Sister Maureen nabs a Spotty

I was thinking of writing a post about Archbishop John Nienstedt’s thuggery in trying to recover attorneys’ fees in a case that was dismissed, not because it lacked merit, but because the statute of limitations had run. But Sister Maureen beat me to it:

When will the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States start doing the morally right thing for the morally right reason?

Not soon enough in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, apparently.

It was unconscionable for this diocese to initiate legal proceedings to compel a credible victim/survivor of sexual abuse by a priest to pay $64,000 in legal expenses ("Archdiocese drops claim for fees," Dec. 1).

It is not as if the Ramsey County judge dismissed the case because of lack of evidence. It was because the statute of limitation had expired.

I find it morally reprehensible that Archbishop John C. Nienstedt allowed this to get so out of hand.

Have the bishops learned so little since the 1980s and the tragic events in the diocese of Lafayette, La.?

SISTER MAUREEN PAUL TURLISH, NEW CASTLE, DEL.

Sigh. And did a better job than I would have, too. I am pretty sure that Sister Maureen is the first Catholic nun to win the coveted Spotty™. It’s a courageous letter.

Remember, boys and girls, a Spotty™ is awarded to the author of an op-ed piece, a letter to the editor, a blog post or a blog comment that Spot wishes he had written himself.