Boston Globe reporter Michael Paulson, who’s blogging from Rome, has some news from back home about Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Newton, Mass., where Fr. Walter Cuenin used to be pastor. As many of you know, Cuenin resigned last fall after he admitted taking compensation from the parish that he wasn’t entitled to. Fr. Chris Coyne was appointed as pastor, but an unholy riot ensued by Cuenin partisans who saw Coyne as a Cardinal Law insider. Coyne eventually submitted his resignation and the archdiocese was to appoint a new pastor.
Actually, in this case it’s two new pastors. Paulson reports that one of the two men is Fr. John Sassani, director of the office of spiritual development. He had lived at OLHC a few years ago so he won’t be unfamiliar to the parish. The other pastor is still unknown, but I hear rumblings that the choice is not going to be anywhere near the “viewpoint” of Cuenin and his disciples.
Meanwhile, Fr. Paul Kilroy, the former pastor of St. Bernard’s in Newton who left there after it was going to be closed and has been living at OLHC, is leaving there to go to St. Joseph’s in Medford. Kilroy was a close friend of Cuenin and so his diciples looked to Kilroy as their friend in the rectory.
With the departure of Kilroy as well as three out of four members of the pastoral staff who were longtime followers of Cuenin, it looks like OLHC is nearly cleaned out and ready to make a fresh start. Here’s hoping the people who actually live in the parish—as opposed to the carpetbaggers who followed Cuenin there—can now move on with their parish life.
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