Our Sad Time...

A few years back, I wrote a calm, respectful and detailed letter to His Excellency, Bishop John McCormack, regarding the dissident nature of VOTF and imploring him to take appropriate action against this dissent group. In a letter of response, His Excellency accused me of displaying an "angry tone and tenor."

His Excellency had mistaken the firmness of my convictions as "anger." This even though I couldn't have been more respectful or calm and objective. Or perhaps he was not so much mistaken as he was determined to rebuff me with the false accusation of having displayed an "angry tone and tenor." This charge was all the more ironic since (although I have my share of faults to be sure) co-workers and friends have always told me that patience is one of my strongest qualities. Working with the developmentally-disabled for many years, I can tell you that patience is absolutely requisite...though few positions could be more rewarding.

When I politely reminded His Excellency that I was not the one overheard by reporters working for the Associated Press to be shouting at parishioners of St. Patrick's Parish in Jaffrey: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/NH-Manchester/JBMcCormack-2002-10.html , I never did receive a response.

In an article published in the October 7, 2002 edition of The Union Leader, readers were told of how Bishop McCormack got into "several heated exchanges, including one with a parishioner who accused him of ignoring letters of complaint from Jaffrey parishioners." These parishioners of St. Patrick's (many of whom are parents) were alarmed because Bishop McCormack had assigned the Rev. Roland P. Cote to their parish "after Cote admitted having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy years earlier" (The Union Leader, October 1, 2002 edition).

Bishop McCormack's legacy is a sad one. It is a legacy of dismissing the legitimate complaints of devout Catholics who were concerned about the sexual abuse of children and over the problem of dissent.

Pray for him.

Paul.