There were court hearings this week in the lawsuit trying to keep the Archdiocese of Boston from closing what was St. Albert the Great parish in Weymouth. Most of it is what we’ve heard before, although the article certainly wasn’t as prejudicial against the archdiocese since it was written by an AP reporter, not the Boston Globe‘s own Bella English. Anyway, we have the following exchange reported:
O’Malley’s spokesman, the Rev. Christopher Coyne, was confronted by several parishioners after the court hearing. One parishioner, Sandy Jones, interrupted Coyne repeatedly as he tried to talk to reporters after the hearing.
“Have you ever been to Weymouth? Have you been to our parish?” Jones shouted.
Coyne ended the interviews when Jones refused to stop interrupting him.
“I’m very angry,” Jones said afterward. “They’re liars. They lied to us about the abuse and they covered it up.”
Whatever the merits of the case or the parishioners’ accusations, this episode illustrates the extent of the damage done by the Scandal. The trust between bishops and the flock has been broken and repairing will take a very long time, probably not in our lifetimes. Everytime a bishop appears to go against the what some people want, whether justly or unjustly, we’ll hear the same mantra: “We can’t believe you because you’re liars.” Whether it’s true of the individual bishop or not, those who did lie have ruined it for the rest of them.
Update: Ah, here is Bella English’s more prejudiced version of events.