Diocese Rejects Ex-Bonita Springs Pastor's Resignation

By Lindsay Downey
The News-Press
April 26, 2012

http://www.news-press.com/article/20120427/NEWS0102/304270039/Diocese-rejects-ex-Bonita-Springs-pastor-s-resignation

The Diocese of Venice has rejected a St. Leo Catholic Church former pastor's resignation from the priesthood as it moves forward with a trial that accuses him of violations of obedience, celibacy and financial responsibility.

"No priest is able to renounce the Sacrament of Holy Orders or depart from the clerical state under his own volition," the diocese Thursday said in a statement.

The Rev. Stan Strycharz submitted his resignation to the diocese April 20, three days before the start of his trial under canon law, or mandates of the Catholic Church, diocese spokesman Billy Atwell said.

The former pastor of the Bonita Springs church has not appeared at his trial as requested by the diocese and dismissed a canonical advocate appointed to defend him, Atwell said.

"We are left to speculate as to why only after the evidence was produced and the trial was to open that Father Strycharz would attempt to resign, especially given his continued claims of innocence," the diocese statement said.

Strycharz, who is working as a psychologist in Bonita Springs, did not return a call to his office Thursday afternoon. Otis Wragg, a spokesman for Save the Southwest Florida Diocese, a group that supports Strycharz, declined to comment on the priest's resignation.

But Ed Fitzgerald, a St. Leo parishioner of more than 10 years, called the rejection of Strycharz's resignation "nonsense." Fitzgerald said he has spoken with St. Leo's current pastor during confession about his inability to forgive Bishop Frank Dewane, the spiritual leader of the diocese.

"I have no respect for the man to start with," Fitzgerald said. "He won't even let (Strycharz) resign in dignity. It's a personality clash. I hate to say a bishop could hate a person, but that's how I feel."

Dewane placed Strycharz on administrative leave in July 2010, after the diocese alleged the priest misused roughly $1 million in church funds.

The Financial Valuation Group of Fort Lauderdale, hired by Save the Southwest Florida Diocese, and the local firm Larson Allen, which completed an audit for the diocese, both found no misappropriation of funds but pointed out a lack of documentation and poor bookkeeping.

Strycharz and the diocese also have clashed over the bishop's orders to fire the church's music director in 2008, as well as the revelation that Strycharz has fathered a daughter.

The failure of leaders to accept resignation from the priesthood is nothing new, said Ellen McNally, head of the Southwest Florida chapter of the Catholic group Call to Action, which advocates for optional celibacy for priests, the ordination of women and more inclusion by Catholic laity in the decision-making process.

McNally said she's known many leaders who have abandoned the priesthood, often because they no longer wished to be celibate.

"Some have gotten permission from Rome, but some gave up on it and just left," said McNally, who estimated about 50 priests in Fort Myers have resigned, often because they wanted to enter a relationship.

McNally's husband, a former Omaha, Neb., priest, left his position in 1972 so they could marry, she said. He received a dispensation from Rome but during other eras — such as under Pope John Paul II's tenure, which spanned from 1978 to 2005 — the Vatican would not allow priests to resign, McNally said.

Strycharz's trial could last months as three canon law experts from outside of the diocese evaluate evidence against him to determine whether he broke Catholic codes. Dewane is excluded from the trial "to preserve impartiality in the process," Atwell said.

The judges could issue varying degrees of suspension, acquittal or defrocking, Atwell said.

Regardless of the outcome, supporters such as Fitzgerald and McNally say St. Leo remains scarred, and they are saddened by Strycharz's resignation.

"I feel very bad that we've lost a good priest because of Bishop Dewane's stubbornness," McNally said.

To repair damage to the Catholic Church caused by such controversies, it would need to "fire 95 percent of the bishops and start over," McNally said.

"But there are enough of us who are not leaving the church," she said. "We're staying here and pushing forward. If the hierarchy won't do it, the lower-archy will."