An Open Letter to Archbishop Sean O'Malley

Dear Archbishop O'Malley:

The recent change in Pastors at a Newton Church again tells me that you are not the man I thought I met some years ago.  Then, I was active in the Roman Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.  Then, you seemed to be a vibrant, young, down-to-earth man who knew what had to be done and did it.  You cleaned up the thirty-year-old Father Porter mess left for you.  You created a new sense of trust, and seemed approachable.  You seemed tolerant.

Last year, though, I saw a different side.  Your words and actions regarding the issue of gay marriage left me concerned, to say the least.  You showed intolerance for different religious views, including a view that God might not be as opposed to homosexuality as the Church teaches.  That is your privilege as a religious leader, of course, but you tried to force that view on non-Catholics in a state and nation in which freedom of religious conscience is guaranteed.  You may recall that I invited you to excommunicate me as a result, and I sent my resignation to the Knights of Columbus.

This week, we learned again that you have shown your intolerance for voices of Christian compassion within your Archdiocese.  In essence, you fired a liberal pastor, one who voiced partial acceptance of homosexuality, and even some common sense about the priesthood's celibacy rule (a return to allowing heterosexual priests to marry -- how bizarre).  You replaced him with one of the hard-liners of Cardinal Bernard Law's tenure as Archbishop, Father Christopher Coyne.  Father Coyne was the stonewalling "spokesman" of your predecessors' sins of omission.  Like Cardinal Law, he never appeared to understand that that Archdiocese's hypocritical attitude toward sexuality caused more immorality than it cured.

To justify making this hard-line abuse-apologist  a "pastor," you accused the truly compassionate pastor of substantial improprieties:  taking a salary and using a car.  These improprieties cost the parish $80,000.00 over a decade or so.  These funds must be returned, of course, because it was wrong for a pastor to earn less than $8,000 annually to defray the expenses of living. 

Presumably, you will use the money returned to pay the civil settlements owed because a few other priests merely molested children, rather than caring for the stigmatized.

You seem to expect that no one will see through the accusations against the real pastor.  No one will connect Father Coyne with the failed policies of Archdiocesan arrogance toward those the Church hurts.

Come, now. 

Believe it or not, I agree that it is your right and privilege to teach and enforce the rules of your religion within your religious structure.  You have the right to decry a priest who shows sympathy to gays and lesbians, because the Church decries such leanings as immoral.  We will ignore, for now, that the Church also once saw racially mixed marriages as immoral, too.  Regardless of my views of morality -- as I have left your flock --you retain your right to believe and teach as you will, and you may continue to do so.

You are, after all, a shepherd. You guide your sheep to the green pastures of Heaven, at least as you see it.. 

Just have the decency to admit that you sometimes guide your flock with a slap of your crook.  Admit that you send your dogs to nip at the heels of the wayward.  Have the decency to admit that the gentle, Franciscan ways you show at Mass are contrasted by your hard, fast, accurate, rib-crushing swing of the shepherd's staff. 

It is one thing for an honest shepherd to cull a stubborn ram for the "good" of your flock.  It is another to claim that the ram is actually a goat named Judas.

Sincerely,

Gregory P. Lee