The Boston Globe reports this morning that Father Bob Bowers has been denied a regular assignment at St. Albert the Great parish in Weymouth, Mass. Why is this newsworthy? St. Albert’s, you will recall, was the parish, formerly under the pastorage of Fr. Ron Coyne, that when told it was closing began a round-the-clock sit-in and eventually forced Archbishop Sean O’Malley to capitulate to their demands. Well, only partially, since they also wanted Coyne assigned as pastor again.
Bowers, meanwhile, is one of a small cadre of hard-core heterodox priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, including Coyne, Fr. Walter Cuenin and Fr. Steve Josoma. Bowers was pastor of a parish in Charlestown that when it was announced it was closing too, stamped his feet and said he was taking his ball and going home. Actually, what he said was that he was taking a leave of absence from the priesthood.
Josoma, Coyne, and Bowers are all good buddies. Last March, Josoma’s parish held a roast for him, except it was apparent that the main object of the roast wasn’t Josoma, but O’Malley. Bowers was the host. Quoting from the Boston Globe article covering the roast (as I asked at the time, since when are roasts of pastors newsworthy?):
Bowers got in his own digs, though, coming out at one point in a giant mock “miter,” or a bishop’s headdress. He stared at Josoma, who had been given a smaller version to wear, and bragged, “Mine’s bigger.”
And my response at the time:
Just what we like to see from our priests at public events: penis envy double entendres regarding the trappings of office of the successors of the apostles. Tasteful.
Acting like a spoiled brat
Technorati Tags: Boston, Catholic, Massachusetts, parish closings, priesthood
Maybe Archbishop Burke can give Archbishop O’Malley some tips on how to impose interdict?
Yours in Christ,
~G
P.S.
Tory Minority Government!!!!!!!
What did I miss? Father Bowers is taking a one-year leave of absence from . . . what, exactly?
In November, 2004, he took a one year leave of absence (for whatever motive). Now, slightly more than one year later, after some eight months of saying one or two Sunday Masses per week (and nothing else, mind you) at St. Albert’s parish while he lives elsewhere, he wants to take another year’s leave of absence?
Hey, I’m not complaining, but compare his one or two Sunday Masses to what I and most other priests of the Archdiocese of Boston do each week. Just yesterday I said three Masses (one of which I say regularly at a neighboring parish to help out the pastor on his day off); I sat in a two-hour staff meeting to plan for Lent and to deal with various parish ongoing issues; I worked on a retreat I’m giving this coming Saturday for our confirmation class; I met with a family to help plan a funeral Thursday; I worked on preparing a mission that we’re planning for the Sunday nights of Lent; I met with the random folk who come to the rectory each day; I heard confessions; I prepared the class I’ll teach today at our school (7th grade religion) and I taught 10th grade CCD at 8pm.
I do five days of that—and lots more—every week.
Fr. Bowers says one or two Masses.
And he wants another year off?
He should have a lot more time off. Incidents like this are symptoms of a very sick organization. There is a solution, but nobody seems to have the guts to actually stand up to these punks..er Priests.
People should know that Fr. Bowers is living in the basement apartment of Sen. Jarrett Barrios in Cambridge. Recall, Barrios is a professed Catholic and was a parishoner in Bower’s parish in Charlestown, always sitting in the front row. When fellow Catholics challenged how Barrios’ promotion of the gay lifestyle reconciled with Church teaching, Barrios regularly said “I’ve checked it with my pastor, and he’s says I’m in good standing with the Church.” If Bowers were in the seminary now, with his views, I pray that those in charge of formation would say that he isn’t fit for the priesthood. In a similar way, we should now say that he isn’t fit for public ministry. Let’s pray that he turns around his beliefs.
The attitude of many baby boomers towards the Church seems to be that of many adolescents towards their parents.
Rebellion, thinking their parents are stupid and out of touch, and oppressive – something which should cure itself after they freaking grow up a bit. But the boomers never seem to.
and is something I did like when I was…15.
Fr Jim Clark thank you for all the hard work that you do, and my following statement is not to make life harder for you. Like Dom I say, let him leave again. The damage is less if you have fewer priests who are holy and obedient than more priests who inflict damage on congregations by faulty teaching and examples of disobedience.
I used to say about parish life I’d rather see a smaller attendance and financial income and the pastor preach the truth than a full house and lots of money flowing in and spineless leadership (my last pastor could be led around by the nose with the money waved under his nose by wealthy parishionors. If they didn’t like what he did or preached about be sure they’d call with a financial threat.)
People should know that Fr. Bowers is living in the basement apartment of Sen. Jarrett Barrios
Hmmm… this is suspicious. Sen. Barrios is pushing for gay marriage …. maybe there are upcoming nuptuals.
I apologize if it sounded like I was bragging about how much work I do; I didn’t intend that. I merely wanted to say that MOST priests do that much work, while a few, like Fr. Bowers, get away with doing almost nothing.
He’s been doing weekend “supply”—and, I’m sure, being paid pretty well for doing so. He hasn’t been in parish ministry for at least a year; saying one or two weekend Masses is not parish ministry. For him to imply that (a) he had some sort of standing as a priest of the parish, or (b) that the Archbishop transferred him out of St. Albert’s is just a bald-faced lie.
The pastor of St. Albert’s, 75 years old and looking for help with the job of saying several weekend Masses, got some temporary assistance from a priest who is voluntarily unassigned. The Archbishop—to whom he owes obedience—after granting him a leave of absence, requests that he take an assignment in Chelmsford. Fr. Bowers refuses, and tries to paint the Archbishop as a bad guy, knowing that the parish in which he currently helps out has a history of confrontation with the Archbishop.
Who’s the bad guy?
Senaor Barrios is “married” to a male consultant. Father Bowers was evidently in attendance.
From the 11/29/04 Boston Globe:
Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, at whose wedding Bowers spoke, read a Senate proclamation honoring the pastor, which was cosponsored by Senator Marian Walsh, another Catholic Democrat who faced criticism for her support of gay marriage. Walsh stood in back at the Mass yesterday.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/cbtz5
Fr Jim-I didn’t hear bragging, and I know how hard it can be and how much work you have to do. Even my past pastor, who I didn’t get along with personally, I knew that he was overworked, generally.
But I’d rather keep Bowers as far from a listening congregation as possible, IMHO.
PS Where in Chelmsford? Not at St Mary’s I hope.
“Senaor Barrios is “married” to a male consultant.”
They also ‘adopted’ at least one child.
Reading the Globe story, I was embarrassed for its writer and his editor(s) and disappointed on behalf of my fellow subscribers for the failure of the piece to communicate basic facts about how priests are assigned in the Catholic Church. Readers, especially those from denominations in which the congregation has a large, even a decisive, voice in the selection of their local clergy are probably unaware that the Catholic Church employs a different process, one that does not involve a popularity contest.
That said, I would have to take some exception to the insinuation that Fr. Bowers is by nature a slacker, as I know from personal observation that he was very energetic and devoted while pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna in Charlestown. Call the guy a hopeless dissident, even a heretic, who is also guilty of pride and arrogance, but he worked hard at his ministry—even learning Spanish so he could communicate better with his largely immigrant flock in Charlestown.
Tonychill – I’m not calling him a “slacker.” I have no idea what kind of work effort he put in during previous assignments, and I would have to give him the benefit of the doubt in that regard.
What I’m upset with is his spinning the story by claiming that he’s been in “part time ministry” at St. Albert the Great parish. He has not. He has been a “supply priest” and said one or two Masses on the occasional Sunday during the past 8 months. That is not parish ministry, and there is no such thing as a priest doing “part time ministry.” That would be like a layman saying, “I’m a part time husband and father.” Ludicrous on its face.
I’m also upset that he’s refusing a legitimate parish assignment from his bishop, and spinning that to make it look like the diocese is coming down on him and St. Albert’s parish again. This is patently untrue, and moreover he knows it to be untrue. The mendacity is greater, since it is being used to unduly injure these parishioners.
He may well have worked hard at his ministry in Charlestown—you know that better than I. But he certainly hasn’t worked hard at his ministry for the past year, during which time many other priests (like myself) have had to work harder than ever before because of the shortage of priests.
Fifteen years ago, there were five priests assigned to my parish. Now there are two—and when I leave at the end of my term, there’s the possibility of this being a one-priest parish. And this is despite the fact that there are more Catholics in our town than there were fifteen years ago, and the fact that we are one of the more active parishes in the diocese.
When I hear of a priest who’s decided to “sit one out” because he’s unhappy with the Archbishop, I want to tell him that his selfishness has a profound impact on me and all the other priests who are working our tails off.
And when I hear of a priest who’s manipulating the People of God for his own end (whatever end that might be), I want to do more than tell him off. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the only thing I can do is blog.
There is something disturbing about the pattern of closing a parish, not permitting an orthodox priest to hold services there, then when a more bizzare priest holds services, claiming the people wanting to keeps parishes open are flakey.
When issues such as this are radicalized, the radicals take leadership on the issues. I, for one, see radicals in both the priesthood and the chancery don’t want barn-burners of either sort to have leadership roles.
JBP
Looks like the good Monsignor has a slight case of the nasties. I wonder what brought that on.
Whatever it was the comments have been deleted and he’s been banned. I won’t tolerate that nonsense on my web site.
In any case, I’m sure there are many priests out there who are doing good but I never see or hear of any. So I, for one, am glad you are here to remind us Father Clark. Keep up the good work.
I note that “Monsignor D” is not even a Catholic priest. A little Internet detective work reveals that he belongs to the “Brazilian National Catholic Church,” a schismatic group founded in 1955 by Bishop Duarte Costa in Brazil. Among other things they reject the Church’s teachings on marriage, birth control, the Eucharist, priestly celibacy, and who knows what else.
His parish is in Cranston, Rhode Island, and if you weren’t careful you might think it was a real Catholic parish.
Their web site is at http://saintpatrickcatholicchurch.org/home.htm
I also see that they sell a number of items on eBay for the benefit of their church without exactly spelling out that they’re not a Roman Catholic Church. You’d think they might be honest enough to describe themselves as “Brazilian National Catholic Church”.
Hey, “Monsignor D”, before you point out the mote in Fr. Clark’s eye, you should deal with the plank in your own.
I have banned him so he can’t respond here, but if he wants to email me my address is at the top of every page.