What would you do if you just discovered the highest-ranking leaders of an organization you thoroughly believe in have for almost 30 years misled everyone to cover up crimes of their front-line leaders?

Catholics across Minnesota — along with the Vatican and even Pope Francis — need to be asking themselves that question about the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul in the wake of astounding news reports this month from Minnesota Public Radio.

Yes, astounding.

“Betrayed by Silence” uses online reports and a radio documentary to detail how three archbishops — John Roach, Harry Flynn and now John Nienstedt — consistently told the public they were resolving clergy sex abuse while essentially doing the opposite.

As a five-part report posted Monday shows, all three leaders routinely found ways to cover up, discredit and ignore an ever-growing number of cases against priests they supervised.

From Roach’s early ignorance of the scandal in the 1980s through Flynn’s misleading national reputation as a healer to Nienstedt’s feeble claim about no knowledge of the cover-up as recently as last fall, MPR cites a litany of internal memos, secret agreements and individual interviews to yield one undeniable conclusion:

These bishops and the archdiocese’s top leaders knew for decades about abusive priests, but they seldom followed church protocol (in large part developed by Flynn) to confront them.

Instead, they adhered to a well-established pattern of deception, intimidation and silence, which allowed more abuse to occur, while giving the public the perception they had the problems under control.

Flynn and Nienstedt’s roles were especially egregious. Flynn developed a national reputation as a “healer” built from supposedly counseling victims in Louisiana. The problem? He never talked to many victims there. Still, he rode those uncredible credentials to become archbishop in Minnesota, where for years he continued the cover-up, essentially ignoring the protocols he helped create.

As for Nienstedt, his credibility continues to unravel as more files show he knew about the coverup but did nothing until a church lawyer finally went to MPR with files proving Catholics have indeed been “Betrayed by Silence.”

From the local parish council to Pope Francis, Catholics now know the extent of this betrayal. Will they demand it end? Or stay silent?

— St. Cloud Times, July 24