your problem, not mine

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 07, 2008

Father Stephen Foley, once a police chaplain in the Hartford, Connecticut archdiocese, is now on the run. The Hartford Courant reports that he has been living in Virginia, but his exact whereabouts are unknown. At least they are unknown to the Connecticut judge who has been trying to persuade Foley to sit for a deposition, in a lawsuit brought by one of several men who claim that Foley molested them. 

Questioned about the no-show priest, archdiocesan spokesman John Gatzak expressed impatience. "If the legal system can't get him to do what he is supposed to do," reasoned Gatzak, "you can't expect the archdiocese to do it." 

Do you sense that Father Foley is a big current favorite with the chancery crowd? Neither do I. But while Gatzak may have good reason to be exasperated, I dare say that the priest's victims have even better cause for complaint.

For that matter, jurists in Connecticut might be annoyed, too, by the all-too-familiar tendency of archdiocesan officials to slough off responsibility onto somebody else. It wasn't the court to which Foley, on the day of his ordination, solemnly pledged lifelong obedience. And it's not the court that is still (as the Courant helpfully reports) sending regular stipend payments to a priest who is suspended from ministry and at odds with the law.