Just Plain Bob

In Pacifica, Calif., they called him "Father Bob"--or just plain Bob. He had come to the seaside community just south of San Francisco in 1966 as pastor of the airy, modern church that is the nucleus of St. Peter's Roman Catholic parish. He was a Vatican II priest, no question: folk Masses, a strong parish council, an adult education program on church history and theology. But he was a bit more as well. Last week the rest of the U.S. found out what some of his parishioners have known for months: that the pretty woman and five-year-old boy who occasionally worshiped at Father Bob's Sunday Masses were none other than his wife and son.

The Rev. Robert F. Duryea, 49, has been a priest for 25 years. He has also been married, it turned out, for nearly seven of them. While serving as chaplain at San Jose's O'Connor Hospital, he had struck up a friendship with a young nurse named Lualan O'Connor, now 30. "Hospitals are such timeless places," he recalls. "It seems like such a dreamlike thing." A sympathetic priest married them quietly. Duryea settled his wife in nearby Santa Clara. A son came along 1 1/2 years later, and the couple named him Paul, after Pope Paul VI. When Duryea was transferred to St. Peter's, 55 miles away, he visited his family mostly on days off.

His secret slowly rippled out to a widening circle of friends and confidants; eventually many in the parish knew but, amazingly, kept quiet. Only in recent months, apparently, did San Francisco's Archbishop Joseph McGucken get wind of the rumors. He asked Duryea to resign and "disappear quietly." Duryea refused. Last week the Archbishop announced that Duryea had been automatically excommunicated because of his marriage and has been relieved of all his priestly functions.

Reaction at Pacifica was overwhelmingly in Duryea's favor. The day of McGucken's announcement, 800 parishioners assembled in St. Peter's for a show of support. When Father Bob entered, still in his clerical collar, they gave him a standing ovation. "If there was any way possible," said a formal statement from the parish council, "we would keep him as pastor. Because of our experience with Father Duryea, we feel that the church's rule on celibacy, which deprives our community of ministers such as Father Duryea, should be changed as soon as possible. As a married priest, he has been a very successful pastor."

Double Life. Duryea insists that he never meant to make his marriage into a confrontation. Though he felt even in seminary days that celibacy "was wrong," he had simply accepted it. When he and Lualan married, "I wasn't trying to show the church anything. I had no thought that our marriage would become public. Later I saw that I was an effective pastor and a good husband." One thing that helped convince him, says Duryea, was ecumenical contacts with married ministers and rabbis--as well as with busy professional men. How did he manage a double life? "Any busy doctor could tell you that."

Duryea would like to return to priestly work when and if he is "invited back" --a highly unlikely prospect. In the meantime, parishioners, aware that he is without pension or salary, are collecting a fund to support the Duryeas temporarily. The ex-pastor, somewhat astonished at it all, is basking in the open approval of his friends and a number of priestly colleagues. The reaction of his parents, who did not share the secret, pleases him especially. Said Robert F. Duryea Sr., when he learned that he had a daughter-in-law and grandson: "It was like a gift."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.