ARTICLES

The Accidental Incendiary

San Diego Layman Causes Controversy in Dallas

BY ALLYSON SMITH

A San Diego layman touched off a firestorm in the Diocese of Dallas, Texas when he defended a priest who was transferred against his will from the inner city parish he helped revitalize over a 10-year period. John Giery, a married father of two who attends Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lakeside, first learned of Father Paul Weinberger's plight in early December after reading a CruxNews.com article by another priest, Father Joseph F. Wilson.

In the article, Father Wilson chronicled Father Weinberger's struggle to continue to serve Blessed Sacrament parish despite Bishop Charles Grahmann's allegedly uncanonical attempts to remove him. "Father Paul L. Weinberger," Wilson wrote, "the Dallas pastor profiled in July 2003 in the Wanderer and across the Internet for his success in transforming a dying inner city parish into a dynamic model of parish life, was stunned to receive a decree from his bishop dated November 17, 2003 and delivered the same day, relieving him of his duties as pastor and authorizing a six month sabbatical beginning in January 2004."

Father Wilson went on to describe some aspects of Blessed Sacrament's conversion from a troubled inner city church to a vibrant model of parish life. "Father Weinberger arrived to find a decayed parish sitting in a blighted neighborhood, struggling under a million-dollar debt. By dint of patient endurance, he turned things around. Flowers, trees and shrubbery were lovingly planted to create an oasis; the Catholic Foundation of Texas extended a grant for the restoration of the stained glass. The roof was repaired, the inside painted, carefully procured statues obtained from churches which no longer wanted them now graced long empty niches. The lower church hall was beautifully renovated and put to constant use. In church were daily Mass, confessions, rosaries, spiritual conferences, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Downstairs throughout the week the Center For Learning And Virtue offered a series of free presentations extending throughout the week on all aspects of Catholicism, in Spanish and English. And the parish stands today, active, vibrant and debt-free.

"But it was the liturgy which really got peoples' attention. In addition to regular Masses in Spanish and in English, the 10:45 a.m. Sunday Mass was a sung Latin Novus Ordo Mass with Gregorian Chant. Readings and homily were in the vernacular. Father Weinberger's conviction is that the ancient tongue provides a common reference point in a parish where seventy percent of the parishioners are Spanish speakers and thirty percent are English speaking; thus a full Latin Mass is provided, and at every Mass the Eucharistic Prayer is in Latin."

Moved by the story, Giery phoned Blessed Sacrament December 3 to speak with Father Weinberger. Told that the priest was hearing confessions, Giery then phoned the Diocese of Dallas to inquire about Father Weinberger's situation.

A receptionist transferred Giery's call to Deacon Bronson Havard, a diocesan spokesman who is also editor of the Texas Catholic, the official newspaper of the Dallas diocese. Giery recalls the conversation. "I said, 'I'm mystified at the rationale behind moving such a holy priest who has done so much for the poor and abandoned, especially when no one else wants that assignment.' Deacon Havard cut me off and objected angrily to my use of the word 'holy.' He asked me, 'Do you know Weinberger?' to which I responded, 'No.'"

What Giery heard next stunned him. "Deacon Havard insinuated that Father Paul does a lot of busy work and said that he knew of several priests who did just as much busy work who turned out to be pedophiles."

Later that afternoon, Giery spoke with Father Weinberger for approximately 20 minutes. "During the entire conversation," he recalls, "Father Paul did not say one derogatory thing about Bishop Grahmann or Deacon Havard."

The next day, still outraged by Havard's calumnious remark, Giery shot off a follow-up letter to him detailing the conversation, with copies to Bishop Grahmann, co-adjutor Bishop Joseph Galante, and Father Wilson, saying in part, "To the extent you object to my characterization of Father Paul as a 'holy priest', I would say you have your opinion and I have mine. However, when you tell me that 'I know several priests who did just as much busy work and they turned out to be pedophiles,' let me say you are out of line. For a Deacon like yourself to indirectly connect Father Paul and the abomination of pedophilia in the same sentence is an insult to Father Paul. You owe Father Paul an apology.'"

Within an hour of sending the message, Giery received a reply from Father Weinberger's attorneys at Fanning Harper and Martinson in Dallas -- Father Wilson had forwarded Giery's letter to the firm -- asking if he would file an affidavit attesting to his conversation with Deacon Havard. Giery did so. "The matter would have probably been put to rest right then," Giery says, "had not Father Wilson publicized my letter with his contacts throughout the nation," said Giery. "Within 24 hours it became a huge issue within the Dallas Diocese, especially among Blessed Sacrament's parishioners."

Giery was not the first person to whom Deacon Havard made derogatory remarks about Father Weinberger and his inclusion of Latin in Masses. On November 23, syndicated Scripps-Howard News Service columnist, Terry Mattingly, published a story about the Blessed Sacrament fiasco. In his report, titled "The Love of Latin Creates Controversy in a Parish," Mattingly quoted Havard as saying, "Using Latin may mean something to [Father Weinberger], but it means nothing to the people in the pews, especially not to the Mexican immigrants who come into the area. We've had many complaints about that."

Mattingly continued, "This is news to Weinberger. Diocesan policy requires that pastors receive copies of all complaints, he noted, and none have reached his desk."

Havard also told Mattingly that the Dallas diocese requires priests to seek permission to use Latin rites despite Pope John Paul II's call for a "wide and generous application" of the Latin liturgy in his 1988 apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei.

Dallas Morning News columnist and Catholic convert Rod Dreher also jumped into the controversy. On December 5, Dreher emailed Havard seeking verification of Giery's account of the telephone conversation. "The letter came from a man in San Diego named Giery," Dreher wrote, "who claims to have spoken by phone with you." Havard subsequently replied to Dreher on the Dallas Morning News website calling the accusations "spurious."

Havard's comments to Mattingly and Giery and his release of the statement aggravated the already-tense situation between Father Weinberger and his bishop. Although Father Weinberger had met with Bishop Grahmann and other diocesan personnel several months earlier to discuss the possibility of transferring from Blessed Sacrament to another parish after taking a six-month sabbatical in Rome, Father Weinberger requested that Grahmann's November 17 decree removing him as pastor of Blessed Sacrament be repealed after Havard's comments came to light.

A record of the correspondence between Father Weinberger and Bishop Grahmann is posted on Blessed Sacrament's website at Blessedsacramentparish.net. In a letter dated November 30, the First Sunday of Advent, Father Weinberger asked Bishop Grahmann to correct Havard's erroneous statements to journalist Mattingly. After learning of Giery's conversation with Havard, Father Weinberger again wrote to Bishop Grahmann on December 11, saying "I have never been more disgusted in my life" regarding the way Havard "portrays me to members of the public whom he does not even know."

In the same letter, Father Weinberger requested an immediate withdrawal of his sabbatical request, telling Grahmann, "In Rome I would be wondering in what ways my reputation in Dallas was being trashed by your spokesman and advisor, Deacon Bronson Havard."

Bishop Grahmann responded December 19, "Since you have decided not to take the sabbatical you requested, I am proposing that you transfer to St. William Parish, Greenville, Texas, effective January 6, 2004."

On December 23, Father Weinberger again wrote Bishop Grahmann protesting the reassignment, saying he had never resigned his Blessed Sacrament pastorate and asking that Havard's comments be publicly corrected. Bishop Grahmann responded December 31 saying, "It is my prayer that you graciously accept this assignment" at St. William parish.

In a December 28 Dallas Morning News commentary titled "This Priest Shouldn't Be Moved," Dreher wrote, "The Blessed Sacrament faithful think they know why [Father Weinberger is being transferred]. Father Weinberger is being punished, they say, because he is a tradition-minded Catholic priest, one who venerates Rome's liturgical heritage, preaches the orthodox Catholic faith and does unheard-of things like offering 40 hours of confessions during Holy Week. Even more scandalous, preaching that old-time religion at Blessed Sacrament has been a success."

During his final Mass at Blessed Sacrament on Epiphany Sunday, January 4, in the presence of parishioners, Dreher and other members of the Dallas media, Father Weinberger publicly denounced Havard from the pulpit. Father Weinberger said, "With sadness of a different sort I must also mention the absolutely groundless statements made by Deacon Bronson Havard, the spokesman for the diocese. I mentioned at Thanksgiving some of Deacon Havard's baseless remarks which he had made in an interview with Scripps-Howard columnist, Terry Mattingly. Deacon Havard made even more comments to a Catholic layman who called the chancery in an attempt to defend the good reputation of Blessed Sacrament Parish as well as my good name as a priest."

Indirectly referring to the case of infamous homosexual priest Rudy Kos, who was arrested in a San Diego gay bar in 1997 for molesting 11 altar boys while a priest in Dallas and is now serving a life sentence after costing the diocese a record $119.6 million in legal judgements, Father Weinberger continued, "It is equally unimaginable that in this day and time, anyone connected to the Diocese of Dallas would lightly refer to the crime of priestly pedophilia.... Such reckless commentary cries out to heaven for justice."

On January 6, the same day Father Weinberger assumed his new pastorate at St. William, Havard released a diocesan statement referring to Giery as "someone, who has never been to the Dallas Diocese, but who is linked in an Internet network of traditionalist Catholics who are protesting the reassignment of Father Paul Weinberger from a Dallas parish to one in Greenville, Texas.... It is impossible to sue this guy [Giery] for slander because no one is identifying who he is."

Havard's statement was later removed from the Dallas Diocese website.

Giery commented later, "It's unbelievable that Deacon Havard would release an official statement claiming that no one is identifying me. I called him and emailed him in December just after I learned about Father Weinberger's predicament. I also copied the two Dallas bishops on my message. For Deacon Havard to release an official diocesan statement calling me 'this guy,' like he doesn't know my name, and implying that I'm part of a traditionalist Catholic network is ridiculous."

On January 7, Rod Dreher emailed Havard inviting him to answer some questions on the topic. In a January 20 telephone conversation, Dreher said that Havard has yet to respond to his questions. On January 21, a News Notes reporter again called Havard, who answered the telephone. When informed of the purpose of the call, Havard said "I don't know San Diego News Notes and don't have time to talk right now."

When asked whether he repudiated the remarks he made about Father Weinberger to Terry Mattingly and John Giery?," Havard responded, "I'm not talking to you, all right!" and hung up.

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