The Next Powder Keg on the Church Stove

By Paul Fericano
Room with a Pew
November 11, 2014

http://roomwithapew.weebly.com/

"Every absurdity has a champion to defend it."

--Oliver Goldsmith

An alarming and all-too-familiar issue within the Catholic church has been the question of problem priests: seriously troubled men who are put in charge of parishes where they ride roughshod over the laity. Last month I wrote two separate letters on behalf of parishioners of Saints Simon and Jude church (SSJ), a Franciscan parish in Huntington Beach, California. In both letters, the subject focused on documented grievances of parishioners who spoke of being emotionally abused by their current pastor. My first letter was privately addressed to the Franciscan leadership of the Province of Saint Barbara, a governing body of elected friars, with a copy sent to the Franciscan minister general in Rome. My second letter was a public letter directed at members of the various staff, councils, boards and commissions of SSJ, and copied to the bishops of the Diocese of Orange, California.