Nienstedt was named the third Bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota, on June 12, 2001, and was installed on August 6. He denounced the more progressive views of his predecessor, Raymond Lucker, told Catholics not to read Lucker's book as representing Catholic doctrine, and asked the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to assess the validity of his views. Discussing the Terri Schiavo case, he stated, "Her case demonstrates the disparity that exists in this country between laws and basic moral principles. While we cannot legislate morality, we ought not to be legislating immorality." He warned that the film "Brokeback Mountain" was part of the agenda that "severs the connection between marriage and gender". He summarized the plot–"one man makes a pass at the other and within seconds the latter mounts the former in an act of wanton anal sex"–and called it "a story of lust gone bad".