Remembering Father Ward
Hi everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. I grew up in West Roxbury, and went to St. Theresa's School for my younger years, say, the mid to late 80's. Anyone who went to the school or, more importantly, went to Church or had anything to do with the Parish knew and loved Father Robert A. Ward. Funny, human guy whom everyone seemed to like, and was by far the most "normal" of the priests in the parish.
Years pass, priests come and go (mostly go, with the priest shortage and all), and stories start to come out. We know a good deal of the Fr. Ward story, but nowhere near the whole story. We've heard about the child pornography found on the computer, with the adjective "extensive" thrown in for an amount. We know the church knew he was into coke by 1995, at the latest. We know a local man claimed to be touched by Ward while at Our Lady of the Presentation in Brighton in the mid-late 70's. We know about his stay at the Lahey Clinic, and a few other details about his final years in the service of the Church.
Now, I wonder what other stories are still out there. Specifically, I'm wondering about the cancer that we all heard about and were concerned about years ago. I'm not much of a praying guy, but I know that many, many people in the area prayed for his health, and that he would beat the Big C. (The Church bulletin even had a note from Fr. Helmick about praying for Fr. Ward and his cancer.) Now, my understanding is that there never was any cancer at all, and that he was away being treated for other things, for which people may have been less sympathetic. I can't say I'm shocked, because nothing is shocking about this guy anymore. However, I wonder what other stories are still out there.
Anyone have any new info about Father Ward? Old info that maybe most do not know? Even fun stories about the "good" Father Ward, from church events or the Variety Show, even? Please share.
Comments
fr spermingham
sounds like the same old story. i was a victim of a priest that was shuttled around from parish to parish in the 60-70-80's until he got some type of "cancer" and died.treateed in physc hospitals for his sickness and then sent back to the lambs in some new unsuspecting town. when he got sick some thought aids and the stories never really stopped.lots of young vulnerable kids being pulled into rectorys and fondled or worse.it seems like it was always the cool priest or the fun priest.let me tell you , its no fun having the man your mother thinks is a saint sticking his hand down your pants and telling you its what God wants. I hate to say it but i would say more than half of the priests from the 1920's up until the scandal broke were dirty in some way.i hope you get lots of bad stories about fr ward. the priest that got me was caught this way. some guy that was a victim back in the 60's put classified ads in the towns he had served as a priest and the stories started coming out of the woodwork.
Not Catholic, and have no insight
But here is the PBS Frontline on the Boston Archdiocese and Father Birmingham alluded to above. The whole episode is available to watch online. Outstanding documentary, in my opinion:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/handofgod/
I'm not Catholic either, but I'm aware of what happened.
gotOut of curiosity, I glimpsed a couple of parts of the documentary on video, thinking, how freaky--and awful that the priests got away with so much for so long. It must've been horrible to have to live with such a burden for so long. This particular victim of that kind of abuse is luckier than a lot of them, in that he was finally able to reveal the terrible thing that had happened to him as a child, and that he survived.
It seemed like an outstanding documentary, although I only glimpsed at a couple of parts of it.
Witch hunts and Father Ward
I have just read the blog statement about Fr. Ward and the comments on file so far. The comments have to do with Fr. Birmingham and have nothing to do with Fr. Ward. I know Fr. Ward. His service to the people of St. Catherine of Genoa was generous and holy and inspired. Because I know Fr. Ward, I can tell you that he did have cancer and his remission was a blessing. Regarding the other topic: treatment for addiction - this is mandated by the diocese and was successful. There was never any child pornography on Fr. Ward's computer, let alone 'extensive child pornography.' Finally, the accusation of improper touching is just that: a single unsubstantiated accusation. Because of the U.S. BIshops' decision to implement the Zero Tolerance Act, voted on in Dallas, every priest accused of improper conduct was fired. There was no due process, no trial, no defense. If you remember, the accusation against Fr. Ward came at the time of the height of the cries from the self proclaimed victims' lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, regarding how much money he could get from the archdiocese for priest abuse in general. The stories and hatred which have followed Fr. Ward are consistent with the witch hunts of the past. They have little care for truth. If you remember Fr. Ward as a kind, intelligent, talented and insightful priest, then you do not need to spend your time following witch hunt stories. You know the truth: Fr. Ward was a great priest and his going is our loss.