8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (2)
#18072929 at 2023-01-04 16:14:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #22151: Rise N Grind Time, GS Mess Edition
>>18072927
An auxiliary bishop in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese has said that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan? told those overseeing the probe into claims of sexual misconduct by Archbishop John Nienstedt to "focus the investigation and complete it, [and] we did so." The statement appears to corroborate reports that the former Vatican ambassador attempted to intervene in the independent inquiry.
The revelation came from Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who in a statement issued late Aug. 31 addressed the Nienstedt investigation in his most extensive public comments on the matter. The more-than-yearlong inquiry - which began in January 2014 at Nienstedt's authorization - resurfaced in recent weeks after Vigan? levied charges that high-ranking bishops and Pope Francis covered up abuse allegations regarding ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
That in turn has renewed questions about Vigan?'s role in the Nienstedt case, which significantly shifted after an April 2014 meeting between Vigan?, who was then nuncio to the U.S., and two auxiliary bishops. What began as a search to determine the truth or falsity of the claims against Nienstedt afterward narrowed to whether the allegations amounted to a "crime or grave delict," with the original investigators eventually replaced.
The allegations, which chancery officials began receiving in fall 2013, claimed that Nienstedt sexually harassed and made sexual advances to adult males; that he had concerning interactions with seminarians, including grooming and reprisals for rejected advances; and that he lived a "promiscuous gay lifestyle" while in Detroit and Rome. There were also concerns about Nienstedt's relationship with former priest Curtis Wehmeyer and an allegation that Nienstedt had had sexual relations with a Swiss Guardsman.
In June 2015, Nienstedt resigned, along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Pich?, 10 days after civil and criminal charges were brought against the archdiocese.
It was the dismissal of criminal charges a year later that revealed, among a trove of documents, details of the investigation into Nienstedt - primarily through a memo dated July 7, 2014. The 11-page memo was authored by Fr. Dan Griffith, who had served as liaison between the archdiocese and Greene Espel, the Minneapolis law firm first hired to conduct the investigation.
Nienstedt, who until mid-August 2018 had been serving as an independent contractor for the Napa Institute, the conservative think tank founded by Timothy Busch, has repeatedly denied all accusations.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan? attends a conference on the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" in Rome Oct. 28, 2017. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan? attends a conference on the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" in Rome Oct. 28, 2017. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Vigan? has denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement dated Aug. 26, "I never told anyone that Greene Espel should stop the inquiry, and I never ordered any document to be destroyed. Any statement to the contrary is false."
In a brief statement, Griffith, a trained civil lawyer and the Wenger Family Faculty Fellow at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, told NCR, "I stand by my 2014 memo to Bishop Lee Pich?. I welcome a thorough accounting of the matter."
'Wrap up the investigation'
Vigan?'s role centers on an April 12, 2014, meeting at the U.S. nunciature in Washington, D.C., with Vigan?, Cozzens and Pich?, whom Nienstedt had appointed four months earlier to head the independent investigation.
According to Cozzens, after the archdiocese received nearly a dozen signed affidavits "containing serious allegations of misconduct" against Nienstedt, he and Pich? "tried our best to bring them to the attention of people who might have authority to act and guide the investigation." That included Vigan?.
"When Bishop Pich? and I believed that we were being told by the nuncio to close the investigation, we strenuously objected," Cozzens said in the statement, referring to a letter the auxiliaries wrote to Vigan? following their meeting. "When the nuncio clarified that we should focus the investigation and complete it, we did so."
https://www.ncronline.org/news/vigan-s-role-nienstedt-case-scrutinized-anew-bishops-statement
#18072927 at 2023-01-04 16:13:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #22151: Rise N Grind Time, GS Mess Edition
>>18072871
Vigan?'s role in Nienstedt case scrutinized anew with bishop's statement
by Brian Roewe
An auxiliary bishop in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese has said that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan? told those overseeing the probe into claims of sexual misconduct by Archbishop John Nienstedt to "focus the investigation and complete it, [and] we did so." The statement appears to corroborate reports that the former Vatican ambassador attempted to intervene in the independent inquiry.
The revelation came from Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who in a statement issued late Aug. 31 addressed the Nienstedt investigation in his most extensive public comments on the matter. The more-than-yearlong inquiry - which began in January 2014 at Nienstedt's authorization - resurfaced in recent weeks after Vigan? levied charges that high-ranking bishops and Pope Francis covered up abuse allegations regarding ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
That in turn has renewed questions about Vigan?'s role in the Nienstedt case, which significantly shifted after an April 2014 meeting between Vigan?, who was then nuncio to the U.S., and two auxiliary bishops. What began as a search to determine the truth or falsity of the claims against Nienstedt afterward narrowed to whether the allegations amounted to a "crime or grave delict," with the original investigators eventually replaced.
The allegations, which chancery officials began receiving in fall 2013, claimed that Nienstedt sexually harassed and made sexual advances to adult males; that he had concerning interactions with seminarians, including grooming and reprisals for rejected advances; and that he lived a "promiscuous gay lifestyle" while in Detroit and Rome. There were also concerns about Nienstedt's relationship with former priest Curtis Wehmeyer and an allegation that Nienstedt had had sexual relations with a Swiss Guardsman.
In June 2015, Nienstedt resigned, along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Pich?, 10 days after civil and criminal charges were brought against the archdiocese.
It was the dismissal of criminal charges a year later that revealed, among a trove of documents, details of the investigation into Nienstedt - primarily through a memo dated July 7, 2014. The 11-page memo was authored by Fr. Dan Griffith, who had served as liaison between the archdiocese and Greene Espel, the Minneapolis law firm first hired to conduct the investigation.
Nienstedt, who until mid-August 2018 had been serving as an independent contractor for the Napa Institute, the conservative think tank founded by Timothy Busch, has repeatedly denied all accusations.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/vigan-s-role-nienstedt-case-scrutinized-anew-bishops-statement