Dan Avila Update and an SOS to the Vatican

As everyone following the story knows by now, Dan Avila 'resigned' over his column in the Pilot. After his resignation, I held off a bit because I wanted to know whether the 'resignation' was a polite way to cover up his termination or whether he truly resigned of his own free will. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that whether he was driven out or he fled, Cardinal O'Malley has created a hostile work environment for the advancement of Church teaching and the dynamic of this hostile influence reaches to the USCCB.

Dan's commentary lacked some clarity and syntax on original sin and temptation, but theologically, it was sound. Sexual temptation is the devil's most effective tool. We are not engaged in a war of words. Our goal, above all else, is to deliver from temptation. To lead to the sanctifying grace that produces virtue and chastity.

The reality of the situation is, the media is inciting malice and hostility towards Christendom. Given this, how we craft our message that the Catholic Church is the custodian of the temporal and spiritual tools that lead us to chastity when confronted with temptation, has to be worded carefully.

Perhaps a clarification should have been issued. Dan Avila has been faithfully serving Christ's Church for over 30 years. The fact the Cardinal elected to pursue firing the man or made the environment so toxic he had to flee, while keeping prelates on the payroll with a history of shacking up with their lovers, is actionable. We must take action. It is our baptismal duty to take action.

I was speaking with a colleague the other day and mentioned that Cardinal O'Malley is, sadly, too weak to manage the presbyteral mafia. His reply was: "I don't know that he's weak. He is the one that put them all in there".

We do not know the reasons but the evidence is crystal clear: Cardinal O'Malley is the arbiter of silencing Catholic teaching and is leading souls into temptation. He is the architect of the plan. He has hired the workers and he is executing that plan. It's a tough pill to swallow for all of us.

Our colleagues at Boston Catholic Insider have taken the time to put together another communication campaign to the Vatican.

It is simple and takes a few moments of your time.

Please take those moments now and send off the faxes.

The Elephant Under Cardinal O'Malley's Big Top

Have you seen the latest?

I didn't see the original article. While I'm not fond of the way Avila structured his thoughts in the citations I saw, I'd like to know exactly what Terry Donilon's threats of retaliation are based upon.

What exactly is behind his claim it's 'not the teaching of the Church' that sexual temptation and sin come from the devil?

I'll get to Donilon's threats in a minute, but let's try something out relative to the teachings of the Church on temptation and sin:

In the piece, titled “Some fundamental questions on attraction to another's wife or husband,” Avila wrote that “disruptive imbalances in nature that thwart encoded processes point to supernatural actors who, unlike God, do not have the good of persons at heart.”

He continued, “Whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally unchosen beginnings of attraction to the spouse of another, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.”

I don't see anything that contradicts Church teaching there.

Let's give it another whirl:

In the piece, titled “Some fundamental questions on attraction to masturbation,” Avila wrote that “disruptive imbalances in nature that thwart encoded processes point to supernatural actors who, unlike God, do not have the good of persons at heart.”

He continued, “Whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally unchosen beginnings of attraction to sex with ourselves, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.”

That works too.

The theology is absolutely Church teaching.

Is Donilon saying the Church doesn't teach attractions to sin are from the devil?

That's how it comes across to me.

Do you think the buffoons from the Obama administration in control of the Boston Chancery would have redacted the article and threatened to retaliate if Avila wrote about attraction to heterosexual adultery, premarital sex or masturbation?

Yes, we are all made in the likeness of God but there's one big motherass difference: God was not born with original sin. There was no disorder in His Nature. Because there was no disorder, He was not attracted to any kind of sin.

Unlike the rest of us.

The rest of us were born with original sin and we are therefore disordered, attracted to sin and the temptations to think about them and act upon them come from... the devil.

All of us. Why would you exclude people attracted to same sex from this paragon?

There's something passive-aggressive going on with their reckless disregard for the salvation of gay Catholics. It comes across to me like they are deliberately withholding Church teaching and salvation from them. It's almost as if they consider them the proverbial swine in front of whom they will not cast their precious pearls.
It is exasperating to any Catholic of good will who cares about the salvation of every soul.

Christ said if you have lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery. Ergo, the thoughts and attractions to sin are (venial) sins, even if you don't act on it. Sins are the work of the tempter who is evil.

What am I missing here?

Duly noted is that Donilon would not specify exactly what he thought contradicts Church teaching. He must know that whatever his claims are, they wouldn't stand up to scrutiny by the Holy See.

And this was an absolute corker:

It posted an apology from Avila saying the column didn't represent the position of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose stated purpose is to 'promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind,' and wasn't authorized for publication.

The "USCCB" exists to promote the greater good which the Church offers mankind.

Gives you the goosebumps all over, doesn't it?

At least they had the decency not to describe themselves as promoters of Catholic teaching. What a lovely description of a body of wolves who maul and devour truth.

I think this was my favorite sentence:

“As we absorbed what was in the paper, we said, ‘Whoa, that’s a problem,’ ” Donilon said of the reaction of archdiocesan officials. “That’s not the position of the church or the archdiocese.”

You read that right. There they all are up in the Chancery, reading the paper and reacting to positions that are not consistent with Church teaching. There are conferences about it with the "USCCB" who are beside themselves that a theological error has been published.

This is as good as a Kadashian wedding!


Fr. John Unni can schedule a Sacred Liturgy to culminate celebration of public simulation of sodomy on parade floats and you can't get anyone in the Chancery (let alone the Episcopal Embassy in D.C.) to bat an eyelash. You have to storm the Holy See.

Where are the 'retractions' from the National Catholic Reporter? America Magazine? The hundreds of thousands of whacked out articles in Catholic newspapers all across the country for the last 40 years?

BTW, don't miss the compelling evidence that Cardinal O'Malley and his administration is hostile, threatening, intimidating and retaliatory to those who promote Church teaching:

“It was a problem, and we would have dealt with it if Dan had resisted” writing an apology, Donilon said.

I'll refrain from the long list, but has anyone seen an apology from Unni? Cuenin? Bryan Hehir?

How about the heresies and public conduct of Monsignor Paul Garrity whose relationship with a married woman leaves a scandalous impression he is, at the very least, hijacking intimacy that belongs to her husband?

Dan Avila is not a priest, nor is he even a lay person employed by the Archdiocese. What is it exactly Donilon thinks his options were "if Dan had resisted"?

Assuming Terrance Donilon doesn't mean they would send people out to rough him up, Boston priests and Catholics who have experienced the thugs Cardinal O'Malley hired as he goes on his appointed rounds to the circus, pot luck dinners and frau-frau events 24/7 - we can crack that code:

1. Rake him over the coals in a public character assassination.
2. Hire private investigators to stalk you and find something they can use to
threaten your livelihood and paycheck.

Since Dan worked for the Church, all it took was a couple of phone calls to threaten his income.

Dan Avila worked here in Boston for many years. He is personally loyal to the teachings of Christ's Church and has many accomplishments. But when it became clear Cardinal O'Malley was adverse to Catholic teaching and we had a huge problem on our hands, the most charitable thing I can say is, Dan is a good man but would never be a nominee for Profiles in Courage. When the wolf comes to consume the flock, there is no resistance and he does not swim alone in the rivers of inertia and compromise to the devil.

They really had a winning streak going for an awful lot of years with these tactics. They could even cover up rapes with it.

It is a pity their winning streak has been interrupted by those of us who will tell them to stick their threats where the sun don't shine.