In April, Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., was questioned before a Ramsey County court in a case related to a priest’s alleged sexual abuse, but the four-hour deposition ended when he left “abruptly” and “heatedly,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Nienstedt has been under public scrutiny in an investigation by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) into the arch-diocese’s procedures for monitoring and reporting clergy sexual abuse. In March, the archdiocese was instructed to release 60,000 pages of documents to a district court. Jeff Anderson, attorney for the alleged victim, said that Nienstedt and his attorneys walked out of the deposition after refusing to deliver all of the designated files. Anderson pointed out that Nienstedt’s appearance was “a giant move” forward because it was the first time the archbishop had testified under oath about sexual abuse in the archdiocese.

Former chancellor of canonical affairs for the archdiocese, Jennifer Haselberger, described Nienstedt’s pattern of ignoring information about priests’ problematic sexual behavior. In one egregious case, Haselberger warned archdiocesan officials that Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer was known to have solicited sex from two young men. Nienstedt chose to ignore this warning and appointed Wehmeyer to pastor positions at two parishes soon after. St. Paul police told MPR that in 2012 the archdiocese waited for several days to contact police regarding a mother’s allegations that her two sons may have been abused by Wehmeyer, charges for which he was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail in 2013. An audit discovered covert bookkeeping practices under both Nienstedt and his predecessor, Archbishop Harry Flynn, which paid problem priests to quietly leave active ministry—and also created the opportunity for an archdiocesan employee to embezzle more than $650,000.

As late as October 2013, the archbishop maintained to MPR that “anyone who is a known danger to a minor or vulnerable adult is immediately removed from ministry and investigated.” In December, he said in a homily that he had “overlooked” the ongoing sexual abuse crisis in the archdiocese, and “I should have investigated it more than I did.” Some voices in the archdiocese have called for Nienstedt to resign, including Rev. Bill Deziel, pastor of the Church of St. Peter, who wrote in his parish bulletin in favor of a “do-over with our archdiocesan leadership.”