Correspondence to Catholic Family News - 12.5.2011
Father Dermot Fenlon
A GROUP of Birmingham Oratory parishioners and members of the National Association of Catholic Families email : 'It scarcely seems credible that a whole year has passed since Father Dermot Fenlon, Father Philip Cleevely and Brother Lewis Berry were sent away from the Birmingham Oratory, the Oratory of Cardinal Newman, that had been their home for many years. No adequate explanation for their banishment has ever been given to their dismayed and puzzled parishioners, though we have received assurances that 'they have done nothing wrong'. We still await their return a year later, while Father Dermot's confessional with his name still above it remains empty of his presence.
It is noteworthy to us as parents that these three good men were indefatigable in defending the rights of parents as the primary educators and protectors of their children. They defended the Church's teaching in such controversial areas as the nature of marriage and were not afraid to challenge the homosexual rights agenda when it conflicted with such teaching. Their loss is a personal one to parishioners for whom they were a reliable spiritual guide, but further than that, as parents, we feel considerably more exposed thanks to their inexplicably unjust removal. We believe that an inquiry into the conduct of the Visitation is long overdue. Parents have few defenders of their rights left to them: whether our pastors are restored to us or not, we have only been strengthened in our resolve to uphold those rights.'
