Priests, parishioners
excommunicated
By PAMELA SCHAEFFER
NCR Staff
Two Catholic priests and hundreds of former members of Corpus
Christi Parish in Rochester, N.Y., have been excommunicated by the Rochester,
N.Y., diocese following an announcement that they are starting a new
church.
The excommunication order was issued by Bishop Matthew Clark on
Feb. 24. The priests were also warned that continued disobedience could get
them defrocked.
One of the priests, Fr. James Callan, was removed from Corpus
Christi in August for violating church rules and suspended in December for
failing to comply with a diocesan directive to avoid his former
parishioners.
Callan and Fr. Enrique Cadena, another priest associated with the
new church, said they were disappointed by the excommunication order but would
not change their course.
I am upset that it has come to this extreme, Cadena
said. I think that we in the Catholic church have always had room for
conservatives and liberals. Now our community, which was looking for a new
model of church, is considered out.
Cadena said he and Callan would follow their commitment to
walk with the people. He said the priests would defy the excommunication
order and begin celebrating Mass. Previously, the priests had led Communion
services, distributing already consecrated hosts.
By doing only the Communion services, we were hoping for
reconciliation, Cadena said. Now we dont have to be bound by
the regulations of the institution.
Excommunicated Catholics are officially barred from receiving the
sacraments of the church.
Chava Redonnet, one of the excommunicated Catholics, said she felt
profoundly peaceful and grateful for her faith community. Redonnet
stressed that the group are not Callans followers, as they are often
described in news reports, but initiators of the new church. Jim is
coming with us, she said. If we were not doing this, Jim would not
be doing it.
Lee Vester, a leader of the new church, said the group will soon
vote on a new name. A significant percentage of Corpus Christi parish are among
the approximately 1,100 members of the new congregation, she said. Vester
estimates that at least 30 percent of the new groups members are, like
herself, non-Catholics who had been attracted to Corpus Christi by its vibrant
ministries. Over 22 years, Callan had built a dying inner-city parish into a
large, thriving congregation.
Callan was removed as pastor of Corpus Christi in August after
ignoring orders to stop such practices as distributing Communion to
non-Catholics, blessing same-sex unions and allowing a female pastoral
associate, Mary Ramerman, to perform some functions at the altar.
He was suspended in December when he began worshiping with the
former parishioners.
The excommunication order was issued 10 days after the
announcement that the new church would begin holding Sunday services in space
leased from a Protestant church. The order came the same day as the filing of a
lawsuit by four former staff members who were fired from Corpus Christi in
December.
Fr. Kevin McKenna, chancellor of the Rochester diocese, said in a
statement that Callan and others who had joined the new church had brought the
excommunication penalty on themselves. By starting this new church, a
schism has occurred, he said. Seventy percent of the group are Roman
Catholics.
For the priests involved, a further step could be dismissal
from the clerical state, McKenna said. He said Bishop Clark would be
very reluctant to take that step.
We continue to pray for Fr. Callan and his followers to
return to the church, McKenna said.
The four former Corpus Christi staffers who sued the diocese,
Corpus Christi Parish and the bishop, accused the defendants of wrongful breach
of contract. Before leaving Corpus Christi in September, Callan had approved
one-year contracts. The plaintiffs are seeking 10 months of pay and
benefits.
National Catholic Reporter, March 5,
1999
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