Well, things have unraveled fairly quickly regarding Father David Nuss replacing Father Tom Leyland at St. Rose Parish in Perrysburg. Father Leyland is the veteran priest who said Bishop Leonard Blair was forcing him to retire as punishment for criticizing the bishop in the media over the creation of a new parish that cut his nearly in half. Bishop Blair did not budge in his stand that Fr. Leyland was not being punished but could not stay on at St. Rose despite the pleas of many parishioners.
Two days after being named pastor, Father Nuss resigned, citing unspecified personal problems. Yesterday, the Toledo diocese sent out a press release saying Fr. Nuss had an "inappropriate" relationship with a woman, and is on sabbatical.
It's not a crime for a priest to have a sexual affair with an adult woman, but it sure does violate the priest's vow of celibacy. I have had a number of people tell me over the years about priests who had affairs with women, often their wives, and blamed the priests for breaking up their marriages. I never wrote about them because it was not a crime, although I found it personally disturbing that a priest would do such a thing as the spiritual leader of his flock and God's representative on earth. But this case was different for several reasons: 1, the St. Rose pastorate was the subject of great controversy because of Father Leyland's situation. 2., the bishop apparently knew about the allegations against Fr. Nuss when he appointed the priest to succeed Leyland. I am assuming the diocese thought this would not become public knowledge. But knowingly appointing a priest involved in an affair as the leader of a prominent parish, one that had been in the headlines over the pastor's public protests, was a questionable move and one that makes many people question the bishop's judgment. I have gotten many calls and emails about this over the last few months. Yesterday, it all came out, in a strange way and one that makes me wonder why the Toledo diocese sent out a press release on a Sunday afternoon saying that one of its priests was going on sabbatical for having an affair.
It would have been much wiser to let Fr. Leyland stay on at St. Rose, sent Fr. Nuss to a counseling center and keep him out of the spotlight as he goes through the church's restoration process. As things turned out, this has been another nightmare for all concerned, and I feel bad for Fr. Nuss. Certainly, his life would have been made much easier if he had not been thrust into the middle of this St. Rose controversy. I am not judging him, I actually like him personally. The Bible tells us that no one except Jesus has lived a sinless life. I am not going to throw stones. But as a priest, he is held to a higher standard. I feel bad for him, and I feel bad for the woman involved in this sad story.
I have a feeling there is something else going on, or the diocese would not have issued that press release yesterday. Stay tuned for the rest of the story, it's bound to come out sooner or later. And I think sooner.
Here's a link to The Blade article that ran today.
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I went to Rockford, Illinois, last weekend to visit my daughter who works at a church there. Called in to The Blade about the developing Fr. Nuss story, and gave them as much as I had and Robin Erb did a great job finishing the article.
We got home about midnight, went to work this morning, got a call from my wife's doctor -- she needed to go to the emergency room asap and he could not get a hold of her. Turns out she had acute appendicitis, the test results showed. I ended up having to drive to her work to let her know because she was in a staff meeting and I could not reach her by phone. Within a few hours, she underwent surgery and had he appendix removed. That certainly was not on our schedule! But everything went well. I appreciate the prayers of our friends and church family. Janet is doing fine at Toledo Hospital, resting comfortably. She'll probably come home tomorrow and will need about a week to recuperate.
Sylvania, Ohio, July 23, 2007.