Check out this post from GetReligion. It touches upon a situation in the Diocese of Fort Worth involving an incorrectly hired priest and the struggle of the Catholic reporter who discovered the problem.
All in all, I agree with reporter not covering up the incident. My only suggestion would be for him to contact Bishop Delaney before submitting the article and make sure he was aware of the situation. Still publish the story but give the Diocese a few hours headstart on it.
A little background on the parish itself: St. Mary the Virgin is one of the Pastoral Provision parishes that I’ve mentioned from time to time. The parish was founded as St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church. In 1991, the parish decided to leave the Episcopal Church and seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1994, it became the first parish to transfer corporately into the Catholic church and retain its property in the process. Fr. Hawkins is a Episcopal priest-convert and has been pastor of the parish since 1980.
As far as the questionable priest, there is evidence on both sides on whether or not he should be allowed to serve in the ministry. In either case, from all reports, the priest failed to request permission from Bishop Delaney before performing in active ministry. Even if he was a perfect priest with no red marks on his file, he still was supposed to contact the Bishop before engaging in ministry.
While I hope the priest was never involved with sexual misconduct, I am glad to read that this was caught before any misconduct took place in the Arlington parish.
All in all, I agree with reporter not covering up the incident. My only suggestion would be for him to contact Bishop Delaney before submitting the article and make sure he was aware of the situation. Still publish the story but give the Diocese a few hours headstart on it.
A little background on the parish itself: St. Mary the Virgin is one of the Pastoral Provision parishes that I’ve mentioned from time to time. The parish was founded as St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church. In 1991, the parish decided to leave the Episcopal Church and seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1994, it became the first parish to transfer corporately into the Catholic church and retain its property in the process. Fr. Hawkins is a Episcopal priest-convert and has been pastor of the parish since 1980.
As far as the questionable priest, there is evidence on both sides on whether or not he should be allowed to serve in the ministry. In either case, from all reports, the priest failed to request permission from Bishop Delaney before performing in active ministry. Even if he was a perfect priest with no red marks on his file, he still was supposed to contact the Bishop before engaging in ministry.
While I hope the priest was never involved with sexual misconduct, I am glad to read that this was caught before any misconduct took place in the Arlington parish.
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