BISHOP BARRON: Minnesota’s crises demand real change, not more division

Minnesota bishop addresses dual crises facing the state: massive public fraud allegedly siphoning hundreds of millions and violent ICE enforcement clashes.

Bishop Barron leads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and is founder of the ministerial organization Word on Fire. Follow: @BishopBarron

It appears certain that hundreds of millions of dollars have been siphoned from the taxpayers of Minnesota through one of the greatest public frauds ever perpetrated in our country. Enormous amounts of money were directed to phony front organizations and then to fraudsters both inside Minnesota and outside the country. One of the most disturbing features of this episode is that a journalist, Christopher F. Rufo, and Nick Shirley, an independent investigative reporter, broke the case by doing what ordinary inspectors and public officials in the state should have been doing for years: simply verifying where the money was going.