NEWTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Levenson and Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | September 25, 2005
NEWTON -- The Rev. Walter H. Cuenin, a Newton priest who had been an outspoken critic of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, abruptly resigned his pastorate yesterday, saying that the Archdiocese of Boston had accused him of financial improprieties.
Parishioners shook their heads and wept at Our Lady Help of Christians Church on Washington Street, as Cuenin, reading from the pulpit, said the archdiocese had asked him to resign for accepting a stipend that had been calculated improperly, and for driving a car his church had leased for him in violation of archdiocesan rules.
Terrence C. Donilon, spokesman for Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, declined to comment on Cuenin's resignation yesterday.
''We don't speculate on personnel matters," Donilon said.