By Angela Carella
The Advocate
September 29, 2006
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-parishioners2
sep29,0,6390684.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
As they wait for the federal government to conclude its investigation of a priest suspected of stealing money from a Catholic church in Darien, some parishioners want to know more about how the Diocese of Bridgeport handled another aspect of the case.
The priest, Michael Jude Fay, seemed to flaunt his relationship with another man, Philadelphia wedding planner Cliff Fantini, but the bishop has not explained how the diocese deals with priests who violate their vows of celibacy, parishioners say.
Some have written letters to the papal nuncio, the central office of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, asking for assurance that the diocese addresses such cases, said Betty Czarnecki of New Canaan, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist in Stamford.
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Bishop William Lori |
"People are accustomed to sitting back and saying we're helpless, and we're not," Czarnecki said of the scandal at St. John's Church in Darien, where Fay was pastor for 15 years.
The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office are investigating Fay's handling of church money. A diocesan audit of six years of St. John's records showed $1.4 million is missing and Fay funded an extravagant lifestyle with Fantini, also known as Cliff Martell.
Fay and Fantini have denied having a romantic relationship, but records indicate they owned a condo together in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Fay invested in another condo with Fantini in Philadelphia. They used the same address for an apartment on East 63rd Street in Manhattan.
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Rev. Michael Jude Fay Photo by Tom Ryan/Staff |
In a photograph that appeared in the Valentine's Day edition of "Philadelphia Style" magazine, Fantini's arms are wrapped around Fay's shoulders and they are quoted responding to the question, "Where was your most romantic Philadelphia dining experience?"
Employees of St. John's parish have told The Advocate that Fantini spent a good deal of time at the rectory.
Czarnecki and parishioners of other churches say that as head of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Bishop William Lori should have known about Fay's behavior.
"The bishop is supposed to be a shepherd of sheep. He should have stepped in out of concern for Father Fay and for the parishioners," Czarnecki said.
Lori took steps to correct financial controls but has not said what he will do about priests who break their vows of celibacy or are practicing homosexuals, a lifestyle the Catholic Church views as sinful, Czarnecki said.
"I've known Fay since the late 1980s. He became more overt; he was not hiding anything. It's like he was saying, 'This is who I am,' " she said.
The bishop canceled a meeting with The Advocate to answer questions about how the diocese handles complaints about priests' behavior. Questions were provided in advance. Instead, Lori issued a statement that reads, in part:
"The Church cannot publicly respond to rumors and speculation without demeaning her mission and betraying the many good priests who minister so compassionately and generously to the faithful. The Diocese takes seriously credible accusations of wrongdoing, tries to find out if they are truthful, strives to bring about healing, and, whenever appropriate, restoration to ministry. Every one of us, including the ordained, should be afforded the right to seek God's mercy outside the glare of the public spotlight. However, when behaviors put the well-being of a parish or individuals at grave risk, then the Diocese deals with these publicly."
Lori's full statement accompanies this story.
In his response to a letter that a parishioner wrote to Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio in Washington, D.C., Lori said he did not know about Fay's "problems."
"While these matters may have been the subject of gossip, they were never reported to the diocese," Lori wrote in August.
The parishioner, who asked to be anonymous, questioned why, in 2002, Lori appointed Fay to the diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board.
"Had I known of his disordered lifestyle, I would not have appointed Father Fay to that position," Lori wrote.
Lucy-Ann Bach, a longtime New Canaan resident and St. Aloysius parishioner who recently moved to Madison, said it is difficult to believe no one in the diocese knew about Fay's lifestyle. Fay was a priest at St. Aloysius before the former bishop, Edward Egan, now archbishop of New York, appointed Fay to be pastor of St. John's in Darien.
Bach also wrote a letter to the papal nuncio.
"My conscience is saying you must not be silent, you must stand up. I have an obligation to not sit by," Bach said. "Bishop Lori needs to acknowledge what Father Fay has done. In the letter the bishop sent to St. John's, he seemed to be glossing it over. I thought that was insulting because he wanted to move on before he even seemed to acknowledge what Fay was doing out in the open, and it's against what the church teaches. A priest is the representative of Christ on Earth, and the bishop is the shepherd of souls, including the souls of his priests. None of this should have happened."
In the part of the letter that addressed Fay's behavior, Lori wrote to St. John's parishioners that they "have every right to expect me and my brother priests to lead lives of integrity, holiness, celibate chastity and simplicity, rooted in prayer and free of extravagance. You have every right to expect from us prayerful, joyful and generous service in accordance with the faith of the Church. This is what we pledged on the day we were ordained. This is how we are to put our lives at your service. We ask your forgiveness and your prayers as daily we seek the mercy of God in our lives and in the lives of those we serve."
It is not clear what results parishioners can expect from writing to the papal nuncio, who handles the letters and decides whether to send them to Rome. The secretary at Sambi's office said they have no media officer in Washington and referred questions to the Vatican.
Contacted in Rome, the Vatican media office said it handles only those matters related to the pope and referred questions about individual dioceses to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also in Washington, D.C.
Bill Ryan, a spokesman for the conference, said bishops have autonomy in their oversight of diocesan priests.
"Each case is up to the discretion of the bishop," Ryan said. "If he has information about a priest who is misbehaving in any way, he would be under obligation to do something about it."
It has become difficult to trust bishops to discipline errant priests, parishioners said. Part of the reason is what came to light after cases of child sexual abuse hit the headlines about five years ago, when it was revealed that bishops in dioceses nationwide quietly moved pedophile priests from parish to parish.
The Diocese of Bridgeport had several such cases. Lori was not bishop at the time.
Many parishioners also have complained about how Lori treated the Rev. Michael Madden, the St. John's priest who brought the Fay case to light when he and the church bookkeeper hired a private investigator to examine parish finances.
The diocese has said it took measures to protect parish accounts immediately after Madden and the bookkeeper, Beth D'Erario, brought the matter to their attention in Bridgeport on April 28. Madden and D'Erario thought the diocese's actions were inadequate and, about two weeks later, took the information to the private investigator. Lori did not ask Fay to resign until May 17, the day the private investigator gave his findings to Darien police.
Lori appointed Madden to fill in temporarily as administrator, but demoted him when Madden revealed he helped hire the private eye. The move provoked anger among St. John's parishioners, who lashed out at Lori during a parish meeting. Madden has since quit the priesthood.
Another parishioner in the diocese, Annemarie Nadler of Stamford, said Lori has spoken about the need to restore confidence in church leaders but has not done enough to make it happen. Lori should address Fay's behavior and that of any other priest in the diocese who violates his vow of celibacy, Nadler said.
"The church's view on homosexuality is that it is not sinful to be homosexual, only to act upon homosexual feelings. The church is neglecting its own teachings here," Nadler said. "We want this to be a wake-up call to Bishop Lori that he needs to address this issue. There's a reluctance. I don't get it. He is the moral leader in this diocese."
Parishioners say that when they have spoken to pastors or bishops about the behavior of priests, they were told the diocese cannot act on rumor and needs proof.
That often is what happens in Catholic dioceses, which have no system for airing such concerns, said the Rev. Donald Cozzens, former president rector of St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Cleveland and now a teacher at John Carroll University in Ohio. In 2000, Cozzens wrote "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," which addresses sexuality.
"I describe it as maybe the last feudal system in the West -- loyalty and discretion and secrecy are built in," Cozzens said. "The bishop is the lord of the manor. He has discretionary control over finances, clergy personnel and properties of the diocese. If a complaint is brought to him, the first tendency is to make sure it's a real complaint, then handle it as privately as possible. That leads to a secret way of behaving. Governments and corporations behave the same way. From the human perspective, we can understand that, but we expect more from Church leaders, and we should expect more."
A bishop may chose not to act on a complaint about a priest because that would be "awkward or embarrassing" if the bishop had studied with the priest in seminary or had served with him in a parish, Cozzens said.
"It's awfully hard to prove what goes on behind closed doors. It mostly would be circumstantial evidence," he said. "I have every sympathy for a priest or people who say something is going on, but they do not know what to do. Bishops should be sensitive to behaviors that are not in harmony with the Gospel. Some may want to protect the people from the human foibles of the priest, but the real scandal comes when we pretend something is not there."
In the statement he issued to The Advocate, Lori wrote that celibacy is at issue and that the diocese has an excellent priestly formation program.
"Celibacy is a gift that enables priests to emulate Christ's own style of life as well as his love for the Church, and to give more freely of themselves in service to their people. Like fidelity in marriage, celibacy remains a challenging way of life," he wrote. "Each priest is responsible for cooperating with the Holy Spirit in living celibacy fruitfully. The Church helps priests to do so and assists them in their struggles, just as the Church helps married people and religious to live their vocations with integrity."
When that fails, however, the effects ripple through the church, Nadler said. Priests who are sexually active show signs of "moral breakdown," she said.
"Dishonesty in one area leads to dishonesty in another," she said. "Priests who ignore church teachings are more likely to be the ones who steal money."
Among homosexual priests, those who are sexually active enter a clandestine club, said Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist and former Benedictine monk who taught in seminaries and has studied celibacy and sexuality in the priesthood for 40 years. Sipe counseled clergy accused of sexual crimes, including some cases in the Diocese of Bridgeport. Among his books are "Sex, Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis."
"They hold sexual secrets, and they have these secrets on each other. It creates a network," said Sipe, who was Fay's teacher at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. "It can lead to blackmail, promotion or refusal of promotion. Many of the lines of advancement in the hierarchy are marked by the sexual activity of people who have some authority, and then their proteges get appointed."
In that atmosphere, there can be a reluctance to acknowledge the behavior of sexually active priests, Sipe said.
"The church doesn't know what to do about this; the leaders are absolutely flummoxed as far as I can see," he said. "I don't hear of one bishop standing up and taking the lead in this. They are all afraid."
Last year, the Vatican issued an Instruction on Priestly Formation, which decreed that the Catholic Church "cannot admit to the seminary and holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture." But the Vatican should begin its examination with the bishops, not the seminarians, Sipe said.
"All of this has to be brought out into the open; they have to quit the secrecy," he said. "It comes from the top, down. They have to get through the denial."
Susan Suarez of Darien, a former St. John's parishioner, said she agrees that bishops must examine their consciences. Instead of avoiding questions, Lori should take them as an "opportunity to set the record straight" for parishioners, Suarez said.
Refusing to answer questions "only promotes more uncertainty and suspicion regarding Lori's administrative policies," Suarez said.
"He should remember he is a servant of God and should be reaching out to the parishioners in this diocese in their time of need," she said.
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