Thank O’Malley

Archbishop Sean O’Malley has received his share of criticism from me in the few short years he’s been in Boston, sometimes for failing to do anything about the blatant heterodoxy of Fr. Walter Cuenin. Well, now that he’s taken action, it’s time to thank him. And since he’s probably get lots of hate mail from the fans of Cuenin (considering what I’m getting, he must be getting it worse), it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for those of us who are grateful to send him our thanks personally. Here’s the archbishop’s contact information:

The Most Reverend Se

Note especially the following:

• “... the archdiocese had asked him to resign for accepting a stipend that had been calculated improperly,...” This wasn’t merely a slip of the finger on the old Texas Instruments. He was given money that the rules said he shouldn’t receive.
• “The council said it had approved of Cuenin’s stipend and the lease of a car for himself and visiting priests.” Finance councils cannot make these kinds of decisions. Finance councils are purely advisory and have no administrative capacity. They have no power to enact any kind of compensation package, certainly not for the pastor since the members of the council serve at his pleasure. That’s precisely a recipe for abuse. I thought Voice of the Faithful and these people wanted accountability. If this were the way things were run, there’d be no accountability.
• “After Cuenin invited 100 priests to Our Lady to discuss church fund-raising, Law banned the parish from hosting official archdiocese events.” Interesting way of phrasing it. They weren’t simply meeting to trade tips for getting big checks from wealthy parishioners. They were meeting to discuss whether they would undercut the cardinal’s capital campaign. At least that’s what they said they were meeting about. Interesting that a few days later the 58 priests signed released their letter demanding Law’s resignation. Coincidence?

You can expect to see more of this in coming days.