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	St. Leo Music Director Says Pastor Demanded Her Resignation By Michelle Boorstein Washington Post January 28, 2010 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012702258.html The popular music director at a Catholic parish in Fairfax says her pastor demanded her resignation after she was quoted in a Washington Post article sympathizing with the women's ordination movement. The pastor denies the assertion. The dispute at St. Leo the Great centers on women's roles in Catholicism and the modern-day church. A volunteer organist quit in support of the music director, and an effort is underway to get the church musicians to boycott playing at Mass in protest. Others are rallying behind the pastor. In an e-mail to dozens of musicians she led at St. Leo's, Sylvia Mulherin, a former nun, wrote that while she is not part of the movement pushing for women priests, she believes "women have not achieved true equality in the Church and this fact deserves further consideration by the church's leadership. This position is apparently unacceptable in the Diocese of Arlington." The resignation of Mulherin, who is married to a former priest, has touched off debate in the large parish not only because of her comments in the article but also because the pastor, the Rev. David Whitestone, denies that she was pushed out. Whitestone said that Mulherin, unprompted, offered her resignation when he called her in on Sunday -- her 70th birthday -- to discuss the article. "Those who have chosen to be leaders have chosen, of their own free will, to support the doctrines of the church. Christianity is not a democracy," parishioner Elaine Puschmann wrote in an e-mail to The Post. A St. Leo's employee who supports Mulherin but was afraid to be named for fear of losing her job said: "Most of us love our church but are very angered over this. For her to be removed over such a trivial matter [as a newspaper quote] makes us think twice about which church we ultimately want to worship in." In her e-mail to the musicians, Mulherin, who has been at the church since 2005, said she "would never of my own volition so abruptly abandon the music groups." Mulherin's pain is evident over the conflict between her views and their ramifications for her life at St. Leo's, where she led children and adult choirs. Contacted by phone and e-mail, she tearfully asked The Post not to write about her situation. "I was a faithful person, and I thought you could express yourself but didn't recognize that there is no further discussion allowed on this point," she said Wednesday. "Frankly, I've always done exactly what they want and never went against anything. . . . please let this go, I don't want to get involved." In Saturday's article, Mulherin was quoted as saying that Jesus was progressive in his treatment of women but that, over time, men unjustly pushed women out. "Maybe the women don't have to come in the back door, but we still have to sit in the pews," she said. Whitestone said he did not raise the issue of Mulherin leaving, but he said she had violated the diocese's rules for employees by "advocating against church teaching." The Arlington Diocese is considered among the more traditional in the region and was one of two in the country not to allow female altar servers until it changed its policy in 2006. Debbie Wallace, a member of one of St. Leo's music groups and a past leader of the parish's mothers group, said she took "great offense" at the idea that women have second-place status because they can't become priests. She was surprised that Mulherin, a church leader, felt her reach was restricted. "She was so publicly part of parish life; I'm shocked that she felt powerless."
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