That article caused me to reflect on the long-standing, unsuccessful efforts in the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis to hold its former archbishop, John Nienstedt, accountable for alleged personal sexual misconduct and a failed cover-up involving abuse by another priest under his supervision.

These efforts have both pre-dated and post-dated Vos Estis, which went into effect on June 1, 2019, so it is with much disappointment that nothing has been resolved to hold Nienstedt accountable.

It represents a real-life example of why Vos Estis is not working and needs serious reform.

I first wrote about the need for the church to complete a full and fair investigation of matters concerning Nienstedt and now-disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick in January 2019.

I noted then that some progress had just been made regarding Nienstedt.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda had called for a "lay-led mechanism" for investigating allegations against bishops and had clarified that Nienstedt "would not be free to exercise public ministry" in the archdiocese until all open allegations against him had been resolved.

But no public disclosures of prior investigations of Nienstedt occurred, and no one apparently was called upon to further investigate Nienstedt's alleged misconduct.

This changed six months later.

Soon after the Vos Estis protocol became effective, Tom Johnson, the court-appointed ombudsman for clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, took direct action.

On July 17, 2019, Johnson, a highly regarded attorney, submitted a detailed complaint requesting an investigation pursuant to the new Vos Estis process.

The complaint alleged that Nienstedt had interfered with a serious child sexual abuse criminal investigation and that Nienstedt had initiated sexual acts involving minors as a bishop, specific details of which later became public.

Johnson's complaint was reviewed by Hebda, who determined the allegations were not "manifestly unfounded," the standard required for an initial review.

Johnson's complaint was then forwarded to an unknown archbishop or bishop and then silence ensued.

Despite the fact that Vos Estis requires a determination to investigate a complaint be made within 30 days of its receipt, Johnson heard nothing from any church official over the next six months.

Johnson had no recourse but to go public about the lack of any church response to his formal complaint. Johnson contacted two reporters and expressed his deep disappointment in the lack of any action.

Church leaders remained silent.

On June 8, 2020, Johnson passed away following a long battle with cancer.

That same month, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced that Victoria Newcome Johnson, Tom's spouse and a former prosecutor, would succeed Tom as the court-appointed ombudsperson for the archdiocese.

Six more months passed with no Vatican response to Tom Johnson's complaint, not even an acknowledgement of the complaint's receipt.

In late November 2020, Victoria Newcome Johnson wrote to several church leaders in her capacity as the archdiocese's ombudsperson for clerical sexual abuse.

Based on the information she has shared with me, she emphasized the need for church officials to take action regarding Tom Johnson's complaint regarding Nienstedt.

Several officials acknowledged receipt of her letter.

Although she never heard any details, Newcome Johnson later learned that a Vos Estis investigation of Nienstedt reportedly had been undertaken by an unknown archbishop or bishop whose identity never has been revealed.

As for the faithful, the silence continued.

In May 2021, NCR highlighted the known Vos Estis investigations occurring throughout the United States, including one involving Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston, Minnesota, for allegedly covering up abuse by one of his priests.

NCR reported that in April 2021 Francis accepted the resignation of Hoeppner, "making him the first U.S. bishop to effectively lose his job as a result of a Vos Estis investigation."

The investigation of Hoeppner had been conducted and reviewed by seasoned lay investigators and overseen by Hebda.

It had been conducted from start to finish in 15 months, with the preliminary investigation being completed in about two months.

In short, the Hoeppner case is one example of how the Vos Estis procedures could provide some actual accountability if faithfully followed and executed with lay involvement.

Even so, there remains a troubling lack of public disclosure and healing transparency in the Hoeppner case, for which the church still must come to reckon.

Fast forward to May 2022 and the Nienstedt investigation remains in limbo, almost three years after Tom Johnson submitted his complaint under Vos Estis.

The silence continues.

No one other than a few high-ranking church officials has any idea who has been responsible for conducting the investigation or its status.

One cannot help but suspect that some church officials are simply hoping that the Vos Estis process will not be extended past its June 1, 2022, expiration and that the church will "move on" to other more pressing matters.

This would be symptomatic of how too many church officials have dealt with clergy sexual abuse. Such a deliberate indifference would be grossly misguided and harmful on several levels.

First, far too many faithful in the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis harbour mistrust and feelings of betrayal as a result of Nienstedt's alleged misconduct, which the church sadly has failed to address. This includes foremost his victim-survivors, and their families and friends. Even though some of those minors who were victimized are now adults, they bear wounds that may never heal without an accounting of what they suffered. Continue reading

• Hank Shea is a senior distinguished fellow at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. He also serves as a fellow of the UST Law School's Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing.

While praising the Vatican for releasing the findings of the McCarrick report, survivors say more must be done.

"In many ways, this is an impressive report—the Vatican's first forthright account of its own cover-up of a sexual predator,"Barrett Doyle, said in a statement.

"Today's presentation of Pope John Paul II's culpability in the McCarrick cover-up is particularly important."

However, Barrett Doyle does not let Pope Francis off.

In the statement, she wrote Pope Francis was "negligent" or even "corrupt" because he failed to investigate the rumours surrounding McCarrick.

"Plausible deniability must end for popes and bishops," she wrote.

"They are responsible for proactively reading the abuse files, and for correcting the negligent or complicit acts of their predecessors."

Though back in 2013 Francis was vaguely aware of rumours of sexual misconduct against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Vatican report says Francis believed his two predecessors had properly handled the matter and that there was no need to revisit the claims.

According to the report, Francis was under the impression that the allegations had been "reviewed and rejected by Pope John Paul II," as evidenced by then-Cardinal McCarrick's robust public schedule during the papacy of Benedict XVI.

It was Francis' presumption that John Paul II, a man so morally strict and with such moral rectitude would never have permitted 'a rotten candidate' to proceed so he did not see the need to alter the approach that had been adopted in prior years, the reports says.

Fr Boniface Ramsey was the first person to blow the whistle on McCarrick who at the time was a towering figure in the American Church.

Ramsay does not go as far as Barret Doyle and says he believes he is finally seeing justice in a lengthy report detailing how his former boss was able to climb the ecclesial ladder despite rumours of sexual misconduct.

"In a mild sort of way, I feel vindicated," Ramsey told Crux.

"McCarrick was in and out of my consciousness for more than 30 years. I was outraged by him. He wasn't always at the top of my mind, I wasn't always thinking about McCarrick, he wasn't an obsession for me, but every now and then he would come up and do something that angered me," the priest said.

However, James Grein, a Virginia man who accuses former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of sexually abusing him says the abuse he experienced for two decades beginning as a boy was "incredibly heinous" and will hurt "forever."

"How they could ever repair my damage," he adds, "I don't know."

Grein says he finds some comfort in the report but wants a public apology.

Another survivor, John Bellocchio called the report "a very emotional read."

"It was very emotional because there were so many opportunities to stop him. So many opportunities to stop him. And maybe my life would be different, maybe I wouldn't be a victim if someone had," he said.

Bellocchio sued both McCarrick and the Holy See, alleging the prelate abused him in the 1990s when he was a teenager.

In interviews with The Associated Press, he and others demanded that the Vatican institute changes to ensure nothing like what was described in Tuesday's extraordinary report can happen again.

Pope Francis, Thursday, pledged to rid the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offered prayers to victims of Theodore McCarrick.

"I renew my closeness to victims of any abuse and commitment of the church to eradicate this evil," Francis said. He then paused silently for a minute in prayer.

Sources

• America
• AP News
• Crux
• LA Times