The rebellion, such as it is, has officially arrived.
Letter from priests to Cardinal Law: The following is the text of the letter signed by 58 Boston-area priests and sent to Cardinal Bernard F. Law on December 9, 2002:
Dear Cardinal Law:
It is with a heavy heart that we write to request your resignation as Archbishop of Boston. We have valued the good work you have done here in Boston, including, but not limited to: your advocacy for the homeless, your outreach to the Jewish community, your opposition to capital punishment, and your leadership in welcoming immigrant peoples. However, the events of recent months and, in particular, of these last few days, make it clear to us that your position as our bishop is so compromised that it is no longer possible for you to exercise the spiritual leadership required for the church of Boston.
Less than 10% of the diocesan clergy signed the letter, and an even smaller proportion of religious order clergy. It's a wee, symbolic rebellion -- but exquisitely timed, what with him being in Rome, and the Vatican considering a co-adjutor for Boston. (The timing is an accident of circumstance, since nobody knew he was going to Rome until suddenly, there he was!) It will be interesting to see if this makes Rome more receptive to the idea, or if it makes them more determined not to be forced by those vile "democrats" to deal on any terms but their own. (After all, who are those priests? Mere nobodies! In open revolt! How dare Our Priests consider that they might have a voice in the running of Our Church?)
''This wasn't an easy decision, because the day I was ordained, I knelt at Cardinal Law's feet and promised him obedience,'' said the Rev. Emile R. Boutin Jr., parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish in Stoughton. ''But this institution is limping miserably.
''Our ability to be effective has practically ceased,'' he said. ''It's impossible to fund-raise. And any of us who work with young people are enormously compromised. It's a really dark day.'' Boutin said he believes that his promise of obedience is less important than his duty to obey his own conscience, and he said that he views the clergy sexual abuse crisis as a turning point in church history. ''It feels to me like one of those pivotal moments in the history of the church, like the edict of Constantine, the Orthodox-Catholic split, the Protestant Reformation, or the Second Vatican Council,'' he said. ''Now there is the clergy scandal, whose epicenter is Boston. It seems to me so evident that this is not about Cardinal Law at all, and even if his hands were totally clean, he needs for the well-being of the church to recognize that he has become the lightning rod, and he needs to step away, so we can bring in leadership from the outside.''
You know ... on the one hand, I do think that ultimately, the crisis itself may wind up being an important point in the history of the Church's relationship to people in the modern world. I'm not sure that people realized how wilfully medieval it had remained until they watched it failing to deal with this mess in any reasonable way -- or failing to prevent it from becoming a mess in the first place.
On the other hand, the letter itself? I just want to say to Rev. Boutin, "Yo! Guy! Get a grip! Whatever else this letter may represent, it is NOT as big as the Orthodox-Catholic split or the Protestant Reformation."
(Mind, I do think that there will be schizm between Rome and the US Catholic Church, and I have a feeling that if I live another 30, 40 years, it will happen in my lifetime, and that this mess will be a major contributing factor. But the letter? Pfeh. A mere bagatelle -- aside from in Boston, of course.)
Posted by iain at December 10, 2002 10:20 AMComments
Before you think that I was suggesting that the letter I and 57 other priests signed last week carried the same import as the Protestant Reformation, allow me to clarify: my point is this-that the current abuse crisis is of the same import as these other pivotal moments in Catholic Church history. This crisis will define how we understand the Church in the modern world, how we think about the hierarchy of the RC Church and how Catholics understand their proper place...A letter doesn't need to carry that import. The circumstances do it themselves...
Posted by Rev. Emile R. Boutin, Jr. at December 13, 2002 05:24 PM
