Bishop Accountability

Letter from Rockville Centre Priests to Bishop William F. Murphy

http://www.votf-li.org/PriestletterBishopMurphy.html

October 1, 2003

Most Rev. William Francis Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre
50 North Park Avenue
Rockville Centre, NY 11570

Dear Bishop Murphy:

We write to you out of a great love for the Church, which we strive to serve faithfully each day. We write out of a great love for our local Church, the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and out of fraternal concern for you, our brother priest and bishop.

In our own personal experience we have perceived a general malaise and even an abiding anger within our beloved diocese. There are very many in the diocese, clergy and laity, who sense this same atmosphere. We perceive a fairly widespread dissatisfaction with the way you have related to some clergy and laity and we sense a certain lack of confidence in your pastoral leadership in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. We find the situation distressing. People feel hurt by events in the Church and in our diocese. The response of the faithful to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal this year is powerful evidence of this hurt. We are sure as well that you have experienced pain by things that have been said and published about you. There is open and public conflict that remains unresolved and it is the experience of many that life goes on under a dark cloud. What others and we experience is not an acceptable situation.

We recognize that there are certain individuals and groups that do not share this same sense of alienation and do not share the criticisms that have been so publicly aired. There are those who have expressed strong support of you and your ministry in the diocese. Despite that, the situation described in the preceding paragraph is the reality that we wish to address.

We believe that your brother priests may have a special role to play in creating a more mutually respectful and dialogical climate which will help the diocese move forward in the task given us by Jesus to live and proclaim the Gospel. We believe that it may actually be possible for us as a group to be reconcilers and to make concrete the reality that together we form a community of forgiven forgivers.

We are suggesting to you a process that begins with the most open dialogue possible between you and all the priests of the diocese. This dialogue would be realized in a meeting between you and all the priests interested in taking part. This meeting would be absolutely private and certainly would exclude any media-related persons. During the first part of this meeting you would be able to speak to the priests indicating how you see your first two years in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, especially in your relations with the priests of the diocese, but also with laity. We would like you to address any aspect of diocesan life that you consider urgent and important and that you think may contribute to the uneasiness that many feel. During the second part of the meeting priests of the diocese would be free to address you and/or the assembly of priests present regarding the issues that they may deem urgent or important, especially regarding your relationship with the priests of the diocese. We ask that you would not only listen to what priests have to say. We hope that you would also respond to this input.

Such a gathering will be difficult to manage. For that reason a professional facilitator would be important. We suggest further that such a meeting be held for an extended time in the afternoon to enable as many priests as possible to participate. These and all aspects of such a meeting would be discussed and agreed on beforehand. We recognize that such a meeting would be quite challenging for all of us, We believe that the current situation justifies the suggestion as a viable route towards creating a more open, friendly, fraternal and Christian atmosphere than what many priests and laity seem to experience at present. It will help us to meet a goal presented by the Diocesan Synod document, that is, "to be better poised, spiritually... to meet the challenges of the new millennium and thus be able to more effectively build the kingdom of God on earth with the grace of God."

The sadness and sense of desperation that we experience as so prevalent in our diocese impels us all to find a way to be true witnesses to the joy of the Gospel of Jesus, to the possibilities of forgiveness and reconciliation and to the power of truth, openness and flexibility to bring peace to our communities.

We hope that you will receive this appeal and respond to it in the same spirit of charity, respect and fraternity with which we offer it. We have great confidence that, if we approach one another in a spirit of truth and humility, the overwhelming grace of God will make up for whatever we may lack in truth and humility and bring our project to a peaceful and fruitful conclusion.

We ask you to respond to our proposal through the committee of three listed below, who were chosen by a small group of priests who first started to consider the proposal.

Chris Aridas Tom Gallagher <signed>

Rev. Chris W. Aridas Rev. Thomas G. Gallagher

Pete Pflomm <signed>

Rev. Msgr. Peter J. Pflomm Rev.

The Names and Addresses of the Signers

Rev.	Christopher J.	Aridas	Church of St.Margaret of Scotland	81 College Road	Selden	NY	11784-2813
Rev.	Peter A.	Allen	Sacred Heart Church	Main Street	Cutchogue	NY	11935-1213
Rev.	Donald M.	Baier	Our Lady of Lourdes Church	65 Wright Avenue	Malverne	NY	11565-2199
Rev.	Andrew P.	Blake	St Andrew Church	122 Division St	Sag Harbor	NY	11963-3154
Rev.	Henry J.	Benack	St. Patrick	235 Glen Street	Glen Cove	NY	11542-3091
Rev.	James C.	Bowman	Corpus Christi	155 Garfield Ave	Mineola	NY	11501-2583
Rev.Msgr.	Joseph K.	Curley	Assumption Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary	20 Chestnut Street	Centereach	NY	11720-1702
Rev.	Andrew P.	Connolly	St. Francis de Sales RC Church	7 Amity Street	Patchogue	NY	11772-3504
Rev.	William F.	Brisotti	Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church	1434 Straight Path	Wyandanch	NY	11798-3909
Rev. Msgr.	Peter A.	Chiara	St. Mary	20 Harrison Ave	East Islip	NY	11730-2314
Rev.	Serafino A.	Corali	St. Pius X Residence	1220 Front St	Uniondale	NY	11553-2097
Rev.	Thomas W.	Coby	St. John the Evangelist Church	546 St. John's Place	Riverhead	NY	11901-4691
Rev. Msgr.	Thomas D.	Candreva	St Raymond	263 Atlantic Ave	East Rockaway	NY	11518-1117
Rev.	Gregory J.	Cappuccino	Church of the Blessed Sacrament	201 No. Central Avenue	Valley Stream	NY	11580-3198
Rev	Paul A.	Dolan	Corpus Christi Church	155 Garfield Ave	Mineola	NY	11501-2583
Rev.	Paul J.	Dahm		176 Montauk Highway	Southampton	NY	11968-
Rev.	William G.	Dailey		1016 Bishop's Rd	Smithtown`	NY	11787-
Rev.	Nicholas	Figliola	St. Frances Cabrini Church	134 Middle Country Road	Coram	NY	11727-4413
Rev	Ivan	Gonzalez	St. Kilian RC Church	485 Conklin St.	Farmingdale	NY	11735
Rev.	Thomas G.	Gallagher	Sacred Heart	720 Merrick Ave	No.Merrick	NY	11566-1605
Rev.	Peter J.	Garry	St. Philip Neri	344 Main Street	Northport	NY	11768-1779
Rev.	Christopher	Heller	St. Gerard Majella Church	300 Terryville Road	Port Jefferson Station	NY	11776-2854
Rev Msgr	Daniel	Hurley	St. Rose of Lima Church	2 Bayview Avenue	Massapequa	NY	11762-7299
Rev Msgr	William	Jablonski	Church of St. Raymond	263 Atlantic Avenue	East Rockaway	NY	11518-1117
Rev.	Edward J.	Kealey	Church of St. Sylvester	68 Ohio Avenue	Medford	NY	11763-
Rev	Joseph	Mappilamattel	Church of St. Gerard Majella	300 Terryville Rd	Pt Jefferson	NY	11776--2854
Rev.	John P.	Martin	Notre Dame Church	45 Mayfair Road	New Hyde Park	NY	11040-2094
Rev.	Joseph A.	Mirro	Immaculate Conception	Main Rd - Box 1227	Westhampton	NY	11978-7227
Rev	Raymond H.	Nugent	St Mary	20 Harrison Ave	East Islip	NY	11730-2314
Rev	Kenneth	Nee	St. Pius X Residence	1220 Front St	Uniondale	NY	11553-2097
Rev	Martin J.	Osborne	St Patrick	PO Box 1117	Southold	NY	11971-
Rev.	Lawrence J.	O'Leary	Maria Regina Residence	1725 Brentwood Rd	Brentwood	NY	11717-
Rev.	Steven J.	Peterson	Church of St. Mary	20 Harrison Avenue	East Islip	NY	11730-2314
Rev Msgr	Daniel	Picciano	St. Peter of Alcantara Church	1327 Port Washington Blvd.	Port Washington	NY	11050-3096
Rev.	Charles E.	Papa	St. Louis de Montfort Church	75 New York Ave.	Sound Beach	NY	11789-2506
Rev.	Bruce J.	Powers	Church of St.Elizabeth	175 Wolf Hill Road	Melville	NY	11747-1398
Rev Msgr	Peter J.	Pflomm	Maria Regina Church	3945 Jerusalem Avenue	Seaford	NY	11783-1627
Rev.	Francis	Pizzarelli, MM		PO Box 358	Port Jefferson	NY	11777
Rev Msgr.	T. Peter	Ryan	Our Lady Queen of Martyrs	PO Box 0609	Centerport	NY	11721-1130
Rev.	Thomas	St. Pierre	St. Anne RC Church	88 Second Avenue	Brentwood	NY	11717-5395
Rev.	Kevin M.	Smith	St. Francis de Sales Church	7 Amity Street	Patchogue	NY	11772-0071
Rev	Robert J.	Smith	Immaculate Conception Seminary	440 West Neck Rd	Huntington	NY	11743-1623
Rev.	Gerald S.	Twomey	St. Anne	88 Second Avenue	Brentwood	NY	11717-5395
Rev Msgr	John P.	Sullivan	St. John the Baptist Church	1488 No. Country Road	Wading River	NY	11792-0212
Rev Msgr	Edmond J.	Trench		PO Box 1503	East Quoque	NY	11942-
Rev. Msgr.	Edward L.	Tarrant	Church of Corpus Christi	155 Garfield Ave	Mineola	NY	11501-2583
Rev.	Michael J.	Torpey	St. Boniface Martyr Church	145 Glen Avenue	Sea Cliff	NY	11579-1324
Rev Msgr	Thomas L.	Spadaro	Church of the Good Shepherd	1370 Grundy Avenue	Holbrook	NY	11741-4717
Rev	Robert C.	Scheckenback	Good Shepherd	1370 Grundy Ave	Holbrook	NY	11741-4717
Rev.	James L.	Wood	St. John Nepomucene	1140 Locust Ave.	Bohemia	NY	11716
Rev	John F.	Wymes	Church of Our Lady of Lourdes	65 Wright Avenue	Malverne	NY	11565-2199
Rev	Charles A.	Gartner	Our Lady of Mercy Church	500 So. Oyster Bay Road	Hicksville	NY	11801-3570

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