Cover
story Fueling Bostons fires of outrage
By CHUCK COLBERT
Boston
The quiet but determined revolution underway here among the
Catholic laity is gaining momentum, if numbers are any measure, even as the
beleaguered leader of the archdiocese tries to clamp down on lay
organizing.
As one measure of the growth of lay discontent and organizing, the
most recent meeting of a leading local church reform advocacy group, the Voice
of the Faithful, drew more than 500 people, standing room only, on the evening
of April 29 at the St. John the Evangelist Parish Hall in Wellesley, Mass.
Playing once again on themes from the American Revolution, the
organizations chairman, Jim Muller, explained: While the media and
trial lawyers held the Boston Tea Party, Voice of the Faithful is the
Constitutional Convention.
Two hundred years ago, Americans gave
representative democracy to the secular world. Were attempting to do the
same thing again, this time for the church.
While the crowds swell at Voice of the Faithful gatherings,
another attempt to organize an association of parish councils has run into
interference from the chancery. An archdiocesan official, on Laws orders,
wrote to all priests of the archdiocese directing them to ignore a proposal
calling for an archdiocesan-wide association made up of members from parish
councils.
Further, despite the bad press the church has endured in recent
weeks, it virtually ensured more blasts when its lawyer filed papers claiming
that negligence on the part of one of the victims and that the victims
parents contributed to the abuse of the boy when he was 6 years old.
The Voice of the Faithful meeting included short statements from
two survivors of clerical sex abuse, as well as proposals to support priests of
integrity.
One survivor, Bill Gately, a newcomer to Voice, spoke about being
religiously homeless for many years and explained that dealing with
the effects of his abuse was a painful, lonely time. Yet, he said,
I continue to hang in there.
The founder and leader of the New England chapter of the Survivors
Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, described 10 years of experience
in the Worcester diocese, dealing with sexual abuse on the local and national
levels. In all those years, he said, this is the very first
time I have ever been asked by any group of parishioners to come and introduce
myself and say hello. The audience applauded, and he said,
Its a tremendous honor for me.
With all that has happened recently, he said, I think that
you all have a better idea why sexual abuse victims here in Massachusetts have
been so angry and so frustrated for so many years.
Yet he added, I feel for the first time a sense of
solidarity with the general public of Catholic parishioners. Its a
wonderful feeling.
Parish Voice now organizing
While a large group of Voice of the Faithful members met, a
subgroup of 120 people gathered in a basement hall of St. Johns Church
not far away. While the larger group viewed schematic diagrams depicting new
roles for laity in balancing hierarchical power with lay voices and significant
participation by the laity in church governance, the subgroup discussed how to
build reform groups in other parishes. This effort, called Parish Voice, seeks
to sustain the emerging movement at the grassroots level.
Terry McKiernan, who is also spokesperson for another
church-reform, victim support and solidarity advocacy group, the Coalition of
Concerned Catholics, is spearheading the Parish Voice effort. He said people
from dozens of Boston-area parishes have already expressed interest in forming
local chapters.
Earlier in the week, two lawyers for more than a hundred victims
who allege sexual abuse by clerics held another news conference. Roderick
MacLeish Jr. and Robert Sherman represent Gregory Ford, who contends that Fr.
Paul R. Shanley molested him. Flanked by Gregorys parents, Paula and
Rodney Ford, the two attorneys released an additional 800 pages of documents
relevant to the Shanley case.
Fr. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocesan spokesman, expressed
embarrassment at finding the new records. Any of us who are reasonable
people can look at this and say this case was not handled well, he said,
as quoted in The Boston Globe. We did not oversee [Shanleys]
ministry or life well. This just adds more evidence to support that
fact.
These new records were as shocking and disturbing as the initial
800-plus pages, in which Shanely, the street priest, advocated sex
between men and boys and defended incest and sex with animals.
One letter Shanley wrote to the late Cardinal Humberto Medeiros,
dated Feb. 16, 1979, protested the cardinals removal of him from his
street-priest ministry. In that letter, Shanley said that he would go public
with details about activity in Bostons archdiocesan seminary, St.
Johns, details that would be far more shocking than my poor
offerings.
It is not clear who drafted Medeiros letter of reply, which
downplayed Shanleys apparent blackmail attempt. Medeiros wrote: I
shall pass over in amazed but laughable silence, the threats you invoke against
me concerning further public pronouncements -- this time about our
seminary. He added, I urge and direct you to take a parish
assignment as so many of our priests do.
The new records, which include personal writing from his journal,
also show that Shanley had contracted venereal disease and that he instructed
teenagers on how to inject IV drugs.
About his venereal disease, Shanley wrote: One of the first
things I do in a new city is to sign up at the local clinics for help with my
VD. He added, There is next to no confidentiality -- your name is
bellowed out for all to hear (I meet a lot of old friends this way).
Chancery correspondence
The new records also show that Shanleys views on man-boy sex
and homosexuality prompted frequent chancery correspondence. One prominent
Catholic business leader complained to Medeiros in writing.
As a Catholic, a parent and a citizen, I cannot remain
silent and tolerate the action of Father Shanley, wrote realtor Thomas F.
Flatley of Boston to Medeiros in 1975. I am writing to you in the hope
that you could talk to this man before he introduces young people to a way of
life that could be very sad for them.
Reactions to the explosive documents have pushed
Cardinal Bernard F. Law to the brink of resignation, the Globe
reported. MacLeish said that the records suggest that Shanley was
blackmailing Medeiros. He said, There is no other way to explain
the nurturing, caring and feeding of him.
The Fords also reacted strongly to the new avalanche of records.
This is a conspiracy of the archdiocese of Boston, Rodney Ford
said. This isnt the church that I know. This is organized
crime. Ford has urged State Attorney General Thomas Reilly to convene a
grand jury to investigate the scandal.
Paula Ford, said, I think God has just about had it with
these guys.
In addition to the organizing meetings, Catholics from throughout
the archdiocese attended prayer services and eucharistic celebrations for
healing and in solidarity with victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The day after the news conference and release of additional
Shanley documents, Catholic students from the Harvard Divinity School held an
afternoon prayer service outside the chancery in the Brighton neighborhood of
Boston.
That evening, Law and other cardinals attended a $1,000 a plate
fundraising dinner for The Catholic University. They dined on crabmeat parfait,
filet mignon, Chilean sea bass and champagne sorbet in Philadelphia.
At the same time, in Wellesley, Bostons revolutionary
western suburb, nearly 800 attended a Mass for healing at St. John
the Evangelist Parish. Jim Post, a spokesperson for Voice of the Faithful,
commented on the contrasting events in Boston and Philadelphia. The
cardinal is wining and dining in Philadelphia, he said, while 800
of us are here for the healing and reconciling of the entire American Catholic
laity.
Susan Troy, a lay minister and another leader of the Voice group,
spoke in her welcoming remarks of the abuse and betrayal and the
pouring out of disgust and grief. She said, There is an
amazing and powerful spirit among the victims and survivors and all of us who
long to hear.
The first reading of the liturgy was from Lamentations: My
soul is deprived of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is; I tell myself my
future is lost, all that I hoped for from the Lord. Reflecting on that
reading, Kathleen Muller, a mental health clinician, said that parts of
Lamentations struck her as Biblical language for posttraumatic stress
syndrome, a common psychological phenomenon among abuse victims.
Two days later, marking his first public appearance since
returning from the meeting of American cardinals in Rome, Law presided during
yet another Mass of Hope and Healing, on Sunday at the Cathedral of
the Holy Cross in Bostons South End neighborhood. Law played up in
positive light his two days at the Vatican. Were moving in the
right direction, he told the small gathering, estimated at 200. I
come back very encouraged.
The cardinal also called for a special day of prayer -- to be held
during the week of Pentecost -- about sexual abuse by clerics. Each of us
is wounded, and each of us is called to be a healer. In a remark that
seemed to be directed at several dozen protesters outside the cathedral, Law
said, When we are not [healers], we degenerate into anger and division.
Thats not who God calls us to be.
Law sidestepped the thorny issue of calls for his resignation, but
he spoke about the effect of the current crisis. I stand before you as
one who prays for that increase in hope and that increase in healing in my own
ministry, he said. I am sure you can appreciate these are not easy
days to serve in the pastoral role that is mine.
Stormy weather
Outside the cathedral, stormy weather appeared to match the
turbulence swirling within and around the nations fourth-largest
archdiocese. Several dozen protesters, bundled up in foul-weather gear against
wind and rain, were armed with placards and freshly printed Cardinal Law
must go! bumper stickers.
After the Mass, protesters on the outside were greeted by Law
supporters who exited the cathedral singing songs and saying prayers (the
rosary) in Spanish. They held signs in English, expressing solidarity with and
support for the cardinal. True Catholics seek unity, love and
forgiveness, read one poster. Another read, The good shepherd does
not abandon his flock.
The cause of protesters and lay organizers was fueled by a
disclosure over the weekend that Law had instructed one of his top aides,
Bishop Walter J. Edyvean, moderator of the archdiocesan curia, to send an
archdiocesan-wide letter to parish pastors, instructing them not to
endorse or recognize a proposal calling for an
association of parish councils.
Citing the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Edyvean wrote, As a
pastor or a vicar, you are not to join, foster or promote this endeavor among
your parish pastoral council members or the community of the faithful. He
said there already exist four canonically recognized bodies --
Presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors, the Archdiocesan Finance
Council, and the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. The latter represents the
people of God of the archdiocese (Canon 512) and renders the proposed
association superfluous and potentially divisive.
This is astonishingly stupid, said Mary Jo Bane, a
Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government public policy
professor. Bane serves on the parish council at St. William Church in the
Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. Along with others, Bane helped draft the
plan for the proposed association, which was the brainchild of attorney David
W. Zizik, of Sherborn, Mass., where he serves on the parish council of St.
Theresa Church.
Back at St. Johns in Wellesley, the topic of Edyveans
letter surfaced at the Monday night meeting of Voice of the Faithful. Although
he was unable to attend, Zizik sent a written statement that was read to the
group.
I will continue to work toward the establishment of a
mechanism -- consistent with ecclesiastical tradition and archdiocesan synodal
legislation -- that will unite members of the laity, the hierarchy, parish
priests, and women and men religious throughout our archdiocese in a genuine
and ongoing dialogue, with the goal of healing our local church and
accomplishing the gospel mission that underlies everything we do as Catholic
Christians, Ziziks statement read.
Edyveans April 25 letter, he said, is having a chilling
effect not only on the laity but also on archdiocesan parish priests.
There are signs that the clergy is being cowed, said McKiernan, a
parishioner at Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton, Mass. At the Voice
meeting, McKiernan brought greetings from a priest who needs to be
anonymous, he said. But, McKiernan said, this priest urges you
Dont be discouraged. Fight the good fight.
A final bit of news that further fired up protesters and
organizers was a Boston Globe report on April 29 that legal papers filed
by Laws attorneys claim that negligence on the part of Greg
Ford and his parents in part contributed to the alleged abuse.
Legal observers here were quick to point out the cardinals
defense contained a common legal strategy. Boston attorney Carmen Durso, who
represents other victims who have come forward with allegations of clerical sex
abuse, told the Globe that the legal maneuver is dumb beyond
belief. Echoing Banes comment about stupidity, Durso said, It
is a stupid argument to make when you know that Catholics are already angry at
you.
Rodney Ford, father of Greg Ford, expressed stronger sentiments.
To say that my son is legally responsible for his own abuse at the hands
of this monster Shanley when my son was only 6 years old is horrific.
Ford family lawyers are preparing to depose Law here on June 5.
Meanwhile, Shanley was arrested in San Diego May 2, according to
the Middlesex County District Attorney in Cambridge, Mass. The Associated Press
reported that the charges are based on allegations that Shanley raped the male
accuser, now 24, between 1983 and 1990 at St. Jeans Parish in Newton,
outside Boston.
Freelance journalist Chuck Colbert writes from Cambridge,
Mass.
National Catholic Reporter, May 10,
2002
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