"There's an enormous trust gap in the Catholic Church..." - Saturday's MPLS Strib, Letter to the Editor.
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Blogs are the new Letters to the Editor - you can quote me. I used to write letters to editors and was always so proud when they were published - and I knew people read them because I usually got in trouble with my religious friends who were surprised I could think for myself. Nothing has changed much with my blog - but one must realize that most blogs, and especially mine, are simply personal opinion.
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Saturday's Star-Tribune editorial page carried a few letters responding to events that took place recently in the Archdiocese of MPLS/STP: The Wenthe case and the Tegeder case. As my readers know, Wenthe did the dirty dirty with a vulnerable adult female penitent of his, and Tegeder permitted a 'just-as-well-educated-as-a-priest' lay-woman to preach during one of his weekend Masses. Fr. Z has some good coverage on the Tegeder mis-step.
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Tegeder himself made his feelings known on the editorial page of the Star-Tribune. He was addressing the Wenthe sexual abuse scandal, and the young priest's reassignment after mandatory counselling. Fr. Tegeder said, "I'm so ashamed this abuse took place, and my heart goes out to the victim." He points the finger at diocesan authorities for glancing over the Wenthe sins and giving him a parish after 'treatment'. Tegeder has a point. There will always be mistakes made in ministerial and pastoral assignments - hopefully everyone can learn from this one. In the meantime, Fr. Tegeder seems to have found a way to publicly get back at an Archbishop many of the liberals dislike.
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My issue with the personnel board of this archdiocese has more to do with why recalcitrant 'tenured' priests like Tegeder and Tibesar even keep their jobs?
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As for the enormous trust gap in the Catholic Church - that depends on where one puts ones faith - I returned to the Church and sacraments when Tegeder and Tibesar and their liberal buddies were running things - those were the days when the Blessed Sacrament might be found in a janitor's closet.
