Yes, Master O'Malley (Shuffle. Shuffle.)

Well, Sean O'Malley and the Kowtow Bishops are having a great tour. The latest act was last weekend in Westborough. According to a Globe article today, two priests got the hook after not shucking and jiving on the anti-same-sex marriage petition.

The original, detailed coverage was in the MetroWest Daily News.

The Worcester diocese Bishop Robert McManus led Saturday evening and Sunday morning masses and ordered St. Luke priests the Reverends George Lange and Stephen Labaire to make themselves scarce, at least temporarily. The offense was a note the bad boys published in the church bulletin expressing disagreement with Archbishop O'Malley's mandated support for the 2008 ballot initiative to rescind same-sex marriage.

The offending item reads:

The priests of this parish do not feel that they can support this amendment. They do not see any value to it and they see it as an attack upon certain people in our parish, namely those who are gay.

Two parishioners commented that the priests' "hands were slapped very publicly. Bishop McManus told us that Father George 'made a mistake' and 'should not have done that.'" Another more succinctly added, "Everybody was stunned."

One commented on McManus' usurpation, "I feel like he was trying to leverage our faith to further his political agenda. I think individual parishes and communities have their own cultural norms."

This sure looks like more aftershocks from the new Pope's desire for a smaller, more obedient church. If the hierarchy manages to drive enough thinking parishioners away, it might just get that.