... and still more darkness

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 14, 2004

Might it be relevant to Boston's fiscal crisis whether or not it had categories of expenditures not present in a healthy, burgeoning church?

If a diocese were financially flattened because of unanticipated medical expenses caused by destructive habits of tobacco use by clergy, one might expect the bishop to implement draconian anti-smoking measures from the pre-seminary through to the retirement homes -- even though no sin is committed, no doctrine impugned, no member of the flock directly harmed by a man's candid fondness for nicotine. Well folks, we know what appetites brought the Archdiocese of Boston to its present condition. Has a single priest been required to "kick the habit" or hit the road -- beyond those who fell afoul of the law? The only suggestion I've heard along these lines dates from 1999, pre-Scandal, by a Boston-area gay e-mailing his fellow priests at St. Sebastian's Angels:

Unfortunately, in the coming sexuality pogrom, I fear many of us will be casualties in one way or another -- if we insist on saying "We are here!" I've noticed that the idea of "activism" among the older gay clergy is a rather foreign idea. They feel no urge to slit their own throats in the name of Truth, Justice, bla, bla, bla. They simply go to plush old-gay-men piano bars in Boston and sit around the piano singing show-tunes and wishing their ***** still worked the way they did when they were young.

Do we have any reason to believe that, five years and $40 million later, the same clerical gang isn't working the Web or humming along to Les Miz, as their personal taste inclines? One doesn't get the sense that sordid details like school or parish closings are going to have much impact on the style of recreation to which God's anointed have become accustomed. And, since the clergy seem comfortable with the laissez-faire approach, it's hard to feel alarm about the pension shortfall, except insofar as it might adversely affect retired lay employees who served with honor. "Let's see, yours is a Perfect Rob Roy, isn't it, Monsignor?"

God loves a cheerful giver.