Catholic 'town meeting' in Bennington next Monday

By Mark Rondeau
BenningtBanner
January 21, 2019

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Diocese of Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne during a visit to Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales Church in March 2015.

Diocese of Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne with a youth group during a visit to Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales Church in March 2015.

Diocese of Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne.

Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales Church will be the site on Monday, Jan. 28, of one of six Catholic "town meetings" to be held around Vermont this month.

The meetings will feature Diocese of Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne. This is part of an overall effort to improve communications within the diocese, which encompasses all of Vermont.

The church is located at 238 Main St. The meeting will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Catholics and anyone else interested may attend.

"I think it's wonderful to have the bishop coming down here to have a town hall meeting and talk to the parishioners," said the Rev. Bob Wiseman, C.S.C., pastor of Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales and St. John the Baptist Church in North Bennington. "We're three hours from the headquarters, but the fact he's committing to an hour and a half with the parish, asking questions and answering questions, I think that's very positive."

Coyne announced the town meetings in a Jan. 2 letter to the diocese.

"When I returned from the U.S. bishop's meeting in November, I felt it was important to establish better two-way communication with people in the pews," Coyne wrote. "Because of my schedule, it took a while to plan these meetings in easily accessible locations around the state, but now I am ready to listen and respond to concerns and questions from the Catholic community. I think it so important to be as open and transparent about all matters as much as possible."

On Jan. 10, St. Marys Church in St. Albans hosted the first town hall meeting with Bishop Coyne. More than 70 people attended the 90-minute meeting, according to the Vermont Catholic, an official publication of the Diocese of Burlington.

Coyne listened to the numerous concerns of attendees and gave updates on the financial condition of the diocese, efforts to respond to the sexual abuse crisis and results of the concluding diocesan synod process of input, consultation and planning for the future.

On finances, the Diocese of Burlington is only one of two dioceses to receive a perfect score in terms of financial transparency in a nationwide survey, Coyne said.

Regarding abuse, a committee of seven lay men and women is currently reviewing all diocesan personnel files that contain a credible accusation of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy, with the goal of publishing the names of priest-abusers. The reviewers are reading the files from cover to cover, Coyne said in the Jan. 2 letter announcing the meetings.

"We are cooperating with authorities and have a zero-tolerance policy in place regarding allegations of sex abuse against minors. Any allegation we receive is reported to the authorities," Coyne said at the St. Albans meeting. "There are no priests in ministry today with an allegation against a minor and, since 2002, when we adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, there has been only one allegation, which was not substantiated."

Sites for the meeting were chosen for ease of access and not intended to break the diocese down into geographic districts, Coyne said.

Besides Bennington on Jan. 28, the remaining meetings were to be held today, Tuesday, at Holy Family Church in Essex Junction; Wednesday at St. Theresa Church in Orleans; Jan. 29 at Christ the King Church in Rutland and Jan. 31 at St. John Vianney Church in South Burlington.

In January 2015, Coyne became bishop of the Diocese of Burlington. Before that he had been an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Originally from Woburn, Mass., he first served as a parish priest in the archdiocese of Boston.

Coyne honed this communications skills during a very difficult time for the Boston archdiocese as it dealt with the fallout. from revelations of decades of sexual abuse and coverup. He served as secretary of communications/principal spokesman for that archdiocese from 2002 to 2005, at the end of the tenure of Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned, and the first years of Archbishop and now Cardinal Sean O'Malley.

"The operative frame for our discussion at the town meeting should be Christian charity and respectful listening focused on promoting the work of salvation in and through the Church," Coyne said in his letter announcing the meetings.

"I think this bishop is very concerned about communications," Wiseman said. "He will try to give us the state of diocese. The bad news is we had all this abuse stuff that was out there in the news. I think the good news is that he wants to say the church is still alive and active and doing well."

Wiseman said he hopes the forward movement will continue under the auspices of Pope Francis, who became pope in March 2013.

"As a matter of fact, this is the beginning of the sixth year for Francis, and this is the beginning of my sixth year (in Bennington)," he said. "I arrived about a week before Francis became pope, and I've been very hopeful ever since he became pope."