Rod Dreher’s account:

We arrived early this morning at Blessed Sacrament church for the 10:45 Latin mass. The 9 a.m. Spanish language mass was just ending, and so many people were there I had to park the car some distance away. I don’t know if this is normal for that mass, but if so, it gives lie to Bishop Grahmann’s claim that Fr. Weinberger is underserving the Spanish people in that parish.

As we approached the entrance to the church, there was Fr. Weinberger in his usual post-mass spot, seated outside the door on a stool, receiving his parishioners. It was cold and rainy, but people stood in line for a long time to tell him goodbye. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch. These are the working poor of Dallas, the janitors, the maids, the busboys, and so forth … and their hearts were broken. Young people were crying. Old ladies were weeping. Even big strapping grown men were wiping away tears. I couldn’t look at that scene, knowing how absolutely unnecessary it was, and knowing that Bishop Grahmann wasn’t man enough to come down here and tell these souls why he was doing this to them.

I saw a TV crew from WFAA Channel 8 there, as was a photographer and religion desk reporter from the Dallas Morning News. Good, I thought; the people of Dallas need to see what kind of parish this is. My family and I took our seats, and began to pray.

The mass — the Novus Ordo in Latin — began with chanting and the usual procession. There must have been 10 reverent boys as altar servers, and I thought: none of these children were born when Fr. Weinberger arrived here. He’s taught them all so well.

I took out my notebook when the homily began. After about five minutes of preaching, Fr. Weinberger addressed his personal situation. He said, of his past decade of service in this parish, “I’m 44, and these have been the happiest years of my life.” But he added that these have also been “the 10 most difficult years in the history of our diocese.” He said the trial of the pedophile priest Rudy Kos, which resulted in a $119 million judgment against the Diocese of Dallas (later reduced) was the Dallas Church’s own 9/11.

“You would have to be inert not to see Blessed Sacrament over the last 10 years as a beacon of positive Catholic light in this diocese,” he told his people. He thanked the bishop for sending him to this parish 10 years ago, and he recalled how, on his first Sunday in the pulpit, he vowed that the $1 million debt would be paid off within a decade, that the stained glass windows would be replaced, that the shabby church building would be repainted and the parking lot repaved. All that was done as he promised, through (as Fr. W. put it), “ora et labora” — prayer and work — and “through divine providence, the intercession of Our Lady, your prayers and your work. Thanks be to God.”

Then Father said something interesting. He said that several years ago, a family making out a will approached him and offered him a $1 million bequest upon the death of the family head, to be used by him in Bl. Sacrament parish. He said he convinced the family that this money would be better off given to the diocese, for the bishop to use as he saw fit. In other words, Weinberger refused the million-dollar bequest, and told the donor(s) to will it to Grahmann instead.

Father didn’t have to say it (and he didn’t), but the implication was obvious: he arranged for a million dollars to be given to the bishop out of this parish, but the bishop wouldn’t even bother answering his letters. I know that the matriarch of the family making the bequest has not died yet. It will be interesting to see if she changes the terms of her will given how Grahmann has treated Fr. Weinberger and Blessed Sacrament parish.

Then things got hot in the homily. Fr. W. said that it’s not true what the diocese is saying about his transfer now, that it is normal. Fr. W. had two years left to go on his assignment at Bl. Sacrament. He said, “If, after the Rudy Kos trial, you as a Roman Catholic accept that without serious introspection. You need help. You need serious help.” He explained that no Catholic should accept the transfer of any priest by a bishop as business as usual, because “normal transfers are a thing of the past.”

Fr. Weinberger then read a carefully worded statement that he had already handed out to parishioners, addressing comments Deacon Bronson Havard, the bishop’s spokesman, made to columnist Terry Mattingly about Fr. Weinberger’s ministry, and which he allegedly made to a California layman who has since offered sworn testimony that Havard said these things. The layman swore out a deposition saying that Havard stated to him, “However, I know several priests who did just as much busy work [i.e., offering many masses and confessions] and they turned out to be pedophiles.”

Fr. Weinberger thundered from the pulpit: “These are shocking comments. They are reckless in the extreme and they are deeply offensive to me personally. In no way should anyone speak so dismissively of me and my good name.” He continued: “That a Deacon would ever speak of priestly service in the celebration of the Sacraments and the liturgy of the Church as ‘busywork’ is extremely hard to imagine.”

“I only have a good name,” Father said. “I am 44, born in Dallas, and I plan to serve here the rest of my life. If I plan to skip along without addressing this, it may never get taken care of.” Father said he has repeatedly asked the bishop to do something about Havard’s statements, but has not heard from him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but this has to be dealt with. …This will be taken care of. It will not stand in silence, as it has for over a month.”

Father effusively praised his replacement, Fr. Rudy Garcia, and asked prayers for him, for Bishop Grahmann, “and even Deacon Havard.” And after a few more remarks, the liturgy of the word ended.

After mass, everyone lined up to tell Fr. Paul goodbye. The Channel 8 reporter asked me if I’d be interviewed on camera, and I agreed to be. I told him on camera that the most tragic thing was that this did not have to happen, and I said for the record that Bishop Grahmann wasn’t man enough to come face these people, and that there is no such thing as accountability in our Church, either by a bishop to his people, or from the bishop to Rome. The reporter went to talk to other people, including a woman who drove up from Houston for the service. I spoke to a number of parishioners there outside the church, and they were heartsick. Over and over again, I heard Catholic men and women say they’d written the bishop about this, and heard nothing back, and that they’d sent letters to the nuncio, and heard nothing. They could not understand how any of this could happen, how such a thing could be done and no one in the hierarchy not feel the least compunction to address the legitimate concerns of the faithful.

I told several of them that I’d said to the Channel 8 reporter what a tragedy it is that we the Catholic laity don’t hold the bishop to account. He said, “But honestly, what can we do? We’ve written to all the right people, and they don’t even pay attention to us. We really are powerless.”

And he’s right, I’m afraid. What a sorry spectacle that was this morning. But God will somehow bring good out of it. The people of the far outlying parish to which Fr. Weinberger has been sent have no idea what kind of grace they are about to receive in their new pastor. I heard a number of those parishioners, especially those with big families, say they’ll follow Fr. Weinberger wherever he goes. Greenville, the town where his new parish is, is an hour’s drive northeast of Dallas. Lots of them will be there next Sunday morning, standing by their pastor and friend. One of the dads said to me how much he wishes that next time, Rome would send Dallas a Christian bishop. There’s a lot of bitterness and alienation there — all so very, very unnecessary. If only somebody in Rome would give a damn about the destruction being worked on the real lives of parishes and families and people by these bishops of ours.

The news reports in the newspaper and on TV tonight will be the first most Dallasites have heard about Bronson Havard’s comments about Fr. Weinberger. I think it will cause quite a shock. This isn’t over.

And also:

Fr. Weinberger told the parish today that he is going to post his entire correspondence with Bishop Grahmann in the matter of his transfer to the parish’s website: here. Transparency in action!