By Larry Durstin
My unofficial leaving of the Catholic Church occurred in the late 1960s and took place at the St. Thomas More Chapel on the campus of Bowling Green State University. I was among a crowd of students standing at in the rear of the church waiting for the Mass to be over so we could get while the getting was good.
Father Oliver, the priest who was celebrating Mass, called two or three times for the back-of-church worshippers to come up front where there were seats aplenty. No one budged. Finally, he ordered, “Come up front or leave.” As about half the crowd began hitting the bricks, he thundered, “Have a good time in Hell,” which suddenly seemed an appealing alternative to me as I quick-stepped out the door.
That was it for me. Of course, the reality was that I was already gone long before that. Attending St. Colman’s in the 1950s, I never really bought into the Baltimore Catechism program. Oh, I would get all guilty as the drumbeat of venial and mortal sins throbbed in my head and I would lickety-split it to confession. But it never really took. Later, at St. Edward High School, I would get mighty penitent during the yearly Retreats when they’d bring in some fire-and-brimstone huckster to kick the guilt and shame – primarily regarding sex – into the stratosphere and I would, again, seek fleeting respite from eternal flames via the confessional booth – a uniquely medieval encasement that always struck me as being moribund rather than mystical.
Going away to college, I experienced different perspectives on the Church and ultimately concluded that the whole One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic yak-yak was, primarily, about power and wealth. So when I found myself being serenaded by the dulcet tones of “have a good time in Hell,” the sheer absurdity of the entire scene blew me out the door and I’ve never looked back or felt a tinge of regret about my choice. I may not have known exactly what I believed, but I knew I didn’t believe the bill of goods that was being sold to me. Besides, it had become painfully obvious to me that the threats regarding eternal damnation – which appeared to be the Church’s ultimate trump card – were little more than the last refuge of scoundrels.
Of course, I could go through a litany of offenses – some venial, many mortal – committed by the Church since then, but I’ll cite just one. With much of the continent of Africa being ravaged by AIDS, overpopulation and hunger in the 1990s, Pope John Paul II, that alleged champion of freedom and human dignity, made sure that Catholic hospitals in the devastated African countries never deviated from their obscene policy of not distributing condoms to the population of those countries. To me, this was an act of near-genocide, and I hope that the perpetrators will, so to speak, have a very bad time in Hell.
With all of this said, readers can take with whatever gain of salt they choose my analysis of the current retirement stand off between Cleveland Bishop Lennon and St. Colman’s pastor, Father Begin. (These two clashed mightily during Lennon’s great “Closing of the Churches” fiasco begun in 2009.) Concerning the retirement incident in question, according to Diocese policy it is mandatory that at age 75, Begin – like all priest in the Cleveland Diocese – must turn in his retirement request to Lennon, who then can either accept it or allow the priest to continue should the padre wish to. Lennon initially accepted the request, but is now – under pressure from a variety of fronts – reconsidering his decision and will make a final ruling shortly. Begin clearly wants to continue as pastor and Lennon appears to want him gone. Over 3000 signatures in favor of Begin have been turned over to Lennon – so stay tuned.
In regards to the more central matter of their well publicized church-closing conflict, to say that Lennon handled this admittedly difficult and career-defining task in a ham-fisted manner would be putting it delicately. By most accounts, he botched the job about as badly as was humanly possible. And in doing so, he enraged many of the area’s most active, hard- working and compassionate church members; caused a public relations disaster for the Church with his bully-boy excommunication threats and his pathetic bleating that “breakaway” parishioners’ “salvation was at stake,” so they better shape up; and, finally – because of his boorish incompetence – was on the receiving end of a rare decree from the Vatican stating that Lennon “acted in violation of the law” regarding a number of church closings that were subsequently reversed. To me, these sound like the actions of a petty lord presiding over a feudal fiefdom rather than a shepherd tending to his flock.
On the other hand, we have Father Begin, who bested Lennon handily in that historic, parish-shuttering encounter. It appears that Begin has had a commitment to social justice and the welfare of the “least among us” his entire career. His parishioners clearly love him and are willing to fight – hard – for him. In his 19 years at St. Colman’s (the last seven as pastor), the tireless Begin has – along with helping to revitalize a somewhat bleak section of Cleveland’s West Side – grown the church membership significantly and turned his parish into a true neighborhood anchor with one of the most active and respected congregations in the entire city of Cleveland.
St. Colman’s Outreach Ministry – which includes handling of parishioner emergencies, neighborhood meals, free computer classes, literacy and GED training, the teaching English as a second language, and afterschool programs – has hundreds of volunteers and is a model for inner-city parishes. St. Colman’s embrace of immigrants is a source of pride for both current and former parishioners – including a secular wretch like me, who finds himself bragging about the guts, passion and pure human decency exhibited by his childhood church.
So now we have Bishop Lennon in the process of reconsidering his acceptance of Father Begin’s mandatory retirement request. I know this is a multi-layered issue with the Holy Spirit allegedly a factor in the Bishop’s decision. Fine. My hope is that Lennon makes his choice based solely on the desire to carry out the will of God and understands that, as JFK famously said, “Here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”
Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com