A rider at sundown (PATRICK PLEUL/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)
Church's pledge of transparency unfulfilled in +Hoeppner case By Christopher R. Altieri The former bishop of Crookston, Michael J. Hoeppner, resigned his see at Pope Francis’s request after an investigation into claims Hoeppner “had intentionally interfered with or avoided a canonical or civil investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.” There is no official word on the specifics of that alleged coverup. Neither the Vatican nor the local jurisdictions involved have published the investigation reports. No Church official has said whether Bishop Hoeppner faced formal charges. No Church official has said whether he received a trial or other canonical process. Repeated inquiries from the Catholic Herald to official sources in the Vatican, in Crookston, and in St. Paul-Minneapolis – the metropolitan see of which Crookston is suffragan – regarding those matters and Bishop Hoeppner’s current status, have gone several days without reply, and occasionally without acknowledgment.
