News Release #352

Statement of The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt, Bishop of New Ulm, on gun control legislation

New Ulm, MN - The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, together with other Minnesota Catholic bishops, voted on Wednesday, June 4 to join the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted legislation making it easier to carry handguns in Minnesota. The vote came as the bishops convened for their quarterly meeting as the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC). The MCC represents the Catholic Church in Minnesota on public policy matters.

Joining Edina Community Lutheran Church and others as

plaintiffs, will be the Minnesota Catholic Conference for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Dioceses of Crookston, Duluth, New Ulm, St. Cloud and Winona. The suite has been filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by Attorney David Lillehaug of the Law Firm of Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis.

Following is Bishop John C. Nienstedt's statement in regard to this issue:

"The reason I voted with the Roman Catholic Bishops of the State of Minnesota to join the lawsuit initiated by the Edina Community Lutheran Church was two-fold:

"First of all, I am greatly concerned about the common good of our local communities where there are ever increasing reports of brutal incidents of violence and the reckless disregard for human life. We are quickly becoming a culture of violence and this poses a lasting threat to the well-being of our children and young people. We ought to be teaching one another how to live together in harmony, rather than making self-defense our first and most pronounced priority.

"Secondly, the new legislation does not respect the right of churches to be sanctuaries where weapons are not appropriate. The present law is a burden to our exercise of religious belief, it mandates how we must communicate any prohibition of fire-arms, it also in effect mandates how we greet incoming worshippers and prevents us from disallowing firearms in our church parking lots.

"Imagine your reaction when approaching a church on Sunday to be greeted not with "Hello, welcome to St. Mary's, peace be with you" but "Hello, St. Mary's Church does not permit you to carry a gun on these premises." Somehow the whole atmosphere is altered by this requirement.

"In effect, I believe that the new legislation violates the constitutional rights of our church communities to worship freely. I believe that the lawsuit is a necessary action to protect those rights."