A week ago, parishioners of All Saints Catholic Church in Syracuse joyfully celebrated the 18-year anniversary of the church’s founding in 2008, when two university-area parishes combined under the leadership of a beloved activist priest, Rev. Fred Daley.
At age 79, Daley was poised to take on more responsibility with a leading role in Bishop Douglas Lucia’s plan to combine the ministries of All Saints with St. Lucy’s Parish and three other ministries to preserve the church’s work on the city’s South and Southeast side.
But that changed Wednesday, when Lucia summoned Daley to his office to inform him he will be retired as of Jan. 2. Instead of Daley leading an exciting new project, the bishop announced he would be replaced by Rev. John Manno, 51, pastor of Holy Family Church in Fairmount and two other suburban parishes.
“It certainly is a shock to me and to us all,” Daley told some 200 parishioners at All Saints during a 4 p.m. Mass on Saturday, as many of them wept openly over the diocese’s dismissal of their spiritual leader.
The sudden forced retirement of Daley, one of the nation’s few openly gay priests and a champion of the poor and marginalized for decades, feels like a slap in the face to many members of a church that has thrived under his care.
“Just last week, for our anniversary, Fred said he wanted to be doing this for as long as he could,” said Toni Guidice, an active member of All Saints. “It doesn’t make sense retiring a priest who is still very capable of performing all his duties and citing a priest shortage in the process.”
In a letter to the diocese family, Lucia presented the Costello Project as part of a larger pastoral plan that will merge the ministries of some 15 other parishes in the diocese over the next year. That plan is meant to allow parishes to “share ministerial resources” while reducing the number of Masses held at each to better accommodate a shrinking number of priests.
Teams from All Saints and St. Lucy’s, who worked for more than a year devising the project named for the late Bishop Thomas Costello, were aware that St. Lucy’s pastor, Rev. James Mathews, who turns 90 in January, would retire at the end of this year.
Lucia had asked Daley to lead both parishes through July, then oversee the sharing of resources to also include the Brady Faith Center, the Spiritual Renewal Center and the Ignation Volunteer Corps. A pastoral care administrator would then oversee operations while a sacramental team to include Daley and retired Jesuit priests from LeMoyne College would perform Masses and ministry work.
In his letter, Lucia announced Daley’s retirement, stating simply that “Upon the retirement of Rev. James Mathews and Rev. Fred Daley, Rev. John Manno will serve as pastor of both (All Saints and St. Lucy) parishes, effective January 2.”
Many in the congregation said they suspect Daley is being abruptly sidelined for political reasons – that a conservative bishop is responding to conservative voices within the diocese and ignoring the wishes of Catholics who have flocked to All Saints and St. Lucy’s because of those churches’ dedication to serving the poor and marginalized.
All Saints has become a spiritual home to the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean and others who felt unwelcome at more conservative churches.
“I think it has to do with politics,” said Dale Ayers, a member of All Saints’ parish council. She said Daley had been called on the carpet by the bishop several times in recent years for pushing the boundaries of conservative Catholic teachings.
“Father Fred has been called into the bishop’s office several times in the last few years – because he didn’t say Mass according to what they think, or because of our LGBTQ pride activities, or for opening the church to an event with AOC,” she said, referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democrat in Congress.
Several parishioners said they think a Sept. 28 appearance at All Saints by Ocasio-Cortez that sparked complaints to the diocese from Catholics at other parishes was the impetus for Lucia retiring Daley.
“Fred and the bishop got along, and everything seemed OK after each of those meetings over the last 3, 4, 5 years,” Ayers said. “That’s why I am so surprised, especially after the bishop approved Fred as the leader of both parishes under the Costello Project … If it isn’t politics, what is it?”
“I personally strongly condemn the forced retirement of Father Fred and call on Bishop Lucia to explain fully and publicly what changed, why it changed and why the people most directly affected by this decision had so little voice in it,” said Jeff Wright, a co-chair of All Saints’ LGBTQ+ Task Force.
Lucia has called a meeting with the worship teams from All Saints and St. Lucy’s to be held at All Saints at 7 p.m. Monday. Guidice said parishioners from both churches will gather in All Saints’ sanctuary for a vigil during the meeting – to pray, console each other and show their support for Daley.
Daley said the bishop forbade him from speaking to the media about his retirement until after this weekend’s Masses, but he addressed it during his homilies.
Daley said he had no idea in advance why he and Rev. Mathews were asked to come to meet with the bishop Wednesday.
Teams from All Saints and St. Lucy’s had spent the last two years devising the Costello Project as a pilot project to continue a dedicated mission to the poor and marginalized on the city’s South side despite the growing priest shortage and movement of many Catholics to the suburbs.
Daley said Lucia told him and Mathews that he now wants to “expand” that effort to phase in St. Anthony’s parish on Colvin Street and, eventually, The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception downtown when its pastor, Msgr. Neal Gordier, retires.
“The bishop feels that it would be beneficial for a new pastor, one younger than 79, to take that position” of leading the project, Daley said to a chorus of “No’s” from the pews.
Daley said he doesn’t know Manno well, but called him “talented and respected.” Manno has led Holy Family in Fairmount for 12 years and more recently took on leadership of two other suburban parishes, St. Marianne Cope in Solvay and Our Lady of Peace in Lakeland. He also serves the diocese as vicar for clergy.
Daley said Manno had previously led St. James Parish on the South side and founded the Emmaus Ministry, which serves meals and provides health care to the poor and marginalized.
“Father Manno shared with the bishop that he felt called to return to urban ministry at the same time as the bishop was working to expand the Costello Project,” Daley said.
Daley said Catholic Canon Law required priests to submit a letter of retirement to their bishop at age 75, and then “it’s up to the bishop when to accept the retirement.”
“For me, it was last Wednesday at the meeting with the bishop,” he said.
Although Daley was shocked, he said he concluded that the Holy Spirit had led him to become pastor at All Saints in 2008 and would guide his next steps.
“If All Saints and St. Lucy’s were all about Fred Daley and Jim Mathews, then we haven’t done a good job of teaching that we are ALL the church.”
Ayer said the bishop’s treatment of Daley “feels like a betrayal.”
“We are losing a spiritual mentor of such Christlike spirit who defended and advocated for people who had no one else,” she said.
She was among several parishioners who said the bishop’s decision called to mind Daley’s preaching that healing the sick, feeding the hungry and ministering to the marginalized were not what got Jesus killed.
“Catholic social teaching says that works of mercy are the foundation of the Gospel, but that we also need to look upstream at the systems and institutions that are the root of the problem,” Daley said in a homily in August. “Jesus’ works of mercy did not bring him to the cross. What did was his courage to focus on the root of the problem.”
Daley said the bishop’s decision to expand the Costello Project – including assigning a new pastor in the midst of a priest shortage – actually shows the diocese’s commitment to the project.
“I deeply appreciate the love and care for me as I figure out my future,” Daley told his parishioners. “I clearly had no intention to retire … but I’m sure that whatever lies ahead, I will continue to have fun with all of you working for justice and peace.”
