A reverie of private grief was interrupted Tuesday when I switched on the radio and heard that John Nienstedt, the archbishop of the Twin Cities archdiocese and rabid opponent of "the homosexual agenda," is being investigated for improper sexual relations with seminarians and priests. The sun rises and sets, the rivers run to the sea, and the Catholic Church is embarrassed by the lax pompous incompetents who occupy the upper reaches of its hierarchy.
Nienstedt has put out a statement in which he declares in the first paragraph that the allegations against him "are absolutely and entirely false." But that is followed by:
The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior. The allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago, before I began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The less slippery version goes like this: "I'm not going to admit to anything. But, if it turns out that they have the goods on me, at least my sexual partners were of age--old enough to have become well-versed in the theology that I have always said teaches that what I've done is an abomination to God, even though--thanks to those I've criticized--it's not against the law. Also, I've been a lot less sexually active now that I'm in the seventh decade of my life."
And is there no one in the archdiocesan offices who can help him with the meaning of "implicate"? Who is a bigger embarrassment, Nienstedt or the men--and, whatever their names, they are all men--who have promoted instead of firing him?
