BishopAccountability.org
	Priest Says He Was "Lied to" by Diocese By Anthony Dilorenzo WWLP September 21, 2009 http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/wwlp_local_Priest_says_he_was_lied_to_by_Diocese_200929212110 SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - One parish priest is not mincing words claiming he was "lied to" and is being "abused" by the Diocese of Springfield. The Immaculate Conception church is slated to close in November but the parish and its priest aren’t going without a fight. Now verbal sparring has emerged with the parish administrator telling 22News he's being “abused and lied to* by his own Diocese. Before the lights go out on the Immaculate Conception church in Indian Orchard the parish priest is blowing the whistle on the Diocese of Springfield. “I have been experiencing lack of support, lack of honesty, deception, circumventing of the truth on the part of the diocesan officials” says Father Dariusz Wudarski. He lamented to 22News full of frustration with Monsignor John Bonzagni the head of the pastoral planning committee who appeared on 22News inFocus to explain the church's closure process. But Fr. Wudarski says he and his parishioners were lied to. He also feels emotionally and spiritually abused by members of the clergy amid the process of diocesan reorganization. “The current approach deceives the parishioners of IC and me. In addition it sent the wrong message to the faith community.” After being part of two previous church closures back in September of 2008, Fr. Wudarski claims he was promised it wouldn't happen again. A year later it has. The doors are set to close by the end of November. A priest for 13 years, he wants a confession and feels he and his parishioners are left in a moral dilemma and deserve better. At no time was Fr. Wurdarski deliberately misled or lied to by either Msgr. Bonzagni or by the clergy commission. Msgr. Bonzagni stands by the remarks he made during the on air interview: he admits that he should have said to the clergy commission that the planning committee had not even begun considering the Springfield region and so, had nothing to say about the long term viability of Immaculate Conception. Such "off the cuff" comment was a mistake, “but it was not a lie." The Immaculate Conception Church is now launching a campaign to help save the parish unveiling three new billboards around the Springfield area, that come with a 12-thousand dollar price tag.
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