Archbishop John Nienstedt will not Resign

Archbishop John Nienstedt, head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said that regardless of the sexual misconduct claims, he's staying put.

Here's more:

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Archbishop John Nienstedt said Wednesday that he doesn't believe he has mismanaged the scandal. He said he was shown memos about problem priests, but didn't fully grasp the scope of the troubles until last fall, after a former archdiocese employee went public with her concerns.

"In a sense, you could say that I didn't see the forest through the trees," Nienstedt said. "I saw the trees on a day-to-day basis. But when everything started coming out in October, whoa, Nelly, I just wasn't aware that there was the kind of breadth to the whole thing — which surprised me and kind of sickened me."

Nienstedt has been under pressure since his top adviser on church law, Jennifer Haselberger, resigned last year and publicly accused church leaders of mishandling several cases. Haselberger said she tried to ring alarm bells about recent troubling behavior by two priests but that she felt ignored. Now, the church faces a public nuisance lawsuit that has forced painful revelations and the disclosures of names of dozens of accused priests. The archbishop himself has been the subject of internal and police investigations into alleged sexual misconduct, which he has forcefully denied and did so again Wednesday.

Some Catholics and several newspapers have called for Nienstedt to resign. He publicly addressed those in a column published Thursday in The Catholic Spirit, the archdiocese's newspaper.

"I am bound to continue in my office as long as the Holy Father has appointed me here. I have acknowledged my responsibility in the current crisis we face, and I also take responsibility for leading our archdiocese to a new and better day," he wrote.

Really, Johnny? Take off the hat and dress, and resign!

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