Way to go, Fr. A! January 18, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Interior Life, priests, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
I must have been channeling Fr. Adamcyzk when I went on my rant earlier today, because he and I are hitting the same target:
The problem addressed here is the phenomenon of “the tail wagging the dog,” i.e., that many in the Church have fallen
into the Modernist heresy of looking at the Church as “an instrument of social cohesion.” (PDG, #23). This heresy maintains that as an institution established by humans for the cohesion of human society, when this structure no longer meets the needs of the people who constructed it, it is the right and duty of the people to alter it and to institute new governance. In actuality, the purpose of the Church, established by Jesus Christ, Son of God, is to be the means of salvation for the human race. The Church is not some man-made institution made for “social cohesion” but a Divine institution whose purpose is to get us to heaven. The Church is “not of the world” but it is “in the world.” But because it is “is in the world” its purpose is not worldly but supernatural. The purpose of the Church is not to make a utopia on this earth through making everybody a member of the middle class; the purpose of the Church is to preach the Good News to the poor. But the poor will only be able to hear the Good News if their bodily needs are met. (James 2:14ff). When we become so concerned with “not offending people” and “maintaining the facilities” we fall into the heresy of the Church as an “instrument of social cohesion” and forget that the purpose of the Church is the salvation of souls. This tendency was present at the very beginning of the Church. We read in the Act of the Apostles (6:1-2 ) that “At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.” And yet today, many priests have become the mid-level manager of a multi-national corporation running their own little fiefdom. Once one has a position, one wants to maintain that position. Many parish priests today have forgotten the exhortation of the Apostles in response to that dilemma. “Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:3-4). Many priests have forgotten that they have been ordained to pray and the ministry of the WORD and have relegated their ordination to the priesthood behind their ordination to the diaconate. Priests have forgotten St. Paul’s exhortation to St. Timothy (2Timothy 4:1-5), “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
Until priests are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the kingdom, then there will not be an increase in Mass attendance or vocations to the priesthood. As a career, the priesthood does not have much to recommend it. You can’t live where you want, or with whom you want, you can’t get married, you don’t get paid much, and people are always complaining. If, however, we could recapture the priesthood as the fight against the evil one, if we could recapture the theology of the Mass as the sacrifice of Calvary made present at the altar, if we could recapture the idea the we are all going to die and face judgment, then we could return to the Church as the vibrant force in the world. We have lost the understanding of what it means to be a man. Men need a challenge, men need to conquer, men need to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. We have, of late, denuded the Church of sacrifice, conquering evil, and the ultimate end of life.
In the last forty years or so, we have, by the failure to preach and teach it, relegated the devil to the concept of myth and sin into something that really does not exist, and if it does then it is something other people do. The devil does exist and have forgotten the words of 1 Peter 8-9 “Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings”. We no longer preach sin, because we don’t want to offend people; we no longer preach hell because the heresy of universalism says that nobody goes there [Paging Fr. Barron, Fr. Barron!]; we no longer preach purgatory, because we preach at funerals that your loved ones are in heaven. [This one so dismays me. Even normally good Catholics fall into this trap. If I die tomorrow, assume I’m in Purgatory until the Second Coming and PRAY!!!!] Who died and made you pope with the power to canonize anyone you choose?
Way to go Fr. Adamcyzk! Read the rest there.
What does marriage mean? January 18, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, General Catholic, Latin Mass, priests, Sacraments, sadness, scandals, sickness, Society, Tradition.comments closed
Here is one priest’s description:
http://www.audiosancto.org/auweb/20120115-What-does-MARRIAGE-Mean.mp3
There’s also an interesting exposition on Gospel events tracked to Christ’s birthday being Dec. 25th, including quotes from a number of Church Fathers.
Marriage is a contract surrendering the right of access to one person of those human faculties which are ordered towards the procreation of children. We live in a sick world when the Holy Father has to try to educate many highly trained, very sophisticated diplomats about this very basic fact – marriage is the bedrock of society, and attacking it or undermining it through ‘gay marriage’ or ‘dog marriage’ or whatever is going to fatally affect our culture.
I love it when the priest refers to the decision in the Perry vs. Schwarzenegger case, reversing the will of the people and declaring the California constitutional amendment against gay marriage as being “vomited out of hell.” Another portion of the ruling, stating that “gender no longer forms the basis of marriage,” is totally divorced from reality, and is a “sign of the advancing corruption in our culture.”
There is an enormous point made at about the 16 minute mark about how the married couple is actually joined together by God. I think this understanding of marriage could undermine the prime grounds used by divorce tribunals to declare annulments – that the marriage was invalid because of some “incapacity,” very loosely interpreted.
Why I will not support – Catholic Charities honors pro-abort January 18, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, North Deanery, sadness, scandals, sickness.comments closed
Well, it’s one of many reasons, the main one being that Catholic Charities gets the vast majority of their funding from the federal government and advances the general secularization of the Church, but also because they love to hand out awards to lefty politicians who help keep their gravy train rolling:
Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington have bestowed the “Keep the Dream Alive” Award on Anthony Williams, who served as mayor of Washington from 1999 to 2007. Williams, a Catholic, [“Catholic”] supported abortion and same-sex marriage.
Also receiving awards were USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon and former Catholic Charities board member Janet Pape. The three were honored at a “Keep the Dream Alive” Mass at St. Aloysius Church in Washington on January 16.
“I can think of no better way to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy than by honoring individuals who keep his dream alive through their advocacy and service to the poor,” [and working hard to make sure ripping primarily poor babies limb from limb remains an inalienable right] said Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA.
So, a pro-abort Catholic is permitted to piously trade on his “Catholic” name all the while making a mockery of what the Church believes. And he is willingly aided and abetted by those in the Church who are happy to shower accolades and praise on these folks because they belong to the political party that they perceive will keep their funding steadily growing. I despise this model the Church in this country has fashioned – I despise the moral conflicts it engenders, I despise how so many bishops and pastors look the other way so long as the money keeps rolling in, I despise how the Blessed Sacrament is trampled and crushed by the cold indifference of those receiving AND distributing it, placing it in the bloody hands of pro-abort politicians because they ostensibly do “so much good.” I despise how the Church has become so beholden to political interest and so focused on secular, temporal concerns, the whole modern Americanist model – these were exactly the concerns that Pope Benedict XV pointed out nearly 100 years ago when he first demanded that the National Catholic Welfare Conference – the progenitor of the USCCB – be disbanded. The moral compromises this model constantly engenders sully every aspect of the Church, including all of us, Her members.
It’s what leads to mealy-mouthed documents like ‘Forming Consciences’ which was throughout a violation of the biblical exhortation to have your “yes mean yes and your no mean no.” I can’t imagine how many souls have been lost over this, I can’t imagine how the men entrusted to support and defend the Faith and have the awesome responsibility for the care of souls can continue to be associated with this disaster. Yes, Catholic Charities does alot of good (with our money), but it does so at a terrible, unacceptable price. The purpose of the Church is not to be the world’s best or largest social welfare agency, it is to save souls. Too many, far too many compromises have been made in the latter in favor of the former.
It’s got to stop.
Lay staff member suing Diocese of Kansas City, MO, for homosexual harassment January 18, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, episcopate, General Catholic, horror, priests, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
I had included a link to this story at the bottom of a post on Fr. Michael Rodriguez I did on Monday, but it was a long post and I’m afraid it might have gotten overlooked. A lay staff worker of the Diocese of Kansas City, MO – the same Diocese where Bishop Finn, who I think is actually a pretty good guy, is under indictment for failing to properly report a priest who had…….barf……..child porn on his computer – is suing because he was allegedly sexually harassed by two priests and a lay staff member of the Diocese. The lay worker is a male, so the harassment was of a homosexual nature. The charges reported in “The Pitch” are extremely explicit and off-putting, but I think they should be read by all in order to understand the degree of depravity which is extant in numerous dioceses around the country, and, incredibly, the world (I’m not going to put the explicit allegations on my blog, you can read them there, but here is the background):
In late November, a whistle-blower named Larry Probst accused the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph of fostering a “sexually hostile workplace.” Two months later, Probst is the latest person to file a lawsuit against the diocese.
Probst worked at the diocese as a part-time archivist at the Chancery office. He started in 1999 or 2000 on an intermittent basis and then “on a more regular, permanent, part-time basis” in 2007. His lawsuit says the “unwanted and unwelcome sexual harassment from his supervisory priests” and from a co-worker started in spring 2010 and continued until June 30, 2011, when he was fired for what he claims was retaliation for complaining about the unwanted advances.
The lawsuit says the Rev. Charles Michael Coleman, who served as Archivist for the Chancery, hired his friend, a man named Michael St. George, to do data entry from the sacramental records into a computer program called “Parish-Soft.” The lawsuit alleges that Coleman and the Rev. Robert Cameron “fawned over” St. George in front of Probst. The lawsuit says Coleman, Cameron and others would talk “about St. George in sexually suggestive ways … in the presence of” Probst.
The lawsuit also alleges that St. George made unwanted sexual advances toward Probst, creating “a sexually hostile work environment.”……….
On March 18, 2011, Probst reported the “sexually hostile environment” created by St. George and the advances made by St. George to Bradley Offutt, the chancellor of the diocese, the lawsuit says. Probst told Offutt that he’d reported the behavior but it “was overlooked, tolerated and sanctioned by” Coleman. Offutt allegedly tried to dissuade Probst from coming forward and warned Probst that he could lose his job. Probst went ahead with his complaint, showing Offutt a screen capture of an offending e-mail left open on St. George’s computer. The lawsuit says Offutt put the screen grab in an envelope, which he forwarded to the diocesan human resources director Rhonda Stucinski and management information services director Julie Creech.
Probst’s lawsuit says he was “ostracized at work by co-worker and priests in the Chancery office” after making the complaints.
The lawsuit says the diocese’s answer to St. George looking at sexually explicit e-mails on a computer was to give St. George a new login, giving him exclusive and protected access to the computer. The diocese also informed Probst in May 2011 that his job was being eliminated due to a lack of funding. Probst’s last day was June 30, 2011. The next day, the diocese hired a woman to work part time in the archives.
This kind of behavior would not be tolerated at a secular corporation. But at a chancery, with priests involved making statements that are so egregious, but also so specific, I tend to doubt the plaintiff is making them up. It is unconscionable that such depravity would occur in a chancery. There is no question this type of environment, filled with these kinds of degenerate characters completely lost in sin, is incredibly widespread within the Church today. For whatever reason, by whatever means, in a number of dioceses there is a homosexual culture in the priesthood that is simply incompatible with the right performance of the sacred Office of Holy Orders. Many faithful from El Paso have related to me that Fr. Michael Rodriguez is a victim of just this sort of sinful culture. We the lay faithful have no idea how many good priests have been driven from the priesthood, or never made it out of seminary, because of this deviant sub-culture.
All of the above is, of course, assuming the allegations turn out to be true. But if so, how has this come to be? And how is it that the Diocese of Kansas City hasn’t addressed the problem of having active homosexual priests working in the chancery, but has only stated that Probst was laid off because of lack of funding (funding which did not prevent hiring a replacement)?
Irrespective of how these latest allegations turn out, there is copious evidence that this “problem” is very widespread. How has this holy and sacred Office become so filled with men whose lives are contrary to the Gospel they swore oaths to God to proclaim and defend not just with words, but with the conduct of their lives? The leadership of the Church – many bishops, seminary rectors, etc. – know of this massive problem. Some of them must be involved in supporting and sustaining it. And while this problem of homosexuality in the priesthood has always been at least somewhat present (read St. Peter Damian’s excoriation of homosexual priests and bishops), I don’t know if it’s ever been so widespread as it has become in this country and in western Europe over the past several decades. This kind of gross perversion of duty on such a wide scale does not just “happen.” It has to be supported and nourished at some very high levels. There are, of course, many rumors of certain prelates who may have helped encourage such men to enter the priesthood, and protected and promoted them within it.
There are so many things to pray for. But this is one of the most important – God please grant us truly holy and devoted priests, who will make a willing sacrifice of their lives, even of their sexuality, to give honor and glory to your name.
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