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June 7, 2002, 9:45 a.m. Thank You, Bishop Zeimann… …Wherever You Are. By Jennifer Roback Morse

hen Bishop Patrick Zeimann resigned in disgrace from the diocese of Santa Rosa three years ago, I never thought I would have anything good to say about the man. Shortly after my family moved to Santa Rosa in 1999 he resigned. But now, I am profoundly grateful to the man who was my bishop for only a few months.

It was an ugly story. One of the priests in the Santa Rosa diocese filed a civil suit against Zeimann. The priest claimed that the bishop had been sexually harassing him, pressuring him into an unwanted homosexual relationship. As the story unfolded, it came out that the priest had been accused of stealing funds from his own parish, and of sexually abusing a couple of teenagers. The bishop was trying to correct the priest. The priest tried to negotiate privately with the bishop, for a financial settlement rather than go forward with a civil suit for sexual harassment. No doubt, he also hoped the bishop would not discipline him for the theft and sex abuse, because he could be ruined with revelations of your relationship. The smell of blackmail was unmistakable.

After Zeimann resigned, the Vatican assigned Archbishop Levada of San Francisco up to temporarily oversee our diocese. (Poor guy. For a while there, he was bishop of Sodom and Gomorrah.) He and his lay financial-oversight committee discovered that our finances were in a shambles. Zeimann had insisted that all the parishes deposit their money in a consolidated account, which he oversaw. Money disappeared out of that account. We were told that the diocese as a whole was in $6 million in debt. When the parishes and schools went to withdraw their funds, there was nothing there. St. Bernard's School in Eureka almost went under. The new roof had to wait for the church at St. Joseph's in Cotati. St. Rose couldn't build their new multipurpose room as they had planned.

So why am I grateful to Patrick Zeimann? He had the decency to resign. He got out of the way. The Holy Father could send a new man to clean up, rebuild, and restore trust. Our new Bishop, Daniel Walsh, seems to be a modest man, not given to calling attention to himself. He has gotten the finances back in shape, with the help of the laity. One of his first acts was to initiate a Crusade of Prayer, asking all the children and elderly people especially, to pray for the renewal of the diocese. None of that could have happened if Zeimann had insisted on toughing it out.

Now, three years later, Bishop Zeimann's offenses don't look nearly so offensive. Catholics are daily offended by new revelations of malfeasance by bishops. Serial rapists acting as priests in Boston and Los Angeles. Cardinals shuttling child predators from one parish to another. Jesuits in Santa Clara County molesting mentally retarded adults for decades. In Santa Rosa, we're ahead of this particular curve. Our bad priests are already in jail or on trial.

Even the financial mess doesn't look as bad as it did at first. Archbishop Weakland, formerly of Milwaukee, recently resigned because of revelations that he paid off somebody who threatened to reveal embarrassing information. Goodness only knows how many other similar cases are hiding in the woodwork of chancery offices around the country. But in Santa Rosa, three years ago, Zeimann didn't pay the priest who was clearly trying to extort money. In the time since Zeimann's departure from Santa Rosa, no one has accused him of stealing the money to line his pocket. He just spent parish money on diocesan ministries that he couldn't really fund. He didn't steal; he just couldn't add.

There are other bishops who are probably thinking about resigning. Zeimann's case may help them to see that resigning isn't the end of the world, and could be very constructive for the Church. Even if they are innocent as lambs, some of them are in the way of reform. Some are so tainted, that the laity and police are suspicious of anything they do.

We hear that Bishop Zeimann is somewhere in the desert doing penance, working at some kind of modest ministry. He is truly serving the Mystical Body of Christ in obscurity, far better than he could or did, in the limelight. I hope he is praying for all of us. A lot of us are praying for him.

Thank you Bishop Zeimann, wherever you are.

— Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She lived in Santa Rosa from May 1999 until May 2002, when she moved to the San Diego area with her family.