COMMENTARY
[Your thoughts are welcome at pthorp.ed@votf.org]
Duped
priest assails church leaders
From the Philadelphia News; reprinted with
permission. Written by Ronnie Polanczky, polaner@phillynews.com
I’ve
got good news and bad news for Philadelphia Cardinal
Justin Rigali. The good news is that Mass attendance
is way up at St. Basil the Great Roman Catholic Church
in Kimberton. The bad news is that it most certainly
isn't because of him.
That
honor belongs to St. Basil's pastor, Father Bob McLaughlin,
affectionately known as "Father Mac" - not just to the
1,200 families of his Chester County parish, but to me.
Father
Mac is one of the "men of God" I was referring to in
a column I wrote three weeks ago, about how I would not
let the repulsive sex scandal in the Philadelphia Archdiocese
tarnish my memories of the wonderful priests I knew growing
up.
Shortly
after the column ran, Father Mac contacted me, saying
he'd read it and appreciated the vote of support. It
had been nearly three decades since we last spoke, but
his laugh was as recognizable to me as it was when I'd
hear it roar infectiously through the church hall and
rectory of my childhood parish. What I loved most about
Father Mac back then were his blunt honesty and unwavering
moral compass, forces you could count upon when feeling
whipped by life's curveballs.
I
was thrilled to find, in my face-to-face reunion with
Father Mac last week, that he has not allowed sheep-like
loyalty to the lying higher-ups of the church to dull
those precious qualities.
Father
Mac cherishes his church. But he is incensed by his church's
leadership.
"They
betrayed everything I pledged my life to," Father Mac
told me. "When the scandal broke in Boston, I went to
our leaders and said, 'Tell me the truth about Philly.'
They assured me - to my face - that there was no cover-up
because 'We handle things differently in Philadelphia.'
"I
took that message to my people, and they believed me."
When
the grand jury report was released, he spent a soul-shattering
two days reading its 400-plus pages and realized the
extent to which he had been duped - and to which he unwittingly
duped his congregation by assuring them that the practice
of shuffling pedophiles among parishes was unique to
Boston.
"For
the first time in my 60 years, I felt ashamed to be Catholic," he
said simply. "Their crime wasn't a crime of passion,
where you fly off the handle and do something stupid,
like commit a murder. This was a cold, calculated series
of lies, designed to protect the church's assets at the
expense of protecting children's lives. It's just chilling.
"I've
seen them fire priests for having their hands in the
collection basket, yet they never fired a priest for
having his hands down an altar boy's pants!"
I
told you Father Mac was blunt.
"I
questioned my vocation," he continued. "I thought, 'I
don't want to work for liars.' And then the Holy Spirit
hit me upside the head with a two-by-four - which he
has a habit of doing - and said to me, 'You don't work
for those liars downtown. You work for the good people
of St. Basil's.' "
And
so, when Cardinal Rigali released his lawyered-over,
five-page statement addressing the grand-jury report,
Father Mac refused to read it to parishioners at Mass,
the way he'd usually read a missive issued from the archbishop's
opulent downtown mansion. Instead, he said, at four services,
he spoke from his gut to a congregation that he knew
needed to hear the truth as much as he needed to say
it.
"I
told them that, all my years of preaching, this was the
first time I'd rather hide in the woods than face them," he
says. "I told them, 'I will not stand here and defend
the indefensible. We were lied to, again and again and
again.' "
He
cried, he said, when he shared how deeply it hurt to
suddenly be regarded with suspicion, because he'd devoted
so much of his life to youth ministry and education.
And
his voice boomed when he pulled from his pocket, right
there on the altar, his license to carry a firearm and
told his people, "I have a license to carry a gun, and
I promise - I promise - that your children will be safe
in this parish as long as I am your pastor!"
Did
I say Father Mac was blunt?
It
took a long time for the standing ovations and thunderous
applause to settle, for everyone to wipe tears of relief
that finally, at last, a church leader had been human
enough to acknowledge their pain and to share his own
hurt at the damage the church had wrought.
Father
Mac ended his sermon, he says, by saying, "I don't know
where we go from here, but we will muddle through this,
together."
Four
times he did this, and after each Mass there was a line
of grateful Catholics, wounded beyond words by their
church, waiting to embrace the man whose honesty might
finally allow them to begin healing.
And
the following week, the pews were more filled than they'd
been in years. Not because of Cardinal Rigali's clueless
dissembling on behalf of church hierarchy.
But
in gratitude for a man of God who speaks the truth.
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