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  Dislocation, Scrutiny of Priests Raise Fears
Archdiocese Denies Politics behind Moves

By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe [Boston MA]
October 2, 2005

The many supporters of the Rev. Walter H. Cuenin long feared that archdiocesan officials would find a way to remove him as pastor of his Newton parish: There was his embrace of divorced Catholics and gays and lesbians, his emphasis on finding prominent roles for women, his sharp critique of the church hierarchy's handling of sexual abuse, and his activism in pulling together priests to call for the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

But last week, the archdiocese ousted Cuenin not over a doctrinal or theological matter, but for alleged financial wrongdoing: accepting from his parish a leased Honda Accord and a $500 monthly stipend.

The forced resignation of Cuenin has heightened fears among many Catholics that the archdiocese, led by Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley but overseen on a daily basis by aides held over from Law's administration, is slowly purging from public ministry priests who are viewed as troublemakers.

Multiple interviews with priests, diocesan officials, and laypeople found no evidence for the most explosive allegation against O'Malley, that he is systematically removing from public ministry those priests who joined the history-making effort to force Law's resignation in December 2002.

But the interviews make clear that O'Malley is overseeing the largest dislocation of priests in archdiocesan history and that his administration is subjecting priests to an unprecedented level of scrutiny, accompanied by explicit or implicit threats of discipline.

They also make it clear that the twin efforts to close parishes and reform the archdiocese's historically weak management have allowed O'Malley's administration to eliminate that small subset of Law's critics who have been most willing to talk with their parishioners and, in some cases, with reporters about disagreements with diocesan officials.

By the archdiocese's own calculations, 66 priests lost their posts as a result of parish closings since last summer, and just 33 of them are now serving as pastors. Most of the others have either retired, are on leave, or are simply not assigned to a new parish.

The archdiocese has recently begun conducting more regular and, in some cases, unscheduled financial audits of parishes. Several priests said the archdiocese has been warning priests that it intends to turn over problematic findings to the attorney general for possible prosecution.

The parish closings and the audits follow the sexual abuse crisis, which led to removal from ministry of dozens of archdiocesan priests, some of whom have been on administrative leave for as long as three years with no determination by the church of the credibility of the accusations.

The archdiocese has also begun trying to reduce the number of inactive priests, men who stopped working as priests years ago, by sending out letters asking that they return to duty or seek voluntary laicization.

The Globe has spoken with two inactive priests who said they have been suspended by the archdiocese. One of the priests had been officiating at same-sex civil unions in Vermont, and one had officiated at same-sex weddings in Massachusetts.

Now the Vatican has begun looking for evidence of homosexuality in seminaries and is preparing to issue a document reiterating a ban on the admission of gay men to seminaries, moves troubling to the some of the many gay men serving in the priesthood.

The archdiocese denies that politics have played any role in its personnel actions, particularly its handling of the 58 priests who signed the letter calling on Law to resign. Four days after they issued the letter, Law stepped down.

"The archbishop has long expressed that we should not hold any negative feelings against those priests who signed the Law letter, nor against those who have been critical of the church in general," said archdiocesan spokesman Terrence C. Donilon. "From a personal perspective, the archbishop is incapable of holding grudges and looking for retribution. It simply goes against everything he stands for and represents. He believes we are only going to repair the church of Boston with a shared and common commitment from priests, the laity, and others in these difficult days."

But many simply do not believe that.

"I don't buy that they're systematically after the 58 guys; in fact I think that there are some of the 58 that won't be touched," said the Rev. Thomas A. Mahoney, the chairman of the board of the Boston Priests Forum, a group that has attempted to represent the interests of local priests.

"But I do think there are people being targeted: those who haven't capitulated to the desires of the diocese . . . starting with gay marriage and reconfiguration," Mahoney said. "It's whether you're willing to play along or not. Basically, there's an atmosphere that's one of intimidation: It's expected that you will be loyal, and, if you're not, you're a dissident and you're a target."

Several priests reinforced that sense of a climate of fear.

"The morale is very low among priests, and we all feel that we're made suspect by anything we've done and anything we do, by the chancery," said the Rev. John W. Gentleman, one of two priests who oversee Holy Family parish in Amesbury.

Reform advocates are horrified by what they perceive to be a purge of open-minded clergy.

"Actions such as we are witnessing in the Catholic Church today lead me to wonder whether we are becoming a church of darkness that is characterized by fear, repression, and persecution, instead of a church of light, characterized by tolerance, charity, and justice," said James E. Post, the president of Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform organization supported by Cuenin and other ousted priests.

And Peter Borre, chairman of the Council of Parishes, an organization representing parishioners opposed to some of parish closings, decried "a stealthy campaign of retaliation" and accused the archdiocese of maintaining a "hit list against its own clergy."

The overwhelming majority of the 58 signers appear to have suffered no negative career impact as a result of signing the letter; many were essentially immune to punishment because they were retired, belong to religious orders, or work in academia.

Over the last week, 19 of the signers, including several who have gone through assignment transfers or parish closings, told the Globe they had experienced no negative repercussions. Two said they had been approved for membership on the presbyteral council, which advises O'Malley, and one said that he had met several times with O'Malley and that the archbishop had never raised the subject.

"Perhaps I am na?ve, but it seems to me that the fellows who are being persecuted have issues of the present moment to deal with," the Rev. William G. Williams, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption in Hull, said in an e-mail.

Another signer, the Rev. Frank J. Silva, pastor of St. Ann Church in Wayland, wrote in an e-mail that "I can definitively state that there have been no repercussions whatsoever." He said he views as "complete nonsense" suggestions that disciplinary actions against priests are motivated by their role in the letter.

The archdiocese has not publicly cited theological or doctrinal issues in the disciplining of a priest since 2000, when Law's administration helped engineer the transfer of a Jesuit priest who allowed an elderly nun to help baptize the adopted child of a gay male couple. But in at least four cases in the last two years, the archdiocese has cited other reasons for ousting from public ministry priests who have been at odds with the administration.

In 2003, the archdiocese cited alleged financial misconduct in removing Monsignor Michael F. Groden, the only monsignor to sign the letter seeking Law's resignation, as pastor of St. Cecilia Church in Boston's Back Bay.

Last year, the archdiocese closed St. Albert the Great Church in Weymouth, ousting as pastor the Rev. Ron Coyne, long a bugaboo of conservatives because of his liturgical innovations and liberal views. Protests forced the archdiocese to reopen the church, but the archdiocese did not reinstate him.

Also last year, O'Malley demanded the resignation of the Rev. Robert J. Bowers, whom the archbishop had privately derided as a "media darling," as pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Charlestown. Bowers, who had been critical of diocesan leadership, resigned as part of a deal to keep open his parish.

O'Malley declined to reassign Bowers as a pastor. According to Bowers, when the priest then asked the diocese to support his application for a chaplaincy job at his alma mater -- Boston College, which had given him an honorary degree in 2002 -- several priests suddenly went to the college administration to suggest that Bowers not be hired.

But it is the ouster of Cuenin from Our Lady Help of Christians Parish that has galvanized concern among archdiocesan critics. His supporters pointed out that Cuenin's alleged misdeeds, although apparently a violation of an archdiocesan policy that says priests should receive a stipend of no more than $5 per Mass, comes in a context of an archdiocese with historically loose parish financial controls and in which some priests have simply been given envelopes of cash by their parishes as compensation for saying Mass.

None of the four outspoken priests who lost their positions as pastor is assigned to a parish. Coyne, who could not be reached for comment, is a rarely used member of a team of priests that is supposed to fill in for vacationing clergy; Cuenin, who declined to comment, is taking a leave of absence; Groden, who did not respond to a request for comment, is working on affordable housing development for the AFL-CIO. Bowers is looking for pastoral work and is raising money for the Chernobyl Children Project USA.

"The events happening to me are unusual, the near closing of my parish, the loss of my assignment, the rapidness of the decision for me to move, with no attempt to work with me to find an agreeable way to move on, it was more like a punishment," Bowers said.

"It seems to me like a gross misuse of your resources to let people like me and Ron Coyne and Walter Cuenin go. It's beyond my comprehension, and it looks to me like the church is being destroyed," he said.

 
 

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