If Catholic money talks, Nienstedt walks
For the million plus Catholic Minnesotans there exists no real expectation that their Archbishop Nienstedt will ever listen to them. He certainly seemed to pay little heed to Catholic laic groups for at least two years. He is the sole local Catholic in the know, the faithful need only follow his dictates. He’ll tell them how things are going to be, essentially a my way or the highway position. Or in his context, you’re the sheep, I’m the shepherd.
The man can continue to stonewall and avoid legal prosecution with something approaching outright immunity. He may never see the inside of a jail cell should his actions be proven illegal… and maybe not the inside of confessional for that matter.
Missing evidence? Hmmm, a few years back he wanted the St. Paul police to investigate the theft of jewel encrusted crucifix or some such but when the cops came looking for evidence of child porn… well reports are the discs are gone, let alone the computer in question.
Destruction of evidence is apparently his privilege. And while he enjoined others to enact a constitutional position on marriage he willfully eludes submission to the law of the land, like the ones about child abuse.
Should enough Catholics find his arrogance and aloofness to civil law intolerable there is one mode of speech his superiors do understand; that money talks.
All those individual parishioner envelopes that contain the weekly tithe could just sit on the parishioner’s kitchen shelf and accumulate, perhaps for weeks. In short, they write the check but just don’t turn it over yet. It really won’t take long if the majority of Catholics participate. None but each tither need know of their personal financial remittance timeline.
If the money stream dries up Nienstedt is toast. Otherwise this civil nuisance of a man will persist; the molestation threat will remain, the authorities may again be mislead and the truth(s) will never see the light of day.
Of course the best source of action would be for the parish priests to hold the money back… but then Nienstedt would remove them faster than… than… a molester let’s say.
If and when Nienstedt is replaced via a Catholic action, not by parishioners but by superiors, then the moment will have arrived to send all those shelved checks in to the local parish. Maybe this time Archdiocese will do something more constructive with the money than Nienstedt’s squanderings. (The guy was shutting down parishes in 2010 but had a reported ~$650,000 worth of investment dividends available in 2011 to blow on his social agenda.)
Until then Attorney Anderson will hopefully outlive and outlast this Nienstedt and his ambitions.
Martin Luther was right, the individual does not need the Catholic church to maintain a relationship with God, but the church needs the money stream so they’ve inserted themselves into that relationship.
So come on Catholics, hit him where it actually hurts, the Archbishopric’s pocketbook. Nienstedt will have to answer to his superiors for the financial shortage.
Nienstedt may beyond the arm of the law, or at least he presents that attitude. It appears the only ones who can deal him the comeuppance he deserves are the Catholics. It is theirs to pursue, and the money is the method.
The other ~79% of Minnesotans, largely Protestants (because Luther was right) will be watching to see what, if anything, the Catholics decide to do with this man.
… and someday we may get a retrospective on any history he left behind in Detroit. Afterall, the past is often prologue, especially when it comes to habitual behavior similar to Nienstedt’s, or molesters for that matter.
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