Word: duryea
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...Kudos to Father Robert Duryea for not disappearing quietly following the disclosure of his marriage [April 26] and to his parish council for its supportive stand. Only when the Catholic laity realizes that celibacy in itself is not a vocation, and abandons its concept of the parish priest as the local "untouchable", will true religious reform take place...
...secret slowly rippled out to a widening circle of friends and confidants; eventually many in the parish knew but, amazingly, kept quiet. Only in recent months, apparently, did San Francisco's Archbishop Joseph McGucken get wind of the rumors. He asked Duryea to resign and "disappear quietly." Duryea refused. Last week the Archbishop announced that Duryea had been automatically excommunicated because of his marriage and has been relieved of all his priestly functions...
Reaction at Pacifica was overwhelmingly in Duryea's favor. The day of McGucken's announcement, 800 parishioners assembled in St. Peter's for a show of support. When Father Bob entered, still in his clerical collar, they gave him a standing ovation. "If there was any way possible," said a formal statement from the parish council, "we would keep him as pastor. Because of our experience with Father Duryea, we feel that the church's rule on celibacy, which deprives our community of ministers such as Father Duryea, should be changed as soon as possible...
Double Life. Duryea insists that he never meant to make his marriage into a confrontation. Though he felt even in seminary days that celibacy "was wrong," he had simply accepted it. When he and Lualan married, "I wasn't trying to show the church anything. I had no thought that our marriage would become public. Later I saw that I was an effective pastor and a good husband." One thing that helped convince him, says Duryea, was ecumenical contacts with married ministers and rabbis-as well as with busy professional men. How did he manage a double life...
...Duryea would like to return to priestly work when and if he is "invited back" -a highly unlikely prospect. In the meantime, parishioners, aware that he is without pension or salary, are collecting a fund to support the Duryeas temporarily. The ex-pastor, somewhat astonished at it all, is basking in the open approval of his friends and a number of priestly colleagues. The reaction of his parents, who did not share the secret, pleases him especially. Said Robert F. Duryea Sr., when he learned that he had a daughter-in-law and grandson: "It was like a gift...