NEWTON (MA)
Boston Globe
September 26, 2005
NEWTON, Mass. --A popular Catholic priest removed by the Boston Archdiocese as pastor of the nationally recognized parish he had led for 12 years is the victim of a "witch hunt" designed to weed out clergy critical of the church, a parishioner said on Monday.
The Rev. Walter Cuenin was asked to step down as pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton for accepting a stipend from the parish and for driving a car leased by the church, both in violation of archdiocesan rules and Canon law, the archdiocese said in a release.
He will be reassigned, according to the archdiocese.
The archdiocese has also asked Cuenin to reimburse the parish between $75,000 and $85,000, which he indicated in a statement he intends to do.
Members of the parish's finance council said they approved both expenditures and were unaware they were in violation of church rules. They also said the archdiocese has audited the church's finances several times -- but not in the past four years -- and never before objected to the stipend or car lease.
"Rev. Cuenin's resignation was requested in accordance with Archdiocesan policy, which is consistently applied throughout the archdiocese," church officials said in a statement.
Cuenin was an outspoken critic of former archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law's handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis.
In 2002, Cuenin was one of 58 Boston-area priests who signed a letter calling for Law's resignation. Cuenin also has publicly criticized policies restricting the roles of women and homosexuals in the church.