Birmingham Three Recap...

Catholic and Loving it blog (link) 20.9.2011

I don't know how many of you are new to events at the Birmingham Oratory in the run up to the Papal visit but it's been a while and it might help if I run through it all again.

It was back in May 2010 that The Tablet first carried the news that three Oratorians had been told to “spend time in prayer for an indefinite period by Fr Felix Selden, an apostolic visitor to the Oratory Congregation”. If the Tablet had stopped there that might have been the end of it - such things are an internal matter and helps nobody to speculate on blogs.

Except in this case it wasn't an internal matter, it ceased to be an internal matter when the spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory picked up the phone to The Tablet and named names. However much he might bleat now about privacy, it was the Birmingham Oratory spokesman and not a blogger who made it a matter of pubic record that Fr Philip Cleevely, Fr Dermot Fenlon and Brother Lewis Berry had been “ordered to go on retreat” by Fr Felix Selden. This is the ecclesiastical equivalent of announcing that somebody has been permanently suspended from work - a very public stain on the reputation of these three men and one which they were entirely unable to defend themselves due to the gagging order placed on them by the Oratory.

As the weeks turned in to months some suggested that whatever the three had done to deserve their exile, it must have been pretty serious. Rumours of bullying and possible sexual misconduct began to surface. Friends of the three men were so distressed at the way in which their reputations were being “trashed” that they began to campaign publicly that the three were known to be good holy men a blog was started and an open letter was sent to Fr Felix Selden.

To suggest that these friends and wellwishers were guilty of gossip is outrageous. It was gossip and rumour that they were seeking to dispel.

It was about this time that BBC West Midlands became interested and Oratory spokesman Jack Valero was quick to play things down... “it's just a time away to cool down” he said “they can come back soon and we can continue as normal”. Only a few weeks later Jack had changed his tune telling Radio Ulster that the three “are going to come back at some point, we don't know, it's not going to be soon”. This is the sort of transparency most people would associate with a brick wall.

To their credit, the Oratory did defend the three men and Ruth Dudley Edwards reported that Jack Valero had “confirmed unequivocally that the Three are entirely guiltless of any wrong-doing whatsoever”. Of course, this only begs the question – if they have done nothing wrong, why are they away? Why can they not come back? This soon became the central mystery of the Birmingham Three. Three men, declared innocent by an official spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory yet exiled from their home for months and looking increasingly likely to miss the beatification of their founder. Why had they been sent away in the first place?

More questions began to be asked, like why is the press officer for Opus Dei speaking for the Birmingham Oratory? Things did't get any less mysterious when it turned out that while Mr Valero is officially speaking for the Oratory he is actually being paid to do so by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales and reports to Archbishop Nichol's press secretary. Yet more questions were raised about the role of the mysterious Fr Gareth/Sebastian Jones...

Pressure was mounting, blog entries about The Birmingham Three were getting hits from Rome, I had been on the Radio and Ruth Dudley Edwards was writing in Standpoint magazine and had even got the story on TV. The same questions were repeatedly asked: If the three have done nothing wrong, why can't they come home?

Something had to be done and something was, I can't say exactly how much pressure Brother Lewis Berry was under when he agreed to spend next year at an Oratory in South Africa but it's very hard imagine he did so of his own free will. The youngest of the three had the most to lose and with his ordination hanging in the balance the press release in his name had all the credibility of a forced confession. Fr Philip Cleevely issued a remarkably similar press release about how happy he is to be spending the next year in Toronto. It would not be long until the men who Jack Valero said would be “back soon” announced plans to remain abroad permanently.

Which leaves Fr Dermot Fenlon, the last of the three. There has been no press release from Fr Fenlon, no statement that he is happy about being sent away from his home of twenty years at a days notice despite being 68 years of age. So Fr Fenlon has been well and truly stamped on, according to a report in the Catholic Herald Fr Fenlon is being “forcibly exclaustrated” for a period of five years. In the article Simon Caldwell writes that “Under the Code of Canon Law, a priest cannot be exclaustrated for more than three years unless there is a “grave reason” yet Fr Fenlon has officially done nothing wrong. Such a prolonged period must have “either the direct approval of either the Holy See or the local bishop, who, in the case of Fr Fenlon, is Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham”.

And so the questions remain: If there has been no injustice, why not let the three speak to journalists and tell everbody how happy they are with the situation? If the three have done nothing wrong, why couldn't they be present for the beatification?

More than a year later - why is Fr Dermot Fenlon still in exile?

Fr Ignatius Harrison to head the Birmingham Oratory; Fr Gareth Jones to be his Assistant

An Honour and a Responsibility blog (link) 20.9.2011

The admirable Reluctant Sinner, whose blog I heartily recommend, has posted this news from Peter Jennings, press secretary to the Archbishop of Birmingham.

Interesting, in view of the Apostolic Visitation last year at the Birmingham Oratory. Fr Harrison was the second Visitor (Fr Felix Selden being the first) and Fr Jones the canonical adviser to the Visitation.

I have a funny feeling that it won’t be long before Catholic and Loving it, and others, have something to say on the matter.

Where are they now? Part 2 - Fr Ignatius Harrison

Catholic Paterfamilias blog - 11.5.2011
http://catholicpaterfamilias.blogspot.com/2011/05/where-are-they-now-part-2-fr-ignatius.html

As with Monday's post, I can't actually say where he is right this minute as he has not let me know (and, to be fair, I did not ask him).

Interestingly, the Fr Ignatius Harrison I refer to is the same Fr Ignatius Harrison who in 1998 wrote an obituary for a fellow Oratorian priest who was HIV+ and was alleged to have sexually assaulted boys of school age. As to the ins and outs of that case and what may or may not have been known by those involved, I refer you directly to the Telegraph and Daily Mail articles on it.

Jump forward from 1998 to this time last year and where is Fr Ignatius Harrison? Well, 13 May 2010 was the date when Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry were given their marching orders from the Birmingham Oratory by Fr Harrison and Co.

So why were the Birmingham Oratory Three given their marching orders? Well, let's look at the Times report on the issue of 21 May 2010 and what an Oratory Spokesman was quoted as saying:

... the disputes centred around Newman’s beatification but at the heart of it were allegations relating to Father Chavasse. “It seemed better for him to stand down so that the matter could be looked into properly,” he said.

“Around 2½ years ago, in the autumn of 2007, Father Chavasse began to form an intense but physically chaste friendship with a young man, then aged 20, which the Fathers of Birmingham Oratory regarded as imprudent.”

In light of the Times article, it would seem that the three who regarded the friendship as imprudent got the boot. They have not returned to the Birmingham Oratory (other than possibly to collect their possessions). However, Fr Chavasse is back in situ at the Birmingham Oratory (or at least until today this link showed him back in situ). Notwithstanding what the last link might say, Fr Dermot Fenlon and his confrères are not.
It's worth noting that the same Oratory spokesman who fed the information to the Times referred to above also subsequently:

"confirmed unequivocally that the (Birmingham Oratory) Three are entirely guiltless of any wrong-doing whatsoever, including, specifically, sexual misdemeanours or homophobia."

So, to conclude none of this makes any sense at all. Three men who regarded something that was imprudent as being imprudent and are "entirely guiltless of any wrong-doing whatsoever" got the boot - that's an intriguing form of justice.

Dare one suggest without accusation of paranoia that what happened at the Birmingham Oratory last year is just part of a wider agenda? I suppose I could always ask Fr Harrison.....

Where are they now? Part 1 - Fr Felix Selden

http://www.catholicpaterfamilias.blogspot.com/ - 9.5.2011

To be honest, I have no idea where he is just now but he might be indulging one of the shared interests that he has in common with certain other catholic luminaries. I tried stamp collecting when I was about 7 but gave it up as a dead loss - maybe I should have stuck with it.

What I am more intrigued by is where he was this time last year and the discussions between him, Fr Ignatius Harrison and Fr Gareth Jones and others involved in the evisceration of the Birmingham Oratory. The Birmingham Oratory was vocally defending the rights of the family and parents as the primary educators of their children.

355 days of unjust exile for Fr Dermot Fenlon

http://www.catholicpaterfamilias.blogspot.com/ - 3.5.2011

The Free the B3: Justice for Fr. Dermot Fenlon blog shows the counter at 355 days today. Not much longer and we'll hit the anniversary of Fr Dermot's unjust expulsion from his home.
Fathers Selden, Harrison and Jones really should be ashamed of themselves but I doubt whether they are.

Happy Birthday Fr Felix Selden!




Fr Felix Selden meeting Pope Benedicte XVI

at the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman

at Cofton Park on 19th September 2010

 



Question for Archbishop Bernard Longley

from Catholic Pater Familias blog - 9.2.2011
http://catholicpaterfamilias.blogspot.com/2011/02/question-for-archbishop-bernard-longley.html

Why has Father Dermot Fenlon not been returned home?


I only ask because from reading James Preece's blog there seem to be a good number of your flock wanting the return of their much loved and innocent priest.

Not your problem but Fr Felix Selden's? Erm, nope - your flock.............your problem........

Charity begins at home?

from Catholic Pater Familias blog - 31.1.2011
http://catholicpaterfamilias.blogspot.com/2011/01/charity-begins-at-home.html

As Fr Dermot Fenlon enters his 263 day of exile from his home at the Birmingham Oratory, when can we expect to hear Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, who is known for his opposition to homelessness, champion Fr Fenlon's cause?


And what of Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison and Fr Gareth Jones? Do they know what homelessness and exile are like?

For background on Fr Fenlon's plight, the required reading is:

http://freethebirminghamoratorythree.blogspot.com/
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

The one thing that is clear in this tale of misery is that Fr Fenlon has done nothing wrong (see James Preece's many postings on the subject).

Newman and his Nest: The Home of the Oratorian

Catholic and Loving It blog - James Preece - 18.1.2011
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/2011/01/newman-and-his-nest-the-home-of-the-oratorian.html
Home is a very important place to an Oratorian, as Blessed Newman wrote...

"The Congregation is to be the home of the Oratorian. The Italians, I believe, have no word for home - nor is it an idea which readily enters the mind of a foreigner, at least not so readily as into the mind of an Englishman. It is remarkable then that the Oratorian Fathers should have gone out of their way to express the idea by the metaphorical word nido or nest, which is used by them almost technically."

1848 Address (Newman the Oratorian by Placid Murray - Page 94)

Newman spoke a great deal about his home in the Oratory...

"...To come home again! in that word 'home' how much is included. The home life - the idea of home - is consecrated to us by our patron and founder, St Philip, for he made the idea of home the very essence of his religion and institute. We even have a great example in our Lord Himself; though in his public ministry he had not where to lay His head, yet we know that for the first thirty years of His life he had a home, and He therefore consecrated, in a special way, the life of home. And as, indeed, Almighty God has been pleased to continue the world, not, as angels, by a seperate single creation of each, but by means of the family, so it was fitting that the Congregation of St Philip should be the ideal, the realization of the family in it's perfection, and a pattern to every family in every town, and throughout the whole of Christendom. Therefore, I do feel pleasure to come home again... I feel I may rejoice in coming home again - as if it were to my long home - to that home which extends to heaven, 'the home of our eternity'..."
1879 Address (Newman the Oratorian by Placid Murray - Page 118)
Today marks 250 days since Fr Dermot Fenlon was ordered from his home at the Oratory. The Oratory spokesman assured me live on the radio that Fr Fenlon would be home "soon" but Fr Fenlon was not home soon. Fr Fenlon is still not home.

Fr Fenlon is "entirely guiltless of any wrongdoing whatsoever". It's official.

So can he come home now?

Please?

2nd Open letter to Fr Felix Selden from Dr Knab

Dr Stefanie Maria Knab

Fr Felix Selden C.O.
DELEGATUS SEDIS APOSTOLICAE
PRO CONFEDERATIONE ORATORII
S. PHILIPPI NERII
The Oratory Vienna

5 October 2010

Dear Fr Selden,

I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 24 September 2010. In case you should ask me why I did not protest publicly about your scandalous ruling at the end of May, the answer is obvious: on the day after his banishment to the Trappist monastery, Fr Dermot asked his companions for “prayer and silence”.

You ask the question “I do not know whether you have examined Fr Dermot medically yourself”. My answer to that is yes, on 21 April 2010

I examined him medically myself at the guesthouse of the Convent of St Crescentia in Kaufbeuren.

It is simply a misrepresentation of the facts in order to protect yourself when you claim, amongst other things, that “To my certain knowledge, thank God, he enjoys good health”.

As you know, Fr Dermot asked for my medical advice in April 2010.

There was also a matter of medication, so I showed him the way to the Crescentia Apothecary. (In November 2001 I was in Rome at the canonisation of our Blessed Crescentia of Kaufbeuren.)

As a hospital chaplain in the Rudolf Foundation Hospital in Vienna you will be aware, dear Fr Selden, that as a doctor I am bound by my duty of confidentiality. I repeat: Fr Dermot also keeps silent about the Apostolic Visitation.

Your sentence on Fr Dr Dermot Fenlon CO of five years’ exclaustration is as much an abuse of power as it is a lack of judgement, since you failed to acknowledge crucial aspects of the case. It is foreseeable that your action against your confrere Fr Fenlon will end up before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Then I will ask Fr Dermot to release me from my duty of medical confidentiality. I will then be prepared to act as an expert witness before the Strasbourg Court.

Since at one time we supported lieutenant colonel Juergen Rose (Munich), who was refusing war service on grounds of conscience, we are also acquainted with the ECCHR. The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights is a charitable and independent human rights organisation based in Berlin. It was founded in 2007 by a small group of well-known human rights lawyers, in order to protect and enforce by legal means the human rights which are enshrined in the General Declaration of Human Rights as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions. At the same time we feel committed to the creative and effective use of the law as a driver for societal and social change.

The ECCHR will better enable a network of European human rights lawyers and human rights activists, who will exchange their knowledge and experience in the battle for human rights and together develop cross-border strategies.

Against this background I recommend that you read very carefully the speech of Pope Benedict XVI at Holyrood House, Edinburgh on 16 September 2010 (“and to promote the spread of authentic human rights”).

Say “Yes!” to authentic human rights.

I do appreciate your personal request for making peace (“pacification”):

I will light a candle for you in our parish church of St Martin in Kaufbeuren.

Yours sincerely
Dr Knab
Senior Doctor of the Central Anaesthetic Department, Ostallgäu

PS.  Unfortunately I found no answer to my questions in your letter referred to above. A pity!

The Archivium Project

Cardinal Newman Archivium • Birmingham Oratory from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

Open letter to Fr Felix Selden from Mrs Hiltrud Knab, Bavaria

On Friday Mother Hiltrud made a pilgrimage to Altötting to pray for Fr Dermot and for his cause - the sanctity of life - at the Chapel of the Miraculous Image.  Back in April this year Fr Dermot took a pilgrimage to Altötting as well.


Dear Fr Selden


I will begin, if I may, by introducing myself: my name is Hiltrud Knab, and I was born on 30th July 1930 in Marktbreit. I am the mother of eight children: Barbara Hiltrud (born 1953), Stefanie Maria (1955), Martin Theodor (1956), Claudia Elisabeth (1957), Christine Margarete (1959), Michael Helmut (1961), Ingrid Marie (1962), and Monika Eva (1963). My youngest daughter Monika died from viral encephalitis in 1983.

In gratitude for my eight children, and in the knowledge that every human life, from conception to natural death, is a gift from God, and that the fifth commandment “Thou shalt not kill!” holds true for every life, I founded the “Prayer Circle for Life” (Gebetskreis für das Leben) in 1982. I was inspired by the theme of the Day for Catholics in Essen in 1982: “Choose Life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Since then I have brought my intention for the “protection of unborn children and their mothers” to the Mother of God every week in the Rosary in one of the churches in our town.

In the spring of this year I came to know Fr Dermot Fenlon of the Birmingham Oratory through my son-in-law Jakob Knab. For two weeks he stayed as a guest of the Franciscan nuns at their Convent of St Crescentia. Almost every morning I came across him at Holy Mass, which he concelebrated with the convent chaplains. I found Fr Dermot to be a devout, prayerful and God-fearing priest. I met him in person at the home of my daughter Stefanie and her husband Jakob. Here, too, I sensed how deeply imbued he was by his faith in Jesus Christ. With a combination of my own knowledge of English retained from my schooldays in Marktbreit and Fr Dermot’s broken German we managed to enjoy a very cordial conversation.

He was pleased that I knew of Mary Ward, the great lady of English church history. I told him of the tragic destiny of Mary Ward, who became caught up in the machinery of the hierarchy. The responsible officials of that time were unable to recognise Mary Ward’s charismatic trail-blazing gifts. Whilst I was relating this moving story, Fr Dermot gave me his full attention. It is only in the past few days that I have been made aware that decades ago he was a historian of some repute in the University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius College).

Fr Dermot also listened with immense sympathy when I told him about my mother, who recited the prayer of John Henry Newman with us when we were children during the dreadful days of the Second World War. It remains one of my best-loved prayers today: “O God, these days are full of affliction, the cause of Christ lies in its final agony ….”.

You, Fr Selden, with your mysterious machinations, have sent a trustworthy and honourable priest into the wilderness. A priest, whose mission and heart’s desire are to preach the word of God and to advance the Kingdom of Heaven. Why have you silenced him? What is the real reason for that? What purpose do you have in mind? Do you really want to destroy the “cause of Christ” in the world and thereby to sacrifice a human being? A verse from St John’s Gospel comes into my mind, when the Jews say to Pilate “We have a law – and by that law he must die” (John 19:7).

Fr Dermot argues unceasingly for the sanctity of human life. It must be respected from conception until natural death as a gift from God. Fr Dermot stands as a symbolic figure for the sanctity of life. What motives do you have, Fr Selden, for banishing one of your brethren, one who speaks out for the protection of human life out of his own deep faith and conviction?

I say to you: whoever kills a human being, whether yet unborn in his mother’s womb or old and no longer in control of his faculties, that person kills the love of God, which strengthens and blesses the person in every phase of his life.

Fr Selden, what heavy guilt could Fr Dermot have brought upon himself, to make you separate him so hard-heartedly and mercilessly from his familiar life in the Birmingham Oratory? Why have you silenced him? What severe offence can you prove against him, that would warrant such an unjust sentence? Do you have an answer to my question? An answer for me, and for all the faithful who “serve life”?

When we read the Bible with an open heart and mind we will discover that the devil attacks those people and those places where the Kingdom of God begins to grow. Do you, Fr Selden, wish to act as the henchman of this bringer of denial and confusion? That would surely be a triumph for Hell! In your capacity as a Catholic priest, you are charged with fighting evil!

So I ask you – no, I beseech you as Delegate of the Apostolic Visitation for the Confederation of the Oratories of St Philip Neri – to prepare a way for grace and justice.

Trusting in the intercession of the tender and immaculate heart of Mary, I beseech you:

Stop the persecution and oppression of Fr Dermot!

Listen to the words of the Judge of the World:

“I was homeless, and you gave me shelter.” (Matthew 25:35)

Listen to your priestly conscience:

Fr Dermot must come home this very week to the Birmingham Oratory!

MARIA MIT DEM KINDE LIEB
UNS ALLEN DEINEN SEGEN GIB!

(MARY, WITH YOUR LOVING CHILD,
GIVE US YOUR BLESSINGS!)

Hiltrud Knab

Open letter to all Oratorians in the United Kingdom

To Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison, Fr Richard Duffield & all Oratorians in the United Kingdom.

With just hours to go before the Holy Father beatifies Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, we beg you to allow Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry to attend this most important event in the life of the Birmingham Oratory.

One can only imagine the humiliation, the pain and the mental torment that these three men are suffering at not being allowed to attend the beatification of the man they have made it their vocation to follow. 

Please look deeply into your heart and ask yourself afresh:-

• 
  
  what is it that these three men have done?
• 
  
  do they deserve to be punished so severely?
• 
  
  is there no way that they can be afforded the dignity of standing beside their brothers at the beatification of their founder?

With every good wish, 

Friends & Supporters of the 'Birmingham 3'  

Message from Jakob Knab

Jakob Knab is a leading German historian on Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance Movement

Dear friends of Father Fenlon,

Please send your complaints, petitions and supplications to:

          Father Felix Selden C.O., Delegate of the Apostolic See, Confederation of the Oratory
          p.felix@oratorium.at

At the same time send a copy to:

          P. Edoardo Aldo Cerrato C.O., Procurator Generalis
          cerrato@oratoriosanfilippo.org

And finally send a copy to Simon Caldwell (Catholic Herald)
          simon@catholicherald.co.uk

One of the fundamental rights of European citizens: Any citizen, acting individually or jointly with others, may at any time exercise his right of petition to the European Parliament under Article 194 of the EC Treaty.
Contact:

          European Parliament

          Committee on Petitions
          The Secretariat
          Rue Wiertz
          B-1047 Brussels

And please pray with me:

We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God.
Despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers
O glorious and blessed Virgin.

Letter of complaint from Dr Stefanie Maria Knab

Confoederatio Oratorii Sancti Philippi Nerii
P. Edoardo Aldo Cerrato C.O., Procurator Generalis
Via di Parione 33
I - 00186 R o m a
REGISTERED MAIL

Very Reverend Father!

I hereby place a complaint against Fr Felix Selden C.O., Delegate of the Apostolic See for the Confederation of the Oratory. See the enclosed copy (Catholic Herald).

The way Fr Dr. Dermot Fenlon C.O. (The Oratory Birmingham) has been treated by Fr Felix Selden C.O. is a disgraceful infringement of his basic human rights. The faithful are afraid that Fr Dermot Fenlon may not survive five years of exile from the Oratory, since he is an old, not particularly robust man.

In April Father Dermot came to see us at our home. Since I am a doctor, he was asking me for medical advice. Very Reverend Father, you know about the frail health of Fr Dermot Fenlon. Why doesn’t Fr Felix Selden care about Fr Dermot’s state of health? Why doesn’t he show any compassion? Our Lord cares about our basic needs: “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you
gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me into your home.”

The faithful are looking forward to the Papal Visit in Great Britain. But at the same time the faithful feel that they are being treated with contempt by a Church which refuses to recognise the real grief and damage caused by Fr Felix Selden C.O. (and by Fr Ignatius Harrison C.O.).

Very Reverend Father, I beg you in the name of our Lord, please bring Fr Dermot Fenlon C.O. home to his beloved Birmingham Oratory.

May God bless you and the Oratory!

Yours faithfully

Dr Stefanie Maria Knab

Birmingham Three - still as clear as mud

Catholic & Loving It! Blog - Lovingit Locums - 11.9.2010
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

See John Smeaton's blog for the most recent developments.


An innocent man of 68 has been expelled from his home for a minimum of 5 years.

This is a cruel and unusual punishment but for what?

Both Br Lewis Berry and Fr Philip Cleevely asked for Fr Felix Selden and others to be left alone. Well, that's exactly what is not going to happen. Fr Felix Selden & co have failed at every step to provide any answers.

Attempts by Fr Felix Selden & co to retreat behind this being 'a private internal matter' are fundamentally undermined by it having been them, through their ubiquitous spokesman, who leaked this story to the Tablet in the first place.

Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison, Fr Gareth Jones and Mr Valero we do not believe you at all.

Until the truth comes out we will continue to ask questions. And, be assured, the truth will come out.

Innocent Fr Fenlon has been sentenced to five years' exile from the Birmingham Oratory

John Smeaton's Blog - 10.9.2010
http://www.spuc-director.blogspot.com/


According to a report in this weekend's Catholic Herald, Fr Dermot Fenlon, one of the Birmingham Three, has been sentenced to five years' exile from the Birmingham Oratory. Here are some key quotes from the report:


•"[Fr Fenlon] has been effectively expelled from his community."


•"Sources close to the Oratory have told The Catholic Herald that Fr Fenlon, 68, is now in the process of being "forcibly exclaustrated" for at least five years, when he will be 74, because he is objecting to the way he is being treated."

•"Yet no figure has publicly given any reason why Fr Fenlon has been subject to such severe canonical penalties in the first place."

•"[A]uthorities then offered to treat the [Birmingham T]hree leniently as long as they accept a period of exile, agree to statements distancing themselves from criticism of the way they have been treated and drop any appeals they had lodged against [Fr Felix Selden's] visitation [of the Birmingham Oratory]."

•"The move to censure him may shock worshippers in Birmingham who know Fr Fenlon for his piety and his loyalty to the teachings of the Church."
 
In the light of this report, I therefore have a number of questions to put to Jack Valero, spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory, who has also been appointed by the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales as spokesman for the beatification of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman:
 
•Why has Fr Fenlon been exclaustrated if, as you wrote in The Catholic Herald of 27 August, he is a "priest in good standing"?


•Why did you say, first that Fr Fenlon and the other Two were "entirely guiltless of any wrongdoing whatsoever", and then later declare them guilty of "pride, anger, disobedience, disunity, nastiness, dissension, the breakdown of charity"?

•Why did you say in June that the Three "can come back soon and continue as normal" when the Three have now been sent away from the Oratory for periods ranging from at least one to up to five years?

•Were the sending of Br Lewis Berry to the South African Oratory and of Fr Philip Cleevely to doctoral studies abroad concessions offered by the "authorities ... as long as they accept a period of exile, agree to statements distancing themselves from criticism of the way they have been treated and drop any appeals they had lodged against [Fr Felix Selden's] visitation [of the Birmingham Oratory]"?

•Why did you claim in The Catholic Herald of 27 August that "the disagreements which concerned the Visitor were not about Church teaching", whereas you are quoted in this weekend's Catholic Herald as saying that the removal of the Three from the Oratory was partly as a result of "doctrinal tensions"?

•Do you accept the Three's stance on government-led sex and relationships education was different from your employer's, the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales?

•Why have the posts on the Oratory website (12 March, 20 March) which so powerfully challenged episcopal policies on abortion and sex education stopped since the removal of the Three?

The Oratory Three - where do we go from here?

Catholic & Loving it! Blog - Lovingit Locums - 27.8.2010
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

With Br Lewis Berry off to South Africa and Fr Philip Cleevely in communication with Jack Valero (according to Jack’s interview with William Crawley), when can we expect a statement from them?


A statement of some type must be in the offing, if only to quash speculation, and its contents will perhaps be along the following lines:

My decision to make this statement has not been influenced or swayed by any other party.

Whilst an Oratorian’s home is his home for life, I am delighted to announce that I shall be off for pastures new to pursue my vocation. This is notwithstanding my having rather liked being at the Birmingham Oratory and the Pope being about to visit. This decision has been mine alone and I have not been subjected to any pressure at all in reaching it.


I would like to thank Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison, Fr Gareth Jones and Mr Jack Valero for having handled what have been difficult times at the Birmingham Oratory with such sensitivity, ability and pastoral care. Their control of the media in preventing speculation over absolutely nothing has been exemplary.

Whilst there may have been speculation by third parties that I have been subject to abuse of canon law process, I can state categorically that that has not been the case and that every care and attention was taken by Fr Felix Selden and others to ensure my physical and spiritual wellbeing at all times.


Although I am grateful for people having taken such an interest in me, it was unnecessary. The theories of one type or another that I understand have been circulating have all been without truth and I ask that they cease as such speculation is damaging to the Church and hierarchy at this momentous time.


Any questions?


Er sorry……Sorry I don’t think I can answer that question.


Or that one.


Or that one.


Or that one. My, is that the time? How it passes. Anyway, thanks all for coming and what lovely weather we’re having. Got to go now……Bye…..

We still won’t believe it.

And what of Fr Dermot Fenlon? Will he make a statement confirming everything is absolutely ticketyboo and that all’s right with the world or will he be given the push into the Oratorian equivalent of outer space? Only time will tell….

A Catholic Cover-Up

Standpoint Magazine - Ruth Dudley Edwards - September 2010

http://standpointmag.co.uk/open-season-sept-10-ruth-dudley-edwards-birmingham-three

Three Birmingham clergymen exiled before papal visit

"Supporters say clergymen are being punished for seeking help over provost's relationship with young man"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/aug/26/pope-visit-missing-clergymen-birmingham

The Guardian - Riazat Butt (Religious Affairs Correspondent) - 26.8.2010