"It Ain't Gonna Happen"
Ohio church renovation dispute escalates
(Sept./Oct. 2000)

BY MICHAEL S. ROSE

A DETERMINED GROUP of parishioners at St. Patrick’s Church near Grand Rapids, Oh. has decided that the church renovation that was sprung on them by their pastor "ain’t gonna happen!" Their determination has been strengthened in the past month as leaders of the renovation resistance continue to receive graphic death threats, sexually-explicit harassing phone calls, and vandalism.

After public protests, prayer vigils, and repeated attempts to get Bishop James Hoffman of Toledo to settle the dispute, Lou Leasor says, "we have been forced to do what we didn’t want to do."

In September, Leasor, who has been one of the primary spokesmen for those opposing the renovation, filed a civil lawsuit against his pastor Father F. Anthony Gallagher, on grounds that he misappropriated funds. St. Patrick parishioners say Fr. Gallagher raised funds for church maintenance and repair—new carpeting, refinishing the pews, and window and roof repair. In 1998, however, the pastor organized his own hand-picked committee to turn the project into an archi-liturgical remodeling according to current fashion. The final plan that was accepted by a vote of 5-1 now also calls for lowering the sanctuary, relocating the tabernacle into its own space, moving the altar into the center of the church and rearranging the pews around it, and moving the organ and choir into the sanctuary. The cost is estimated at $85,000. A telephone survey to more than 200 parishioners revealed that 93% are fully opposed to the interior renovation and support only the repair and maintenance work for which the money was donated.

St. Patrick’s, located thirty miles west of Toledo, is the diocese’s oldest church, founded in 1845. Talking with parishioners from this corn and soybean farming community it is clear that a vast majority has been upset with the leadership of Fr. Gallagher since he was named pastoral administrator of St. Pat’s in 1995.

"The division is so bad that Fr. Gallagher should resign," said lifetime parishioner Rick Westhoven, who farms 700 acres in nearby Liberty Center. "There’s brother who hates brother here; mother and father-in-law who hate son-in-law; parishioner who hates parishioner. And Fr. Gallagher is the cause! He is the one who has sown hatred here. He’s brought out the worst in all of us."

Westhoven and many others believe that their pastor has the power to heal all this, not just by putting the breaks on the renovation project but by resigning from his duties at the parish.

"Gallagher is driving St. Pat’s into the ground," said Fr. "Penguin," a young priest in the diocese who has been aiding St. Patrick’s parishioners with their fight against the renovation, "and he’ll kill it if he keeps it up."

Lou Leasor agrees. It wasn’t long after he arrived at St. Pat’s that Fr. Gallagher began to give indications that he didn’t like many of the traditional elements of the church building. "He said our statues were distractions," Leasor recalled, "and even referred to our Infant of Prague statue as a ‘gay person wearing lipstick.’ There were other indications early on, said Leasor, that Fr. Gallagher wasn’t a great match for the St. Pat’s community. "He has an obvious distaste for the Pope," he said, which didn’t endear Gallagher to his new parishioners. Shortly after Fr. Gallagher arrived, for instance, he moved the portrait of Pope John Paul II from the church into the parish hall and later into the basement with other discarded items of ages past.

From that time on many in the parish have been vigilant about what might happen to their church. They suspected the worst, and this summer parishioners found their suspicions justified. After much private protest within the parish to the plan to "modernize" the church building and worship, the renovation battle came to head in late July when fifty angry parishioners confronted their pastor outside of church one Sunday, standing in front of a large dumpster that had been set up to dispose of the debris from renovation work. Toledo’s news cameras and other media were looking on.

Young and old alike, parishioners vented their anger, revealing to the public just what a volatile situation Fr. Gallagher had created. "People were screaming at Gallagher," recalled Fr. Penguin, who viewed a videotape of the confrontation. "They were saying things such as ‘We knew you were a fake all along, Father’ and ‘Is the tabernacle really a refrigerator?’"

Protestors objected mainly to the secretive and unfair process undertaken to arrive at the renovation scheme that blocked their participation in year-long learning process, characterized by invitation-only meetings.

After the confrontation, protestors remained at the church for a 15-hour-a day vigil to prevent wrecking crews from entering the church building. They demanded that their pastor put the project up to a vote. Their efforts were successful in that the renovation project is now on "temporary hold," largely due to media publicity, but Fr. Gallagher refuses to put the renovation plans to a vote because, as he has told parishioners, "the Church is not a democracy."

Instead of a vote, Fr. Gallagher proposed a mediation group consisting of three opponents of the renovation, three proponents, and a mediator to discuss how the "healing process" can happen. The mediation team, known as the Ad Hoc Six, however, is a "ruse" say protestors, for several reasons. First, because the Ad Hoc Six are not to discuss issues of renovation, only "healing." Second, opponents were told beforehand that they would have to cease all protests and stop contacting the media while the mediation group met. Third, because Fr. Gallagher picked the three proponent representatives and the mediator and influenced the choice of the three opponent representatives.

Rick Westhoven explained that Fr. Gallagher got Rick’s uncle to sit on the opponent side of the Ad Hoc Six "just to cause a family conflict. He wants to split up our family because we’ve all been so vocal."

Both Westhoven and Leasor, the two main spokesmen for the protestors, adamantly maintain that the three "opponent representatives" do not represent their side of the dispute, and that the Ad Hoc Six is just a ploy to diffuse the situation temporarily and then return to the objectionable plan.

Intimidation campaign
The renovation protestors have been meeting regularly in a large pole barn to discuss the latest developments and to devise strategies to fight for their church and their faith. When some of the protestors began to give interviews on television and with the Toledo Blade, death threats, harassing phone calls, and vandalism began, perpetrated against the most vocal opponents of the renovation.

Westhoven explained that the first targets were his nieces and nephew, who were interviewed in July at the confrontation with Fr. Gallagher. Monica Badenhop, Westhoven’s niece, woke up one morning to find that her car had been vandalized. Someone had painted the words, "Narrow minded [expletive]" and "Yes to progress. [Expletive] you!" The same day, Monica’s mother Kathleen Badenhop and Westhoven both received threatening letters, mentioning the Badenhop and Westhoven children and warning them that "accidents happen."

Harassing phone calls ensued and more threatening letters followed, each getting more explicitly graphic and gruesome in the threats. Westhoven said he and his sister have given their letters over to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Postal Service has been notified. It is a federal crime to issue death threats using the postal service. Both families have been interviewed by the FBI, which is currently investigating the matter and the evidence from the letters has been sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification Lab in Bowling Green, Oh.

Westhoven revealed that one of the notes stated: "We know you are planning something big. We know you had a meeting at your brother’s the other night. Our party is going to break your legs, slit your throat, watch you bleed, watch you die and have a party! Get the message, boy?" Another letter warned: "Rick, Back off! You’re really starting to [expletive] me off. You will not win. As for your sister and her girls—a match, some gas, some night. Get the picture, boy?" Both letters were signed with the typewritten letters, "www" and postmarked from Toledo.

Lou Leasor received a similar threatening letter a few days later: "Do you want your friends, wife and children to get hurt? Do you want their blood on your hands? Tell your group to back off before someone gets hurt." Initially when he and his cohorts began receiving these letters, he thought they were just pranks from someone who wasn’t even involved in the parish, but who probably saw them all on television news interviews. But he now knows, based on the contents of another letter, that the letters are indeed being written by someone in the parish, very close to the situation. "They could not have known some of the facts mentioned in the letter," he explained, "if they weren’t involved at the parish."

Soon after the Westhovens began to receive threats, Fr. Gallagher asked Westhoven if he could stop by their house "as a friend." But when he arrived he accused the Westhovens of making up the threats. "He never offered a prayer," said Westhoven. "He never said I’m sorry your family is being harassed. He just came to accuse us of a set-up. Obviously he doesn’t take this all that seriously."

Fr. Penguin, however, takes the threats very seriously, he says. "I am afraid for the people who have been given these death threats—some of them very sexually explicit. I’m afraid there’s going to be violence. We’ve got to speak out to protect the children and our elderly especially. But some priests just want to play politics."

Despite the threats Bishop James Hoffman of Toledo doesn’t seem to care either. "He just isn’t listening," said Fr. Penguin, despite the death threats and vandalism. Recently, Fr. Penguin himself received a similar threatening letter due to his assisting the protestors in their cause, which Father sees as "a social justice issue."

Dennis Van Wey, deputy chief of police for the nearby city of Fremont, says he also takes these sorts of threats very seriously. He’s seen enough in his years on the police force to know better. Van Wey confirmed that over a dozen typed or handwritten death threats have been mailed to those who oppose changes. "One of the elderly ladies of the group," he added, "had her house broken into and her dogs stolen."

Van Wey and his wife Kathleen were pictured in a photo that appeared on the front page of the Toledo Blade’s August 23 issue, accompanying an article about St. Patrick’s protest march to Bishop Hoffman’s house in Toledo. A group of 80 Catholics carried signs, chanting "save our church" on their way to deliver a statement to the bishop asking him to intervene and asking for Fr. Gallagher to be removed from his duties at St. Pat’s. Although no one answered, Leasor tacked the letter to Bishop Hoffman’s door.

Dennis and Kathleen Van Wey belong to St. Joseph’s Church in Fremont, but got involved in helping the St. Pat’s parishioners after they began getting the threats. But due to their involvement in the prayer march to the bishop’s home, both have been persecuted at St. Joseph’s. "We got chewed out after Mass by our associate pastor when the article and photo appeared," said Van Wey. "We were told by him that he had serious doubts about our leadership with RCIA and what we were teaching, and that we had no right to protest anything the ‘Church’ did." He also told them they had no right to teach with the Catechism of the Catholic Church because "it was only meant for bishops and priests." Later that week they received a certified letter informing them that they were being removed from their parish ministries.

But, said Van Wey, "We don’t intend to be run out of our parish for sticking up for people in another parish who are receiving death threats."

It ain’t gonna happen!
"My family’s been put through hell over this," said Rick Wethoven, "and Fr. Gallagher’s going to figure out someday that we’re not going away. It ain’t gonna happen!" Westhoven reiterated that Fr. Gallagher is responsible for this whole fiasco. "He’s taken our freedom of speech away. We get persecuted every Sunday in his homilies, in the newsletter, and in the bulletin, and we’re sick of it. It’s time to stand up for what‘s right.

"He’s going to lose in the end because we’re not going to give up. My father dodged bullets in Korea and he said he’s never been involved in a war like this. A civil war! And my mom has aged from all this. She looks like an old lady now. Her grandkids and her kids have been threatened. She can’t sleep. My mom and dad are 74 years old and they’re riding up and down the streets at 3:00 in the morning trying to protect their kids all because of Father Gallagher.

"When it comes to [the renovators] wanting to get at the inside of our church, I’ve got a whole lot of men who are a lot bigger than them. They’re going to have to peel us off the doorknobs."

Fr. Penguin too is stunned by the pride and vanity that is driving the pastor to act so stubbornly in the face of such a conflict that he himself has instigated. "I recently talked to a friend of mine who is one of the most liberal priests I know," he said. "He’s liberal by conviction and even he told me that Gallagher’s actions are appalling. Anyone who has a conscience or a sense of justice could see that!"

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