Who is Archbishop John Nienstedt?

We here in the Archdiocese of St. Paul will soon have a new Archbishop. So I thought it might be a good idea to find out a little bit about the man before he replaces our current Archbishop Harry Flynn next year.

The local media has already pegged Nienstedt as 'Conservative'. Not that I fault the media for being ignorant or just plain lazy or both, but that label is simply not appropriate for a variety of reasons that I will get into in a moment.

This is a perfect opportunity to show how the media is completely incapable of thinking and I need to spend a moment dissecting it. You see the media has these square holes that are the templates to which they create stories and they shove each and every peg they can find regardless of whether it is round, triangle, square or otherwise into that same hole.

Take the title of this Star Tribune article: Archbishop-elect John Nienstedt: 'I do not come as a politician but as a priest...'
Who ever heard of an Archbishop-elect? Bishops are not elected they are appointed! The proper title is Coadjutor John Nienstedt. This is simply laughable coming from the Star Trib's 'religion' correspondent. But they have this square hole and...

Now you can start see why they label Nienstedt as conservative. Later in that same article the Tribune tries to explain why they are justified in painting him in such a manner:

All Roman Catholic bishops are expected to support church doctrine. But the
issues they emphasize lead observers to characterize them as conservative,
moderate or liberal.

Here is the key phrase: the issues they emphasize. But if you keep reading the article that's not really what they mean. what they really mean is the issues they don't emphasize:

Flynn has been considered moderate by Catholic standards. For instance, although
in 2005 he advised parishes to deny communion to worshipers wearing rainbow
sashes, a symbol of support for gay rights, he did not punish a parish that
defied him

Here we come down to the crux of the issue with the Star Trib. If a bishop supports church doctrine he is conservative and if he does nothing (or close to nothing) he is liberal. I would argue that the correct terminology would be Orthodox and Heterodox (or for those of you a little weaker in the stomach: Less Orthodox). I would even prefer something like 'Active' vs. 'Passive' (as this seems to be what the Star Trib really means) or even 'Strict' vs 'Lenient'. Also the examples the Tribune uses to site Nienstedt's 'conservatism' do not even include any punishment so exactly what criteria the Tribune is using remains unclear.

In any case, the terms 'conservative' and 'liberal' are political terms, and based on politics alone Nienstedt is certainly not a conservative. One only needs to spend a few minutes reading the current Diocese of New Ulm (His current seat) page on him to discover some of his more liberal political leanings:

• He joined the lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Minnesota's Concealed Carry law
• He leans to the left on Illegal Immigration
• He signed on with the rest of the Minnesota Bishops supporting legislation that would attempt to mitigate Global Warming
• although I could not find specific examples, by reading between the lines all indications are he leans to the left on minimum wage, affordable housing, universal health care, welfare etc.

While I may disagree with our new Coadjutor over many of these issues, they are political issues about which he is free to come to his own prudential judgement and still be well within the bounds orthodoxy. Conservatism and Orthodoxy are not the same thing as the Star Tribune would have us believe. Every indication I have seen indicates Archbishop Nienstedt as being 100% faithful to the Magisterium of the Church (read: orthodox) and is vociferously outspoken about it. Every Catholic in the diocese should welcome with open arms an orthodox Catholic as our Archbishop. I for one hope that his zeal for the Truth will inspire him to reign in some of the abuses that have gone on far to long in this diocese (e.g. general absolution). When we have an 'active' bishop that will stand up for orthodox positions we will be less likely to end up with problems like the rainbow sash movement which was a direct result of a 'passive' bishop.

If you happen to be catholic and are dreading the arrival of an orthodox bishop then I have to question what you believe it means to be Catholic in the first place.

Welcome to the Twin Cities Archbishop Nienstedt!