has been unwilling to change. But now that Pope Francis has brought to Rome a new, positive spirit of openness, he has rekindled our hopes for change on many fronts.

Our mission is to gather all of this energy and focus our communal love for the Church and passion for reform on a single cause: urging Pope Francis and his council of eight cardinals to decentralize the Church and encourage the People of God in each diocese throughout the world to elect their own bishops. We think this step is essential before the Church can turn to more specific reform issues. Electing our own bishops will make for a new, more vibrant Church in which the people of God – led by the clerical, religious, and lay leaders – will have a voice in what Vatican II declared was our Church. With movement from the bottom up, the Church will be more welcoming to those outside its doors. Whether you are an active Catholic, a former Catholic, or a non-Catholic, if your respect for the Church would be enhanced by a a more people-centered Catholic Church, we invite you to be a part of our online community.

We have two choices: We can sit and bemoan what is wrong in the Church or we can take action. To remain silent is to become complicit with the wrong.

Accordingly, Catholic Church Reform is encouraging Catholics to take action by signing a letter to Pope Francis, urging him to invite all Catholics globally - in unity with the local clergy, religious leaders and lay leaders - to elect their own bishops.

To read and sign this letter, click here.

Following is a 2-minute video that Catholic Church Reform has made to help spread its message and invite people to take action.