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San Franciscro Chronicle
THE LOST PARISH
An agonizing battle to save a church reaches the Vatican and puts the faith of believers to the ultimate test.
Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, March 26, 2007
(SECOND OF THREE PARTS) Some excerpts.
On the steps of St. Brigid Church, attorney Robert Bryan grabbed his bullhorn, carefully positioning himself before the television cameras and sign-wielding parishioners. “Send someone from Rome,” Bryan yelled, his Southern drawl heavy with anger. He was reading from his letter – faxed to the pope – urging the Vatican to investigate what he saw as the moral and financial sins of the San Francisco Archdiocese.
It was February 1994, only months before church officials planned to shut down the century-old St. Brigid. The archdiocese had just banished Father Cyril O’Sullivan, the Irish priest who had inspired St. Brigid followers to challenge the closure.
Bryan had heard rumblings from law enforcement sources that the San Francisco Archdiocese was quietly making payments to congregants who said they had been sexually abused by clergymen.
You can read the rest at: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/26/MNGA5OQR921.DTL
THE LOST PARISH
An agonizing battle to save a church reaches the Vatican and puts the faith of believers to the ultimate test.
Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, March 26, 2007
(SECOND OF THREE PARTS) Some excerpts.
On the steps of St. Brigid Church, attorney Robert Bryan grabbed his bullhorn, carefully positioning himself before the television cameras and sign-wielding parishioners. “Send someone from Rome,” Bryan yelled, his Southern drawl heavy with anger. He was reading from his letter – faxed to the pope – urging the Vatican to investigate what he saw as the moral and financial sins of the San Francisco Archdiocese.
It was February 1994, only months before church officials planned to shut down the century-old St. Brigid. The archdiocese had just banished Father Cyril O’Sullivan, the Irish priest who had inspired St. Brigid followers to challenge the closure.
Bryan had heard rumblings from law enforcement sources that the San Francisco Archdiocese was quietly making payments to congregants who said they had been sexually abused by clergymen.
You can read the rest at: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/26/MNGA5OQR921.DTL