I received a phone call yesterday from a woman who had just read my article from last month about the funeral of defrocked priest C. Neil Lucas.
For those who missed the initial article and resulting fallout, he was a Toledo Diocesan priest who was removed from ministry and later laicized because of credible allegations that he had sexually abused minors.
When Mr. Lucas died, it created a new set of ethical, moral and etiquette questions: What funereal honors are appropriate for a longtime priest who did many wonderful things during this career but ultimately was kicked out of the priesthood for molesting children?
My hope was that the funeral would not become an issue, and therefore I would not have to write about it. But when Christ the King parish canceled school that day specifically because it expected a huge crowd for the funeral, my editors asserted
-- and I agreed -- that it had now become news. Hundreds of families were being affected by the decision to cancel classes, which had been announced at the last minute and which forced many parents to scramble to find child care.
In addition, the funeral was being presided over by a retired auxiliary bishop and as it turned out, approximately 50 priests attended the ceremony and Mr. Lucas was given a hero's farewell.
When an article ran on the day of the funeral reporting how the parish had canceled school, one caller berated me for writing the story and called me "stupid, slimy and sleazy."
Now back to yesterday's phone call. This woman said she personally knew Mr. Lucas. Having gotten a lot of responses earlier, mostly negative, I was expecting her to criticize me for writing it. But instead she thanked me.
She had some very unpleasant and disturbing experiences with the ex-priest and was glad that the newspaper was telling the truth instead of pretending the man was some kind of saint.
I don't want to get into detail but let's just say her firsthand report reinforced the premise that there were substantial reasons for the church to defrock him. It was not, as his pastor told parishioners at the time of Lucas' removal from ministry, in a letter written on official church stationery, merely because of the ex-priest's admission to "waterskiing in the buff" with some boys and then playing strip poker with them. Although those actions showed serious lapses of judgment, I doubt if they were enough cause to remove a priest from ministry and then take the extraordinary step of laicizing him.
I get no pleasure out of hearing about, or reporting on, people's flaws or secret crimes, but in the case of yesterday's phone call, the woman helped remove any remaining doubts I may have had about the article. She also reinforced my belief that there is much more to the allegations against the ex-priest than the public has been told.
Toledo, Ohio
December 5, 2007