The saga of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Daughters of St. Paul continues today with so many developments, BCI can barely keep up.
We posted yesterday in, “Daughters’ 
Lawsuit Against Cardinal Settled, But…” how the legal action was settled, but the provincial leadership team was removed. It is tough to see that move as anything but retaliation.
Today, the Boston Globe is running an article, “Daughters of St. Paul replaces local leader” that sheds some new light on who did what, but there is still a lot of ambiguity. So, BCI will try to fill in the gaps.
Bottom line is that Cardinal O’Malley and the Archdiocese of Boston are asking you and me to believe some things that defy believability. The archdiocese is asking us to believe there was no connection between the Cardinal calling the Superior General of the Daughters in Italy to complain about the legal action by the U.S. province and the ultimate sacking of the U.S. provincial and most of the provincial leadership team.
We only have time for a few points today, so we will have to come back to this in our next post.
Everyone needs to remember that the U.S. province did not sue the Archbishop of Boston. The Daughters asked the court to order a full accounting of their contributions to the plan by the plan trustees (that included Cardinal O’Malley), or to order that their contributions be returned. They did not sue the bishop, they brought action against the Board of Trustees, of whom the Cardinal was a member. As the Boston Globe reported initially back in March,” the nuns have asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to order the pension plan trustees, who include O’Malley and several of his top aides, to provide them with a full accounting of the nuns’ portion of the fund, or to rule that the nuns were technically never part of the church-run plan and to order the archdiocese to reimburse the nuns’ contributions, plus returns.” Taking care of their lay employees is required under civil law and there is nothing canonically wrong or disrespectful with this either, especially since the Cardinal’s own staff stonewalled the Daughters for 5 years. Based on what BCI has heard, it appears to BCI that neither the Cardinal nor the Daughters Superior General completely understand how both canon and civil law work.
The circumstances around the sacking of the U.S. provincial merit clarification. First off, according to this article, the appointment of the previous U.S. provincial was in the first week of July of 2008. Thus her 3-year-term would have ended in July of 2011. Was the provincial government near the end of the term? Yes. At the end of the term? No. There is no question that the Superior General’s decision to remove the provincial two months before the end of the 3-year term was unusual. There is also little question that the complaint from Cardinal O’Malley contributed to that move. Did the Cardinal specifically ask the Superior General to remove the provincial leadership? Probably not. But was it because of Cardinal O’Malley complaining to the Superior General that the removal action followed? Put another way, had the Cardinal not called the Superior General to complain, would the Superior General have removed the provincial? Probably not.
Here is what the Globe article says: “Richard Nicotra, a Staten Island hotelier who is a significant benefactor of the Daughters, said in an interview with the Globe Monday that Sato and other nuns were deeply distraught about the leadership change. He said they told him that the cardinal had called Bruscato in Rome and told her that he was embarrassed by the lawsuit. As a result, Nicotra said the nuns told him, Bruscato came to Boston and ousted Sato. “What the nuns in Boston were so upset about was that she didn’t have their back,’’ he said.
The new U.S. provincial is Sr. Mary Leonora 
Wilson. According to this short biography, Sr. Leonora has been out of the U.S. for most of the past 28 years (in Russia and Germany) and away from the motherhouse for all of that time. Just now back in Boston, she may not yet completely understand the current situation, politics, deception and corruption in the Archdiocese of Boston, and current level of discontent amongst the other Daughters locally and in the U.S. over what has just happened.
As for the timeframe of exactly when the previous provincial and new provincial were informed, there really is not nearly as much that is “disputed” as the Globe report suggested. Sr. Leonora says the Superior General decided to not reappoint the previous provincial “shortly after Easter.” Easter was April 24, so “shortly after Easter” could have been within a week or two after Easter. As best as BCI can determine, the U.S. province learned about the change in provincial government during the first week in May. Terms of the settlement were also finalized during that timeframe. The Superior General arrived the following week (during the week of May 9) and met with Cardinal O’Malley at the Cathedral Rectory on Saturday, May 14.
Suffice to say that Donilon saying to the Globe, the Cardinal, “feels a particular bond with the Daughters and strongly supports their mission of communicating the Gospel” rings hollow right now. If the Cardinal felt a particular bond with the Daughters, then why did he fail to take responsibility for resolving this and instead let their situation drag on for 5 years, leading to the legal action? Why did he deny he knew of their level of frustration? Why did he not get personally involved to try and expediently settle the matter with the U.S. province? Why did he allow the patriarchal church to attack faithful women religious? What is he doing to address the problem of the collateral damage to the U.S. province that happened after he called the Superior General?
Something needs to change around the Archdiocese of Boston soon. Please keep the Cardinal and Daughters of St. Paul in your prayers.
Boston Catholic Insider 
Holy Mother of God! When will this stop? The least served by the Archdiocese are the strongest.
This is amazingly scurrilous behavior on the part of the Archdiocese as well as the DSP Superior General. Nothing like a new Provincial with no knowledge of the Province or the communities.
Let me translate: You can cover up and move around abusers and get a sinecure in Rome, but God help you if you cause a cardinal archbishop to be seen in to have a brutta figura. The latter offense draws down bolts from the Vatican Olympus faster than nearly anything than chronic invalid simulation of sacraments. Americans simply do not understand the depth of the Roman horror of the brutta figura.
Liam, just to clarify any confusion, there is no indication that the removal of the Daughters’ U.S. provincial leadership had involvement of the Vatican–just the specific individuals cited.
The Vatican Olympus includes all members of the College of Cardinals, just to clarify in turn.
A whine from a red-hatted one is treated as a thunderbolt in too many Catholic quarters.
Liam – the only thing more powerful than a red whine is a properly-chilled white whine.
The faithful,courageous Daughters of St. Paul who have served the members of the Boston Archdiocese with their whole heart and soul,fully supporting the teachings of the Catholic Church, have been treated unjustly by Cardinal O’Malley. His ire should have been directed at the persons at Boston College who have allowed Professor Harry John McDargh, the openly “gay” and theologically defiant professor of Theology at Boston College, to have established the very influential Lesbian and Gay Faculty,Staff and Administration Association at Boston College(LGFSAA) and teaches B.C. students about “his sexual orientation” in courses under Thomas Groome’s Theology courses. When I asked the Cardinal why he allowed this travesty to continue in the Theology Dept. at B.C., his response was given through his secretary, Fr. Robert Kickham:”Cardinal O’Malley has been very appreciative of a very good relationship with the University and the many efforts that they have undertaken to promote Catholic identity and work with the Archdiocese on events such as the Boston Catholic Men’s and Women’s Conferences.”(letter of Feb. 3,2009).
If only Cardinal O’Malley’s ire were directed towards the very serious dissent against the teachings of the Catholic Church that are being promoted in the Theology Dept. at B.C. under the influence of Professor McDargh, instead of directing his ire at the Daughters of St. Paul, the parishioners of the Boston Archdiocese would be well served.
If BCI were to take on the heretics, schismatics and dissenters at BC, they would have abundant blogging material even if Cardinal Connors and his acolytes were purged tomorrow.
The theology department at BC is a cloaca of corruption that makes the Braintree chancery look like a NASA cleanroom.
I wholeheartedly AGREE with what you say! the DSP have only been FAIR HONEST and hard working in Christ’s name!!
I hope EVERYONE takes the time to STATE in emails and snail mail TO CARDINAL O’malley and his cohorts (yes I AM using that word CO-horts!) and get SOMEONE to investigate why a PAPAL ORDER (the DSP) is being rail roaded under HIS evil influence and also the influence of their Mother General! as far as I am informed the DSP answer to NO ONE but our Pope! thier founder set it up that way FOR THIS very reason to keep those with OTHER ulterior motives from doing these exact sort of actions!
SHAME on the Cardinal and SHAME on those of us who only talk talk talk and read read read.
GET moving all of you now and WRITE LETTERS, leave MESSAGES on the cardinals phone and with his secretary and also with HIS superiors!
it is exactly this type of thing that makes our Church look horrible and what CHRIST spoke out against!
keep the faith! I will say rosaries for ALL the DSP and especially those who’s VOCATION and LIVES have only done good here in BOSTON and around the globe spreading our Lord’s word, and who are now confused and hurt and dazed by this POLITICAL mess.
sincerely,
Lady Catholic
I studied at a school run by these Sisters in South Florida. They taught me to read, to pray, to follow the Boston teams (at the time, all we had were the Dolphins). Everything I am today is thanks to them. I have followed this case on your site, andI pray that it is resolved swiftly and justly for all involved.
[…] Retaliation in Boston Archdiocese – Boston Catholic Insider […]
It is inexplicable the way that the O’Malley regime has treated the faithful employees of the Archdiocese. He has no real concern for people as has been demonstrated by the collective body of his actions. The recent pension issues are just one more in a constant and consistent pattern of employee inconsideration and abuse.
While the picture at the beginning of the post does not look like Jim McDonough, it is spot on in capturing his essence (personality).
http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/benedicts-quiet-revolution-and-check-catholic-health-care
Now that Pope Benedict is promoting a quiet revolution maybe someone should let him know what is going on in Boston. Maybe he needs a little help.
what a great phrase [ from Jack O’M.’s May 28 post ] a “cloaca of corruption “.
I have noticed that a number of commenters on the BCI blog are quite ‘literate’ .
the phrase is quite redolent with implications of nastiness.
Weel done,
Obedience can only work when the one to whom obedience is promised has your best interests at heart. Whose interests are being served these days? Maybe that’s why we are getting desperate calls about the Catholic Appeal from RCAB. Thankfully, the mistrust of the Parishioners is speaking loudly.
My heart, in which the heart of Christ beats, is saddened. Has nothing been learned in over 2 thousand years. Was it not the result of self-entitlement and control of power that man believed he was so godly that he was blind to the Lord God standing in front of him? Once again, was it not man cloaked in the garments of high priests who paid 6 pieces of silver to bring the Son of God before the Governor for persecution under false accusations? My eyes, which would be blind if not for the site Christ, clearly see that man continues to repeat such injustices, for once again through the actions of one cloaked in the garments of high priests, the Lord has been unjustly treated and falsely portrayed and his apostolate of the Daughter’s of Saint Paul persecuted.
I commend and support the Sr. Sato’s perseverance which lead her to respectfully and legally pursue recovery of pension funds for the lay employees of the Daughter’s of Saint Paul, after 5 years of failed leadership of Archdiocese under Cardinal O’Malley to exercise due diligence. The following words are as true today as the day they were first spoken, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.’ In this case, they are the same, give to the Daughter’s of Saint Paul what belongs to the Daughter’s of Saint Paul and give to God what is God’s.
Blessed are you Sister Sato, and all those of holiness who serve the mission of the Daughter’s of Saint Paul, for it has been spoken, ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’
My heart, in which the heart of Christ beats, is saddened. Has nothing been learned in over 2 thousand years. Was it not the result of self-entitlement and control of power that man believed he was so godly that he was blind to the Lord God standing in front of him? Once again, was it not man cloaked in the garments of high priests who paid 6 pieces of silver to bring the Son of God before the Governor for persecution under false accusations? My eyes, which would be blind if not for the site Christ, clearly see that man continues to repeat such injustices, for once again through the actions of one cloaked in the garments of high priests, the Lord has been unjustly treated and falsely portrayed and his apostolate of the Daughter’s of Saint Paul persecuted.
I commend and support the Sr. Sato’s perseverance which lead her to respectfully and legally pursue recovery of pension funds for the lay employees of the Daughter’s of Saint Paul, after 5 years of failed leadership of Archdiocese under Cardinal O’Malley to exercise due diligence. The following words are as true today as the day they were first spoken, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.’ In this case, they are the same, give to the Daughter’s of Saint Paul what belongs to the Daughter’s of Saint Paul and give to God what is God’s.
Blessed are you Sister Sato, and all those of holiness who serve the mission of the Daughter’s of Saint Paul, for it has been spoken, ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’