"I didn't feel that we were all that radical and I always felt just semi-committed--not doing all that I could. We continually presented unpopular speakers that to some people were scandalous and we always tried to maintain contact with those elements of the Church which represented the poor and the oppressed." --Richard J, Griffin

On October 9, 1974, Cardinal Humberto Medieros, Archbishop of Boston, fired Richard Griffin, Sister Anne Kelley O.P., and Carole Bohn from their positions as Catholic chaplains to the Harvard-Radcliffe community. Medieros' action, which drew strong objections from various segments of the Catholic community, ended what can be described at best as a discordant relationship between the three ministers and the Church hierarchy. Even the manner by which the three-minister-team was relieved proved to be controversial and alienating.

In the summer of 1974 the Cardinal appointed a committee, chaired by Rev. John P. Boles, to investigate and assess the needs of the Harvard-Radcliffe community. However, the committee's assessment did not include input from the H-R community, and so when Griffin, Kelley and Bohn received notice of their dismissal notice, which they claim contained no explanation for the firing, the board of the Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Student Center Inc. at St. Paul's Church immediately voiced its objections to the Cardinal.

The board expressed its "strongest displeasure with the abrupt firing" as well as an objection to the method of the dismissal, which it said was "in violation of the minimal standards of due process," thus undermining "confidence in ecclestiastical administration." The entire matter was further exasperated by the replacement of Rev. Msgr. Edward G. Murray as the pastor of St. Paul's with Fr. Boles, the chairman of the investigating committee.

Cardinal Medieros simply responded to the protests surrounding the ousting by saying he had the right to appoint "any priest to any position I see fit" and that, "the laity does not have a say in the appointment of priests and it will be a sad day when they do." His actions, however, carried ramifications far beyond mere clerical appointments. For the leftist leanings of the H-R ministry were in constant friction with Church superiors and its termination is symptomatic of a swing in the Catholic Church from a tolerance of the more radical activist posture of the late sixties and early seventies, to the more conservative and reflective Church of today.

But even in a period when public activism of priests and nuns was at its peak, highlighted by the anti-war activities of such clerics as the Berrigan brothers and the Congressional election of Robert F. Drinan S.J. (D-Mass.), the ministers at Harvard encountered much resistance to their work.

"My time at Harvard was marked with almost continual conflict," reflects Griffin. "There was perhaps a grace period of a few months after my arrival in 1968, but after that both the pastors at St. Paul's and the Archbishop--Medieros rather than Cushing--provided consistent resistance to our efforts."

That resistance, coupled with the firing, eventually led Griffin to leave the priesthood (the Jesuit order) in February of 1975. His departure from his vocation points toward what Kelley sees as a trend among Catholic left leaders. "A lot of the leadership of the Catholic left has left, they have maintained their leftness, but have lost some of their Catholicness," she said.

Kelley has remained with her Dominican order and is currently working with the Boston anti-poverty community action agency. Griffin, since leaving the Jesuits, has been teaching and writing, and Bohn is presently enrolled in a doctoral program at B.U., doing part-time counselling at the Harvard Divinity School.

While the Griffin-Kelley-Bohn team was serving the Harvard community, they provided a ministry which was significantly different in nature from the present team of Boles, Rev. Thomas F. Powers and Evelyn Ronan S.N.D.

"I came to see myself emphasize the political and social implications of being a Catholic-Christian," Griffin said, "and I felt a special obligation to those in the community who found difficulty in being a Catholic."

Kelley concurs with Griffin's assessment but also saw the nature of her ministry shift to deal directly with the relationship of the feminist movement to the life of the Catholic woman. "While I perceived our total ministry as an attempt to present an alternative style of ministry--an attempt to be democratic and collegiate in our decision-making, I personally became increasingly aware of the oppression of women in church history."

"If women took their Catholicism seriously they would really have bad self-images. And while I'm rather proud of the service women have given through religious orders, the fact remains that the leadership and decision-making power in the Church is in the hands of the clerics," Kelley said. "And the attitudes and views towards women are limited to the role of motherhood qualities; childbearing and rearing and keeping a happy home."

"When I first came to Harvard (in the Spring of 1970) the strong Catholic left was at its peak, there was of course the war and the UFW strike, but by the time we were fired I knew it was time for a change. I no longer wanted to be an official representative of the Catholic Church because it was so oppressive. There is must so little understanding and sympathy for public roles of women from the hierarchy of the Church."

The issue of oppression which Kelley speaks of not only goes unrecognized by the Church hierarchy but to a certain extent according to both Kelley and Griffin it is not confronted by the Catholic women at Radcliffe. Griffin says he feels that the feminism of Kelley and Bohn "kind of scared off Radcliffe women--women who had conservative Catholic backgrounds were somewhat intimidated." Kelley agrees that growing up as a Catholic woman is an experience that leaves an indelible mark, and that while there is a strong resentment to that experience on the part of older women, "the resentment is not as strong with younger women who haven't thought it through yet."