Catholics petition for Dallas bishop’s removal

? Roman Catholic parishioners in Dallas — fed up with the fallout from the clerical sex abuse crisis — have taken the rare step of starting a petition drive that urges their bishop to resign.

The Committee of Concerned Catholics’ effort to get Bishop Charles Grahmann to step down offers another example of how the 19-month national scandal has made American Catholics more willing to confront their spiritual leaders.

“We haven’t been able to resolve the past in a way that permits us to focus on the future,” said attorney William McCormack, an organizer of the petition drive. “This diocese has many needs that are going unfulfilled: building a new Catholic high school, fixing the cathedral, saving our four city schools.”

Grahmann, Dallas bishop since 1990, has come under fire in recent months for backing three priests accused of sexual misconduct. And many still find fault with his handling of notorious ex-priest Rudy Kos, who molested minors in three parishes from 1981 to 1992.

So far, more than 1,200 Catholics — a fraction of the diocese’s roughly 800,000 total parishioners — have signed the online petition, which cites “embarrassment, lack of leadership and financial peril” suffered by the diocese under Grahmann.

His obvious replacement would be Bishop Joseph Galante, who was named coadjutor, or designated successor, more than three years ago.

Galante publicly disagreed with Grahmann after he refused to remove a priest who allegedly groped and propositioned a parishioner in 1991. Such an open rift is a rarity in the church hierarchy, suggesting Galante’s dissatisfaction with his position. Galante, who has suggested he may be transferred to another diocese, is on vacation until August and was unavailable for comment, his office said.

Some Roman Catholic parishioners in Dallas have started a petition drive urging Bishop Charles Grahmann, above, to resign. Grahmann has come under fire in recent months for backing priests accused of sexual misconduct.

Supporters of the bishop, meanwhile, have collected their own signatures: more than 8,000, according to a pro-Grahmann Web site. Whether those signatures represent support for Grahmann — or simply for Catholic doctrine — is a matter of dispute.

For his part, Grahmann has relied on a spokesman to dismiss his critics as malcontents with ulterior motives, though many have served in top leadership roles with various Catholic charities and schools.

“In the orthodox teaching of the Catholic Church, the bishop is appointed by the Holy Father, the pope, not to be subject to the whims, pressures, politics or self-interest of anyone,” the spokesman, Bronson Havard, wrote in an editorial in the diocesan newspaper.

Some parishioners find themselves in the middle.

“I think there are a small group of people on either side of this issue that are really plugged into it,” said Matthew Wilson, who attends St. Joseph Catholic Church in Richardson, Texas.

A jury in 1997 awarded a $119.6-million verdict to victims suing the diocese for covering up years of abuse by Kos, though the case was later settled for about $31 million.