The priest claims Bishop John McCormack isolates critics.

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – A Catholic priest said he’s resigning after 31 years because Bishop John McCormack has silenced isolated priests who question his leadership.

“He will meet with priests one on one, but he refuses to meet with groups of us because he is threatened,” said the Rev. Gerard Desmarais of St. Joseph Church in Nashua.

“Priests are terrified to speak out. I want to do the work of Jesus Christ, but I’ll have to do it somewhere else.”

Desmarais said he planned to leave for a Florida vacation this week and then will try to find work in another diocese.

He returned to St. Joseph in September after a six-month hiatus in Florida, during which time he said he had hoped things would change with McCormack and the diocese leadership.

“It was a very difficult decision,” Desmarais said Monday in his final full day of work at St. Joseph.

“I just figured it’s something I have to do. My ministry has been severely hampered by this for a long time,” he said.

Desmarais said he had meant for his announcement and subsequent departure to be a low-key affair with no fanfare.

“I didn’t really want this to become a media event,” he said. “It’s not like I’m trying to get even with the bishop or anything. . . . I just want to leave quietly.”

Desmarais announced his decision in place of the homily at the weekly Saturday evening Mass at the church, according to parishioner Marge Thompson of Hollis.

“He told the congregation that he wasn’t going to give the homily at the regular time, but would do it at the end this time. That’s when he spoke about it,” she said.

Thompson, who with her husband, George, founded a Nashua area chapter of the Voice of the Faithful, said Desmarais is a “good priest who will be missed a lot.”

“He welcomed (Voice of the Faithful) with open arms when many priests wouldn’t even talk to us or allow us on their property,” Thompson said.

Today, Thompson said there are about 95 members in the local Voice of the Faithful chapter. The organization was founded last year in the Boston area to pursue structural reform in the church. McCormack is aware of Desmarais’ resignation and continues to be supportive of him, according to diocese spokeswoman Diane Murphy Quinlan.

“I can tell you that Bishop McCormack has had an ongoing dialogue with Father Desmarais and intends to continue to do so,” she said.

Quinlan said McCormack has met often with priests individually and in small groups, particularly in the last couple of years.

Several priests echoed Desmarais’s frustrations with McCormack’s leadership. They said McCormack has been so focused on defending his handling of clergy sexual abuse in Boston that he has lost sight of the church’s future in New Hampshire.

He rarely circulates among parishes and discourages questions or challenges when clergy meet for diocesan gatherings, they said.

“I think we have stopped dead in our tracks,” said the Rev. Norman Simoneau, a retired priest from Hudson. “I think for the past two years we have been going about saving the bishop’s face rather than moving forward. He’s trying to get people to recognize him as a leader, but my sense is there are an awful lot of people who don’t trust him.”

He said McCormack has not lived up to promises made in February to be more open with the state’s Catholics. The diocese has delayed twice a financial report McCormack promised, and he has not assigned lay members to diocesan boards, Simoneau said.

AP-ES-11-04-03 1513EST