To The Boston Globe: “Have You No Decency?”

I don’t know how many remember when it was first revealed in articles written by David Boeri that Father Robert Drinan, S.J. had tried to help Whitey Bulger straighten out his life. He was at the time a twenty-something inmate serving his first hitch in federal prison for some robberies he committed. Drinan, a Catholic priest, was following the teachings of his Church as set out by Jesus who said among the things one must do to gain the kingdom of heaven was to visit those in prison: “I was in prison and you came to me.”

When Dick Lehr of the Globe heard about Drinan contacting Whitey he said that Whitey was laying a beachhead with Father Drinan, implicating that somehow Whitey was grooming Drinan, then Dean of Boston College Law School, to become part of his  then non-existent criminal team that he was going to build up after he got out of prison. Lehr had no idea of a Catholic priest’s role or the teachings of the Church. Neither did Boeri who went around asking people if they knew Drinan was connected to Whitey.

The murder of Whitey is now being used by the Globe to continue its crusade, or better put vendetta, against its two main enemies the Catholic Church and the Bulger family. I noticed yesterday how it did an unwarranted attack on Whitey’s brother Bill which continues its long-standing fake suggestion against all credible evidence that he was somehow involved with or profited from Whitey’s criminal activities. As even a casual reader of the Globe would know, it believes its job is to harass and intimidate the Catholic Church by continually pointing to its deficiencies. The other day it sought from Cardinal O’Malley his response to its article on other Catholic bishops. Why O’Malley feels a need to respond to it escapes me.

The folk at the Globe’s  53 State Street office in Boston, who used to be on Morrissey Boulevard, could hardly  believe their luck when they heard of Whitey’s death. They could go after both the Bulger family and the Catholic Church. The idea they conjured up is to suggest that Whitey should not be buried in a Catholic Church ceremony along with the suggestions that it is somehow evil for the Bulger family to have something to do with seeking a funeral mass for their deceased brother or uncle.

The recent column  by two Globe writers, one who recently was in high disfavor with the Globe but who can redeem himself if he adequately intrudes on the Bulger family’s privacy, shows the attempts to which the Globe is going. They say Whitey secretly buried some of his victims, so sua sponte they add: “One question now is whether he is entitled to a Christian burial himself.”  Why is that something that they should be concerned with?

They called the Bulger family to find out what was going to happen. They called various  priests to talk about it. They call a theologian who says Cardinal O’Malley may have to obligation not to allow a funeral mass if public scandal to the faithful will result. Obviously, the Globe intends to make it a scandal as it does with everything else the Catholic Church does.  Here’s their chance, Whitey did receive a funeral mass at St. Monica’s in South Boston on Thursday.  The priest who said the mass and the Bulger family ignored the boorish behavior of the Globe people..

It wasn’t enough for these two writers to but into the Bulger’s private grief, they then suggest evil lurked in the hearts of some priests. They wrote Father Robefr Drinan became Whitey’s spiritual adviser “at the urging of Bulger’s brother Bill.” That is hardly likely. Bill was a struggling sophomore at Boston College and Drinan was its law school dean. Drinan’s involvement came through his friendship with the family, especially a sister.

They add about Whitey in his twenties serving 20 years that, “Drinan and a few other priests became his pen pals.”  There is no record of any extensive correspondence between them which would make them “pen pals.” They suggest contrary to the facts that Drinan played a “big role in Bulger’s early release.”  If anyone played a role it was House Speaker John McCormick and even he did little since Whitey release was nothing special.    

The maliciousness in their writing should be limpid.  They want people to believe Whitey in his mid to late twenties or early thirties was the Whitey of his mid-forties and afterward. There was no reason for anyone to expect him to become a gang leader when he was doing time for robbery. There was every reason for priests to try to show him the errors of his ways. They write as if these priests knew he was going to attack and take over Winter Hill and that they all were going to secure the beachhead for him. .

The Bulger family of good people has suffered enough having had a brother who became notorious? Even Whitey at separate times expressed his regret at having his family suffer because of his actions. Doesn’t decency demand that it be allowed to have their privacy during this time?  The Globe should stop its efforts to interfere with that family, Whitey’s body, and his burial.

Fortunately Cardinal O’Malley did not do what the Globe  sought which was to to block a Church funeral mass for Whitey . Hopefully he will ignore it in the future for he should know you can never please one out to get you.

 

 

6 Comments

  1. I guess my boycott of all these decades has had no effect. The obvious anti-Catholic bias of the Globe and the venomous attacks on William Bulger continue unabated.

    Why would anyone expect “decency” from the Globe?

  2. Good article, Matt….
    The media claims that Jim Bulger was a monster — if he was, the monster was created by the CIA when he served time for robbery as a young man. They put large doses of LSD into his veins numerous times a week for 18 months. Their purpose? To alter his behavior — even to the point, so states the 1977 US Senate Hearing — of creating homicidal tendencies.
    The media claims Jim was a monster — what of Martorano, Flemmi, Nee, Weeks, Morris, and Connolly? Their behavior was not altered through planned drug experimentation. They were fully aware of their choice to commit or be an accessory in murder after murder.
    Father Drinan managed to get a young Jim Bulger out of jail early? No, Jim’s volunteering to be part of an experiment for a cure for whooping cough to help save children, and other medical testing, including what he thought was testing to find a cure for schizophrenia — the lie of the CIA for the LSD experiment — is what got him out of prison early.
    John Morris, John Connolly, Dick Lehr, Gerard O’Neill, and the Boston Globe have Bulger’s blood on their hands for stating he was an FBI informant. Morris (and Connolly) did it to keep anyone from questioning why they were seen with Bulger so often. Morris’ purpose was to get Bulger executed by the Mafia before Morris was found to be black as sin.
    Lehr, O’Neill and the Globe did it to make a name for themselves and make money.
    Printing such a statement of an FBI agent was unethical. Printing it without substantiating it was immoral. They were accessories in the attempt to have Bulger executed.
    It took more than 20 years, but finally, with the assistance of one (or many) within the Federal Prison Bureau, Jim Bulger was executed by members of the New England Mafia.
    The Bulger lore was created by 5 other criminals whose combined body count is more than 100 — more than 100 souls that never received justice in the United States Federal Courts.
    All of the Boston “journalists” who promoted the Bulger lore without question — including Lehr, O’Neill, Murphy, Cullen, Carr, and Boeri have revealed their lack of professionalism, ethics, and morals. (Anything for a buck…)
    Anyone who employs these tabloid reporters, including the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, WBUR, and Boston University reveal their lack of integrity and make clear the extremes they will go to in deceiving their readership and, sadly, their students.
    Again, Matt, good article.
    May Jim Bulger and his family finally have peace…

  3. Hi Matt:
    I found the Globe’s cemetery photos to be on the morbid side, and a road map, of sorts, for any nut job who might choose to desecrate the grave site.

    The newspaper also should have dispensed with the photo of the “anonymous woman” leaving Bulger’s funeral service in South Boston. (“Unidentified woman” would have a more accurate description, by the way. I hardly think this lady is “anonymous.”)

    I agree that the idea that Bulger should be denied a funeral Mass is ridiculous. May its proponents burn in the everlasting flames of Hell.

    That said, Bulger was a violent thug who died as he lived. Among his greatest sins, I think, was the pain and suffering he inflicted on members of his own family.

  4. Their malice is more limp than limpid.

    Screw them

    He’s in the ground .

  5. Good piece, Matt. The Globe’s need to cover this apparently left no space to mention Antifa’s attack on the wife and home of Tucker Carlson.