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Date:   Tue Jan 28 08:39:45 2003

 Do we want to stay with the Church?

Is this the kind of "parish participation" that David Zizik, Mary Jo Bane,

Fr. Robert Bullock and Fr. Walter Cuenin want?

Does the planned Feb. 9 "Parish Town Meeting" for Our Lady Help of Christians parish by Fr. Walter Cuenin fulfill the desires of the Parish Leadership Forum that is being developed by David Zizik, Mary Jo Bane, and company, together with Fr. Robert Bullock,pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows parish,Sharon, co-leader of the Priests Forum with Fr. Cuenin and spokesperson for Voice of the Fatihful?

It would appear that Fr. Cuenin's initiative for his parish meets the criterion that will be established by David Zizik and Fr. Bullock according to their agenda for the Parish Leadership Forum meeting at Fr. Bullock's parish on Feb. 1. Fr. Cuenin has established the structure of his "Parish Town Meeting" by stating  the primary questions to be addressed in the parish bulletin's Pastor's Corner: "Do we want to stay with the Church? What kind of church do we want to belong to?"

( Weekly bulletin , 1/18/03 ,www.ourladys.com )

  Certainly Our Lady of Sorrows and Help of Christians is heartbroken that the questions that pierce her heart are not being asked: How can we help Holy Mother Church protect the innocent baby in the womb? How can we help Holy Mother Church protect the unity of marriage as being the union of one man and one woman as Holy Mother Church has always believed in verifying God's plan for His creation as revealed in Genesis? Fr. Cuenin certainly has opposed this teaching of our Holy Mother Church on marriage, and not one member of the Parish leadership Forum, nor the Priests Forum, nor the Voice of the Faithful has used their very public voice to refute what Fr. Cuenin has publicly said in opposition to the teaching of our Holy Mother Church and as Bay Windows, New England's Largest Gay and Lesbian Newspaper, is gleefully proclaiming is in unison with their Gay Marriage demand. (Bay Windows, Marriage fight shifts to Legislature,"and the voices of some respected Catholic parish priests...rang very loud on Beacon Hill, when they said this amendment(Marriage Amendment) didn't do anything to strengthen marriage and was bad for children.",1/10/2003). Further,Mary Jo Bane, a leader in the Parish Leadership Forum has publicly stated:"I believe that most abortions are wrong most of the time; that the law in a religiously pluralist democracy cannot and should not rigidly outlaw all abortion; that it should instead regulate and discourage." (Commonweal Spring 2001 Colloquium,4/20-22.2001). This is certainly not the protection of the child in the womb that is required of all practicing Catholics according to the teaching of our Holy Mother Church!  Mary Jo Bane is equivocating in order to allow some abortions to eliminate some innocent babies in the womb.

How sad that the promoters of the Parish Leadership Forum have not expressed one word to encourage support for the teachings of our Holy Mother Church, and appear to have no objections to Fr. Cuenin's "Parish Town Meeting" to address his question:"Shall we stay with the Church?"  Is this the kind of "parish participation" that David Zizik, Mary Jo Bane, Fr. Robert Bullock and Fr. Walter Cuenin want to have implemented into each and every parish in the Boston Archdiocese? 

It's enough to make Our Lady weep in sorrow and heartbreak.

 Alice RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

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Fr Cuenin

Fr Bullock

Fr Hollenbach

Fr Paul Shanley

George Weigel

Fr Richard Neuhaus

The Boston 58

VOTF

Some Questions re : The Paul Shanley Case ???

The Question is : Who knew what when ?

Who called John White to participate in this 1999 event ?

How is it that when all of law enforcement could not find Fr. John White and Fr. Paul Shanley , those listed below seem to have a direct line to them ?

Catholic Charities "Companions" program Alice Slattery 11 APR 03

And to think that Dr. Doolin claims that Catholic Charities is in line with the Church teaching !

Fr. Richard Lewandowski one of the planners of the Catholic Charities "Companions"

The other planners and participants :

Fr. Phillip Earley, St Thomas ,Wilmington,MA. Member Board of Catholic Charities

Paul Merullo ,Pastoral Asst St Thomas, Wilmington ,MA. [ later convicted of sexual assault against a Woburn teen and served 2 1/2 years sentence),

Fr. John J. White (co-owner of homosexual bed and breakfast, in CA. , with Fr. Paul Shanley ),

Fr. Walter Cuenin, OLHC ,Newton , MA.

Fr. Robert Congdon , instructor at St. John Seminary ,Boston, MA.

Charles Connors pres. of Boston PFLAG in 1999),

Pat Dunn (Catholic Charities Social Worker)

Vivian Soper (Catholic Charities Social Worker) and

Jean Proia ,leader of Catholic Parents Network/New Ways Ministry at Immaculate Conception parish, Stoughton, MA.(Fr. John J. White often helped her in her "ministry").

Date:   Sat Mar 8 19:06:26 2003 (PST)

To:   RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

Subject:   58

The most ironic statement from one of the 58 priests who was angry about the remarks made by George Weigel and Fr. Richard Neuhaus regarding the dissident views of many of the signers of the letter to Cardinal Law was the statement by Fr. David Hollenbach,S.J.. Fr. Hollenbach said:"I regard it as a scurrilous and slanderous  attack." This is the same Fr. Hollenbach, theology teacher at Boston College, who rose up at the questioning section of the lecture by George Weigel at Boston College on December 3,2002, and verbally assaulted Pope John Paul II and the teachings of the Catholic Church on sexual ethics and theology. Fr. David Hollenbach stated that he believes that the teachings of the Pope  and of the Catholic Church in these matters are "False!".  Certainly this charge of Fr. Hollenbach that the Pope is teaching what is false in matters of sexual ethics and theology is a scurrilous and slanderous attack on Pope John Paul II.  Look at the videotape of George Weigel's talk."Courage to Be Catholic" from the bc.edu/church21/programs and you will see this scurrilous attack in action! 

Do the other priests who signed the letter agree with Fr. Hollenbach? Do they agree with Fr. Walter Cuenin when he went to the  Mass.State House to protest against the Marriage Amendment that would define marriage as being the union of one man and one woman? Are they now speaking out to support the Mass. Catholic Conference in the effort to preserve the definition of marriage as being the union of one man and one woman? I have not heard or seen one single priest on the list speak out publicly to support the Mass. Catholic Conference on this issue. Why the silence??? They certainly are not silent about the remarks of George Weigel and Fr. Richard Neuhaus!! Could Fr. Robert Bullock who  said during his taped talk at the VOTF Conference that he knew Fr. Paul Shanley very well for  over 20 years before Cardinal Law came to the Boston Archdiocese  and even defended him before Church officials, could he  have  taken the personal responsibility of letting the Cardinal know  about the  sexually deviant talk and actions of Fr. Shanley  that he certainly must have known about better than most priests due to his close association with Fr. Shanley?

Did anyone fault Fr. Robert Bullock for keeping this knowledge secret? I expect his best defense was to get in touch with Fr. Richard McBrien and plan the strategy of forming the Priests' Forum together with

Fr. Walter Cuenin who was also looking for a 'cover' since he was being questioned for his opposition to marriage as being the union of one man and one woman.

This  strategy sure worked because the Priests' Forum  has teamed up with VOTF and became the very powerful tool of the secular media to use to try to destroy the teachings of the Catholic Church which have been the object of their ridicule and hatred for many years. I'm sure the media loves it when priests like Fr. David Hollenbach,S.J.  stand up and say that the teachings of the Pope and the Catholic Church  on sexual ethics and theology are "False!" Where are the voices of the other 57 priests to say that this attack on the  teachings of the Pope and the Catholic Church on sexual ethics and theology  are "a  scurrilous and scandalous attack!"?  ---Alice Slattery

Here is an email from Svea Fraser

On Friday night, the following people met at OLHC to brainstorm opportunities to collaborate :

Boston Priests Forum: Fathers Bob Bullock, Walter Cuenin, Austin Fleming, Dick Craig, Walter Woods, Paul Kilroy, Gerry Osterman

Parish Leadership Group: (David Zizekπs organization) Mary Jo Bane, Ann Marie Rosa

Meanwhile, they send David over to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross to say this:

''I think he's got a quiet confidence, and that if people will pause and listen, he's the right man for the job,'' said David W. Zizik of Sherborn, who attended the Mass with three other members of St. Theresa Church. ''I'm very encouraged by his prayerfulness and attention to detail.''

What a nice guy! However his statement is quite disingenuous given the fact that his group is plotting to overtake the Chancery with their Bishop. It is laughable that he thinks that the Bishops are going to fall for it.

Great movie review today in the Globe about Blind Spot" Hitler's secretary

"He was a kindly, paternal gentleman who couldn't stand being touched. He was a vegetarian who followed a holistic health regime"

"Kind". Yes...."kindness" is the bait the devil uses in his perversions of virtue.

He was so lost in his quest for power that he never saw the crowds gathering to unseat his throne.

Concerned Catholics: Anne Barrett-Doyle

Survivor group: Bill Gately

VOTF: Jim Post, Scott Fraser, Mary Scanlon Calcaterra, Mary Hogan, Svea Fraser

Guest speaker: Margaret (Peggy) Steinfels, past editor of Commonweal

At the outset there was a great sense of solidarity and good will as we each introduced ourselves and spoke of our relation to and hopes for the church. At dinner we discussed possible collaborative action in addressing the causes of the current crisis. The what and how certainly did not get resolved, but at least email addresses were exchanged and everyone made a commitment to continuing the dialogue. In addition, a summary of a discussion among some of the 58 signers of the resignation letter outlining the qualities of a new archbishop was handed out.

Can you imagine the response from the other 1000 priests in the diocese if this gaggle of barbarians (as George Weigel puts it!) are let anywhere near the Chancery?

It listed: transparency and openness, a healer and reconciler (first and foremost among the victims of clerical abuse), a collaborater with a collegial style, someone who relates with his fellow priests personally, who respects and empowers the laity and a man with vision for the future.

None of us have any argument with this list of qualities.

Oops, what a minute......... There is one little itsy-bitsy phrase they snuck in..."collaborator with a collegial style". That means they want the new Archbishop to "collaborate", "tolerate" and be "inclusive" while they teach sexual autonomy, sodomy, artificial contraception and abortion rights to our children. That would be the "50-year plan" of "collegial style".

The anticipation of a new archbishop is obviously affecting all our groupsãfrom the south region VOTF gathering ≥dream≤ symposium, to the Bishopsearch and the upcoming gathering/conference there is energy around this topic. The leavening of the Holy Spirit?

They are "dreaming" down here in the South Shore indeed.

Are you wondering what " Bishopsearch" is? Yes folks - the schismatics are now formally, actively searching for our Bishop:

"VOTF St. Agnes Parish Voice, Reading, MA

Reported by Pat Coppola

Our Parish Voice has been actively involved in implementing a process for the laity to have a voice in the selection of their bishop. We are in the early stages of creating task forces for the nomination process and soliciting key candidates to be part of a search committee. Fr. Robert Bullock, head of the Priests' Forum in Boston, will be coming to speak with us on 2/26 to discuss the selection of a new bishop.

TA-DA!!

Fr. Bullock unveils Part 2!!

Gee, I wonder if that is what the email exchange with the VOTF houligans was all about. The "selection of a new bishop" must coincide with the extortion and terrorism through the press.

They are creating "task forces" for the "nomination process" and are "soliciting". The devil must be laughing his rear-end off watching these poor individuals in their delusions.

I worked with a man once who would come into the office every day and tell stories about how his real job was the CIA. This poor soul would speak of his convoluted meetings and plans with such conviction. He had met with so much rejection in his life that his demands for attention became bizzare.

In March, we invite other members of the Boston Archdiocese to participate in an archdiocesan-wide meeting of laity and clergy. For further information on this meeting contact Marie Collamore at bishopsearch@yahoo.com."

Since then, Jim Post and Mary Jo Bane have suggested possible avenues to pursue together:

Mary Jo questions who our audience is, and recommends a tone that is constructive and welcoming, which lays the foundation for a working relationship of priests and lay people that is genuinely collaborative. And it might include people not involved in any of our representive groups.

Jim proposed a general dialogue around the nature of the needs and response to a new archbishop, possibly culminating in a formal session at OLHC? (The VOR initiative)

In case you need a reminder about what exactly the "VOR initiative is!

He also promotes a deep analysis of the causes and consequences of this crisis: a truth task force.

Nobody disagrees with a deep analysis of the causes and consequences of this crisis. The problem with Call to Action/VOTF/We are Church...is that the priests Bishops, organziations and individuals whom they have selected to represent them subscribe to philosophies of sexual autonomy, reproductive "rights", women's ordination, married clergy, etc. They do not have the discernment nor expertise in the Roman Catholic Faith to be counseling anyone on these matters.

For myself, I pray that our groups will collaborate in a tangible way that models the church as all the People of God: new wine skins for the new wine of renewal.

A church that models the People of God? Let's all be "inclusive to the group who is "collaborating" and overthrow the Church that models Christ.

We will keep you apprised of all developments. I welcome any and all feedback.

Here is some feedback: Dream away Svea!

Your sister in faith and voice! Svea

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Subject:   Re: the YA YA crowd at St Eulilia- Bob Bullock Speaker

4 November 2002

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding what Fr. Bob Bullock has to say to VOTF members at St. Eulilia's and other VOTF groups:

It's time to ask Fr. Bob Bullock to be open and honest. Fr. Bob Bullock certainly was secretive for more than 20 years -from 1960 through 1984,the year Cardinal Law arrived in Boston.

During Fr. Bob Bullock's talk at the VOTF Conference he spoke of his strong friendship with Fr. Paul Shanley. As a close friend of Fr. Paul Shanley's throughout all that 20+ years,he certainly knew what Fr. Shanley was teaching.

In fact he states that he even defended Fr. Paul Shanley to "the Archbishop".

1.Why isn't he being asked what he kept secret from Cardinal Law when Cardinal Law was relying on close friends of Fr. Shanley to tell him the truth? One usually knows what's going on with one's friends! Now, in 2002 the same scene of a cover-up is being played out by Fr. Bob Bullock.

2.Does he approve of his current good friend, Fr. Walter Cuenin's outreach to Gays and Lesbians and what Fr. Cuenin is teaching at his monthly meetings in the "Gay and Lesbian Faith Sharing Group"?

3.Does he agree with Fr. Cuenin's comments which were expressed to the New Yorker magazine and were the subject of an editorial in The Pilot(9/6/02)?

4.Does he approve of Fr. Cuenin's opposition to the ban on gay marriage expressed before the State Legislature

(Globe,4/11/02,p.p.B1 &B10)?

Fr. Bob Bullock is always calling for openness and transparency.

Now is the time to be open and transparent about where he stands with regard to the teachings of Fr. Cuenin which appear to be the same as Fr. Paul Shanley was teaching back in the days when Fr. Bob Bullock defended him [ Shanley ] for being on the cutting edge in his ministry work which included teaching that homosexual acts are to be approved.

5. Why doesn't Fr. Bob Bullock have to be called to answer now in 2002 just as he should have been called to answer back in the 1970s when he certainly knew what Fr. Shanley was teaching?

6. Does he agree with what Fr. Walter Cuenin is teaching now?

Alice RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

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Date Tue, 16 Dec 2003 22:05:26 -0500

From Alice Slattery

To RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

Subject co-leader of Priests Forum,Fr.Bob Bullock

I find it odd that none of the viewers of the NECN documentary on Fr.

Paul Shanley on Dec. 3rd and 4th, have asked the reporters who are

investigating the scandal why they haven't asked Fr. Bob Bullock hard

questions about his failure to supervise Fr. Shanley as he acknowledged

he was supposed to do , during the time when Fr. Shanley was the "street

priest" and Fr. Bullock and he shared the same office.

Certainly Fr. Bullock had to know, when he acknowledged that he took many phone calls

for Fr. Shanley from parents and family members who were concerned

about their children's acting out in a homosexual manner and making

connections with other kids to engage in their acts, that Fr. Shanley

was advising the parents and friends to support their child's

homosexuality(which certainly included the behavior which characterizes

the condition).

Certainly Fr. Bob Bullock knows that this acceptance is

in opposition to the Church's teaching that homosexual acts are never

to be approved.

If that didn't send red flag warnings to Fr. Bullock that he had better

supervise Fr. Shanley very closely, then there was a reason for Fr.

Bullock to deliberately refuse to supervise him.

I wonder why no one is asking Fr. Bob Bullock hard questions about his failure to supervise

Fr. Shanley, especially since Elaine Noble, the gay Mass. representative,

said that many people in the gay culture in Boston were

very aware of the fact that Fr. Shanley was bringing his young male

charges into the gay bars and health clubs.

Also, who were the Globe reporters who were covering the Street Priest scene which apparently

was a big item in the newspapers at that time?

Are there no reporters picking up on this failure to supervise by Fr. Bullock?

--Alice

RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

The Rev. Robert W. Bullock (in a 2001 photo) was a vocal critic of the churchπs handling of the sexual abuse crisis. A leader among Boston-area priests, he also worked to foster Catholic-Jewish relations. (Globe Staff File Photo / Jonathan Wiggs)

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/

A father's passing

Outspoken priest gave voice to liberal views

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff  |  June 21, 2004

SHARON -- The Rev. Robert W. Bullock, a leader among Boston-area Catholic priests and an unusually outspoken critic of the church's handling of the sexual abuse crisis, died Saturday at home from metastatic cancer. He was 75.

The president of the Boston Priests Forum, an organization he helped found, Father Bullock was willing to speak directly and publicly about failings of the archdiocese in handling clergy sexual abuse, and he also criticized priests, including himself, for failing to spot and stop the abuse.

In 2002, he joined 57 other local priests in calling for Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign. More recently, he had become increasingly critical of the archdiocese for what he saw as a lack of due process and a slow pace in the handling of contested abuse allegations against about two dozen priests who have been in limbo for two years or more.

''He loved the church, and he loved it enough to be critical of it," said Robert O'Shea, 74, of Cambridge, a high school classmate who remained one of Bullock's closest friends. ''He didn't like going against his cardinal one bit, but he did it because he felt it was necessary, and he showed not only good judgment but great courage."

Father Bullock, who had served on the presbyteral council during Law's tenure, had been a leading liberal voice in the archdiocese for decades, starting with his job overseeing campus ministry during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. For years, he was the Catholic representative on a local interfaith radio talk show, Talking Religion on WRKO.

Until the abuse crisis exploded in 2002, Father Bullock was best known as a leading voice in Catholic-Jewish relations and an authority on Christian anti-Semitism. He was a leading supporter and onetime board chairman of Facing History and Ourselves, an educational organization with a focus on the Holocaust; he had served as Catholic chaplain at Brandeis University from 1969 to 1978; and since 1978, he was pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Sharon, a largely Jewish town. Father Bullock traveled to Israel at least 14 times and wrote a chapter in a book of essays about the impact of the Holocaust on Christian worship.

''He really was a giant," said Rabbi Herman J. Blumberg of Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, who had known Father Bullock since 1978 and had traveled twice to the Middle East with him. ''This was more than the usual interfaith thing -- he really was interested in the essence of Judaism and its link to Christianity."

Father Bullock's death plunged his small parish into mourning. Deacon Michael A. Iwanowicz announced the news at each Mass yesterday. Many parishioners wept as the Father's Day liturgy was transformed by references to Bullock's passing. The parish, with a church that seats only 200 people, is now trying to figure out where it might accommodate Father Bullock's funeral.

Father Bullock had been hospitalized recently at Brigham and Women's Hospital, but returned home Wednesday, where parishioners held a prayer vigil and then supplied round-the-clock care for their dying pastor. ''He was at peace," said Father Bullock's brother, the Rev. Myron F. Bullock, 76, who is the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Gloucester, and who had anointed his brother Saturday morning. ''He wanted to die in the rectory, and he did."

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who was traveling back to Boston from a bishops' conference in Denver yesterday, issued a statement saying, ''I offer my prayers and condolences to Father Bullock's brother, Father Myron Bullock, his brother priests, family and friends, and the people of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Sharon. Father Bullock was a good and faithful priest who served the Church well for so many years. May he rest in peace."

Father Bullock grew up in Sacred Heart parish in Newton Centre, attending the parish elementary school, St. Sebastian's Country Day School, and then Boston College, where he decided to become a priest upon his graduation in 1951. Ordained in 1956, he served in several parishes, starting at St. Camillus in Arlington, before being assigned the post of archdiocesan director of campus ministry in 1966. He held that job until 1978.

''I wouldn't call him a radical, but he was a true liberal in the best sense -- he understood the importance of testing the tradition against the new experience of life in America in the 1960s, and he was willing to listen to young people in a way that was unusual for a member of the establishment," said James Carroll, author and Boston Globe contributor. Carroll, then a priest and chaplain at Boston University, said Father Bullock persuaded Cardinal Richard J. Cushing to ease the way for young Catholic men to win conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War. ''He was willing to move into uncharted territory as a priest, which is why he was able . . . to see so clearly what had to be done during the priestly sex abuse scandal."

Father Bullock was himself occasionally the target of criticism. Some liberal priests were frustrated that the priests' forum -- an organization Father Bullock had initially seen as a group priests could use to discuss issues such as burnout -- was not more aggressive in pushing for change. Some conservatives questioned whether he knew or should have known that one of the college chaplains he had supervised, the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, was an alleged abuser. Shanley was defrocked this year.

Father Bullock said he knew nothing of Shanley's misconduct, but reflected on the broader issue in a 2002 speech at Boston College, saying, ''The abused children were our parishioners. The abusers were our brother priests. We may have heard rumors, we may have had suspicions, but only a few of us did anything. . . ."

Father Bullock was a voracious reader. His rectory was packed with books and magazines, many underlined by him, about Catholic theology, World War II, contemporary issues in the Catholic Church. On Saturday, a friend, Margot Stern Strom of Facing History, read to him from one of the books he had lying nearby -- a biography of philosopher Hannah Arendt.

Yesterday, parishioners lit the Easter candle at Our Lady of Sorrows, a sign of their belief in life after death. The celebrant of the Mass, the Rev. Peter Walsh, spoke of Father Bullock's ''strong and powerful voice" in support of abuse victims, in critique of the hierarchy, in concern for his fellow priests. Midway through the Mass, Walsh asked the congregation to reflect, in silence, on their favorite memories of Bullock. Some held their heads in their hands; others wept. And in the back of the church, a young girl stood on a pew and started to dance.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Critic of Boston Archdiocese dead of liver cancer at 75

Sunday June 20, 2004

By THEO EMERY

Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) The Rev. Robert W. Bullock, an outspoken critic of the Archdiocese of Boston who helped rally opposition to Cardinal Bernard Law, died of liver cancer during the weekend in the rectory of his church. He was 75.

Michael Iwanowicz, deacon at Our Lady of Sorrows in Sharon where Bullock was pastor, said Bullock died Saturday evening of the fast-moving cancer. He had been diagnosed in May, Iwanowicz said.

Bullock had been an organizer and president of the Boston Priests' Forum, a clergy group assembled in 2001 as a support organization for Roman Catholic priests, but which gained prominence when the clergy sex abuse scandal hit the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese.

Bullock became a well-known voice of criticism against archdiocesan leadership after unsealed court documents in January of 2002 first revealed that the church moved sexually abusive priests from parish to parish without informing the congregations.

As new abuse cases arose, the church was forced to produce thousands of pages of internal documents revealing the breadth of the problem and the depth of the church's awareness of it. The Priests' Forum quickly grew to hundreds of members, as the group complained that church leaders were unresponsive to concerns about false accusations and sagging morale.

In December 2002, Bullock was one of 58 priests who signed a letter seeking Law's resignation, saying publicly that Law had ``lost his diocese'' and that the Boston church needed fresh leadership. Law resigned that month.

Bullock continued speaking out, calling for healing in the archdiocese and praising Law's temporary replacement, Bishop Richard G. Lennon, and later, Law's permanent replacement, Sean P. O'Malley.

The group, however, had trouble finding its focus after the crisis subsided, unsure of whether to continue as an activist organization or return to its largely fraternal roots. Bullock stepped down from the group a month ago after learning of his illness, Iwanowicz said.

Suzanne Morse, spokeswoman for the lay reform group Voice of the Faithful, said Bullock's death is a ``great, great loss for the Archdiocese of Boston.''

``It's a loss for the archdiocese, for the priests, for the laity, for his community. He was someone willing to speak truth to power, but also be loving, charitable and forgiving,'' she said.

O'Malley released a statement on Sunday offering prayers and condolences to Bullock's brother, The Rev. Myron Bullock, as well as family, friends and the congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Fr. Bullock was a good and faithful priest who served the Church well for so many years, O'Malley said. *May he rest in peace.*

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors.

Troubleshooter For Boston Church?

BOSTON, June 30, 2003

The bishop who ushered a Massachusetts diocese through one of the most explosive clergy sex abuse cases and then led the Palm Beach, Florida, diocese through its own troubles was expected to be named archbishop in Boston, according to a news report Monday.

Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was the likely successor to Cardinal Bernard Law, said John Allen Jr., a reporter for National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper that covers the Roman Catholic Church. Law resigned as bishop in December in the midst of the clergy sex abuse scandal rocking the church.

Allen, who made his comments in interviews Monday with CNN and other broadcast media, did not cite his sources. A senior Vatican official told The Associated Press that an announcement to name a successor was "imminent," and could come Tuesday or Wednesday. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said O'Malley has been one of several candidates under consideration.

Deacon Sam Barbaro, the spokesman for the Diocese of Palm Beach, said he was not aware of O'Malley's possible move and could not confirm the report.

Father Robert Bullock, founder of the Boston Priest Forum, designed to address the priest abuse problem, said O'Malley will have a huge job before him if named archbishop.

"It will be a daunting task for the archbishop to rebuild trust and confidence, to heal the surviving victims, to settle all the lawsuits, and to restore models of credibility," he told CBS radio station WBZ-AM in Boston.

Bullock expects an O'Malley-run archdiocese to be different.

"I would expect that there would be a good deal more openness, listening, accountability," he said.

O'Malley, who turned 59 on Sunday, has cleaned up scandals in two dioceses ã in Fall River, Massachusetts, which was rocked a decade ago when the Rev. James Porter pleaded guilty to molesting 28 children, and most recently, in Palm Beach. He was appointed bishop there only last year and worked where two previous bishops were implicated in sex abuse scandals.

When he was named to the Palm Beach job last September, O'Malley said he planned to implement at least some of the policies he started in Fall River.

"The whole church feels the pain of this scandal and is anxious to try to bring some healing and reconciliation to our families and communities that have been so shaken by these sad events and by the mishandling of these situations on the part of the church," O'Malley said. "I see there are great needs here and I will do my best to meet those needs."

The system established in Fall River includes referring victims to social workers unaffiliated with the church and conducting background checks, including a criminal records check. Any priest, seminarian, employee or volunteer whose position involves access to children must take part in an abuse prevention workshop and complete a detailed questionnaire about his or her past.

In the Porter cases, the diocese paid for therapy, medication and residential treatment for the victims.

O'Malley was born in Lakewood, Ohio, and served as bishop in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands, before his transfer to Fall River in 1992. In the 1970s, he ran the Catholic Hispanic Center in Washington and served as vicar for the Hispanic, Portuguese and Haitian communities.

©MMIII CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Seven people who made a difference

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, 12/15/2002

Rev. Robert W. Bullock

Felt for priests, victims, as scandal widened

What would Jesus do?

It is a question that the Rev. Robert W. Bullock asks himself all the time.

When anti-Semitic vandals hit Sharon a few years ago, the suburb with a large Jewish population where he is pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church, Bullock, a Holocaust historian, stood shoulder to shoulder with the local rabbi to denounce bigotry.

When the sexual abuse scandal exploded in January, the 72-year-old Bullock formed a group, the Boston Priests Forum, to address the crisis of clergy morale that accompanied it.

When priests complained that the scandal had led archdiocesan officials to trample on their rights to due process, Bullock spoke up for accused priests.

But throughout the scandal, Bullock spoke passionately about how those who had been sexually abused by priests had been failed by their church, and that the church's first obligation was to reach out to the victims with compassion.

After all, he says, it is what Jesus would do.

Many theologians say it was the letter circulated by Bullock's group, calling for Law's resignation and signed by 58 of the archdiocese's 550 active priests, that last week made it impossible to turn down Law's resignation, as Vatican officials had in April.

On Friday, as word of the pope accepting Law's resignation spread, there was no sense of victory coming from Bullock and the other rebel priests. There was no sense of satisfaction in ending the Boston tenure of their cardinal.

''This is a tragedy, what has happened to this man,'' Bullock said, glumly.

Now, Bullock said, it is time for Catholics to return to the pews, to hear the good news of the Gospel, even as they reflect on the forces that so deeply hurt the church.

Jack Connors Jr.

Offered support, criticism of Cardinal Law in crisis

He is the pope of Boston's Catholic power brokers, the child of Irish immigrants, the founder of the city's most successful advertising agency, a philanthropist, a man whose influence wends its way through the curious intersection of religion, ethnicity, and commerce that is unique to Boston.

He is Jack Connors Jr., and for 17 of Bernard Law's 18 years as archbishop of Boston he was arguably Law's most trusted confidant in the business community.

When the cardinal found himself under fire last winter for his handling of sexually abusive priests, Connors instinctively rallied to the cardinal's side. He helped organize a meeting in February of doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople, a virtual Who's Who of Boston's Catholic elite, to advise Law how to respond to the crisis. Connors's advice was blunt: Tell the whole truth, and nothing but.

But Connors could sense Law wasn't listening. And he came to a more disturbing conclusion: The cardinal wasn't being honest with him.

In the spring, when Connors publicly walked away from Law, saying the cardinal wasn't listening to him or anybody else, the city's other power brokers sat up and noticed. If Jack had turned his back on Law, the word went, the cardinal was history. Connors, who had helped raise millions of dollars for his church, began withholding donations. Others followed suit.

On Friday, after he learned that Law had resigned, Connors chuckled ruefully when asked if one of his ambitions as a young man was to someday help bring down an archbishop.

''I'm almost 60 years old. It took a long time to get my faith to where it is. My faith is not shaken. My faith in the leadership of my church is shaken. You know, there's a lot of good priests out there, working with the poor, the sick. I know a lot of them ... When it came to this situation they couldn't say anything. So maybe it was up to me and other people to say things.

''There is a very real movement of the lay faithful to seek a larger role in our church. The days of blind faith are over. They are saying if you want our money, if you want our devotion, we want a little accountability, a little say.''

Still, he was asked, it must be painful, knowing that the cardinal he helped steer through the cliquey corridors of power in Boston he also helped steer out the door.

''Looking back,'' Connors said, ''I don't have a single regret.''

David Clohessy

Victim advocate saw an international problem

Boston is a notoriously parochial place, and when the sexual abuse scandal burst onto the front page in January, there was a tendency by some to consider it a local phenomenon.

David Clohessy did much to change that perception, urging people to see the scandal in a national and international light. As the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, Clohessy became a tireless advocate, a voice for victims nationwide, and even abroad.

''It's not just Boston, it's everywhere,'' said Clohessy, 46.

It is a lesson he learned at great personal cost. When he was a boy in Missouri, Clohessy says, a priest abused him for four years, beginning when he was 12. His brother, Kevin, became a priest, but left the priesthood after being accused of molesting another man. Clohessy says his brother was abused by a priest as a boy, a cycle of abuse he says is common. The two brothers remain estranged, their relationship another casualty of the scandal.

Like many victims of clergy abuse, there was no justice for David Clohessy. By the time he went to court, the crimes he says were committed against him fell outside the statute of limitations.

But, as Clohessy notes, for many victims, victories in court prove Pyrrhic. ''There was a fellow in Philadelphia who got a large settlement in the mid-1990s,'' Clohessy said. ''A month later, he hung himself.''

Today, Clohessy seeks vindication by helping others, and by forcing authorities to take victims' perspectives into account.

Along with other SNAP leaders, Clohessy's vocation is to stick up for those who have long stayed in the shadows, hounded by guilt, shame, and stigma. SNAP now claims some 4,000 members nationwide.

He sees Law's resignation as significant, but something of a sideshow.

''If anybody thinks this resignation signals a radical change in the Vatican mindset, that is folly,'' he said. ''It's momentous in the sense that the body of the church is beginning to heal. But I worry about complacency. Law is just a symptom of a much deeper, systemic problem.''

Olan Horne

Abused by priest as boy; made courageous stand

Olan Horne was a 12-year-old schoolboy in the 1970s when his local priest, the Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham, first cornered him at St. Michael's Church in Lowell. Birmingham would go on to molest him, just as he had molested dozens of other boys. But Horne fought back, and on one occasion Birmingham beat him severely.

Birmingham, one of the most notorious pedophiles to emerge from the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, is dead, but Horne is very much alive, and still fighting.

Horne embodies many victims of predatory priests who have found their voice, and their courage, to come forward in the last year. He helped organize a group of Birmingham's victims, called the Survivors of Joseph Birmingham. He has a good enough sense of humor to allow that the acronym by which he and his friends call the group, SJB, makes them sound like a religious order.

Horne lost his faith because of his experience.

''I'm a proclaimed agnostic,'' he says.

Still, he retains his own sense of faith and he has not lost a faithful desire to hold not just Birmingham, but the dead priest's supervisors, accountable for the devastation visited on him and so many others.

Horne and other Birmingham victims, including Gary Bergeron and Thomas Blanchette, hounded Cardinal Law for months, demanding that he meet with them so that the cardinal could see, firsthand, the casualties of his lax supervision of sexually abusive priests.

Two months ago, Law walked into the basement of a Dracut church and did just that. More than 70 of Birmingham's victims told Law what Birmingham had taken from them, and how they and others continue to pay the price for decisions made by Law and other bishops.

Two weeks ago, Horne met with Law at the cardinal's residence and told him all the words in the world would not help with the healing.

''Do something bold,'' Horne told the cardinal.

A few days later, the cardinal was in Rome to begin the slow dance that was his resignation.

''I've got mixed feelings,'' Horne said Friday. ''He's gone, but has anything really changed? There is no reprieve and no resignation for any of the victims. The monster who abused me is buried 20 stones away from my father.''

Roderick MacLeish Jr.

Attorney takes cases to court of public opinion

Those who know Roderick MacLeish Jr. call him Eric. Those who go up against the brash lawyer often call him something else, and it's seldom flattering.

But for those who find themselves up against powerful institutions, MacLeish is a tenacious litigator who has often proved to be an effective advocate, someone who courts publicity and often uses it to help his clients make their cases as effectively in the court of public opinion as in a court of law.

MacLeish and his partners represent hundreds of people who have outstanding claims against abusive priests and the archdiocese, but it was MacLeish's handling of the accusations his clients brought against one priest, Rev. Paul R. Shanley, that came to epitomize MacLeish's extraordinary ability to build public sympathy for his clients.

When the sordid details of Shanley's past emerged in the spring, MacLeish put together a spellbinding multimedia presentation, highlighting the warnings that Law got in the 1980s that Shanley had spoken publicly in favor of sexual relationships between boys and men. It was a tour de force that local televisions stations carried live, and it convinced many people who had supported Law during the first few months of the scandal that he had to go.

MacLeish's role in forcing the archdiocese to come clean may be his biggest case yet, but it is not the first time he has aggressively challenged a powerful institution. In the 1980s, he forced officials to halt draconian measures such as public strip searches at Bridgewater State Hospital, the state's largest psychiatric facility.

Others drove the disclosures that fueled the church scandal, most notably Mitchell Garabedian, whose legal tenacity, over eight years, built an array of civil suits against an impish priest named John Geoghan, encompassing more than 100 victims, that last Janaury spilled out into the cold light of day.

Once the scandal was exposed, Garabedian wrested from the reeling archdiocese a $30 million settlement for 86 of Geoghan's victims. When Law backed out of the deal, saying his financial advisers claimed the settlement would lead to bankruptcy, Garabedian's wrath was visceral. He called the cardinal ''despicable.''

But MacLeish, who has a natural empathy for outsiders, was the most flamboyant of the church's legal tormentors. The grandson of a poet and the son of a journalist, he helped expose the Boston Archdiocese's appalling record in handling abusive priests, work that was, for him, nothing new.

In 1991, he represented Frank Fitzpatrick, the man who first publicly accused James Porter, a Massachusetts priest who abused hundreds of children.

Like no other attorney, MacLeish relishes getting Law and other church supervisors under oath. And while the cardinal may no longer be archbishop, that will not save him from future questioning by the lawyer that the church's lawyers love to hate.

Thomas F. Reilly

Devout Catholic proved committed law enforcer

When he was a boy growing up in Springfield, Tom Reilly was expected to be home every night at 7 sharp. It was then that he knelt down with his family and said the rosary.

Today, as the highest-ranking law enforcement official in Massachusetts, Reilly remains a devout Catholic, but he has convened a grand jury that is charged with deciding whether Law and other church supervisors should face criminal charges for putting priests in a position where they were able to sexually abuse children.

Most legal observers believe, and Reilly ruefully admits, that there is little chance that Law and his aides will be indicted, because Massachusetts law requires that such enablers must demonstrate that they had the intent that such crimes would occur.

Reilly has been criticized by some who say he has not been aggressive enough in pursuing Law and others, and that the church is getting a slide where other institutions would not.

But ever since the scandal broke last January, Reilly has been a thorn in Law's side, forcing the cardinal and his lawyers to go places they don't want to.

After the story broke in January, Law promised that any future allegations of abuse by priests would be passed on to prosecutors. Reilly went public and said it wasn't good enough, that prosecutors needed to look at past cases to determine whether criminal charges should be filed. When the church dragged its feet, Reilly forced its hand, getting the files on nearly 100 priests.

Last summer, Reilly convened a grand jury to resolve the question whether Law's actions, and those of his handpicked aides, rise to the level of criminal activity.

In recent weeks, Reilly has been even more vocal and more critical, accusing the archdiocese of stonewalling him at every turn. Still, every week, protesters converged outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End to demand not only that Law be sacked as archbishop, but that he be indicted.

Reilly has told friends he is frustrated that some think he is going easy on Law. As Reilly told a friend, ''That isn't how the cardinal sees it.''

Indeed, when the cardinal returns from Rome, as is expected sometime this week, he will find something from Reilly waiting for him: a subpoena to appear before the grand jury.

Constance M. Sweeney

Judge's ruling triggered tidal wave of evidence

When Law's legal team saw they had drawn Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney to preside over the Boston Globe's challenge to unseal court filings about John Geoghan, a priest who was accused of molesting scores of children, they could be forgiven for thinking they were lucky.

After all, Sweeney was a practicing Catholic, the product of 16 years of parochial schools in her native Springfield. It was perhaps because of Sweeney's background that her ruling, unleashing the first tidal wave of disclosures that would eventually bring Law down as Boston's archbishop, seemed earth-shattering.

But the reality is that Sweeney has spent as many years on the bench as she did being taught by nuns, and she has carved out a reputation among her peers as a fiercely independent jurist.

As much as any lawyer who has sued the archdiocese, Judge Sweeney has been an irritant for the cardinal and his legal team. Over the years, previous judges had upheld the church's contention that its private settlements with victims of abusive priests should be hidden from public scrutiny. But Sweeney said the public had a right to see matters adjudicated in a public court. She ordered the release of the documents. Later, she ordered Law to be deposed. More than that, Sweeney infuriated Law's lawyers by insisting that the cardinal be deposed immediately because the Vatican might call him back to Rome to avoid questioning.

And so, in what would be one but not the last humiliation of Law, the cardinal was made to stride past a phalanx of TV cameras and enter a courtroom, the first cardinal questioned under oath for actions taken as a prince of the church.

It was another Sweeney order that sealed Law's fate. Three weeks ago, Sweeney declared that the archdiocese's own records suggested Law was lying when he testified that he and his aides did not return abusive priests to parish work when there was any chance they could abuse children.

On Dec. 3, the first 2,200 pages of some 11,000 pages of documents that Sweeney ordered unsealed were made public, showing that Law had coddled abusive priests, allowing some of them to stay in ministry as recently as 1999. The disclosures led 58 archdiocese priests to say enough was enough and sign a letter calling on Law to step down.

Law may no longer have his bully pulpit, but Sweeney remains on the bench, a perch from which her rulings will likely continue to hurt and haunt Law, and confound those who once thought the Catholic judge was ''one of us.''

This story ran on page A51 of the Boston Globe on 12/15/2002.

© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

For complete coverage of the priest abuse scandal, go to http://www.boston.com/globe/abuse

Another priest operating in the Archdiocese of Boston opposed the H3190 was Fr Thomas Carroll rector of The Jesuit Urban Center , Boston MA. RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

Anti-Catholic positions in the name of Catholicism? Deal Hudson

I find it interesting that in Boston -- the hotbed of a scandal in the Church that involves crimes mainly perpetrated by homosexuals -- Catholic priests would present a solution to the problem by further endorsing homosexuality!

CRISIS Magazine - e-Letter

May 16, 2003

**********************************************

Dear Friend,

You're going to need to sit down for this one.

A few weeks ago, moral theologian Rev. James F. Keenan, S.J., appeared before the joint committee on the judiciary for the state of Massachusetts to offer the Catholic perspective on a bill they were debating.

The bill is constitutional amendment H.3190, whose purpose can be summed up in the following excerpt: "...only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Massachusetts. Any other relationship shall not be recognized as a marriage or its legal equivalent."

The amendment would be similar to those currently on the rule books of many other states, protecting the institution of marriage against those who are trying to legalize homosexual unions.

A similar bill was shot down in Massachusetts last year, so it seemed doubly important that a Catholic theologian -- especially one with Fr. Keenan's credentials -- be there to present the traditional Catholic understanding of marriage and the family.

This is what Keenan said: "[H.3190] is contrary to Catholic teaching on social justice. ...The Catholic theological tradition stands against the active and unjust discrimination against the basic social rights of gay and lesbian persons."

No, you read that right. A Catholic priest stood as a representative for his Church before a state government and encouraged them to vote AGAINST a bill that would ban homosexual marriages.

How could this be possible? It certainly isn't that Fr. Keenan doesn't know his material. As a professor of moral theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, he received a doctorate in moral theology from Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and will be a visiting professor at Boston College this year. He certainly has all the apparent qualifications one could ask for in a theologian.

So why is he supporting anti-Catholic positions in the name of Catholicism?

His arguments from Church teaching against the bill simply don't hold water. His basic point is that the Church teaches tolerance and respect for homosexuals, and banning marriage from these people would be the highest form of discrimination. He quotes the Catechism: "Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided" (2358); and earlier, the bishops' document "Always Our Children": "Respect for the God-given dignity of all persons means the recognition of human rights and responsibilities. The teachings of the Church make it clear that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against them."

From these two statements, Keenan assembles his case for same-sex marriage.

But the holes in his logic should be immediately apparent to any Catholic. First of all, it's true that we teach respect, love, and understanding in the case of homosexual persons. Catholics believe that ALL God's people deserve these fundamental dignities, being created in His likeness. And since we're all sinners, the old adage "love the sinner, hate the sin" really holds true.

But while we respect and honor the sinner, that doesn't mean we must honor the sin. And the Church is very clear in its position on homosexual acts. Take this passage from the Catechism, the entry directly before the one Fr. Keenan quoted: "Tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved" (2357).

That seems abundantly clear to me -- "under no circumstances" can we approve homosexual acts. Fr. Keenan conveniently skips over this passage in his rush to condone what the Church explicitly says can NEVER be condoned.

His quoting from the document "Always Our Children" is no better. It was written as a message to parents struggling with the homosexuality of their children. Naturally, then, focused on the need to love homosexuals, rather than the explicit Church teachings against homosexual acts.

But even here, Fr. Keenan is wrong in his description of the document. The bishops do not endorse homosexual behavior: "Accepting [your child's] homosexual orientation does not have to include approving of all related attitudes and behavioral choices. In fact, you may need to challenge certain aspects of a lifestyle that you find objectionable."

Aside from not condoning homosexual acts, the fact remains that homosexual marriage is impossible from a natural law standpoint. We were created to be joined one man to one woman. It's part of our nature and part of God's plan since He first created Adam and Eve. You cannot claim a right to an institution that, by its nature, was not designed for you. That would be like men claiming discrimination because they cannot bear children. We simply were not created for some roles in life, and like it or not, it provides no grounds for charging discrimination.

This all seems fairly straightforward. But the real puzzle is how Fr. Keenan could endorse such an incredibly wrongheaded interpretation of the Church's teaching. A man with his extensive knowledge of moral theology couldn't just stumble into such a gross error. (Of course, the Jesuits have been in decline the last 30 years...)

The amazing fact is that he's not alone. When last year's bill was before the committee, TWO Catholic priests stood in opposition to it: One was Rev. Richard Lewandowski of St. Camillus Parish in Fitchburg (who also happens to be the Chaplain at Fitchburg State College), and the other was the often-heralded Rev. Walter Cuenin from Our Lady Help of Christians Parish (and a staunch supporter of Voice of the Faithful).

The common link between all three? They're all priests with great influence. Keenan teaches at a seminary; Lewandowski works with college students; Cuenin has his own personality cult among the laity in his area. When they speak, people listen.

And these men are no fools. I find it hard to believe that they are simply mistaken in their opinions. Rather, they're attempting to mislead not only Catholics, but the population at large by presenting anti-Catholic rhetoric in the name of Catholicism.

I find it interesting that in Boston -- the hotbed of a scandal in the Church that involves crimes mainly perpetrated by homosexuals -- Catholic priests would present a solution to the problem by further endorsing homosexuality!

Where have they been?

My hope is that the bishops of these priests will reprimand them and denounce their ideas publicly. The damage done to the Faith - in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics alike -- will be serious indeed if the bishops don't have the courage to speak out.

But you and I don't have to wait for the bishops to act. We can make our voices heard right now, so that people will know what Catholics really believe. If you live in Massachusetts, encourage your representatives to endorse H.3190. If you're an alumnus of Boston College, threaten to withhold donations as long as Fr. Keenan is teaching there.

And please...by all means, help others understand what the Church really teaches about homosexuality in our culture.

Deal

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It really wasn't very surprising to me that Fr. James Keenan,S.J. has publicly taken the position that supports allowing marriage between two people practicing same-sex sex acts. When I took the Archdiocese Institute of Ministry course, Living a Christian Life(BF202), in the Fall of 2000, taught by Eileen Snow at the site of St Tarcisius' parish, the required readings included the texts by Richard M. Gula,S.S.:Moral Discernment, Reason Informed By Faith, and What Are they Saying About Moral Norms, and the text by James F. Keenan,S.J.: Virtues For Ordinary Christians. The position that both Fr. Gula and Fr. Keenan take is that of the proportionalists and consequentionalist,  and the fundamental option(the end justifies the means) school of thought popular among some theologians and addressed in the encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, of Pope John Paul II ,as in grave error. Those who adhere to the teleological ethical theories of proportionalism and consequentialism maintain that "it is never possible to formulate an absolute prohibition of particular kinds of behavior which would be in conflict in every circumstance and in every culture with those values..Even when grave matter is concerned these precepts should be considered as operative norms which are always relative and open to exceptions"(Veritatis Splendor,p.p.95,96) They maintain that if the intended good consequences of an action are greater than the "ontic" evil found in the consequences of an action , then the action becomes morally good. Thus homosexual activity between persons in a steady relationship would be considered as not morally evil but only "ontic","premoral" or "nonmoral", the decisive factor being noted by the consequences over time. This would be denying the teaching of the Catholic Church that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and cannot be approved(#2357 Catechism of the Catholic Church) .

Because  I wrote my required paper for the course on just this subject, I was called into the Director's office, Bill Dittrich, and informed that I was "mouthing Catholic doctrine".  He said he just wanted to warn me and he wasn't  casting judgment on me. When I said that the position of the proportionalists and consequentialists was the same as that of Sr. Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent in the PFLAG document "Is homosexuality a Sin?" which was the reason they were told to stop their ministry to same-sex partners by order of the Vatican and that I supported the position of Courage which is the Vatican approved organization that calls for chastity for those who had been engaging in same-sex sex acts, Bill Dittrich informed me that he did not agree with me.

  He did not prevent me from receiving my certificate of completion of the AIM program in June,2002, but he sure came close!!  Since the work of Fr. James Keenan , who at that time was teaching at the Jesuit Weston School of Theology,was supported by Eileen Snow who was taking courses at the Jesuit Weston School of Theology at the time when she was teaching the course, I wasn't very surprised to see that he supports marriage of those engaging in same-sex sex acts.  Following the theories devised by the proportionalists and consequentionalists, this was bound to happen and i suspect there are many other theologians at the Weston School of theology and Boston College who agree with Fr. James  Keenan, S.J..       ----Alice Slattery

Date Wed, 08 Oct 2003 18:27:21 -0400 (EDT)

From rosarycampaign@faithfulvoice.com

To rosarycampaign@faithfulvoice.com

Subject more bkgd on Fr Keenan

Parts

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Catholic Colleges & Universities

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Jesuit brings moral theology up front and personal

By CHUCK COLBERT

Cambridge, Mass.

Much in the life of Jesuit Fr. James F. Keenan runs like an all-terrain vehicle.

Teaching and preaching, writing and speaking out, he travels wide stretches over the bumpy,

thorny territory of ethical issues. His sturdy chassis is the Catholic moral tradition

shod with the flexible tires of Christπs compassionate vision.

Keenan has taught theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology since 1991. He

has recently written to the Catholic bishops arguing against U.S. military

intervention in both Afghanistan and Iraq. His views are also widely known on hot-button social

issues, such as condom use and clean needle exchange in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Most

recently, Keenanπs outspokenness on homosexuality and the church crisis has drawn fire

from conservatives.

Those who know him best attest to a deeply caring priest, one whose primary

moral operative is the Christ-centered virtue of mercy.

One of his colleagues described him this way: ≥Heπs personally brilliant, widely

read in his field. That knowledge expands all over the place, everywhere from medical to

social ethics, from this subject to that one. Yet, heπs somebody who can communicate to

ordinary people. He is what a Jesuit scholar should be. He knows his field, but at the same time

heπs a minister of the word, preaching and teaching on every occasion,≤ said New

Testament professor and Jesuit Fr. Daniel J. Harrington.

Harrington and Keenan together lead a New Testament and ethics seminar at

Weston. They have written a new book, due out soon, titled Jesus and Virtue Ethics. Moreover,

another book that Keenan edited -- Catholic Ethicists on HIV/AIDS Prevention -- has just

won the Alpha Sigma Nu National Jesuit Book award in the discipline of philosophy and

ethics.

Harrington marveled at the enormous richness and depth that Keenan brings to

their course. ≥I can outline what I am going to do with fairly technical, dry -- not

to me -- scriptural material.≤ Quickly, ≥Jim jumps in and comes across with new ideas,

fresh perspectives, and very thoughtful perceptions making connections to the wider

concerns of moral theology.≤

Those wider concerns Keenan explores in his fundamental moral theology course.

Keenanπs foundational course is one of the most popular, drawing students not only from

Weston, but also from any number of the eight other schools in the Boston Theological

Institute, an ecumenical consortium.

Traversing the landscape

This semester, for example, more than 50 people have enrolled in the

introductory course at Weston Jesuit, an international theological center sponsored by the Society

of Jesus, both a graduate divinity school and a pontifical faculty of theology. Students

pack the classroom on a bright, sunny, early-in-the-semester morning. Keenan stands

before them, up front and personal, delivering the lecture and facilitating the discussion

that follows.

The morningπs subject is part one of a two-session focus on scripture and moral

theology. ≥Moral theology should be rooted in scripture and nourished by charity,≤ he

said, ≥so that the truth of Christian vocation is made manifest. The question arises, however:

How do we get to a moral theology nourished by scripture?≤

Today is only the beginning, as students ponder the course syllabus. In 25

two-hour sessions Keenan traverses the entire landscape, the history of moral theology, all the

way from the first millennium to the medieval era, from the 16th century through World War II

to moral concerns in contemporary life.

Students learn to speak about ethics and moral theology with their own voice.

Nurturing the development of that individual point of view on ethics is a hallmark of Keenanπs

mentoring style. ≥Iπve been encouraged to become confident of my own theological

perspective,≤ said Jayme Hennessy, a laywoman and doctoral student whom Keenan advises.

What also attracted Hennessy to study under Keenan was his approach to virtue

ethics, especially his promotion of mercy. ≥Mercy is the willingness to enter into the

chaos of another,≤ Hennessy said, in describing Keenanπs perspective. ≥That approach

captured my imagination,≤ she said. ≥This vision of mercy moves us into theexperience of the

one whoπs suffering, enabling us to get a sense of whatπs really going on there.≤

Suffering is no stranger to the life of Jim Keenan, who grew up in the Brooklyn

borough of New York City. The son of a Manhattan police officer, his mother was a secretary

and homemaker, raising five children. ≥We were five. I have two brothers and two

sisters,≤ he told NCR.

Before Keenan entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 17, one tragedy had

already struck. The Keenan family home burned to the ground, and the family relocated to

Long Island where Jim attended a diocesan high school. Through the years there were

other Keenan family tragedies to bear. His brother Bob drowned in the bathtub after

suffering a seizure. Keenanπs father died unexpectedly. Most recently, his young niece Megan

died after a painful battle with leukemia.

≥All of these were major family-centered traumas,≤ said colleague Jesuit Fr. Jon

D. Fuller, a physician who together with Keenan teaches an ethics seminar on AIDS and HIV

prevention.

Dan Harrington remarked upon the effect of these life events on Keenan. ≥He

entered into those things in a very profound way, letting them influence him as a person and

moral theologian,≤ Harrington said.

Keenan graduated from Fordham University in 1976. He briefly taught high school,

before earning a master of divinity degree (with honors) at Weston.

During his second year at Weston, he was told to earn a doctorate. ≥I went to

Romeπs Gregorian University to study with two people, Klaus Demmer and Josef Fuchs.≤

Under Fuchs, Keenan wrote his doctoral dissertation, ≥Being Good and Doing the Right

in Saint Thomasπ Summa Theologiae.≤ Before joining the faculty at Weston, Keenan taught

moral theology at Fordham.

Because of his European theological training, Keenan saw the potential for more

international students at Weston Jesuit. ≥When I came here there were only eight

people in our licentiate program and no doctoral students. Now we have 40 to 45 students

pursuing the [licentiate in sacred theology], many of whom are from Africa, Asia, Latin

America and Europe. There are 18 students enrolled in the doctoral program,≤ which Keenan

also directs.

≥Our students really love theology,≤ he explained. ≥Thereπs a certain honesty

about the students, lay students, Jesuits, other religious, African priests. People are

pretty humble about where they are. Theyπll acknowledge quite quickly what they need to

learn.≤

Over the years, he said, ≥I learned a lot about the Catholic moral tradition,

and I felt it was important to teach it to graduate students. Too many conservatives -- or

reactionaries -- teach it. More people could be teaching the tradition the way, for instance,

Charlie Curran teaches it,≤ Keenan said.

≥I found in lecturing that students liked using the tradition of making moral

distinctions. They also liked that they were not only getting the history and tradition, but

also getting it very positively, as opposed to a restrained way. It was urging them to become

better people,≤ he said.

That observation cuts to the core of Keenanπs emphasis on virtue ethics. Itπs

more than problem solving or simply doing good deeds. ≥Itπs the life of the whole person,≤

explained Harrington. ≥Jimπs always building from that life, the life of Christian

spirituality, and how the Christ event informs a personπs life.≤ Itπs ethics from the inside out.

Perhaps no other event has shaken the faithful in the Boston archdiocese as much

as the sex abuse scandal. Yet in the wake of this tragedy, Keenan sees all kinds of

good people, speaking out in positive ways in churches and in the media.

åA great time to be a priestπ

≥Itπs a great time to be a priest,≤ he said, ≥and to be a layperson today.

Thereπs never been more of a need for active laypeople or for caring, active clergy,≤ he said.

≥When have we ever seen so many of our faculty involved with the media and speaking up? And

itπs not like people are knocking on the door, saying, åIπve got something to say. Iπve got

something to do.π People are making real linkages between theology and church history,

biblical studies, systematic theology, and ethics and the life of the church. Itπs just great,

this type of response that is emerging -- most of it from laypeople. Thatπs how I got

involved. Parishioners at St. Peterπs in Cambridge asked, åAre you going to say anything

in your sermons about the crisis?π ≤

Keenan has indeed preached, spoken out and written about the scandal-ridden

local diocese and church universal. One article in particular, published last spring in the

British publication The Tablet, ≥Sex abuse and power,≤ drew fire from the Catholic right. ≥The

molestation and raping of children are not primarily sexual acts, they are violent acts of

power,≤ Keenan wrote. Gay priests are not to blame, he argued.

George Weigel, for example, wrote this: ≥When a prominent Jesuit theologian

argues that the issue in the molestation of teenage boys by priests is not homosexuality but a

distorted sense of åpower,π it seems clear that thereπs a lot left to fix in the

theologianπs guild.≤ Weigel is a senior fellow of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy

Center.

Itπs not so much the ugly name-calling as much as the suspicion and casting of

those with whom one disagrees as outsiders that Keenan finds interesting. ≥Releasing

statements questioning peopleπs orthodoxy -- even of their fellow bishops -- this is not

good for the church,≤ he said. ≥I disagree with plenty of people, but I donπt have to say

they are unorthodox. When you say someone is unorthodox, youπre saying their opinion

should not be heard in your tradition,≤ he explained.

≥I never heard Thomas Aquinas call Peter Lombard unorthodox. But he did say he

was wrong,≤ Keenan added. ≥Itπs very unfortunate that people donπt believe we can

disagree but instead need to mark people, åoutsidingπ them,≤ he said.

Keenan cited the case of Fr. Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the

Priesthood. ≥Now I have disagreed with Don Cozzens [over gay priests], but this

is a great person in the church right now. This is a monsignor who ran a major seminary,

whose book is so important. To question his orthodoxy, whatπs that all about?≤ he said. ≥This

playing of the orthodoxy card is a big problem right now,≤ he added.

Keenan voiced other concerns, emerging in ecclesial life of the church, brought

about by scandal and crisis. During an interview, he identified problems that need to be

addressed, issues such as the ≥culture of administration in the church today that is really

so medieval, with its secrecy and hierarchy, its lack of accountability,≤ he said.

Recently, ≥I read a book by Brian Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights,≤ he said.

≥The concept of personal human rights is not a construct of the Enlightenment, Tierney

argued, but of the famous canon decrees of the 11th through 13th centuries. So, the idea of human

rights came from the church.≤

Yet, ≥Why is it that the notions of due process are so arcane, so unknown in

this archdiocese, in most archdioceses, in our congregations in Rome? We have to be

asking why the institution that gave us personal rights, articulated them, even

institutionalized them, why is it now so far behind the democratic and just instincts we find in other

institutions around the world?≤

These are the kinds of razor-sharp questions and comments that perk up the ears.

Jon Fuller recalled one other occasion a while back when Keenan challenged the

Society of Christian Ethics to deal with the AIDS crisis as it affects the lives of real

people.

Yes, Keenan is ≥tenacious,≤ Fuller said. But, his theological and pastoral voice

is that of mercy. Fuller recalled a comment by Sr. Aelred Timmins, a Scottish nun who

ministers with the homeless and people living with AIDS: ≥ åThe only principle I really need is

mercy,π [she said]. Her insight really struck a chord with Jim,≤ he said.

Freelance journalist Chuck Colbert writes from Cambridge, Mass.

National Catholic Reporter, October 25, 2002

Date Wed, 8 Oct 2003 21:53:52 EDT

To rosarycampaign@faithfulvoice.com

Subject Re: more bkgd on Fr Keenan

Parts

Message Source

Thank you for sending the article by Chuck Colbert on Fr. James Keenan,S.J. (National Catholic Reporter,Oct. 25,2002). Chuck Colbert also had a lengthy article in the Globe,Mar.

31,2002,Focus,sec.E,p.p.1&2. It was titled: "The Spectrum of Belief:The dialogue on gays in the Catholic priesthood is also casting new light on the needs of a far larger group: gays in the congregation." In it  he states:"Without a doubt, gay priests and laity are vital to the church's apostolic mission." He claims that :"Nobody knows how many priests are gay but estimates range from 20 to 50%."Then he goes on to praise the work of the New Ways Ministry and their conference which was called: "Out of Silence God Has Called Us:Lesbian/Gay Issues and the Vatican II Church" "Sister Jeannine Gramick and the Rev. Robert Nugent cofounded the group(New Ways Ministry) in 1997 to provide pastoral ministry for gay and lesbian Catholics." Then he goes on to quote Fr. Richard Lewandowski, St. Camillus, Fitchburg, saying:"I experienced a feeling of unity and solidarity" from being with so many like-minded priests and laity at the conference."Like Lewandowski, many attendees were priests. Some of them were gay. One workshop addressed challenges that gay priests and religious brothers face in dealing with sometimes hostile church leaders"...."Gay brothers and priests talked about their lonliness and need to connect with other gay clergy."  later he states:"Both (Bishop) Matthiesen and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit made a case for primacy of conscience in moral

matters.....Gumbleton said we don't put people out of the church for following their conscience."  Then he goes on to say that "some symposium attendees were already rethinking both secular and sacramental marriage for gays. Theologian Susan Ross, author of "Extravagant Affections:A Feminist Sacramental Theology", discussed the topic, as did others." 

That article appeared in the Globe , March 31,2002.  Chuck Colbert is still furiously beating the drum for demanding that the catholic church allow priests and brothers who profess themselves to be gay to be approved by the Church leaders and by their congregations.  Fr. James Keenan,S.J., is encouraging his students to "speak about ethics and moral theology with their own voice. Nurturing the development of that individual point of view on ethics is a hallmark of Keenan's mentoring style."

According to the attribution in the Globe article from Mar. 2002, "Chuck Colbert of Cambridge, a candidate for a master of divinity degree at the Weston jesuit School of Theology, writes often for the National catholic Register." It appears that Fr. Keenan is just the kind of "Catholic moral theologian" that Chuck Colbert  idolizes!!  And heavens knows idolatry is the focus of his life!! This is made very clear by the article that he wrote about Fr. James Keenan,S.J., for the National Catholic reporter, Oct. 25,2002. Does he also agree with Fr. james keenan,S.J. in his testimony before the Mass. State Legislature asking that they approve gay marriage and opposing the Marriage Affirmation and Protection Amendment? Hopefully Archbishop O'Malley will become aware of how deeply entrenched the kind of teaching of Fr. James Keenan, S.J., has become among the leaders in the Boston Archdiocese, especially in the AIM program which is the source of certification for many of the Religious Education teachers and directors for parishes in the Boston Archdiocese , who have taken courses from the dissident theologians at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and Boston College, where Fr. Keenan will be teaching this year. If only the presidents of these theological departments would accept the requirement of the mandatum,( Ex Ecclesia Corde, I think it's called), and if the Bishops and  Archbishop supported this requirement, at least Catholic parents would be given back their right to know whether the theologians in the Catholic intitutions where their children are supposed to receive true Catholic theology are able to receive what they are paying their hard -earned money for!!  And the religious education instructors and directors will also know whether or not they are being instructed in true Catholic teachings. Otherwise they are being subjected to fraud.

                                                                            ----Alice Slattery 9 OCT 03

Father Walter F. Cuenin

Our Lady Help of Christians parish, Newton

April 10, 2002

To the Honorable Chairpersons and Members

Joint Committee on Public Service

As a Catholic I was pleased when I first saw that my Church was supporting an amendment that would strengthen marriage. Anything we can do to give support to marriage is most necessary today. However, when I analyzed this amendment, I came to realize that there were some serious negative consequences to it. For example:

* Children of gay and lesbian parents may not be able to be adopted and therefore not have the rights and benefits as children of legally married couples. This would hurt many children.

* Two people living together when one is dependent for benefits from the other would be denied protection simply because they were not married. This would mean that there would be more people without health care and other benefits.

* Private companies that now extend benefits to partners of their employees might be discouraged from doing so. This would mean that there would be more people without benefits putting even more pressure on the limited resources of the Commonwealth.

* Couples who choose not to marry would be denied benefits and their children would be unduly deprived simply because of the marital status of their parents.

These negative consequences seem to me to violate the fundamental direction of Catholic social teaching. In the Pastoral Message of the Bishops Committee on Marriage and Family ≥Always Our Children≤ it quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which states that ≥the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any form of injustice, oppression or violence against them.≤ This amendment seems to violate this principle of Catholic teaching.

In addition, the Church is strongly committed to protecting children. Especially in light of the present crisis of abuse, we want to make sure that all children are protected and receive equal rights. This amendment would certainly deprive some children of their rights simply because their parents were not legally married. It does not seem right to punish children if their parents choose not to marry, or cannot legally marry.

In the documents of the Second Vatican Council we read, ≥Forms of social or cultural discrimination in basic personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language or religion, must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with Godπs design.≤ (Gaudium et Spes #29)

It is certainly important for this Commonwealth to support the institution of marriage. But why do we need to do it at the expense of those who are not married, and in a manner that could seriously harm the children of these other relationships? My Church clearly wants to support marriage, but we also are concerned about all people, whether married or not. It would be a travesty if an amendment to strengthen marriage passed that would at the same time deprive many children and other members of our society of basic human rights. That would be totally inconsistent with the Catholic Churchπs teaching of protection for all Godπs people, especially those most at risk.

Father Richard Lewandowski

St. Camillus Parish in Fitchburg

April 10, 2002

To the Honorable Chairpersons and Members Joint Committee on Public Service

My name is Father Richard Lewandowski. I am a Roman Catholic priest serving as pastor at St. Camillus Parish in Fitchburg, as well as campus chaplain at Fitchburg State College. In both of those ministries, my service is to very diverse populations.

As a person who is passionately concerned with strengthening marriage and family life, I spend a good deal of time in ministry trying to promote those attitudes and encourage those activities that will cultivate healthy relationships among spouses and/or family members. Understanding the reality of our age, and a divorce rate that dissolves at least fifty percent of all marriages, I believe it to be imperative that both the Church and the State do all in their power, and join forces, whenever possible, to assist couples in strengthening the bonds of marriage. Divorce, even though necessary and advisable at times, while causing heartache for couples, oftentimes produces disastrous consequences for children.

House Bill 4840, while promoted as a "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment, does nothing to protect or help marriage. While limiting marriage solely to "the union of one man and one woman" it fails to address the divorce factor. It does absolutely nothing about the fact there may be multiple marriages, and countless unions. In fact, this amendment infers that multiple marriages, and countless unions are just fine, as long as these bonds are only of "one man and one woman" at a single time. Also, by stating that "any other relationship shall not be recognized as a marriage or its legal equivalent, nor shall it receive the benefits or incidents exclusive to marriage" it excludes same gender relationships and family units from affirmation and societal support. This does nothing to protect family life. It only weakens it.

My fear is that House Bill 4840, rather than honestly supporting marriage and family life, might be used to encourage unjust discrimination against gay men and lesbian women and their committed relationships and cause inexcusable harm to the children in those relationships. According to Catholic teaching: "It is not sufficient only to avoid unjust discrimination. Homosexual persons åmust be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.π (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2358)" (Always Our Children)

It is for that reason that I ask that House Bill 4840 be rejected by this committee, and voted down by the Massachusetts Legislature.

Sincerely yours,

(Rev.) Richard P. Lewandowski

Momentum is gaining against TAT

Fr. Mullen's letter to Archbishop O'Malley

September 29, 2003

More and more of the false prophets are moving forward with affirmation. I am getting all kinds of emails which are reporting that Christ's Church has indeed fallen here in Boston.

Last Saturday at St. Mary's Church in Franklin Fr. Matthew Habiger, OSB, a visting priest, spoke at all the Masses about his Natural Family Planning Outreach apostolate. Fr. Habiger is very well respected in the prolife movement.

A witness reports that in his sermon, Fr. Habiger said a number of things that are not usually heard anymore from the pulpit regarding the Catholic Church's teachings on contraception and sterilization. He cited statistics about the high rate of recourse to these birth control methods even by Catholics (roughly 80% of married couples, I believe). He also spoke about the tragic divorce rate and the fact that artificial methods of birth regulation lead to a cold-hearted breakdown in the love between husband and wife, where the woman is sometimes used by the

man in his rejection of her gift of fertility bestowed by God. As he

indicated, this is all contrary to God's plan for a loving family life. Although Fr. Habiger did use the phrase "cafeteria Catholics" in reference to those who

dissent from the Church's moral teachings, he nevertheless was very soft-spoken, repeatedly stating that he did not mean to put anyone down. He was

speaking the truth firmly and forthrightly, but with much charity in the tone of his voice.

Fr. Robert Congdon, at teacher of theology at St. John's Seminary in Boston apparently interupted the Liturgy and dissed Fr. Habinger, saying he was "insulting" and "offensive" and rebuked him. There was applause for Fr. Congdon (also filling in for vactioning pastor Fr. Tom Walsh).

Nice to know these imposters are up at the seminary shaping future priests. When does that audit start anyway?

The people of course, left the Mass with Christ's Truth scandalized.

In a further disgusting development, apparently the pastor has ordered a retraction and apology for the offensive homily to be placed in the bulletin.

You won't read that in the Pilot!

Perhaps we will find Wendell Verrill exclaiming that those of us complaining are giving misinformation about what it is to be Roman Catholic.

That is Walter's new job!

Carol McKinley FaithfulVoice.com

Gay Catholics struggle to maintain faith in church

By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff, 10/13/2003

Grace Kelemanik, Catholic and lesbian, has worshiped with her partner at a suburban Boston parish for more than seven years. Their baby daughter was baptized there. Kelemanik has served on church committees, taught religious education classes to parish children.

But it's not easy being both gay and Catholic lately.

Not with the newly installed archbishop telling the faithful that gay marriage tears at the family. Not with the Vatican declaring that same-sex marriages "go against natural moral law," and objecting to adoption by gays and lesbians because it does "violence" to the adopted children. Not with other gays and lesbians turning their backs on the Catholic Church.

And yet, Kelemanik has stayed put. She remains Catholic, not merely because she hopes to change the enormous institution from within, though that is part of it: Kelemanik stays Catholic because she was born into this church, and believes her Catholicism is as immutable as her lesbianism.

"I was raised Catholic," said Kelemanik, 41. "It's my faith. And I know it might sound ridiculous -- I feel like it's almost getting more ridiculous these days -- but I believe God made me as I am, and that's not a bad thing. . . . It's not like I could just go and pick another religion: `Oh, I'll be Episcopalian.' It's what I believe and who I am. And [other Catholics] get to see me and my family, and know we're not all crazy sexual deviants."

The competing tugs of faith and sexual identity have been felt keenly in Massachusetts, home to large, thriving communities of gays and Catholics. The conflict is made more intense because the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is currently considering whether to grant marriage licenses to gays and lesbians, making the state a major battleground in the war over same-sex marriage.

While Kelemanik doesn't think she has to choose between her sexual preference and her church right now, other gay and lesbian Catholics have been plunged into turmoil.

"I am very seriously considering how much longer I can stay in a faith tradition that is so hostile to me," said Chuck Colbert, a gay Catholic journalist. "With the hindsight of history you see this, too, shall pass. But I'm 48, and I don't have the rest of my life to wait till somebody in Rome has a transformative epiphany, and the goodness and graciousness of gay life becomes apparent. "

Charles Martel, a psychotherapist who worships at the Jesuit Urban Center, a South End church that has welcomed gays, knows plenty of gay Catholics whose membership in the church has not survived this year.

"It certainly is a struggle, and there are times when it's very easy to see how it wears people down," he said. "People question you and wonder, `How do you do this?' They shake their heads in disbelief, and at times I think that myself: `Is it a healthy thing to be part of the church and be gay?' "

But Martel, 49, has decided that the only way to change attitudes in the Catholic church is to remain visible within it.

"It is our church, and so the idea of leaving it has this whole, being pushed out [feeling]," he said. "I think that's why it's so important to stay, but to be visible and vocal. If you remain silent, that's how you integrate the sense of shame and self-hatred, so you have to take an active role. I know in time, as other things have changed, the church will come to understand [it was wrong about same-sex marriage]. Some future pope will have to realize this was an error."

While the messages from the Vatican on same-sex marriage anger gays and lesbians, many of them find the church a far more welcoming place once they're sitting in their own parishes on Sundays.

"The reality is that every Sunday, lesbian and gay singles and couples and families gather for worship. They may be more or less out, they may be more or less comfortable sitting in those pews, but they're there. They sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, distribute Communion, work in church offices, they do all the things other parishioners do," said Marianne Duddy, a member of DignityUSA, a national gay and lesbian group that has been critical of the church's official statements on marriage and adoption.

Though the church has been clear about its stance on same-sex marriage, and about teaching that "sexual activity between gay people is not approved, it has also been clear that gay people have a place in the church and the church itself should do outreach to gay people and the families of gay people, and protect their rights," said the Rev. Walter Cuenin, pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Newton. Cuenin's church is known in the area as one that welcomes gays and lesbians, and hosts a gay and lesbian faith sharing group.

He said he had seen many Catholics, including heterosexuals, struggling to stay in the church over the last couple of years, not just because of its stand on social issues, but also because of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

"It has been a huge test of their faith, and some people have walked away," Cuenin said. "Right now the big task for the church is to find ways to go after these people and bring them back."

Even without that outreach, Kelemanik and other gays and lesbians feel mostly comfortable in mainstream parishes across Massachusetts, just as divorcees and abortion rights supporters whose beliefs diverge from church teachings do. They share an abiding belief that what happens on Sundays in some Catholic parishes has little to do with edicts from on high. Some priests chose not to read to their congregations a May letter from bishops urging all Catholics to oppose same-sex marriage and back a constitutional amendment defining marriage only as the union of a man and a woman.

"I answer to a higher person than the Vatican," said John F. Kelly, also a member of the Jesuit Urban Center.

Kelly's partner will not step foot in a Catholic church, he said. Kelly and other gay Catholics said they are sometimes challenged by their friends, who don't understand why they remain in a church that opposes gay causes.

"But I found a place to go and worship, I found wonderful people, and I am answering to one person, and that's God," he said.

Besides, said Kelly, 60, it's not as if he has much choice. The heavy ritual in which he was raised, now inextricable from his spirituality, has been impossible to match in other churches.

"I walked into one church, and I didn't feel like I was in a church," he said. "And I went to an Episcopal church, it was almost as good but not quite the same. I was brought up Catholic, and it's hard to leave it."

But even Kelemanik acknowledges her Catholicism, which seems indelible now, may yet prove untenable as the war over same-sex marriage intensifies. "My partner and I talk frequently about what life will be like," she said. "We're looking ahead a couple of years and can imagine the gay issue is going to become the focus for the Catholic church that the abortion issue had been, and it could potentially get uncomfortable for us, and we may bail. But for now, we feel we do more good by staying."

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

© Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Date Tue, 16 Dec 2003 22:05:26 -0500

From Alice Slattery

To

Subject co-leader of Priests Forum,Fr.Bob Bullock

I find it odd that none of the viewers of the NECN documentary on Fr.

Paul Shanley on Dec. 3rd and 4th, have asked the reporters who are

investigating the scandal why they haven't asked Fr. Bob Bullock hard

questions about his failure to supervise Fr. Shanley as he acknowledged

he was supposed to do , during the time when Fr. Shanley was the "street

priest" and Fr. Bullock and he shared the same office.

Certainly Fr. Bullock had to know, when he acknowledged that he took many phone calls

for Fr. Shanley from parents and family members who were concerned

about their children's acting out in a homosexual manner and making

connections with other kids to engage in their acts, that Fr. Shanley

was advising the parents and friends to support their child's

homosexuality(which certainly included the behavior which characterizes

the condition).

Certainly Fr. Bob Bullock knows that this acceptance is

in opposition to the Church's teaching that homosexual acts are never

to be approved.

If that didn't send red flag warnings to Fr. Bullock that he had better

supervise Fr. Shanley very closely, then there was a reason for Fr.

Bullock to deliberately refuse to supervise him.

I wonder why no one is asking Fr. Bob Bullock hard questions about his failure to supervise

Fr. Shanley, especially since Elaine Noble, the gay Mass. representative,

said that many people in the gay culture in Boston were

very aware of the fact that Fr. Shanley was bringing his young male

charges into the gay bars and health clubs.

Also, who were the Globe reporters who were covering the Street Priest scene which apparently

was a big item in the newspapers at that time?

Are there no reporters picking up on this failure to supervise by Fr. Bullock?

--Alice

The main question has been avoided.

We at FaithfulVoice.com would like a clarification of the following statement :

What are the anti-gay edicts of The Roman Catholic Church ?

ä.practicing gay and lesbian Catholics over the past several years, many have managed to make peace with the Church despite its anti-gay edicts.

Following is the text of my letter to the Exec. Dir. of St. Anthony's at

Arch Street about their outreach to gays and lesbians, and their reply

to my "twisted logic"!! First, the text of the "Bay Windows" article.

The entire article from Bay Windows follows the exchanged letters.

COTTER LETTER TO ST. ANTHONY'S:

March 4, 2003

Father David Convertino, O.F.M.

Saint Anthony's Shrine

100 Arch Street

Boston, MA 02110

Dear Father Convertino:

This letter is in reply to your 2003 Franciscan Campaign and also to the

recent initiatives on the part of St. Anthony's to reach out to

homosexuals who are Catholic.

Catholic laity have a right to expect that the product offered by Church

institutions, which we support with our donations, be truly Catholic,

i.e., consistent with the Magisterium of the Church. Otherwise, we have

been defrauded.=20

Among the recent material at St. Anthony's relating to the outreach to

homosexuals, I have seen no reference to the provision by St. Anthony's

of anything that explicitly assists homosexuals to live chastely, as all

Catholics need to do. Indeed, the article from Bay Windows [enclosed],

which was posted in St. Anthony's, suggests the opposite. Attributed to

you is the observation that many homosexual Catholics have made "peace

with the Church despite its anti-gay edicts." The clear implication of

that statement is that the Church's teaching is wrong and that

homosexuals are being "helped" to rationalize unchaste living, while

regarding certain moral teachings of the Church as matter foreign to the

Body of Christ-and therefore best dispensed with.

To "heal wounds" in the spirit of St. Francis is impossible if we deny

that a wound is a wound, insisting instead that it's healthy, intact

tissue. Healing wounds of sexuality is difficult; and if certain parties

in our Church withhold or distort the Truth that sets people free of the

malady - because the remedial measures may be temporarily more

uncomfortable - then the malady becomes terminal.

As Catholics, we need and are entitled to the weapons that only the

Church can provide in order to prevail in the battle for virtue.

So, is it the policy of St. Anthony's Shrine to be consistent with the

Magisterium of the Church in all of its activities?

Sincerely yours in Christ,

William Cotter

____________________________

REPLY TO LETTER:

March 17, 2003

Mr. William Cotter

P.O. Box 870037

Milton Village, MA 02187

Dear Mr. Cotter:

Thank you for your recent letter concerning the 2003 Franciscan

Campaign. We always welcome feedback and suggestions from our St.

Anthony Shrine community.

Let me begin by saying that the Franciscan Campaign is a response to the

gospel call of Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus makes it very clear how we

will be judged:

by our response to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting

the sick, and welcoming the stranger. St. Anthony's Feed the Children,

Bread for the Poor, Wellness Center, Center for Social Concerns, and

Hispanic Ministry apostolates are all programs which are a direct

response to that gospel mandate. The Lazarus Program, which buries the

unwanted dead, is a response to the Christian call to the corporal works

of mercy. The Franciscan Campaign funds all these and other programs

such as our Center for Spiritual Direction and Franciscan Counseling

Services.

Accordingly, it is most unfortunate and quite puzzling that your

rationale for not participating in our campaign centers on what you

refer to as our initiative to "reach out to homosexuals who are

Catholic." Let me state that our outreach to gays and lesbians is a

response to Jesus' very own ministry of seeking out those who were

marginalized in His own day. Further, your remarks concerning the

content of our program for gays and lesbians are totally groundless. In

your distorted logic, you have reached the conclusion that our outreach

to gays and lesbians is an indication that we have "dispensed with the

moral teachings of the Church." Such a statement is not only totally

false, but a serious, un-Christian affront to such people who come here

seeking an experience of God in their lives. It is difficult to

understand, Mr. Cotter, how you can judge a program here at St.

Anthony's without knowing anything about its purpose and content. Rather

than being based on the facts, your observations are made by pure

conjecture.

For over 50 years, St. Anthony Shrine has been a place of welcome for

all. The day we begin closing doors to people who are searching for God

is the day we have ceased living the gospel.

Sincerely yours in St. Francis,

Rev. Brian E. Smail

Assistant Executive Director

Franciscans welcome gay Catholics

Boston's St. Anthony Shrine has new director

By Beth Berlo ,Baywindows 6 Feb 03

Fr. David Convertino, OFM, Guardian and Executive Director of St. Anthony Shrine, The Church on Arch Street, has instituted programs which reach out to the gay and lesbian community and to people living with HIV and AIDS.

The St. Anthony Shrine in Boston has long been home to people from all walks of life, but now, with the recent arrival of Fr. David Convertino, guardian and executive director, gays and lesbians could begin to make an increased presence at "the church on Arch Street" as it's commonly known.

St. Anthony's Shrine is a center for Roman Catholic ministry directed by the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Boston.

Convertino, who spent several years at the St. Francis Chapel in Providence prior to arriving on Arch Street, said from what he's observed among practicing gay and lesbian Catholics over the past several years, many have managed to make peace with the church despite its anti-gay edicts.

Nevertheless, following the recent priest sex abuse scandal, Convertino said, "Some have been hurt by the linking of homosexuality and pedophilia, and the ensuing scapegoating [of gay priests]. They are conflicted and are getting mixed signals from the Church."

However, Convertino says he is consistently struck by what he calls "an enormous amount of resiliency and creativity" in the gay community, which he believes is a direct result of years of repression. A growing number of practicing gay and lesbian Catholics, he believes, will rise above the church's handling of the scandal and begin returning to their places of worship, or perhaps surrogate institutions such as the shrine.

More and more, Convertino said, the gay and lesbian community "is seeking spirituality and a home where they will be welcomed."

As an effort to reach out to the gay community, St. Anthony's will hold a gay and lesbian Sunday brunch Dec. 8, which it calls an "Afternoon of Reflection: Body, Mind & Spirit."

Convertino and two other Franciscan leaders will help facilitate the event, described as a kick-off for other gay and lesbian events. "Essentially, it focuses on how we take care of ourselves as human beings," Convertino said.

As part of the discussion, three questions will be weighed, Convertino said: "How do you view your body? How do you take care of yourself? What constitutes healthy body, mind, and a healthy spirit?"

There are certain things that happen when someone has a healthy spirit, Convertino said: "Certain qualities emerge from that person. How do we integrate this with ourselves and relate it to others?"

When a person is perceived as different, they often operate on that belief, Convertino explained. As an example, he noted the number of gay stereotypes such as the gay florists and hairdressers, who he said, "turn the [stereotype] around and use it beneficially. I think the same is true for clergy."

As a Franciscan Friar, Convertino took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. That would be perceived as "different" in our society because people don't want to be those things, "with the exception of obedience hopefully," he said, laughing. "But we can take those differences and do wonderful things with them. We've done phenomenal things for the Church."

The Franciscans pride themselves on opening their doors to everyone. Places run by order priests, like the Franciscans, generally operate at arms' length from a diocese. They need permission of the bishop in this case, Cardinal Bernard Law-to do ministry in a diocese. But once that's granted, they are generally left alone, unless they do something that goes against diocesan policy. Then the bishop can issue a reprimand or threaten to withdraw his approval.

Order priests such as the Jesuits and Fran-ciscans are part of a community that follows a particular founder's rule or ministry. The Fran-ciscans, for example, have a particular ministry to the poor. They can say Mass and perform sacraments just like diocesan priests. The defining difference is that diocesan priests are ordained to serve a particular area, such as Boston, and report directly to the bishop. Order priests on the other hand, can be sent anywhere in the world their order works. They generally elect leadership from within their community, and have only secondary allegiance to a local bishop.

Since Convertino's arrival, the St. Anthony Shrine has undergone several renovation overhauls. Among them is a renovated upper chapel, which Convertino boasts as "absolutely magnificent." The stained glass is considered some of the best in the country, he said. In addition, a new sound system and lighting was installed in preparation for their "beefed up" music ministry. The church is also more disabled accessible than it used be.

Over the past several years, Convertino has worked extensively with what he describes as "a very large gay community" in Providence. In addition, he was instrumental in implementing a home for people living with AIDS in Cumberland, R.I.

On Dec. 1, in recognition of World AIDS Day, St. Anthony's Shrine will hold a liturgy with special attention to people living with HIV/AIDS and those who have died from AIDS-related illness. A reception follows in the St. Anthony auditorium.

Quoting St. Francis because it "sums up what we do," Convertino said, "We are called to heal wounds, unite what has fallen apart, and bring home those who have lost their way."

(The Dec. 8 gay and lesbian brunch is free and open to the public. For more information on this event or other services at St. Anthony's Shrine, call 617-437-6200 or visit www.stanthonyshrine.org.)

And then let us suppose that the superior of this priest appointed him

to be the pastor or guardian of a large church in the center of Rome and

upon assuming this assignment, the priest announced that this centrally

located church, serving for decades Catholics from all over the

metropolitan area and surrounding towns, would now begin a special

mission to the area's homosexual community.

Questions:

1.  Is Rome guilty of incorrect moral teaching and "anti-gay edicts" ? 

2.  Or is the Church faithfully reflecting what the Bible tells us on this subject?

3.  Would such a priest be betraying the Word of God or sending a mixed message to the people he is trying to draw to that Church? 

4.  Would the superior or provincial, making such an appointment, be called to the Roman chancery for an accounting?

5.  Would oversight of such a situation be the responsibility of a "Commission of lay people" somewhere or the responsibility of Rome? 

Central question:

6. If Church authorities would not allow this situation in Rome, why would they allow it in Boston?

More information re: St Anthony Shrine , Boston

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RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

Newton parishioners hold vigil to protest pastor's resignation

By Mark Pratt, Associated Press Writer  |  September 27, 2005

BOSTON --Parishioners in Newton held an overnight prayer vigil to protest the ouster of an outspoken Catholic priest and accused the archdiocese of trying to weed out dissenting voices in a "witch hunt."

The Rev. Walter Cuenin was asked to step down as pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton for financial improprieties that violated archdiocesan rules and Canon law, the archdiocese said in a release Monday.

The archdiocese said that Cuenin improperly accepted a stipend in excess of archdiocesan policies from the parish, drove a car leased by the parish and accepted compensation from the parish and archdiocese during a sabbatical. The archdiocese has asked Cuenin to reimburse the parish between $75,000 and $85,000, which he indicated in a statement he intends to do.

Cuenin will likely be reassigned, and the Rev. Christopher Coyne has been named the new pastor of Our Lady, said archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon.

Some parishioners dismissed the archdiocese's reasons for removing Cuenin and said he was targeted because of his history of speaking out.

"It has all the earmarks of a witch hunt and must be stopped," said Margaret Roylance, an Our Lady parishioner.

Cuenin was an critic of former Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law's handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis and was one of 58 Boston-area priests who signed a letter in 2002 calling for Law's resignation.

He has also questioned some church teachings on gays and the ordination of woman. Between December 2002 and September 2003, the archdiocese banned archdiocesan gatherings at his church after Cuenin aired some of those views in The New Yorker Magazine.

Cuenin also allowed the parish's Voice of the Faithful chapter to meet on church property. Voice of the Faithful, a lay group founded in response to the clergy abuse crisis, has often been at odds with church hierarchy and is banned from meeting at some parishes.

Cuenin declined to criticize the archdiocese during interviews after a pre-arranged talk in Dedham on Monday night. But he said the archdiocese never objected to his compensation during several previous audits of the parish.

"I feel sad to leave Newton," Cuenin told The Boston Globe. "I understand the people's sorrow and loss, but I hope they welcome their new pastor."

Coyne, the former spokesman for the archdiocese, is seen as a loyalist to archdiocesan leadership. He said he understood the concerns of parishioners.

"I'm going to the parish very excited but also very apprehensive because I know people are upset," he told the Boston Herald.

Members of Our Lady's finance council said they approved Cuenin's expenditures and were unaware they were in violation of church rules. They also said the archdiocese has audited the church's finances several times -- but not in the past four years -- and never before objected to the stipend or car lease.

The church's previous pastor had received similar benefits without objection from the archdiocese, and Cuenin was removed without being given a chance to rectify the situation, Roylance said.

The rules about stipends and expense reimbursements are regularly updated and circulated to all clergy, the archdiocese said.

"Rev. Cuenin's resignation was requested in accordance with archdiocesan policy, which is consistently applied throughout the archdiocese," church officials said in a statement.

An estimated 400 people attended the start of the all-night vigil, including Newton Mayor David Cohen, Roylance said. Cuenin did not attend.

Our Lady was dedicated in 1881 and currently serves 2,900 households. In 2001, Our Lady was named one of the top eight parishes in the United States in the book "Excellent Catholic Parishes." 

Archdiocese names insider to replace outspoken pastor

Newton parish protests ouster

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff  |  September 27, 2005

The Archdiocese of Boston, just days after ousting an outspoken critic of the Catholic hierarchy from the pastorate of one of the most vibrant churches in the region, has appointed the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a chancery insider and former spokesman for Cardinal Bernard F. Law and Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, to take his place.

Parishioners at Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton, already furious over the forced resignation of their longtime pastor, the Rev. Walter H. Cuenin, said they were troubled by the choice because Coyne had been the voice of the church administration during the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the start of the parish closings process.

Cuenin, who had served two consecutive six-year terms as pastor of Our Lady's, announced last weekend that he was resigning after the archdiocese accused him of financial improprieties. The archdiocese said yesterday that Cuenin must now reimburse the church $75,000 to $80,000 for improper financial practices.

But parish leaders, including members of the parish and finance councils, said the archdiocese was selectively enforcing little-known policies. They said those lay-led boards had repeatedly approved the payments, including a $500 monthly payment from the parish for the performance of baptisms, weddings, and funerals, and the parish-financed lease of a Honda Accord that was shared with visiting priests. They also said they believed the arrangements to be fully in compliance with archdiocesan regulations and similar to arrangements at other parishes.

Last night, about 300 parishioners angered over Cuenin's ouster gathered on the front lawn of Our Lady's in the pouring rain, with candles flickering beneath umbrellas and then filed into the church basement where they planned to hold a vigil overnight. When parishioner Margaret Roylance called for ''the immediate reinstatement of Father Walter Cuenin," other members of the parish responded with raucous applause, tears, and foot stomping.

Parish leaders said they believe that Cuenin was targeted for ouster because he was a prominent leader of local priests who helped organize a letter calling for Law to resign, who reached out to gays and lesbians, and who frequently suggested that the church should at least discuss the possibility of ordaining married men and giving greater roles to women. The archdiocese denied that Cuenin was targeted for any reason other than financial improprieties.

Last night in Dedham, Cuenin, after giving a previously scheduled speech on the role of the laity, declined to criticize the archdiocese. But he said that church officials had raised no objections about his compensation during several previous audits of the parish.

''I feel sad to leave Newton," Cuenin said. ''I understand the people's sorrow and loss, but I hope they welcome their new pastor."

During his tenure, Cuenin had been summoned to the chancery on several occasions to explain remarks he made in homilies or, once, in a statement to the Legislature opposing a bill that he believed would bar certain benefits for same-sex couples by defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And for 10 months, from December 2002 to September 2003, the archdiocese banned archdiocesan gatherings at Our Lady's after Cuenin was quoted in The New Yorker magazine questioning church teachings on gays and women.

Cuenin briefly attempted to lower his public profile, but earlier this month, in his parish bulletin, he suggested he was sympathetic to gay couples who were married, writing, ''It doesn't appear that anyone's marriage has been threatened or compromised by the 1,800 gay marriages that have already taken place in the past year."

Cuenin was a frequent target of the most conservative elements of the church locally, who wrote on blogs and in e-mails of their views that he was a heretic who should be ousted from the priesthood. One of the blogs used the headline ''this is fun" on a link to a newspaper story about Cuenin's resignation.

''This is a witch-hunt, not more, not less," said Gisela Morales-Barreto of Newton, a parishioner at Our Lady's for 20 years. ''They were trying to find something against him, and it took them all this time to make it happen. This is their way to punish him and punish us for how outspoken he has been. And now the one thing we have feared all along is happening -- that if Walter will leave us, they will send someone from the other extreme to put the brakes on what this community is all about. Chris Coyne is in the opposite end of what Walter is all about."

Coyne, in a brief telephone interview yesterday, said he understood the concerns of parishioners. ''I think the most important thing, given the present situation, is just to try and listen to people and also to be available to people," he said. ''Over time, I hope to work with them, to continue to build the good faith life and community that is already present at Our Lady's."

Coyne, 47, currently teaches liturgical theology at St. John's Seminary in Brighton and assists at parishes in Medfield and Holliston. He said that he spent time at Our Lady's over the course of three years in seminary, when he conducted a parish census, and that the Our Lady's parish choir sang at his first Mass, in his hometown of Woburn, in 1986.

''I have a great affection for Our Lady's and already know it somewhat, and I hope to be able to return to the people of Our Lady's some of the support and kindness and Christian love that they showed me when I was a student," Coyne said. His appointment is effective today.

O'Malley's current spokesman, Terrence C. Donilon, defended Coyne's selection, saying: ''Father Coyne is an immensely talented, devoted, and caring priest. The archbishop holds Father Coyne in the highest regard and knows he will do a superb job as pastor."

Our Lady's is one of the largest parishes in the archdiocese, with average weekend Mass attendance of 1,895 people and 201 baptisms, 118 funerals, and 92 weddings a year.

Late yesterday, the archdiocese issued a three-paragraph statement saying Cuenin's resignation was requested because of financial practices that ''do not comport with archdiocesan policy, canon law, or archdiocesan statutes."

The archdiocese said those practices included ''Mass stipends taken at a rate in excess of that permitted by canon law and archdiocesan statutes; automobile expenses funded by the parish in excess of archdiocesan policies for expense reimbursement, which are updated regularly and circulated to all clergy; and compensation taken from both the parish and the archdiocese for the same time period time during a sabbatical."

The archdiocese did not disclose the current level of permissible reimbursement for Mass or for vehicle costs.

The lay leadership of the Newton parish -- members of the parish and finance councils-- used unusually strong language to defend the former pastor. The parish council, in a statement issued before the archdiocese spoke, said ''the allegations of financial impropriety are ridiculous on their face."

''Father Cuenin has been one of the leading voices of protest and inquiry throughout the scandal of clerical sexual abuse," the statement said. ''We do not consider it a coincidence that the archdiocese has now created a way to force Father Cuenin out of his pastorship, and we find it deceitful, cowardly, and immoral to pretend that parish finances have anything to do with his departure."

In a separate statement, the parish finance council said the stipend in question predated Cuenin's arrival at the parish, and was a practice ''that the finance council knew about and fully supported." The council said the leased automobile was the idea of the finance council, which thought both practices complied with archdiocesan policy.

The chairman of the board of the Boston Priests Forum, the Rev. Thomas A. Mahoney, said he cannot understand what the archdiocese is doing.

''I see this as a very focused application of a diocesan policy that for the 12 years of Father Cuenin's stewardship was approved by previous audits, and the violations themselves are of a nature that no reasonable person could consider as greedy, secret, or malfeasance of any kind," Mahoney said. ''There were many opportunities along the way to ask him to correct those policies, and that was never done, so I don't understand why that would be applied so harshly at this moment."

Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.  

BRIAN MCGRORY

Smear tactics

By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist  |  September 27, 2005

Let's see if I have this right. The Catholic Church is facing a severe shortage of priests. Sunday Mass is so empty it's starting to look like a meeting of the Cambridge Republican Club. The contribution basket has been coming up nearly empty.

So what does Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley do? Here's exactly what he does: He fires the popular pastor at one of the most successful parishes in the entire state, a rare church constantly filled with communicants, bustling with weddings, brimming with christenings, welcoming to people of all types. A priest who should be held up as an example is cut down in shame.

But that's not all. Rather than be up front with parishioners, rather than explain that the Rev. Walter Cuenin is being relieved of his Newton post because his views on hot-button topics such as homosexuality and women differ markedly with those of Catholic leaders, rather than just admit that Cuenin was never a favorite among higher-ups because he was so critical of the church during the sex scandal, O'Malley chose a markedly different path. He chose to smear Cuenin for driving a parish-funded, parish-approved lease car.

That's right: After silently shuffling pedophiles from one town to another to prey on fresh batches of children, the archdiocese is finally cracking down on wayward priests -- for driving Hondas.

Honestly, I want to think nice things about the Catholic Church and its leaders. I want to report that the Boston Archdiocese has turned the proverbial corner, that it understands the horror of its recent past and is looking to make amends with the people who need its ministry most.

I want to write nice things about the hundreds of achingly selfless nuns and priests who feed the hungry and shelter the indigent and guide so many poor souls who inevitably get lost along the way. They do this every single day.

But O'Malley and his insipid advisers, leftovers from Cardinal Bernard F. Law's long reign of incompetence and malevolence, make this somewhere beyond hard.

How hard? Consider, for a moment, one of the most active and devout Catholics in town, Peter Meade, the chairman of Catholic Charities, a guy so virtuous he can make you feel guilty just by contrast. When I called him yesterday, he was sputtering, he was that angry. ''I don't know how we can afford to lose good pastors," Meade said. ''But if this church has a problem with a pastor, they ought to deal with that, rather than this incredible stretch of having a parish think that because their priest leased a Honda, that it's some sort of egregious sin."

Quietly, archdiocesan leaders have warned Catholic Charities not to expect any church contribution to the upcoming budget. That amounts to a million dollars that now goes toward food pantries, homeless shelters, immigrant programs, and the like. Gone.

Still, it comes to my attention that the archdiocese was able to find $687,000 recently to buy a house in West Roxbury on behalf of Richard Bradford, a former Episcopal priest who left his church in a dispute and was ordained as a Catholic priest under Cardinal Law in 1998, despite being married.

Bradford and his wife were apparently displaced when church property was sold to Boston College. One logical option would have been to assign them to one of the little-used rectories in the area. But Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, said, ''Since he's married, you can't do that."

Why not? Because that's the way it is. Walter Cuenin gets canned for driving a Honda while the church buys a favored priest an expensive new place to live. Any real estate agent will tell you that $687,000 still gets an awful lot of house in West Roxbury.

Of course, none of it, absolutely none of it, should come as any surprise. The same collection of incompetents who locked a bunch of children out of their grammar school in Brighton now smear and fire a popular priest in Newton.

Supporters of priest plan protests over his ouster

By Marie Szaniszlo

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - Updated: 02:51 AM EST

Supporters of a popular Newton priest forced to resign on what they call trumped-up charges began organizing last night to pressure the Archdiocese of Boston into reinstating him.

     Friends of Our Lady Help of Christians plans a series of protests beginning Sunday, after the Rev. Walter Cuenin's final Mass and reception at the parish he has headed for 12 years.

     ``There's probably no better pastor in the Archdiocese of Boston,'' said John Moynihan, spokesman for the lay group Voice of the Faithful. ``It's very clear it's retaliation, and the priests of the archdiocese know that. There's a climate of fear.''

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley asked for Cuenin's resignation last week, claiming that he improperly accepted a stipend in excess of archdiocesan policies from the parish, drove a car leased by the parish and accepted compensation from both the parish and archdiocese during a sabbatical.

     Cuenin has agreed to reimburse the parish between $75,000 and $85,000, even though the parish's own finance council approved his earnings and the archdiocese never objected in the past.

     His supporters say Cuenin was pressured to resign for questioning church views on women and gays, and for signing a December 2002 letter calling for the resignation of O'Malley's predecessor.

What's next?

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.  

Priest blames bishop for his ouster

By Marie Szaniszlo

Sunday, September 25, 2005

The popular and controversial Rev. Walter Cuenin bid Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton farewell yesterday, making the shocking charge from the pulpit that Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley had forced his resignation - by alleging that the car the congregation leased for Cuenin's use and the monthly stipend they paid him for the last 12 years violate archdiocesan policy.

     The charges so angered parishioners that, in a highly unusual move, their own finance council signed a statement saying that the council itself had recommended leasing the car, that the parish had paid priests a stipend before Cuenin even arrived in 1993 and the archdiocese's own audits had never questioned either practice.

     ``This is clearly such a pretextural reason for getting rid of him. It shows not only is (O'Malley) completely inept, but mean-spirited enough to try to impugn the integrity of Father Cuenin instead of telling the truth, which is that he's simply not in step with the archbishop's demands,'' said Andrew Gately, who has been a parishioner for five years.

     Many others in the nearly standing-room-only congregation lashed out at O'Malley for pressuring another beloved, outspoken priest to resign in what they called a growing pattern of intimidation to quell dissent.

     ``This is hypocrisy. This is a shame,'' Margaret Hamiah said.

     O'Malley's spokesman declined to comment yesterday.

     Cuenin has openly questioned church policies on women and gays, and was one of more than 50 priests who called on O'Malley's predecessor, Bernard Cardinal Law, to resign in December 2002 after revelations he had transferred known child molesters from parish to parish.

     Several other priests who called for Law's resignation, including the Rev. Robert Bowers of St. Catherine of Sienna in Charlestown and the Rev. Ronald Coyne of St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, have since resigned to try to spare their parishes from being closed by O'Malley.

     Cuenin urged his flock not to protest. ``Please do not harbor any ill will toward the bishop. If you could put your energies into keeping this parish strong, that will be the greatest gift you could give to me,'' he said.

Outspoken priest moving on: Cuenin called for Law's ouster

By Marie Szaniszlo

Saturday, September 24, 2005 - Updated: 02:39 PM EST

The Rev. Walter Cuenin, the Newton clergyman who organized priests who questioned church policies and called for the resignation of Bernard Cardinal Law, is expected to announce today that he is relocating.

     Cuenin did not return calls last night and a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston would not comment on his status at Our Lady Help of Christians. But a parish source yesterday said he is expected to announce that he is stepping down after a decade as pastor.

      ``He has been not only one of the most courageous pastors, but one of the few that has spoken out when it mattered most,'' said Peter Borre, a member of the Council of Parishes. ``He will be missed. One has to wonder whether this resignation is completely voluntary.''

     After arriving at Our Lady, Cuenin reinvigorated the parish, welcoming both ``people who are very devout Catholics and people who are hanging on by their fingernails.''

     He openly questioned the Vatican's policies on gays and women. And in December 2002, he was among a group of priests who signed a letter calling for Law's resignation after revelations the cardinal transferred priests who were known child molesters from parish to parish.

     ``It must have been very difficult for him to speak out against someone who was not only his boss but who was, at least at one time, his friend,'' said John Hynes, a member of the steering committee of the Boston council of Voice of the Faithful, a group that has lobbied for greater lay involvement in the Catholic Church. ``Everyone respects him for the courage that took.''

     Cuenin remains one of the leaders of the Boston Priests Forum, a group of clergymen that meets to discuss, and sometimes question, church policy. After he invited 100 priests to attend a discussion about church fund-raising, Law banned his parish from hosting official archdiocese events.

     Yet, to date, Cuenin has continued to allow the Boston council of Voice of the Faithful to meet monthly in the basement of Our Lady Help of Christians.

     His independence garnered national attention, including profiles in the New Yorker and Paul Wilkes' ``Excellent Catholic Parishes'' and, most recently, a documentary shown last week at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Parishioners plead to keep ousted pastor

By Jessica Fargen and Bernie Smith/ Boston Herald/Newton TAB

Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - Updated: 09:02 AM EST

As angry parishioners and politicians launched a vigil last night to protest the ouster of the Rev. Walter Cuenin from Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton, an Archdiocese of Boston insider was named to replace him.

     The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, who served as the archdiocese spokesman at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, is Our Lady's new pastor as of today.

     ``I'm going to the parish very excited but also very apprehensive because I know that people are upset,'' Coyne said.

     Cuenin was removed late last week. The archdiocese has stated that an audit turned up unauthorized stipends and car expenses paid to Cuenin by the parish totaling more than $75,000. Many church critics contend Cuenin's questioning of the church hierarchy and outspoken support for gay rights led to his ouster.

     On his move from a position close to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley to a defiant parish, Coyne said: ``I don't have any agenda other than to be a good pastor.'' Coyne was a professor at St. John's Seminary in 2002 when he was assigned to the archdiocesan public relations office, fielding questions about church law and theology at first.

     Eventually he took over the office, becoming an adept if seemingly reluctant public face of the archdiocese. Coyne said he hopes to ``help the parish to move forward in a very strong and faith-filled way.''

     Protestors Protesters at Our Lady Help of Christians began what was to be a 12-hour vigil last night. Newton's Jewish mayor and an openly gay Catholic senator spoke to a spillover crowd in support of Cuenin.

     Newton Mayor David Cohen called Cuenin ``a leader, a teacher, a healer, a mentor.''

     State Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) said that when priests protested the handling of the sex-abuse crisis, ``The leader of those priests was your priest Walter Cuenin . . . while others did nothing, he stood up.''

     Reacting to the news of Coyne's appointment, parishioner Donna Giovannini said, ``We want to keep Walter Cuenin here. He is the spirit of this church and the leader of this community.'' Christina Jameson, one of many Catholics who came from other parishes to Cuenin, said of Coyne, ``If there is anything they could do that would be more offensive, that is it.''

      Meanwhile, Cuenin himself struck a conciliatory note after giving a pre-arranged talk on the involvement of laity in church affairs at St. Susanna's in Dedham last night. He did not address his ouster in his speech, though he told his audience, ``it was a ray of hope'' to be speaking to them.

     ``Nothing is going to change the decision,'' Cuenin said afterward. He said he was pleased with his parishioners' support, but he did not want to encourage protest against the archdiocese.

     Cuenin will live at St. Julia's in Weston while awaiting a new assignment.

Archdiocese names insider to replace outspoken pastor

Newton parish protests ouster

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff  |  September 27, 2005

The Archdiocese of Boston, just days after ousting an outspoken critic of the Catholic hierarchy from the pastorate of one of the most vibrant churches in the region, has appointed the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a chancery insider and former spokesman for Cardinal Bernard F. Law and Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, to take his place.

Parishioners at Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton, already furious over the forced resignation of their longtime pastor, the Rev. Walter H. Cuenin, said they were troubled by the choice because Coyne had been the voice of the church administration during the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the start of the parish closings process.

Cuenin, who had served two consecutive six-year terms as pastor of Our Lady's, announced last weekend that he was resigning after the archdiocese accused him of financial improprieties. The archdiocese said yesterday that Cuenin must now reimburse the church $75,000 to $80,000 for improper financial practices.

But parish leaders, including members of the parish and finance councils, said the archdiocese was selectively enforcing little-known policies. They said those lay-led boards had repeatedly approved the payments, including a $500 monthly payment from the parish for the performance of baptisms, weddings, and funerals, and the parish-financed lease of a Honda Accord that was shared with visiting priests. They also said they believed the arrangements to be fully in compliance with archdiocesan regulations and similar to arrangements at other parishes.

Last night, about 300 parishioners angered over Cuenin's ouster gathered on the front lawn of Our Lady's in the pouring rain, with candles flickering beneath umbrellas and then filed into the church basement where they planned to hold a vigil overnight. When parishioner Margaret Roylance called for ''the immediate reinstatement of Father Walter Cuenin," other members of the parish responded with raucous applause, tears, and foot stomping.

Parish leaders said they believe that Cuenin was targeted for ouster because he was a prominent leader of local priests who helped organize a letter calling for Law to resign, who reached out to gays and lesbians, and who frequently suggested that the church should at least discuss the possibility of ordaining married men and giving greater roles to women. The archdiocese denied that Cuenin was targeted for any reason other than financial improprieties.

Last night in Dedham, Cuenin, after giving a previously scheduled speech on the role of the laity, declined to criticize the archdiocese. But he said that church officials had raised no objections about his compensation during several previous audits of the parish.

''I feel sad to leave Newton," Cuenin said. ''I understand the people's sorrow and loss, but I hope they welcome their new pastor."

During his tenure, Cuenin had been summoned to the chancery on several occasions to explain remarks he made in homilies or, once, in a statement to the Legislature opposing a bill that he believed would bar certain benefits for same-sex couples by defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And for 10 months, from December 2002 to September 2003, the archdiocese banned archdiocesan gatherings at Our Lady's after Cuenin was quoted in The New Yorker magazine questioning church teachings on gays and women.

Cuenin briefly attempted to lower his public profile, but earlier this month, in his parish bulletin, he suggested he was sympathetic to gay couples who were married, writing, ''It doesn't appear that anyone's marriage has been threatened or compromised by the 1,800 gay marriages that have already taken place in the past year."

Cuenin was a frequent target of the most conservative elements of the church locally, who wrote on blogs and in e-mails of their views that he was a heretic who should be ousted from the priesthood. One of the blogs used the headline ''this is fun" on a link to a newspaper story about Cuenin's resignation.

''This is a witch-hunt, not more, not less," said Gisela Morales-Barreto of Newton, a parishioner at Our Lady's for 20 years. ''They were trying to find something against him, and it took them all this time to make it happen. This is their way to punish him and punish us for how outspoken he has been. And now the one thing we have feared all along is happening -- that if Walter will leave us, they will send someone from the other extreme to put the brakes on what this community is all about. Chris Coyne is in the opposite end of what Walter is all about."

Coyne, in a brief telephone interview yesterday, said he understood the concerns of parishioners. ''I think the most important thing, given the present situation, is just to try and listen to people and also to be available to people," he said. ''Over time, I hope to work with them, to continue to build the good faith life and community that is already present at Our Lady's."

Coyne, 47, currently teaches liturgical theology at St. John's Seminary in Brighton and assists at parishes in Medfield and Holliston. He said that he spent time at Our Lady's over the course of three years in seminary, when he conducted a parish census, and that the Our Lady's parish choir sang at his first Mass, in his hometown of Woburn, in 1986.

''I have a great affection for Our Lady's and already know it somewhat, and I hope to be able to return to the people of Our Lady's some of the support and kindness and Christian love that they showed me when I was a student," Coyne said. His appointment is effective today.

O'Malley's current spokesman, Terrence C. Donilon, defended Coyne's selection, saying: ''Father Coyne is an immensely talented, devoted, and caring priest. The archbishop holds Father Coyne in the highest regard and knows he will do a superb job as pastor."

Our Lady's is one of the largest parishes in the archdiocese, with average weekend Mass attendance of 1,895 people and 201 baptisms, 118 funerals, and 92 weddings a year.

Late yesterday, the archdiocese issued a three-paragraph statement saying Cuenin's resignation was requested because of financial practices that ''do not comport with archdiocesan policy, canon law, or archdiocesan statutes."

The archdiocese said those practices included ''Mass stipends taken at a rate in excess of that permitted by canon law and archdiocesan statutes; automobile expenses funded by the parish in excess of archdiocesan policies for expense reimbursement, which are updated regularly and circulated to all clergy; and compensation taken from both the parish and the archdiocese for the same time period time during a sabbatical."

The archdiocese did not disclose the current level of permissible reimbursement for Mass or for vehicle costs.

The lay leadership of the Newton parish -- members of the parish and finance councils-- used unusually strong language to defend the former pastor. The parish council, in a statement issued before the archdiocese spoke, said ''the allegations of financial impropriety are ridiculous on their face."

''Father Cuenin has been one of the leading voices of protest and inquiry throughout the scandal of clerical sexual abuse," the statement said. ''We do not consider it a coincidence that the archdiocese has now created a way to force Father Cuenin out of his pastorship, and we find it deceitful, cowardly, and immoral to pretend that parish finances have anything to do with his departure."

In a separate statement, the parish finance council said the stipend in question predated Cuenin's arrival at the parish, and was a practice ''that the finance council knew about and fully supported." The council said the leased automobile was the idea of the finance council, which thought both practices complied with archdiocesan policy.

The chairman of the board of the Boston Priests Forum, the Rev. Thomas A. Mahoney, said he cannot understand what the archdiocese is doing.

''I see this as a very focused application of a diocesan policy that for the 12 years of Father Cuenin's stewardship was approved by previous audits, and the violations themselves are of a nature that no reasonable person could consider as greedy, secret, or malfeasance of any kind," Mahoney said. ''There were many opportunities along the way to ask him to correct those policies, and that was never done, so I don't understand why that would be applied so harshly at this moment."

Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

Vatican document reaffirms policy on gays

The key point seems to be that homosexuals possess åa serious personality

disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.π I take this

to mean that they are incapable of perceiving human nature as God as created

it, consisting of male and female persons meant for mutual attraction,

complementarity, and, God-willing, marriage and children.

Instead, they see members of their own gender as mutually attractive in a sexual

sense. They do not see females as such.  In other words, they do not see or

experience objective reality.  Since this is so, it follows that homosexual

priests possess a serious handicap which makes it extremely difficult, if not

impossible, to serve well as our Lordπs faithful ordained ministers.

Homosexuals shouldn't be ordained as priests, Catholic Church says

Updated: 7:38 a.m. ET Sept. 22, 2005

ROME - A Vatican document will be released in the coming weeks that reaffirms the Catholic Churchπs belief that homosexuals shouldnπt be ordained priests, a Vatican official said Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the document has not been released, said the ≥instruction≤ from the Vaticanπs Congregation for Catholic Education would contain ≥some new things and some old things≤ and would be released well before the end of the year.

That timeframe means the document will be released just as a Vatican-mandated evaluation of all U.S. seminaries, ordered in the wake of the U.S. clergy sex abuse scandal, gets under way.

Several Vatican documents and letters over the years have said gays or men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained, regardless of whether they can remain celibate.

A Feb. 2, 1961, Vatican document, ≥Instruction on the Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders,≤ made clear homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood.

≥(Advancement) to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers,≤ said the document from the then-Vaticanπs congregation for religious.

A 1997 letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments says ≥admission may not take place if there exists a prudent doubt regarding the candidateπs suitability.≤ It does not specify that homosexuality constitutes a ≥prudent doubt,≤ but an American official at the Vatican, the Rev. Andrew Baker, has suggested in an article in the Jesuit magazine America that it does.

'Absolutely inadvisable and imprudent'

In 2002, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, then-prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, advised against allowing gays in the priesthood in a letter that was published in the congregationπs publication Notitiae. He said their ordination would be ≥absolutely inadvisable and imprudent, and from the pastoral point of view, very risky.≤

The Vatican press office announced in November 2002, at the height of the U.S. clergy sex abuse scandal, that the Congregation for Catholic Education was drawing up guidelines for accepting candidates for the priesthood that would address the question of whether gays should be barred.

Catholic World News, a conservative news agency, reported earlier this week that the document had actually been in the works since 1994.

The agency said the new document would indicate that men with homosexual tendencies shouldnπt be ordained even if they are celibate ≥because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.≤

In an apparently new element, the agency said the document would also say that already ordained priests, if they have homosexual tendencies, would be ≥strongly urged to renew their dedication to chastity and a manner of life appropriate to the priesthood.≤