Embattled archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt and his deputy, Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche have resigned after years of pressure when complainants charged their archdiocese with having failed to protect children from a pedophile priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys.
Embattled archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt and his deputy, Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche have resigned after years of pressure when complainants charged their archdiocese with having failed to protect children from a pedophile priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys.
The priests' resignation stems from popular protests against them for its poor handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and faces prosecution involving a third in Wisconsin.
Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to "numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct" by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015. They also claim that the church covered up Wehmeyer's atrocities.
The criminal complaint says many people -including parishioners, fellow priests and parish staff- reported issues with Wehmeyer, and many of those claims were discounted.
The developments came days after Pope Francis approved the creation of a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect minors, answering years of criticism that top-ranked churchmen have long been immune to punishment for ignoring or covering up for priests who rape and molest children.
Monday's resignations bring to 18 the number of bishops who have stepped down after being publicly criticized for covering up for abusers.