This is regarding “Church stunned by news of priest; Archdiocese says he took $1 million” (Metro, Sept. 12). I am a lifelong resident of St. Bede the Venerable Parish that has been in the news recently because of the actions of our former pastor. Having served on the school board for the last six years, I am involved in parish life enough to see the full range of emotions this incident has evoked. I asked my 12-year-old daughter what she thought. Her first reaction was that this news was an embarrassment to the St. Bede Parish. I couldn’t disagree more. The recent events reflect poorly on just one person. For the rest of our parish community, this news reinforces what I always believed, that St. Bede Parish is a caring, giving and viable faith community.
Our school enrollment is among the highest in the archdiocese. Our parish organizations are vibrant with activity. Now, after more than $2 million in capital improvements to our facilities, we can also claim to be debt free. It appears we are more giving than we even knew, to the tune of more than a million dollars. So the actions of one should not reflect poorly on the parish as a whole.
As I told my daughter, however, how we respond to this situation (and our recent windfall) will define who we are as individuals and as a community. That, to me, will be the more interesting story.
