ARTICLES

Long Past Time

Catholic Groups in Oakland Want Cummins to Go - Now

By Cameron O'Shea

A coalition of Catholics who describe themselves as orthodox to traditionalist have been actively seeking the appointment of a replacement to Bishop John Cummins, who will turn 75 this March. Exactly when Cummins will retire is not known. In a June 19, Argus article, Oakland diocese chancellor Sister Barbara Flannery announced that Cummins had submitted his resignation on his 74th birthday and that the diocese had submitted paperwork to assist the transition. The article said, "Flannery said the diocese filled out an extensive form describing in detail the diocesan profile. The form was sent with the letter and will guide the selection." However, on August 9, in the Contra Costa Times community newspaper, writer Martin Snapp reported this curious exchange with Cummins: "'I don't know where (the columnist) got that story,' Bishop Cummins told me last week. 'It's not true. Yes, I'll technically submit my formal resignation when I turn 75 next March, but it can take years for the Vatican to act on it. I suspect they have more important things on their minds rights now.'"

The initial announcement brought hope to those who pine for a change in leadership. The latter announcement was met with disbelief that Cummins claims he is not aware what his own spokesperson says he has done, with enough detail to seem like it's the truth. Snapp is a cheerleader for Cummins and describes those who want Cummins to be replaced as, "a splinter group of dissidents who appear to object to everything that's happened in the Church since Vatican II."

The group that has taken the lead critiquing Cummins is called Catholics United, Restoring Orthodoxy in Christ, Our King (R.O.C.K.), and their subsidiary, Save Our Diocese. Other groups that have joined the cause are, the Militia of Saint Michael, the Ancient Order of Hiberians, the Saint Joseph Men's Society, and some members of the Knights of Columbus. One member of this coalition was a parish religious instructor for twenty years until she was told that her focus on the sacramental teachings of the Faith, Eucharistic adoration, and obedience to the magisterium are "out of step" with diocesan programs and direction.

Members of the group point out that dissidents are not only tolerated but supported by the bishop's office. "Creation spirituality" proponent Matthew Fox; Father James Schexnayder, promoter of the Vatican-censored "Always Our Children," a U.S. bishops' committee letter to parents of homosexual children; Father Daniel Danielson, who blesses homosexual unions; Father John Gilmore, who fathered two out-of-wedlock children with a parish assistant -- these are but a few of the troubled clergy who have been given succor and support by Cummins. Fox and Schexnayder have used the Oakland diocese as a safe base from which they travel around the world giving lectures that contradict Catholic doctrine.

Diocesan offices have also fostered dissent from Church teaching. Catholic Charities of the East Bay, organized as a department of the Oakland diocese, has gone into Oakland public schools as well as diocesan schools, to improve tolerance of "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth," without ever mentioning what the Church's position is on faith and morals. Meanwhile, the diocesan paper, The Catholic Voice, announces only a handful of new vocations each year.

At the same time, Cummins has thus far refused to abide by John Paul II's 1988 apostolic letter, Ecclesia Dei, which calls for a "wide and generous" availability of the Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal for those who want it. Sacramento Bishop William Weigand has done so resulting in the fastest growing Catholic community in California.

Without question, Catholics who object to the diocese's heterodoxies have gotten under the skin of Bishop Cummins. As reported in the September 2002 Faith, "He Treated Us Like Terrorists," at a July 16th public meeting at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Concord, Cummins had four uniformed and armed police officers guard him as he gave his report on the American bishops' special conference on clergy abuse held in Dallas in June. The event had been advertised in advance in the diocesan paper, which had invited everyone to attend. At the meeting, diocesan representative Michael Hendershot announced that only questions submitted on cards would be accepted and no open questions would be taken from the floor. Furthermore, Hendershot said that if anyone violated these norms, they would be escorted out of the church by police officers.

Some speculate one possible reason for Cummins' overreaction is what occurred in two previous clergy-abuse meetings sponsored by the diocese last May. At these events, Catholics who attended said that some loud questions were posed by members of the audience, and this clearly made the diocesan representatives uncomfortable. But while these outbursts might have had an unpleasant effect on the atmosphere of the meetings, no one has alleged there was any threat of violence that would necessitate bringing in officers with loaded handguns.

Oakland diocese Catholics point out that diocesan personnel used the police to intimidate local Catholics on at least two other occasions. At a June 5, 1999 diocesan meeting at Our Lady of Lourdes parish next to the chancery office, at which Cummins was present, a Danville Catholic known for his orthodoxy was observed taking notes. Because of this, he was asked to leave. When he pointed out that he was a member of the diocese and was not going to leave, the pastor at the time, Father Genovese, called the police to have him removed. But after the police arrived, they refused to take action after seeing that the event's brochures had invited any Catholics to attend. In yet another occasion, on August 14, at St. Monica's in Moraga, a member of a schismatic feminist group, Women's Ordination Conference, a group that agitates for the ordination of women priests, was giving a speech. Area Catholics who objected to the Church hosting such a renegade group raised signs during the lecture to protest the speaker's presence in a Catholic church. The Moraga police were called in to remove the protesters as well as several Catholics who were sitting quietly listening to the lecture.

For the Danville Catholic, what was most offensive about the June 5, 1999 meeting at Our Lady of Lourdes, was not being threatened with arrest, but the startling statements by Bishop Cummins. According to a transcript of the meeting, when asked for advice in defending "gay" and lesbian Catholics who "come out," Cummins suggested parish-level efforts and then advised his audience not to be "harsh, like the pro-life crowd." After which an audience member brought up some pro-homosexual legislation that was being considered by the state assembly. Cummins answered that the audience should understand that "we worked behind the scenes" to pass "consenting adults" when it came before the legislature in 1975. "We couldn't put that out publicly," said Cummins; it was, he said, an approach that surprised many legislators. A few minutes later, when an audience member expressed astonishment at this claim, Cummins affirmed his statement. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 9, 1975, "if signed by the governor, the bill will legalize adulterous cohabitation, oral sex and sodomy between consenting adults, whether heterosexual or homosexual, in private." Governor Brown signed the bill into law in May of that year. As head of California's Catholic Conference of Bishops from 1971 to 1977, Cummins was in a position to directly lobby for the "consenting adults" bill.

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