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Commentary
The people are leading; will the leaders follow?
Let us know what you think at pthorp.ed@votf.org
Consider these six efforts, all of them played out within the last month:
Los Angeles, CA: 1) VOTF National secretary Gaile Pohlhaus wanted to attend
Mass while in Los Angeles for the USCCB meeting in early June. 2) VOTF National
media manager John Moynihan was also in LA for the USCCB meeting and wanted
the bishops to have a copy of the VOTF letter to Pope Benedict XVI. 3) Prof.
James Kelly of Fordham University in New York City was in Los Angeles, invited
by the conference, for a meeting on the yet-unfunded “Causes and Context” study;
the study was commissioned by the bishops in 2002 to examine the conditions
that produced so many predator priests and so many sexually abused children.
4) In Richmond, VA: While the bishops and others were gathering in Los Angeles,
Lynn Allgeier was continuing her pursuit of background information on a new
priest in her parish as well as parish financial data.
5) In Yakima, Washington, Robert Fontana continued to pursue a wrongful termination
case he filed against the diocese where he was employed as director of evangelism;
Fontana’s attorney maintains that his client “was forced to leave
his job because he was critical of how the diocese was applying its policy
on clergy sexual misconduct with vulnerable people.”
6) In Newark, NJ, (noted in a letter to the Newark Star Ledger, June 16) VOTF
members of Union County visited the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart
on June 3 to pray for the priests of the archdiocese. Members have been doing
this in a different church in the archdiocese on the first Saturday of the
month since last year.
Consider these six outcomes:
Los Angeles, CA: 1) Gaile Pohlhaus was barred from the Mass (see more below, “Banging
a Drum in LA”) as it was “private.” 2) John Moynihan slipped
the letter beneath nearly 600 hotel doors in the wee hours of the morning,
knowing this was the only way he could get the letter to the bishops. 3) Professor
James Kelly was wondering where all the meeting attendees were when John appeared
at his door. John had discovered a small sign indicating a suite number for
a “Causes and Content Study” meeting. The sign was not only mislabeled
(it’s “context” not “content”) but it was tucked
away in an area of the Biltmore hotel designated for the bishops’ vendors.
4) In Richmond, VA, NBC12 News and the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that
Lynn Allgeier was escorted from her church, St. James in Hopewell, VA, by police
officers after several weeks of inquiries about a new priest in the parish.
The pastor, Fr. Frank Wiggins, had sent her a letter indicating that she was
no longer welcome in the church but answering none of her questions about his
background and parish finances. Allgeier felt obliged to know more about the
priest because “we have lived in the diocese of Richmond for over 20
years, and in those 20 years, every diocese we've belonged to has had a pedophile
priest.” When reporters contacted the Richmond diocese, they were told
that any priest has the right to refuse a parishioner. (See more in Diocese/State
Watch.)
5) In Yakima, WA, the Yakima Herald Republic had been tracking the story of
a former employee of the Catholic Diocese of Yakima who waited ten months for
a response to his lawsuit alleging he was wrongfully discharged from his diocesan
job. Robert Fontana filed his suit in August 2005. Fontana’s suit contended “that
Fontana was forced to leave his job because he was critical of how the diocese
was applying its policy on clergy sexual misconduct with vulnerable people. ‘I
have no doubt Robert was a thorn in their side, but what he was trying to do
was right. The bishop didn't want to hear it,’ Fontana’s attorney
said. Fontana said he was reprimanded twice at work in 2004 for questioning
how the diocese was handling the case of a priest being investigated by the
FBI and the county prosecutor's office on possession of child pornography.
Both agencies ultimately declined to file charges.” The priest in question
was sent away for therapy, returned to another parish, and is currently on
sabbatical.
The paper also noted VOTF Yakima Dan Thibault’s concern that “the
diocese didn't follow its own policy in allowing the priest to minister while
still under investigation for possible possession of child pornography.”
Nonetheless, a May
10 posting in the Yakima Herald Republic reported, “A
lawsuit accusing the Catholic Diocese of Yakima of forcing an employee to quit
has been thrown out by a judge as a constitutional violation of the separation
of church and state. Robert Fontana sued the church last year, claiming he
was forced to quit for complaining about Bishop Carlos Sevilla's handing of
allegations against a priest who was suspected of downloading photographs
of nude.”
6) In Newark, NJ, VOTF members were met at church doors “by armed sheriff’s
officers who cautioned us that we were not to hand out material in the cathedral
(though we were not doing so). In conversation, it became clear that they were
[there] in response to our visit.”
Lest we need more than the abuse of thousands of children by priests and what
appears to be a systematic cover-up by bishops, here we have indications that
what brought our Church into this era of disgrace is still operative. That’s
the bad news.
But there’s good news (the very definition of “gospel”),
too. Some might think that one employee in one diocese or one parishioner in
one church or one reform organization at one gathering, does not seem to be
the “stuff” of sea change or even the “stuff” of significance.
But let’s think again – in all of these vignettes, a lay Catholic
is speaking out, acting out of faith lived, and effecting a considerable shift
away from how “things used to be.” If we believe, as we say, that “we
are the Church,” then our ordained brothers, indeed all Catholics, are
being carried along on a ride the bishops certainly didn’t choose. What
happens to one–most especially the survivors–happens to all of
us as One Body in Christ. The people are leading; will the leaders follow?
What do you think? Please share your thoughts; write to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
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