State to Consider Rehiring Married Priest as Prison Chaplain

The state Personnel Board has agreed to consider rehiring a priest who was dismissed by the state as a prison chaplain because his marriage was unacceptable to the Roman Catholic Church.

Father Patrick Duffy lost his job counseling inmates at the prison in Susanville after failing to secure the blessing of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento. He has performed social work for the past two years at Atascadero State Hospital, a facility for the mentally ill in San Luis Obispo County.

The board deadlocked 2 to 2 in late 1985 on reinstating Duffy as the prison’s Catholic chaplain.

Since then, a vacancy on the five-member board has been filled and two board members--both of whom had sided with Duffy--have been replaced by appointees of Gov. George Deukmejian. Remaining members Leroy Chatfield, who is Roman Catholic, and Richard Chavez voted against Duffy last time.

Duffy was not present for final oral arguments in the board’s reconsideration of the case. But his lawyer, James Mize, testified that Duffy had not tried to portray himself as a Roman Catholic when he applied for the chaplain’s job. Duffy is a member of the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of the Americas based in New York and had said so, Mize said.

There are diverse denominations within the Catholic religion--such as Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Polish National--and the Roman Catholic Church, which forbids priests to marry, should not have sole veto power over choosing a Catholic prison chaplain, Mize argued.

Protestant and Jewish religions each are represented by a single chaplain despite the divergent sects within those groups, he said.

Prisoners, said Mize, aren’t interested in theological arguments but are “looking for someone who can give them some caring and assistance and loving.” There were no complaints about Duffy’s performance during his tenure as chaplain from mid-December, 1984, until February, 1985, Mize said.

But the state’s attorneys argued that the prison system is compelled to rely on the church to sanction appropriate chaplains to counsel Catholic inmates.

“Is it up to the Roman Catholic Church to minister to their flock or is it up to the state to decide who is going to minister?” asked attorney Raymond Leonardini.

“His (a chaplain’s) responsibilities are primarily religious; the state can’t determine his religious qualifications,” agreed Denise Eaton, deputy state attorney general.

After the 2-hour hearing, Chairman Clair Burgener said the board would take the case under submission and “attempt to reach our decision as soon as possible.”

Duffy, 54, was ordained as a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate but was suspended from the order when he married in 1970.

He is a member of the Federation of Christian Ministries, founded by former Roman Catholic priests. Mize argued that any nationally recognized Catholic group should be permitted to sanction the appointment of the state’s Catholic chaplains.

Duffy, in a telephone interview with the Sacramento Bee, called his 2-month tenure at the 1,200-inmate prison “one of the most spiritual times of my life.”

“I miss it terribly,” he said. “The real essence of it is the ministry. I’ve been cut off from it unfairly. The things I could be doing for people, I’m not able to do now.”