Author: Richard Chonak

“I’m in love … with a woman,” [Bishop Raymond] Dumais, told a regional Radio-Canada radio station last week. The Montreal Gazette quotes Dumais as saying, “I don’t feel I’m living in sin. I feel I’m living something special.”
Well, I guess there is something special about him. There are certainly plenty of priests who dissent from Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor, but you don’t expect Rome to knowingly approve their consecration as bishops. One has to wonder at how these decisions are made. Anyway, after his nervous breakdown in 2000, he retired and moved in with some dame.
Marriage has been discussed but the couple isn’t “at that stage yet,” said Dumais, who is working as a biblical consultant and is to commence a teaching position in January in Rimouski.
Here are Lifesite’s summary and The Montreal Gazette’s story.
(This case has been assigned a 7 on the Catholic Light Rating System, for “nuttier than a cheese log.”)

One more thing I don’t believe: a rumor in the press says that Cardinal George (great man!) is one candidate to replace Cardinal Law as Archbishop of Boston. (Thanks, Patrick, for the link.)
I’d be happy to have him here, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the transfer. This is probably just wishful thinking from Chicago “progressives” who’d love to get rid of the bishop they dubbed “Francis the Corrector”.

The Gallup Organization reports that self-reported church attendance is down among Catholics this year, apparently as a result of the clergy scandals. In March 2000, 53% of Catholics said that they had attended Mass within the past seven days; this month (Dec. 2002), that figure is down to 41%.
Now, I don’t believe either of those figures, and I suspect that about half of those Catholics were fibbing. The churches probably couldn’t hold the crowds if as many as half the Catholics attended Mass weekly — a problem greatly to be desired! Attendance counts taken annually in my archdiocese (Boston) have produced figures of 24% attendance pretty steadily for years — though I haven’t heard about the numbers for 2002.
(Thanks to Miss Amy for posting the link.)

I’d like to see some Diogenes sort out the disputes about Goodbye Good Men, but is there anybody left in the Catholic world who has not already taken up sides?