SCANDAL AT ST.VINCENT'S PART TWO

[In re-reading Part One of this- I notice I used the wrong word. Father Webster announced his intention to take a vow of celibacy, not a vow of chastity. It doesn't make a great deal of difference, but I'll bet the whole thing made the diocese take notice, since it was followed not long after by Father Webster's marriage. He might have received a message from the powers that be that he was not to proceed with publicizing this vow.]

At any rate, the real trouble was soon to begin. The members of the parish received a letter from the parents of a teenaged boy, saying that their son had been molested and seduced by the rector, had left home because of this, and that this perversion was an ongoing thing at St. Vincent's. They also said the Bishop had been notified but had not appropriately responded. As events began to unfold it seemed that the rector had been involved with other boys on an ongoing basis, and had even acted as a procurer for a group of several businessmen in town who shared Father Webster's predilection!! There was more to come, and to me this was the worst. The parish had a young priest, just out of seminary, as a helper over the summer. He had found out what was happening, and had done nothing about it. I thought this was despicable - in my somewhat clouded thinking at the time, Father Webster had a sickness that he couldn't help, but the young priest had a terrible character.

In their reaction to the scandal, the Diocese and the Bishop acted just as the Catholic church did in present time. No one was arrested, no public fuss was made,
and Father Webster was hustled off to an Episcopalian contemplative order somewhere in another state. I wonder whatever happened to him? Or to the cowardly young priest?

The St. Vincent's survived - parishioners did not leave en masse. It was a nice church in a pleasant middle-class neighborhood,and it still is. No one thinks about the scandal any more -after all it was almost 50 years ago and the lack of publicity was beneficial. Perhaps the Bishop was right to keep it a secret. I was glad we had left when we did, and I was glad that our boys were too young to be acolytes. So I can view this as a bystander, but I am not so trusting any more. Are you?

SCANDAL AT ST. VINCENT'S PART ONE

I haven't been writing my blog lately- laziness, and not feeling inspired. I made a vow to myself not to write anything about politics. I love it, but there is a plethora of political postings already and I wouldn't add anything new to that. I just like to talk to my friends (and we all share the same thoughts) since you really can't have a sensible political conversation with someone on the other side- I gave that up long ago.

But this week some old old friends came to visit and we had so much fun doing politics, and remebering the days when we were all together (some 48 years ago, to be exact.) And it brought back memories of the scandal at St. Vincent's - how could anyone ever forget that? We went over our mutual memories of the event. It was so bizarre that I had almost begun to believe it had never happened. How naive we all were then.

First let me make it clear that the name of our little church was not St. Vincent's. (I just made that name up.) We all met as newcomers to a small western towm, just beginning to boom with the advent of central air-conditioning, and the return of servicemen from World War Two. There were about thirty couples at the start, all Episcopalians with small children and small incomes to match. The church was a Mission in the beginning. We met in a local mortuary and when the Bishop came for Confirmation we had our coffee on the blacktop in the mortuary parking lot. The rector was a tall and thin blond young man, very serious and very "high church" a type of service which appealed to everyone. Rumor had it that Father Webster (not his name, I made that up) came from a wealthy social family in California and his manner confirmed that.

The new little mission flourished. We volunteered for everything- there was never any difficulty finding Sunday School teachers, or choir members. We shopped for property to buy, found an old adobe house in the desert and expanded it to make it our own. Members built pews, and the women made beatiful needlepoint covers for the kneelers. The church services grew to be higher and higher, incense filled the sanctuary. There was even Confession, a rarity in Episcopal churches then. One Sunday Father Webster announced that he was seriously thinking of taking a vow of chastity. This struck us a bit odd, since Episcopal rectors are usually very mainstream and tend not to deny themselves anything, but I thought it was because he was so obviously in tune with the Catholic church - and we all understood that. Soon after that, Father Webster got married. Now, I wonder if he had been pushed a little bit by the Diocese after they heard about the chastity vow.

I remember the congregation had a hard time finding just the right wedding gift. His tastes were very urbane and artistic- we took it for granted that the gift would have to be something very special, from a high-priced antique shop in town. No one criticized him for this, we were proud of Father Webster and his elegant ways. Soon after this, my husband and I slacked off as parishoners. There was no known reason for this: the children were getting older and it was a hassle to get them up and dressed every Sunday. Now that I look back, I think I had an instinct for self-preservation and something told me to go while the going was good. I've had that happen before - leaving before the roof falls in.

Can you guess what was wrong at St. Vincent's? It is a long story, and I'll leave it for the next post "Scandal at St. Vincent's, Part II". Stay with me.