As reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, I question the strategy of Platteville parishioners who withheld their donations in protest of a bishop’s refusal to remove the Rev. Faustino Ruiz and the Rev. John Del Priore from their positions. This strategy seems to have caused undue harm to St. Mary’s Catholic School without any successful result. In a letter to its constituents, the church wrote, “It has been said that the only solution for saving the parish school would be for me to remove [the priests],” the bishop said. He continued, “This would, I have been told by many people, ransom the school from those who are protesting and return giving to its previous level.” 

This is a compelling threat, and one the bishop could not possibly ignore. So he asked for evidence that would show the priests ought to be removed, and, according to the letter, “received no examples of teaching or practice contrary to the teachings of the Church.” He said in the letter he did receive “examples of permissible differences in style, and … examples of human errors, which resulted in relational hurts” but nothing to qualify the removal of the priests.

This is exactly where I question the parishioners’ choice of strategy. Why risk the financial security of St. Mary’s Catholic School with the intent that the bishop will give in and remove the priests when there seems to be no evidence to convince him to do so?  If there was concrete evidence of contrary teaching, I would understand their protest strategy and this would be a much different story. But, as it stands, it seems foolhardy to make the school suffer. 

Regardless, the school has suffered, and I wonder why the bishop is being blamed for the closing. He guaranteed emergency funds, giving the school time to work out a financial plan. To ensure this would work, according to the letter, he “sent members of [his] office of finance … to offer whatever help they could.” Even though he stated “there can be no ‘firing’ of priests by the parish community in the Diocese of Madison,” he was open to the case against Ruiz and Priore and was willing to remove them provided there was concrete evidence indicating that the priests were teaching things contrary to the Catholic faith. This is grounds for the removal of a parish priest, and at that point, it was up to the parishioners to either provide such evidence or relent. They have done neither, and the school closing is an unfortunate consequence. 

Tom Jensen ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in religious studies.