Well, I was all set to put this all together this evening but I can not save my emails in Windows Live Mail in pdf format. Try as I might I can not do it. I can do it in Microsoft Office, but not Windows Live Mail. (I use Windows Live Mail for my blog email [cornwall@theinquiry.ca] , and Microsoft Office for my personal email) All of this is important only because I wanted to show you the actual email that popped into my mailbox out of nowhere on Tuesday evening. I have spent hours trying to find a way to accomplish the task and have now given up 🙁
So, I will start this off this evening with copying part verbatim and copying and pasting the body of the email which slid quietly into my mailbox early Tuesday evening.
A major faux pas it was.
Here it is:
Subject: Seeking opinion
From: Ed MacNeil
Time: 07/12/2010 7:01 PM
To: cornwall@theinquiry.cacornwall@theinquiry.ca;
Ed MacNeil, OMI, is Father Ed MacNeil omi, the convicted molester who has had faculties to say Mass and hear confessions and so on for the past eight years for the Kateri Native Ministry of Ottawa (and who knows where else?) Father MacNeil’s faculties were revoked around the end of November.
Who is “Frank” you ask? and how did an email from Father Ed MacNeil to “Frank” land in my email box?
Well, I think that “Frank” is probably Father Frank Morrisey omi. Father Morrisey, an Oblate priest and canon lawyer based in Ottawa, is known world-wide for his ‘expertise’ in dealing with clerical sexual abuse. For years Morrisey has travelled the world advising dioceses and clergy on the ups and downs and ins and outs of handling allegations of clerical sexual abuse. Morrisey believes it is “bad stewardship” to throw away the $250,000 invested in a priest by defrocking him. He played a large role in the production of From Pain to Hope, the CCCB’s 1992 sex abuse guidelines which, amongst other things, proposed ways to reintegrate clerical molesters into parishes.
As for how this email landed in my mailbox, well, that’s tied into the fact that it is directed to “Frank” and why I think “Frank” is Father Frank Morrisey
I have had a page for Father Frank Morrisey on my website (theinquiry.ca) for years. From time to time over those years I have received emails addressed to Father Morrisey (thinking he was operating the website!) or asking that a message be relayed to Father Morrisey. I can not for the life of me fathom why people think that Father Morrisey is running the website or affiliated with it in any way shape or form, but, that’s what has happened over the years – enough times that I have lost count. In each instance I responded to the sender that neither I nor the theinquiry.ca is affiliated with Father Morrissey.
That’s why I think Father MacNeil’s email landed in my email box. It’s happened before. Several times. I could be wrong, but it seems to be the only thing that make sense. Perhaps Father MacNeil was hunting for an email address for Morrisey, googled his name, landed on this page, and, without – unfortunately for him – looking further, hit the “Email me” link on the top Left of the page? And, of course, that email is cornwall@theinquiry.ca – straight into my email box 🙂
Anyway, there it is. Father MacNeil who just had his faculties removed is in very short order questioning the parameters or whatever of the revocation. And he’s not seeking clarification from Archbishop Prendergast who is the man who revoked his faculties and should know what the revocation means, he’s asking “Frank.”
And on top of that to find out that not only has MacNeil had faculties in the Archdiocese of Ottawa, he has had them in the Diocese of Peterborough for nine years!
I have emails on the go on all of this. I will bring you up to date on that tomorrow, For now I wanted to get this up as sort of a Part One. There is information I also want to post regarding who gave MacNeil faculties – will do all of that tomorrow.
Enough for now,
Sylvia