UNITED STATES
Room with a Pew
Paul Fericano
“Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.”
–Oliver Goldsmith
An alarming and all-too-familiar issue within the Catholic church has been the question of problem priests: seriously troubled men who are put in charge of parishes where they ride roughshod over the laity. Last month I wrote two separate letters on behalf of parishioners of Saints Simon and Jude church (SSJ), a Franciscan parish in Huntington Beach, California. In both letters, the subject focused on documented grievances of parishioners who spoke of being emotionally and psychologically abused by their current pastor. My first letter was privately addressed to the Franciscan leadership of the Province of Saint Barbara, a governing body of elected friars, with a copy sent to the Franciscan minister general in Rome. My second letter was a public letter directed at members of the various staff, councils, boards and commissions of SSJ, and copied to the bishops of the Diocese of Orange, California.
What has been most upsetting and heartbreaking about the SSJ situation is that this is a parish that has suffered greatly in the past from the fallout of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Many parishioners and former parishioners are still feeling the effects of that betrayal. A previous associate pastor of SSJ, (former friar) Gus Krumm, a charismatic and much favored priest, was eventually exposed as a perpetrator who allegedly molested several young boys over the course of many years. When friar Michael Harvey replaced friar Larry Dolan as pastor in 2001, there was virtually no parish outreach at SSJ regarding this issue. Harvey was reassigned to Portland in 2012, but during his long tenure at SSJ he helped bring about a certain measure of understanding and healing in the parish by encouraging dialogue and discussions. Although he had his missteps, his pastoral approach was largely responsible for helping many parishioners deal with the crisis honestly, stay with the Catholic church and reconnect with the Franciscans.
Like all things that seem to emanate from the strange universe occupied by the current leadership of the Franciscan Province of Saint Barbara, a decision was made to replace Harvey with friar Dan Barica, a priest with a troubled past. As pastor of Mission Santa Barbara (ground zero for the sex abuse scandal), Barica made no secret of his belief that the clergy abuse problem was exaggerated and that the spotlight on the sexual abuse of minors by Franciscans was far too bright. Barica went so far as to lecture Mission parishioners about putting the issue behind them and moving on–something, apparently, he himself had done.
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