"Gee, Wally, if Dad finds out, you're gonna get creamed!"

Dom Bettinelli, editor of Catholic World Report, author of the weblog Bettnet.com, and Close Personal Friend Of Mine, gives the scoop on Father Walter Cuenin (finally!) resigning his position as Pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton, Massachusetts, of the Boston Archdiocese.

The entries are linked in order: "The camel's back broke," "Cuenin speaks," "The Globe spins for its favorite priest," and finally (so far), "The Herald spins for Cuenin too" Also posted is a call to thank Archbishop O'Malley for dealing with the problem.

One of Beantown's most notorious priest-dissenters from Church teaching, Cuenin has done stuff that would have gotten most priests black-balled years ago. (The short list includes using invalid matter for the Eucharist, promoting "gay pride" events, stuff like that.) But the thing that did him in was, of all things, financial mishandling. This included living a little better than the average parish priest, with the alleged blessing of the parish finance council, which apparently acted outside their normal consultative bounds in the process. (I don't suppose VOTF will be calling them to "accountability" anytime soon, eh?)

My only complaint is that it took entirely too long. When guys like this are allowed to use their personal charisma to do what they please, they sooner or later get the idea that they can... well, do what they please!!! Not only that, but they can get others to go along with it, including people who like being part of the parish "in-crowd."

Dom's posts have lots of comments, a few of them with the audacity to be Cuenin's defenders. But on a level playing field, most of them don't know diddley. And it shows.