Did Archbishop John Nienstedt Try To Stop Investigators From Finding Out About His Private Life?

Did Archbishop John Nienstedt Try To Stop The Investigation Into Himself?
FILE - In this July 30, 2014, file photo, St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt speaks at his office in St. Paul, Minn. On Monday, June 15, 2015, the Vatican said Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche after prosecutors charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig, File)
FILE - In this July 30, 2014, file photo, St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt speaks at his office in St. Paul, Minn. On Monday, June 15, 2015, the Vatican said Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche after prosecutors charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig, File)

On April 10, 2014 — seven months into the clergy sex abuse scandal — Archbishop John Nienstedt's top advisers gathered for a private meeting. They had just received several affidavits from an internal investigation of Nienstedt that had been authorized by the archbishop himself to address damaging rumors.

The sworn statements accused Nienstedt of inappropriate behavior, according to people who read them, including sexual advances toward at least two priests.

Private investigators had even arranged a prison interview with Curtis Wehmeyer, the former priest at the center of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Wehmeyer, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to child sex abuse, told the investigators he couldn't understand why Nienstedt wanted to spend time with him or why he kept him in ministry. Nienstedt made him uncomfortable, he said, and they never had sex. Wehmeyer said he wasn't interested in Nienstedt.

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W. Jeffrey Paulish

Priests And Sexual Abuse

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