Group Seeks Inquiry of Bishop Dewane

By Michael Scott Davidson
The Herald-Tribune
September 25, 2014

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20140925/ARTICLE/140929813/2055/NEWS?Title=Group-seeks-inquiry-of-Bishop-Dewane

Bishop Frank J. Dewane leads a memorial mass for The Most Reverend John J. Nevins at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice.

The local chapter of a national Catholic organization is asking Pope Francis to issue an investigation of Bishop Frank Dewane, the leader of the Diocese of Venice.

The Southwest Florida chapter of Call to Action has authored a letter and online petition that accuse Dewane of violating Canon Law, terminating at least two dozen employees without good reason and creating an environment of intimidation among subordinates.

The Venice Diocese, which represents 240,000 Catholics in 10 Florida counties, including Sarasota and Manatee, issued a stern response.

A statement from the diocese denied the accusations and discredited Call to Action as an excommunicated organization seeking to advance its own agenda.

The petition “simply reiterates the sweeping, unfounded, general accusations from several months ago by a few anonymous priests,” the Diocese's statement reads.

Those accusations were made in a letter sent to papal authorities from at least 10 priests and pastors in January. Those priests and pastors have not come forward.

The letter alleged there was a lack of financial transparency in Dewane's office and that the bishop “repeatedly ruled those under his authority with intimidation, the use of fear, shaming, bullying and other non-Christian behaviors.”

Dewane has been the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in Southwest Florida since he became bishop of the Venice Diocese in 2007.

As of Thursday, Call to Action's online petition for an investigation had around 1,400 signatures.

Michael Rigdon, treasurer and secretary for the Peace River branch of Call to Action, said his organization hoped the petition and letter would spur the Catholic Church into action. He said the efforts support the allegation made anonymously by some of the diocese's priests.

“Anytime you have that many people out of the next level of leadership expressing those specific concerns, I think it's important for any organization to take a look at what's going on,” he said. “I think that would be true in any company, political organization or government. You have to take the word of the people who are on the ground taking care of the people in the organization.”

A two-page statement issued by Benedict Nguyen, chief spokesman for the Diocese of Venice, alleged that Call to Action had other motives. Nguyen said the organization's petition was to advance the organization's own agenda and was “a blatant publicity effort to increase their database and their coffers.”

“One also has to wonder how many of the 'signatures' are from people who live within the Diocese of Venice and how many are generated from people outside the area and clearly have a personal grudge with the Catholic Church and likely have never met or even heard of Bishop Dewane,” he wrote. “The Call to Action letter speaks of a call for justice, but justice is not constituted by the malicious accusations of anonymous individuals and, in fact, calls for knowing one's accusers.”

Call to Action is said to have 20,000 members nationally and advocates allowing women to serve in all church positions and allowing priests to marry.

“While Pope Francis values openness, dialogue, and consultation, our bishop suppresses the open exchange of ideas,” reads the letter, which Call to Action officials said was also supported by the Catholic organization Voice of the Faithful of Southwest Florida. “We find ourselves in a diocese in which both laity and priests dare not differ with the bishop in any matter, large or small, for fear of retribution.”

The group's action drew sharp criticism from another Catholic group.

The Catholic League, which bills itself as the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization, published a column on its website defending Dewane.

“Dewane is drawing the ire of Catholic malcontents, and ex-Catholics, because of his orthodoxy,” wrote Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. “His critics are largely drawn from the ranks of the elderly, and are overrepresented by ex-priests and ex-nuns.”

Donohue criticized the priests who sent the letter in January for their anonymity and lack of examples and evidence of Dewane's alleged shortcomings. It also dismisses Call to Action and Voice of the Faithful as “two wholly discredited lay organizations” whose claims should not be taken seriously.

“The letter to the pope is replete with unsubstantiated accusations, and loaded with vitriol,” the post states.

The Catholic League also defended Dewane in a lawsuit filed against him earlier this week. The Diocese of Venice faces a $5 million lawsuit claiming that Dewane and the diocese were negligent for not preventing the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy who was a student at the now-closed Father Anglim Academy.

“Anyone who thinks this legal battle is unrelated to the other ones is living in a state of denial. Bishop Dewane is being defamed by some very malicious people,” the post concludes. “The Catholic League is happy to defend him and urges him to stand his ground.”