We, the undersigned, are demanding the removal of our Pastor, Fr. Daniel Howard Green from St. Maria Goretti Church due to failure to associate himself, assimilate into the parish community, conduct himself in an appropriate manner and to perform the duties expected of a Roman Catholic priest and pastor.

We, the parishioners of St. Maria Goretti, welcomed Fr. Daniel Green into our parish with open arms and hearts on July 1, 2020. Since then, we have tried to come to terms with him to no avail. His conduct with parishioners, volunteers, and vendors has been unbecoming of a catholic priest and an organizational leader. He has created a hostile work environment. He micromanages, yells, and berates staff in front of vendors and has shown no shame in doing so.

Fr. Daniel Green has shown no respect for the way St. Maria Goretti functions as a parish family. He takes “personal days” and closes the parish office without sufficient notice and leaves no instructions for addressing parish emergencies as was done during the 2020 Christmas holiday season. He left the parish and did not provide the mass sign-up. This left parishioners with no way to sign up to attend mass, with no explanation. Moreover, he has disrespected parishioners such as:

1)      When a parishioner who sits in the back of the church asked if Fr. Green could use his microphone so they could hear, his response was “If you move to the front of the church maybe you could hear me”

2)      He refused to meet with a parishioner who traveled over an hour from out of town. He told them you need to make an appointment with my secretary and then proceeded to close the door in their face.

Fr. Green has also made several unilateral decisions regarding the direction of the parish without input from the pastoral board. He has spent parish funds without input from the Parish Finance Council and has systematically destroyed the parish’s relationship with vendors who have served the parish well for decades. This crippled the parish and rendered the parish unable to perform required operational functions.

Fr. Green has shown no respect for the diversity within our parish and has made people of certain ethnicities feel unwelcome at our parish. This goes against the motto “One Parish In Christ” that our late pastor Monsignor Earl Gauthreaux created and embodied.

This past year has been a trying time for St. Maria Goretti Parish. Fr. Green’s actions have caused an exodus of long-time parishioners and a huge decline in morale for long-time parish staff and volunteers. He has also caused long-time volunteers to resign from the parish in their official capacity. The volunteers could no longer work with Fr. Green and his staff (that he brought with him) due to their lack of professionalism and compassion.   

There have been numerous complaints to the Archdiocese of New Orleans by multiple people about the conduct of Fr. Daniel Green all to no avail. We, the faithful parishioners, are watching our parish fall apart before our eyes and after decades of support to this parish we cannot, in good conscience stand by and allow this to happen. We believe our late great pastor, Monsignor Gauthreaux, would not want us to be silent and allow this to happen.

We pray that the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Most Reverend Gregory Aymond take a serious look at these issues and assign our parish a new leader who is more aligned with our morals and can function as the leader St. Maria Goretti Parish deserves.