Head of Catholic Charities Fort Worth resigns, weeks after clash with bishop
The head of Catholic Charities Fort Worth has resigned from his post, weeks after the Fort Worth bishop asked for him to step down.
The two men clashed at a meeting in the first week of April, according to interviews and to letters obtained by the Star-Telegram. After weeks without a resolution, and after initially indicating that he would not resign, Christopher Plumlee submitted his resignation last week, a spokesperson for Catholic Charities said.
An interim head of the organization, a priest from Kentucky, will step into the role in June.
Plumlee, reached by phone on Wednesday, declined to comment. The chair of the Catholic Charities board of directors, Deb McNamara, also declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Plumlee became chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Fort Worth, which is the service arm of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, in September. He previously told the Star-Telegram that, for months after he started, his working relationship with Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson was cordial. The two men interacted relatively infrequently, Plumlee previously said.
But at the beginning of April, seven months into Plumlee’s tenure, the Catholic Charities head and the bishop clashed during a conversation about a women’s summit that Catholic Charities had been planning.
According to a letter that Olson wrote afterward — which the Star-Telegram previously received anonymously and then validated — the bishop felt that Plumlee had excluded him from the women’s summit and that Plumlee was contradicting Catholic social teaching, which is a broad set of doctrines centering on justice and human dignity.
The chief executive officer’s event planning, including his alleged exclusion of the bishop, Olson wrote, was in conflict with Catholic teachings and more similar to principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“These social principles and your action in alignment with them are most truly hostile to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and thus to the authentic mission of CCFW,” Olson wrote.
Because of this, Olson requested that Plumlee step down from his role as head of Catholic Charities.
Plumlee previously told the Star-Telegram that the bishop’s understanding of the conversation was not accurate. He said he was surprised at how quickly things had soured between him and the bishop, and expressed surprise that the conversation had taken such a turn.
“Things went completely sideways,” he said of the early April conversation.
In a return letter to the bishop, also obtained and validated by the Star-Telegram, Plumlee denied any contradiction with Catholic social teaching and asked the bishop to reconsider his stance. Plumlee said that he then did not hear back from the bishop, and a spokesperson for the bishop told the Star-Telegram that the bishop’s stance remained unchanged.
In the meantime, the women’s summit at the center of the clash was canceled.
After the Star-Telegram reported on the letters between the two men, Plumlee told the newspaper that he had no intention of resigning, in part because he believed it would make it appear as though he had done something wrong.
The bishop, through a spokesperson, has repeatedly declined to comment on the situation.
In an internal announcement, Olson said that he is grateful to the Lousiville, Kentucky, priest — Father Anthony Chandler — who will serve as the interim chief executive at Catholic Charities.
“I welcome Father Chandler as a fine priest, excellent administrator, and compassionate pastor,” Olson said in the announcement.
Chandler will begin in the chief executive role on June 27. The Catholic Charities board of directors intends to search for a permanent head of the organization, according to the internal announcement.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 4:08 PM.
