A pastor in the Archdiocese of Boston has bravely informed Archbishop Sean O’Malley that his moral duty as a pastor of souls compels him to refuse to implement “Talking about Touching” in his parish because he thinks it is evil. Bravo Fr. David Mullen.
This isn’t the first contact with the archdiocese by Fr. Mullen either. He wrote a letter to Bishop Lennon 3 months ago and it still hasn’t been answered. That a pastor’s letter to the acting bishop about an important moral issue wasn’t even acknowledged, even after 3 months, is a just plain wrong.
The parish web site also has a good summary of the problems with TaT.
Tom,
I was of exactly the same mind as you when I read Father Mullen’s letter to the Archbishop. But then I wandered around the parish web-site—this seems like a pretty cool parish, by the way—and found Father Mullen’s letter to Bishop Lennon:
http://users.rcn.com/brendans/Lennonletter.htm
In this letter, as you can see, Father Mullen did exactly as you would have wanted him to do in his letter to the Archbishop.
Also of value, I believe, is the construction of the letter to Archbishop O’Malley by David Vise:
http://users.rcn.com/brendans/OMalleyDLV.htm
While I regret the tenor of Father Mullen’s latest letter on behalf of his parishioners—this time to Archbishop O’Malley—I can certainly sympathize with his frustration, and can understand why he got his Irish up.
BRAVO , FATHER MULLEN !!!!
Btw, can I move to Bellingham ??
Isn’t it funny, those who preach the “straight truth” get sent to the ends of the earth.
Just try to find Point Shirley, where the Othodox, Faithful Fr. Tom DiLorenzo was exiled to.
It’s 40 minutes from nowhere!
“The wilds of Bellingham”
“The ends of the earth”
Hey, I get your points but there are actually people living in Bellingham and I doubt they’d appreciate being labled as folks “living in the wilds.”
They might not be the beautiful people in the well-heeled, VOTF suburbs, nor the sophisticates in the toney, closer to Boston areas, but from what I can see, Father Mullen’s Bellingham parish is one to be admired…and as one in this thread opined, one to long to be in.
And Joe? I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Father DiLorenzo, who’s in Winthrop (Holy Rosary) which is about 15 minutes out of Boston, was at “Bishop Sean’s” installation…and rather publicly so. And “exhiled?” Hardly. He’s one of the most popular, well known, and easily accessible priests in the Boston Archdiocese. Holy Rosary parish isn’t at all “40 minutes from nowhere”…unless you live in nowhere.
Again, it’s not my blog, but I’m wondering it’s possible to keep the hyperbole—along with the “it’s been said” and “I’ve heard” stuff down to a low roar. Folks outside o’ the Boston archdiocese read Dom’s blog and in some cases I’m afraid they’re getting a distorted view.
Thanks for considering it.