Vatican investigation finds Archbishop Nienstedt’s behavior ‘imprudent’ but not canonical crime
January 08, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (MN) has announced that a Vatican investigation found that his predecessor, Archbishop John Nienstedt, did not commit canonical crimes but did commit “imprudent actions.”
As a result, Archbishop Nienstedt, who resigned in 2015, is forbidden to reside in, or exercise ministry in, his former ecclesiastical province (Minnesota and the Dakotas), and is forbidden to “exercise ministry in any way outside of his diocese of residence without the express authorization of the attendant Ordinary and only after the Dicastery for Bishops has been informed.”
“I have asked the Holy See, through my canonical advocate, to clarify the ‘imprudent’ actions I allegedly committed while in Minnesota,” Archbishop Nienstedt said in response.
The restrictions imposed on Archbishop Nienstedt are in some ways harsher than the restrictions imposed on Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Guam, who was found guilty of multiple instances of the canonical crime of sexually abusing minors.
In August 2018, Pope Francis said he would personally decide Archbishop Apuron’s appeal; the 2019 decision, announced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, deprived Apuron of his office and forbade him to dwell in Guam—but nothing in the decision restricted his ministry elsewhere, as long as he does not wear the distinctive insignia of a bishop.
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