Priest speaks out on Dallas situation

Over on the Dallas Morning News blog, Rod Dreher shares some mail he’s receiving after his recent column on Blessed Sacrament Parish in Dallas. (Scroll down to “Dec 30, 1:00 PM”)

I’ve just received this from a priest close to the Fr. Weinberger situation (Fr. Weinberger himself is not commenting on any of this):

Your reader wrote: “Am I defending our bishop for his decisions? No. I just think that there is a destructive tendency in our society to place blame on public figures, easy targets, without first gaining all of the facts.”

Among those facts: (a) People don’t seem to realize that Fr Weinberger was not unalterably opposed to a transfer. His strong preference was to remain at Blessed Sacrament, but, if the Bishop could not agree, then he would ask for a sabbatical, at the end of which a transfer would take place. Bishop Grahmann and Fr Weinberger, in fact, met and agreed to this in June, which is why Father was shocked to receive that decree on Nov. 17 relieving him of his responsibilities as pastor.

(b) Bishop Grahmann’s idea was to strip him of his office as Pastor and then send Father Weinberger away on sabbatical with no office and an uncertain future, to return to the Bishop’s mercy. That’s not the way it’s done.

(c) In no way has this anything to do with Father Rudy Garcia, an excellent Priest of whom Fr Weinberger has said, ‘He’s one of the top two Priests in the Diocese I’d want to come here.’

(d) Since November 17th, Father Weinberger has been the victim of a series of inept, ham-handed, canonically questionable and remarkably stupid moves by his Bishop (and his spokesman) which have shown nothing but contempt for him, his rights, his good name, his ministry. If the Catholic community is content to have a dedicated, effective priest treated as though he has fewer rights than a mediaeval serf, then we should be ashamed of ourselves, and will need look no further than our own indifference and cowardice next time we’re assigning blame for the vocation shortage.

I’m eager to hear from anyone in the chancery willing to give the bishop’s side. Bronson?

Remember that this is a priest of the Diocese of Dallas writing to Rod. How do you think the Fr. Weinberger situation is affecting their morale. Meanwhile, a priest continues to serve in Bishop Grahmann’s cathedral even after he admitted that he had fondled the genitalia of several men. (He claimed he was giving them some kind of “medical” treatment.) Want the full story on Grahmann? It’s all laid out here.