Quote of the Day

. . . [I]n St. Paul, Minnesota, my hometown, there is Archbishop John Nienstedt, waging a nasty personal-patriarchal crusade against [civil] gay [marriage], spearheading the production and distribution of 400,000 copies of a DVD on why Catholics should stand against same-sex marriage.

. . . City Pages, a Twin Cities alt-weekly newspaper (with an estimated readership of more than 300,000) recently featured a caricature of Nienstedt on a cover – in 12th century Crusader knight regalia, brandishing a sword, a cross-embossed shield and a death-ray gaze. . . . The name Nienstedt, which translated is something like "no town," could perhaps be more liberally rendered as "nowhere." Thus, I'd like to suggest that the title "Nowhere Man" is as fitting as "Crusader" for the Archbishop and could perhaps be added to his titles. From Rome to Russia to the Nuns on the Bus, the celebration of protest and the shock of scandalous revelation on world-wide questions of human rights, gender equality, institutional hypocrisy and corruption – and the dying off of the Old Guard in all its forms – leaves one struggling to imagine how lonely it must be out there on that mountain of unwatched . . . DVDs. (A local artist made a sculpture of several thousand of the rejected disks).

Introibo et altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. "I go unto the altar of God, unto God, who is the joy of my youth." I don't go to the Nowhere Man – I go to my own idea of the deity, and he isn't up on a mountain, flinging DVDs at a frightened flock below. He's the joy of youth, he (or she) is celebrating joy of love in all its forms and functions – since there is so little of it in this world, Nowhere Man, so little indeed.

– Carol Muske-Dukes
"Nowhere Man"
Huff Post Religion
August 22, 2012

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Coadjutor Archbishop Nienstedt's "Learning Curve": A Suggested Trajectory
Interesting Times Ahead
An Open Letter to Archbishop Nienstedt
Nienstedt's "Trauma of His Own"
300+ People Vigil at the Cathedral in Solidarity with LGBT Catholics
Why We Gathered
The Talk of the Archdiocese
Thoughts on Archbishop Nienstedt
Archbishop Nienstedt Calls (Again) for a Marriage Amendment to Minnesota's Constitution
It's a Scandal
Pastor Mike Tegeder Challenges Archbishop Nienstedt's "Bullying Behavior"
Progressive Perspectives on Archbishop Nienstedt's Anti-Gay Activism
A Head and Heart Response to the Catholic Hierarchy's Opposition to Marriage Equality
Quote of the Day – January 3, 2012
PCV Publishes Archbishop Nienstedt's Marriage Amendment Directives to Priests
Media Matters
Palm Sunday at the Chancery
A Catholic Rationale for Opposing the 'Marriage Amendment'
Casey Michel on Archbishop Nienstedt's "Crusade Against Gay Marriage"