Vernon, USA - The Rev. Justinian B. Rweyemamu found himself locked out of St. Bernard Church's rectory Saturday, a move his bishop said was prompted by the Roman Catholic priest's "obstinate refusal" to heed the prelate's earlier orders to leave.
In a statement issued Saturday night, Norwich Michael R. Cote said that he has told the priest to leave the rectory three times since the beginning of the year, but that Rweyemamu has refused.
"I'm sorry that he has given me no other choice than to take this action," Cote said.
Sunday morning, in front of the church, Rweyemamu met with supporters, some of whom brandished signs critical of Cote. Private security guards flanking the entrance to the church itself prevented Rweyemamu from entering.
"They told me I can't go into a church of God," the priest, wearing his clerical collar, said. "I can't even go in to pray."
Rweyemamu said that after eating supper with friends Saturday night, he came back to the rectory in the Rockville section of town to find that his belongings had been removed and the locks changed.
The priest said that he went to the Vernon Police Department, but was told there that the police would not get involved.
Police officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Cote said his decision was prompted in part by a judgment from a Vatican department confirming his right to remove Rweyemamu from St. Bernard, the latest development in a bitter dispute that stretches back to April 2004.
Rweyemamu says the trouble began when he was passed over for promotion to a temporary post at St. Bernard, a decision that the Tanzanian-born priest attributes to racial discrimination.
Cote, who strenuously denies charges of racism, says the problem stems from a charity run by the priest that drew fire from some former members, who complained about the way it was run.
In January, Rweyemamu received a letter from Cote ordering the priest out of St. Bernard's rectory and suspending his pay and benefits. Later, Cote withdrew his endorsement of Rweyemamu as a chaplain at the state prisons, causing the priest to lose that job and leaving the prisons in Enfield and Somers with no Roman Catholic chaplain.
Rweyemamu refused to leave the rectory, began collecting unemployment payments, and appealed the bishop's actions to the Vatican. Cote attempted to evict Rweyemamu using a civil court process, but the judge handling the case threw out the diocese's complaint.
The priest also filed civil suits against Cote in state and federal court, charging discrimination and defamation.
Cote announced two weeks ago that the Congregation for Clergy, the Vatican body to which Rweyemamu had appealed, had ruled in the bishop's favor.
While Rweyemamu says he has already taken steps to appeal the congregation's ruling to a higher Vatican body, he adds that neither he nor his canon lawyers have seen a copy of the congregation's ruling.
The diocese declined a request to provide a copy of the judgment, telling a reporter that Rweyemamu would be a better source for it.
"I haven't seen the judgment," the priest said Sunday. "It's a strange situation."
Decisions by the congregations at the Vatican, which oversee matters ranging from clergy to Catholic education, can be appealed to Vatican tribunals, which function in a way similar to courts. There are three such tribunals in Rome, with the Vatican equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court known as the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
Outside the church on Sunday, parishioners leaving Mass had mixed reactions, some saying that both sides had made mistakes, while others expressed outrage at the presence of security guards at the church.
Dollie Pellegrini, who was baptized at the church, is a staunch supporter of Rweyemamu.
"I will never give up my religion, but this has rocked me to the core," she said. "When I see people standing at the altar and preaching about love and forgiveness and doing the opposite, it turns my stomach."
Ginny Rogala, a parishioner at St. Bernard for 20 years, was critical of Cote.
"I think the bishop is being very un-Christlike and very un-Christian in the way he's dealing with this problem," she said.
Rweyemamu, who said he spent Saturday night at the home of "a good Samaritan," has family in Enfield, but said he isn't sure where he will stay now that he has been removed from the rectory.