Revising history

Institutions are skilled at revising their own histories. Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War Two, is reputed to have told an opponent that his own place in history would be exalted because he himself would write the history. The Church also indulges in revisionist history. We may not be masters at it but when called upon we can retell history from the most biased perspective as well as any other institution.

I recall attending Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York many years ago when Cardinal John O’Connor, then archbishop of New York, offered Mass on a Sunday honoring the sacrament of matrimony and, specifically, for couples active in the Marriage Encounter movement. Cardinal O’Connor, an otherwise admirable person, described previous decades as confusing to many couples due to controversies over birth control. He then went on to say how positively the Church had responded with the encyclical “Humanae Vitae” while ignoring any mention of the commission established by Pope Paul VI to advise him on a course of action. Moreover, he spoke as if “Humanae Vitae” were welcomed and accepted with no controversy whatever.

I was reminded of this while reading the obituary of Bishop John D’Arcy, former bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who died recently. The obituary, published by Catholic News Service, completely ignored (or edited out) any mention of Bishop D’Arcy’s courageousness while still a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston. In the 1980s he wrote “a series of letters to his superiors raising alarms about priests he considered troubled and dangerous. The priests were being reassigned to new pastoral duties despite their known histories of substance abuse, sexually abusing children or both, and he urged his superiors to reconsider.” (NY Times, Feb. 4, 2013)

In 1979 Bishop (then Father) D’Arcy was vicar for spiritual development at St. John’s Seminary in Boston in 1979. He “recommended a comprehensive rethinking of the archdiocese’s system of recruiting men for the priesthood.” This included urging that candidates undergo psychological testing.

These letters written by then Fr. D’Arcy came to light in the early part of this century as courts forced the release of archdiocesan documents resulting from lawsuits. In 1984 he wrote newly appointed archbishop of Boston Bernard F. Law asking that he rescind the appointment of the Rev. John J. Geoghan as pastor of a parish in Weston, Mass. “Father Geoghan has a history of homosexual activity with young boys,” D’Arcy wrote. Father Geoghan was later accused of sexual abuse by 130 former parishioners.

D’Arcy was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in 1985. At the time there were wags in the Church who thought D’Arcy’s appointment had something to do with an effort to tame at least one part of the progressive Midwestern Church. In retrospect, it seems the appointment was as much an effort to silence D’Arcy from continuing to be a thorn in the side of his superiors in Boston.

Catholic News Service is an official organization within our United States Roman Catholic Church and it should not be surprising that little mention of this would be made. It can be found, however, in obituaries written in secular newspapers. CNS did a fine job summarizing the achievements of Bishop D’Arcy in Fort Wayne and it is best that he be remembered for these achievements. We cannot forget, however, that one priest promoted justice within a very secret system. Were there others we don’t know about? Perhaps then Father D’Arcy never truly appreciated the depth of corruption in the Boston archdiocese. After all, he too was nurtured in the same clerical culture. He just seems to have developed a better moral sense than some of his superiors.