The popular St. Louis parish of St. Cronan’s, which last week suffered the loss of pastoral associate Sister Louis Lears (read the post here) after she was put under interdict by the departing archbishop, Raymond Leo Burke, for actively supporting women’s ordination, has taken another hit. National Catholic Reporter has a breaking story that Lear’s colleague, Sean Collins, is leaving because he wants to be able to speak freely about Burke’s treatment of the parish and Lears.

“We sought dialogue with him (Burke) repeatedly and our repeated invitations were either ignored or rebuffed,” Collins told NCR. “Now that the canonical penalties of Louise have been decreed, I could no longer hold back my criticism in a public forum.”

Be interesting to see what more he has to say.