Press Release, May 7, 2004

ASSOCIATION FOR THE RIGHTS OF CATHOLICS IN THE CHURCH
3150 Newgate Drive
Florissant, MO 63033
Contact:
John Sheehan, National Coordinator,  413-527-9929
Leonard Swidler, President,  215-477-1080

"YOU ARE FIRED!" SAYS ARCHBISHOP TO PRIESTS' SEX VICTIMS' ADVOCATE

In September 2003 a Dominican priest, Father Tom Doyle, then stationed in Germany, was quietly relieved of his duties as an Air Force chaplain by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, who heads the Archdiocese of Military Services. This decision was made public only in late April, and Doyle is completing his time in the military as a substance abuse counselor at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. The explanation offered was a difference in opinion between Father Doyle and the archbishop on the necessity of daily Mass on military bases.

According to John Sheehan, ARCC national coordinator, the action “smacks of retaliation for Father Doyle’s outspoken support for the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.” Referring to the books Our Fathers by David France and Vows of Silence by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Sheehan commented that “it seems an odd coincidence that he is no longer allowed to function as a priest in the military at just the time his attempts to end the bishops’ conspiracy of silence are chronicled in two new studies of the scandal.”

ARCC, which was formed to promote the rights of all Catholics following the punitive actions taken against several prominent Catholic theologians, deplores Archbishop O’Brien’s actions and invites a more complete review. “Once again,” Sheehan stated, “we see evidence of a continuing pattern to suppress anyone who challenges the vow of silence that has brought the Church to the crisis it faces today.”