Catholic Diocese of Gallup's Media Liaison Resigns

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Gallup Independent
October 3, 2013

http://gallupindependent.com/

GALLUP – The Rev. Tim Farrell, the Catholic Diocese of Gallup’s media liaison, upset with a recent appointment made by Bishop James S. Wall, resigned from his position Monday.

Farrell, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Farmington, stepped down after serving as the diocese’s media liaison and spokesman for the past year. Wall’s appointment of a controversial former chancery official, Deacon Timoteo Lujan, to help run a formation program for church deacons was the flashpoint for Farrell’s resignation.

“I am stepping down because I found out that Deacon Timoteo Lujan has been named as co-director of the diaconate formation program,” Farrell said in an email Tuesday evening. “I will not work with such a person at the diocesan level and I told Bishop Wall this. I was astounded and quite offended that this appointment was made. Really? We can’t get anyone better than this in such a position. Shame, shame.”

Farrell’s public statement is rare in a Catholic diocese where most priests have been reluctant to publicly question chancery decisions. However, Farrell is not alone in his views. For years, many priests, deacons and diocesan employees have privately submitted concerns to the Gallup bishop, church hierarchy and the media about Gallup chancery policies, decisions and appointments.

A number of such concerns were aired during a priest convocation Wall convened in 2012, according to priests who attended. Central to that were concerns about the actions and decisions made by leading chancery officials in the years leading up to the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte’s injuries, resignation and death, and in the years since Wall took the helm of the Gallup Diocese. The Rev. James Walker, who served as vicar general under Pelotte and Wall, tendered his resignation at the conclusion of that convocation.

Other chancery officials, Lujan and his fellow deacon, James Hoy, have been at the center of those concerns. Many diocesan personnel believe Lujan, Pelotte’s former chancellor, and Hoy, the diocese’s longtime chief financial officer who resigned in June, were the powers behind the throne.

Media questions to the diocese about the role of both men have been repeatedly dismissed or gone unanswered during the past decade.

Lujan was contacted at his home Wednesday evening for comment. “I do not want to have a conversation with you now or anytime,” Lujan said before hanging up the phone.

Before becoming a priest, Farrell was a newspaper journalist in New Mexico and Mississippi. When he was appointed media liaison, Farrell said he was “not a public relations man,” but he promised to try to “build a bridge between the bishop and the media.” During the past year, Farrell has worked to provide answers to media questions – something that had rarely happened in the two years prior to his appointment.

Suzanne Hammons, the current media coordinator for the diocese, said she would succeed Farrell as media liaison in an emailed announcement Tuesday, which thanked Farrell for his service as liaison. As the coordinator, Hammons has managed the diocesan websites and edited the Voice of the Southwest, the official publication of the Gallup Diocese.

Hammons was contacted Wednesday with questions about Farrell’s resignation and the ongoing concerns about Lujan. Hammons said she would not be able to get any immediate responses from chancery officials, but said she would try to obtain the answers in the future.

Hammons will be the fourth media representative for the diocese in six years. She graduated from Gallup’s Middle College High School in 2007, and she is a 2011 graduate of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., with a degree in mass communications.