BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Thursday, September 29, 2005
The Rev. Walter Cuenin, who was pressured to resign last week from his Newton parish, has one thing in common with 19 other Archdiocese of Boston clerics forced from their parishes in the past three years: He signed a letter calling for the resignation of Bernard Cardinal Law.
The popular, outspoken priest was among 58 clerics who called on Law to step down because he had transferred priests who were known child molesters from parish to parish instead of alerting parents and police.
Of the 40 clerics who did not belong to religious orders or have outside jobs such as chaplain or academic, at least 20 have been transferred to other parishes, saw their parishes closed by Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, or retired or resigned in an effort to spare their parishes from being shuttered, according to the Council of Parishes, a group opposed to the closings.
``We believe there are even more cases of pressure and payback, but what is clear from what we already know is a pattern of intimidation by the hierarchy of this archdiocese, beginning with Archbishop Sean O'Malley and possibly going beyond, to Rome,'' where Law now heads one of the Vatican's four basilicas, said Peter Borre, a council spokesman.
O'Malley's spokesman has said the archbishop asked for Cuenin's resignation from Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton because the priest accepted a car and a stipend from his parish in excess of the amount allowed by the archdiocese.