Here's a surefire way to scatter the flock on a Sunday morning: Just walk up after Mass and ask folks what they think about their pastor being caught jogging naked.

Just so, the close-knit flock at St. Theresa's church in Frederick, home of the Rev. Robert Whipkey, stopped to linger on the steps of their sweet 84-year-old country church - or would have lingered, if I hadn't turned up.

Their priest this week was a Nigerian missionary, Father Joseph Okono, who said he was booked months ago to come to Colorado to fill in for vacationing priests.

Recently arrived from Buffalo, N.Y., Okono's jaw dropped when he heard why Father Bob was "on vacation."

For those just in from Buffalo themselves, the facts are these: Whipkey faces an indecent exposure charge for what he says was innocent predawn nude jogging on June 22. That forced the Denver Archdiocese to reveal that Whipkey entered therapy in 1999 for "inappropriate personal behavior" while a pastor in Sterling. A former police chief said the issue involved shaving naked in front of boys.

Despite a recurring theme here, the archdiocese not only returned Whipkey to parish work after Sterling, but didn't put him on leave until six weeks after the June jogging incident. And that, the flock said, was only after the media made it a big deal.

"He's a great pastor," said George Martinez, one of few parishioners to give his name. "I had dropped out, and I'm back in church because of him."

Did the parish deserve to know he was picked up June 22? "In a way, yes," Martinez said. "But he's a good man."

"This isn't the Victorian age," one woman snapped. "Nudity isn't an issue in our family."

But is it that simple for the archdiocese? If the reasons to send Whipkey away in 1999 weren't serious, why did he go into extensive therapy? And if they were serious, why was he allowed to come back?

These questions come from loyal Colorado Catholics and from critics who formed during the Catholic Church's 2002 sex scandal: Even if health professionals cleared Whipkey for the 1999 matter, in the interest of "zero tolerance," shouldn't Archbishop Charles Chaput have swiftly removed Whipkey after a second public nudity mess, instead of waiting six weeks?

It all looks odd to Amy Berger, who lives across the street from St. Theresa's.

"If you want to jog nude, why not get a treadmill?" she mused. Berger, a non-Catholic, figures it shows how Catholic priests tend toward weird sex stuff.

So it goes in the popular imagination - though statistics show 96 percent of Catholic priests are free of any such accusations.

Obviously, priests need a better image. In that task, Father Bob - and in this case, the archdiocese - haven't helped.

torkelsonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5055