Sunday, January 19, 2014

St. Catherine's of Siena


A few weeks back, a problematic priest at St. Catherine's of Siena published a statement in the bulletin stating that the Church sees the new manifestation of the Holy Family in the manager in Bethlehem as two mommies or daddies. He also discussed this new caricature of the Holy Family during a homily at every Mass.

Parents present with their children had to pile their children in the back seat of the car after Mass and have the conversations we are all quite familiar with about Father's errors.

The wedge between the parents teaching Church teaching faithfully, and Father's screwball theology will be irreparable for some children. Damage done may last their entire lifetime.

Father's authority goes further than their parents in the eyes of a child. They don't understand what's happened in the Church. They're too young to process it and make the right judgment that Father is an undisciplined apostate.

They then go to school and hear the teachers telling them that their parents are the enemies of their sexual freedom. The teachers give them 'how to' sex lessons in accordance with their own immoral convictions. Then when the child sitting next to them gets sexually stimulated by the thoughts being presented and directs that sexual energy towards a child of a Catholic parent, they remember that Father told them this is now the manifestation of sexual relations are now the new Holy Family of the Roman Catholic Church.

They may never recover.

The past thirty or forty years, the Church ordained a great number of men who were or are morally and sexually disordered. You know them by what they teach and preach - and what they don't. Their agendas have been to teach Catholic children their concepts of human sexuality.

Fr. Garrity has made himself crystal clear that he is a danger to the formation of Catholic children.
I don't know why any Catholic parent would still be sitting in the pews of St. Catherine's of Sienna.

A Catholic parent's duty is to their children. It isn't the long history of singing in a choir, or serving in a ministry in the Church, or even sitting in the pews with people in the same community. Not under circumstances where your children are brainwashed by an intellectually, spiritually and psychosexually malformed priest.

Get out. Leave your ministries and friends behind. Shake the dust of your sandals and mosey on down the road.

There are many faithful priests here in Boston. Say goodbye to Fr. Garrity and take your children to a priest who will give them what they need to make right spiritual judgments for the rest of their natural born life.

This applies to any other parish in the Archdiocese where an apostate priest is assigned.

Many parents at St. Catherine's and others across the archdiocese contacted the local Bishop and Chancery.

In the past, there's a long, long, history of what happens to parents who seek intervention on a priest going awry and leading others into the pit. That history isn't good.

Boston Catholics have repeatedly asked that the Archdiocese make changes to how they review complaints, investigate them and carry out actions. We have repeatedly asked that, should the facts bear out that the priest is in error, their disciplinary actions be directed towards the priest - instead of the whisteblower.

Believe it or not, we are still not there yet. What was broken was never fixed. It in fact only got more entrenched. (This is why the Holy Father's assertions that the Holy See is going to hand off power to discipline to the wolves on the local level is so ludicrous.)

Because in the past, disciplinary actions are directed towards whistlblowers, Boston Catholics had to set up an anonymous blog. The blog protects whistblowers by giving them a venue to air the grievance in the public square. This cuts the thuggery of the various characters in power by protecting the identity of the whisteblower, thereby cutting off their ability to slander, threaten, accuse, fire or discipline the whistleblower.

At various times over the course of the last several years, we have asked them to man up and make the changes they need to make. It has always been the same old game that starts with patronizing letters and ends with ugly hostility directed towards the whistleblower. The disordered priest keeps right on going.

This was the system they used to protect pedophiles, and they use the same system to protect apostate priests.

Every once in a while - about once a year - I have the bandwidth to present the problem and ask them to please stop playing the games.

This time, they did.

For the first time in at least ten years, the complaint was received, reviewed, investigated, the judgment of Church teaching and law was applied - and a clarification was issued this weekend.

It is below.

We are pleased with the message and outcome - and very much hope that how this was handled is our future.

There is one thing I would add to the theology below. It is so very true that in these days, for conversion, we must bear with one another and forgive one another - put up with each other. Was it Paul who says "Please put up with me!"?

But kindness and gentleness are not the only virtues of the Holy Family.

As we well know, the Holy Family took flight from those wishing to do harm to their child. They did not bear with or put up with it.

The Catholic Church is a place that we bring our children to be given the tools for their salvation. Putting up with brainwashing them into error is not an option for any family - irrespective of the struggles each of us has, personally and within the family. We are striving towards perfection of the soul. Church teaching cannot be obstructed, thwarted, confused or contradicted.

If it is, and we can't fix it, we take flight to a parish where our children are safe - until such time as the Chancery executes their duties in a manner worthy of the Lamb, as they have done on this occasion.

We are thankful for it and we have hope that blogs usefulness in exposing corruption will someday not be needed. The sooner the better for all concerned.

From the Pastor’s Desk January 19, 2014

The Feast of the Holy Family takes place on the Sunday after Christmas and invites us to reflect on Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the first family of Christendom. To say the least, the Holy Family is totally unique. When Jesus was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled: “the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” (Is.7.14) Likewise, the prophet Micah’s prediction about Bethlehem would also be realized: “You Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler of Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.” (Mi 5. 8-9) The star that led the Wisemen to Bethlehem was totally out of the ordinary events of life. And the shepherds visiting Joseph, Mary and their newborn son on that first Christmas night amidst the choirs of angels had to set that first Christmas apart from any other event in human history. The first Christmas was not a normal day in history and Mary, Joseph and Jesus were not and are not your average family.

My bulletin column of December 29th tried to capture the unusual circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus and described them as being not “normal” or “ideal.” These words were used to contrast the Holy Family with what was described as the idyllic view of family life depicted in old television shows like “The Ozzie and Harriet Show” and “Leave It To Beaver.” In no way was there any intention to imply anything beyond this contrast. By calling attention to the impoverished circumstances in which the birth of Jesus took place, the clear implication was to invite us to have greater sensitivity to the needs of the poor in our own day and to be sensitive to the difficulties and hardships that are all too often part of the human condition.

In the Liturgy for Holy Family Sunday, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians spoke of “...heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another ... and over all these put on love that is the bond of perfection.” (Col. 3. 12-14) Modeled by the Holy Family, these are the qualities that all families should seek to emulate. And, obviously, not only should families strive to live these virtues, but we should all be striving to make these the habits of our hearts too!

Later this year, our Holy Father Pope Francis will convene a Synod in Rome to reflect upon the challenges that families face in our own day. A Synod is a very high level meeting of bishops representing all the bishops’ conferences around the world. Traditionally, when the Synod concludes, the Pope issues a letter or instruction to the whole church that captures the work of the Synod bishops. This Synod already promises to be very historic because of the wide consultation that is being conducted in preparation for the fall meeting. The consultation is being conducted around 9 major areas of interest and is seeking objective feedback regarding the challenges that families face around the world.

“Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization,” the consultation document, reiterates the Church’s traditional teachings on marriage and family. It identifies specific, con- temporary social realities and asks for information about the kind of pastoral care that is being provided. When the Synod convenes in October, the bishops will have much to discuss and, presumably, will challenge us all to a more Christ centered and evangelizing spirituality.

As we look to the Synod in the fall and reflect on the beauty and simplicity of the Holy Family, let us together pray for all families who strive to be vehicles of unconditional love in which children come to know by heart the origin of that love. Jesus, Mary and Joseph expect nothing less!
God Bless! Msgr. Paul

3 comments:

Karen said...

Carol,

The word that I hear today is perseverance - I truly admire yours!

You have done much to help with the salvation of souls with this blog, and I appreciate your efforts. Glad to see this effort bore fruit! Well done, and thank you.

Kd said...

Very well put Carol, God Bless and always Protect YOU!
(St Jude too :) )

Lynne said...

"I don't know why any Catholic parent would still be sitting in the pews of St. Catherine's of Sienna."

This. I don't care if he has since walked back his remarks. Continuing to sit in that parish's pews is like waiting for another bomb to go off. We still have several parishes within 10 miles of each other in this diocese. Move on!