Here's a mystery for you:

Why in Father Walter Cuenin still the pastor of one of the largest Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston?

From "The Pastor's Corner" in this week's Our Lady, Help of Christians bulletin:

One of the hallmarks of this parish is its hospitality. We
try to welcome all people. As I often say at Christmas
and Easter “We welcome divorced and remarried,
single, never married, happily married. We welcome
gay and straight and Catholics who are devout and
Catholics who are barely holding on.” We have made a
special effort to welcome gay and lesbian persons and
their families. The parish is blessed to have many
couples, some now legally married, as members of the
community. They come on Sundays and are raising
their children in the faith. Their marriage seems to have
been a good experience for them. It doesn’t appear that
anyone’s marriage has been threatened or compromised
by the 1800 gay marriages that have already taken place
in the past year. There are, however, those who are
opposed to gay marriage including the Massachusetts
Conference of Catholic Bishops. They are encouraging
Catholics to sign a petition for an amendment that
would define marriage as a union of a man and women.
Some see this as a good way to protect marriage.
I am placing at the doors of the church the forms the
Archdiocese has sent for those who may want to sign
and register their opposition to gay marriage. But we
will not do any signing of petitions in our church as we
follow that rule for all issues. Catholics differ on these
matters and we need to respect the rights of all.
Wherever you as an individual may stand on this issue,
we must do all the we can to work for the dignity of gay
people and for the protection of their rights. They must
always feel welcome in our community.

Please pray for this priest and his parishioners. And for the Archdiocese of Boston, as long as you're at it.

Thank you.

P.S. The thing, darn it all, is that I didn't use any subterfuge in getting this. The parish regularly uploads its bulletin every week.

I don't know...it's almost as if Father ("call me Walter") Cuenin is deliberately baiting his superiors -- in this case, Archbishop Sean O'Malley -- for what? Attention?

It certainly isn't the first time Father Cuenin has bucked Church teaching publicly. He's known for it. It's his bleepin' trademark for Heaven's sake. Yet nobody in charge seems to stop him. Why not? It's bewildering to me because I care about him and his parishioners. Of course I do! We're supposed to care about the welfare of each other, spiritually as well as physically.

Who's taking charge of the spiritual health of Father Walter Cuenin and his flock?

By the way, you can, if you want, get the entire bulletin in PDF format, by clicking here.

(And I apologize for the long "P.S.")