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“GUN CONTROL” at St. Peter’s – More to the Story
When it comes to our radical Pastor’s involvement with issues on the left, it is always necessary to delve deeply into what motivates him. In yesterday’s post (For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2017-12-10), we had only peeled off one layer of the onion. To be certain, the Unitarian Universalists (UU) are among the chief sponsors of the scheduled December 14, 2017 GUN CONTROL event publicized in St. Peter’s bulletin.
Let’s put the UU’s aside and go one level deeper. First, we’ll go back to For the Sheep in Exile: Bulletin 2017-06-25 when Father told us that he had just returned from attending the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) assembly in Atlanta. He himself established that he was impressed and influenced by the event. Then, we go further back to the picture of our Pastor attending the 2016 AUSCP assembly in Chicago. It is here that we find another motivating factor for Father’s apparent support for GUN CONTROL.
It was in Chicago that Father may have or even likely participated in an AUSCP vote for GUN CONTROL. Following is a direct quote from the AUSCP website article AUSCP passes resolutions regarding gun control and violence, dated June 29, 2016:
Members of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests approved (June 28) three resolutions regarding gun control and non-violence. One resolution supports the statement made by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International regarding Nonviolence and Just Peace. Another resolution calls for members of the association to “incorporate the lessening of gun violence in their personal life choices and pastoral ministry.” The third resolution supports Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich who is urging the USCCB “to make gun control and gun violence one of the top priorities of the Church.”
So, it seems that our Pastor has decided that the UU sponsored GUN CONTROL event coincides perfectly with the AUSCP call to “incorporate the lessening of gun violence in their personal life choices and pastoral ministry.”
Our parish bulletin now promotes (in capital letters) a “GUN CONTROL” event. That would lead us to suspect that GUN CONTROL is now part of the “pastoral ministry” here at St. Peter’s.
How many souls will be saved?
Rules and Tools for the Church Militant #4 – Do the Hard Things First
Father Mark A. Pillon has filled in for our pastor at St. Peter’s several times over the past few years. In our view, he is a lion of intellect and sound judgement. His latest article in The Catholic Thing is a perfect example of why we hold him in high esteem. Please take the time to read The Fruits of Soft Discipline.
In remarkable fashion, Fr. Pilon is able to capture the essence of what went wrong with discipline in the Church in just a few sweeping paragraphs. He see all that we have lived through, but he has retained the clear focus that somehow we have lost. Thus, he can say:
Unfortunately, after the Council discipline mostly collapsed, at least when it came to safeguarding the faith.
And with that loss in discipline:
Inevitably, the soft church became even softer when it came to the growing problem of Catholic laity and Catholic politicians openly supporting crimes against humanity such as abortion. How could the bishops discipline them when they failed to discipline even their own clergy and teachers in Catholic universities?
The double standard would have been obvious. So today we have a Church leadership that talks endlessly, but does virtually nothing to protect the faith of the little ones who were always the object of our Lord’s special love – and of the great popes of history. Often this soft discipline is justified in terms of charity. But what about charity toward the little ones who are easily – and gravely – misled?
And that becomes the question we must answer. What about charity toward the the little ones who are easily – and gravely – misled? This blog has frequently asked that our Pastor focus once again on Spiritual Justice with the same fervor that he has focused on Social Justice – to re-balance the scales of the Spiritual Works of Mercy and the Corporal Works of Mercy.
If the Church and our Pastor cannot bring back a rightful emphasis on discipline, then we, the laity, must take it upon ourselves. So, let me ask some simple questions:
Did you pray your morning prayers today?
Did you pray before you went to bed last night?
When was the last time you held your spouse’s hand and prayed together?
In this year of Our Lady of Fatima, did you pray your Rosary today?
If our Church has lost its discipline, can you say you have maintained yours?
If you are to be part of the Church Militant and seek “charity toward the little ones who are easily – and gravely – misled”; if you are to work toward overcoming the evils of Modernism and the loss of discipline in the Church, then you (and I and my beautiful wife) must prepare yourself.
Don’t ask “Where is the discipline in the Church?” until you answer the question, “Where is the discipline in myself?”
Dear and gentle reader, the first obligation of self discipline is to do the hard things first.
If it is hard to wake and offer your day to your Maker, then wake ten minutes earlier and offer not only your day, but you life and soul to Him.
If it is hard to pray with your spouse, then call your entire family and pray with them that you will have the strength to dedicate your entire marriage to the proposition of sanctification.
When rightly formed, discipline is the loving expression of fidelity of a disciple to a teacher and his teaching. And our teacher is none other than Jesus Christ.
Leave the soft church behind; take up your cross; pray the Rosary; and gather your family close around you. Do the hard things first, grow in discipline and strength.
Consider the final words of Fr. Pilon’s article:
But the ultimate victim of a failure to maintain discipline is truth. If you are not willing to defend the truth, then truth itself becomes a matter of opinion. That is, sadly, where we stand today.
Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #23 – Why is his dog in this fight?
If you live in Rappahannock County you know there is a burning social issue of the utmost importance to every citizen here. It will make or break the county – a wrong decision could cause already starving and needy children to go without the basic necessities of life. Elderly couples will be thrown out of their homes to beg on street corners. And the entire economy will collapse forcing the closing of almost every business.
Yes, if you live here you know there is ill feeling among neighbors and distrust by all for all. The issue, of course, is whether there will be a “1.2 multi-use trail” connecting two county schools. Yes, dear readers, the uproar and discord is over a “bike trail”. And, based on our observations, the souls of many must surely be in dire peril if the “bike trail” fails to materialize.
Before we continue, the authors of this post have “no dog in this fight” – there are many things that are more worthy of our time and resources, especially during the Month of the Holy Rosary and the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of Fatima.
Having made that disclaimer, why are we even bringing up the topic? Gentle readers, we have learned over the last three years that our radical Pastor is a social justice warrior. It seems that he just can’t walk by any social folderol without joining in the fray and doing his best to help organize whatever side appears to be the “victim” of injustice. Likewise, our Pastor, especially since the advent of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, cannot keep away from environmental groups or causes. A little background reading should help you understand that, however minuscule, there are elements of both in the “bike trail” controversy:
- Read this article for background and parties involved: First leg of proposed Rappahannock bike trail lands $150,000 grant commitment
- Read this article for a summary of the events of Monday, October 2nd:
County blazes new trails (like it or not) - View this video for the dramatic, blow-by-blow footage of the Rappahannock County’s second longest public hearing:
Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors public meetings, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, 2017
Recognizing that you probably didn’t go through all of the above material, let’s just summarize the matter this way. Our Pastor seized the day! As soon as he saw the opportunity to engage in a social justice battle, he went to the rectory and got his secret weapon – his barely domesticated, social justice hound “Alinskee”.
He and Alinskee made their way to the county courthouse and later to the high school auditorium to engage in the biggest, most contentious dogfight of the year in Rappahannock County.
It was late, very late on Monday night when he and Alinskee approached the microphone. The auditorium went silent. Then, the two of them spoke to the enthralled crowd. These were the words that all assembled had been waiting to hear from one of the most highly esteemed clerics in the county:
“I speak in favor of this trail. I think it will be a great asset.”
There was more. Factually, the words “good asset” and “great asset” were repeated five or six times. Each time, Alinskee could be heard to bark his approval. If anyone in the audience failed to nod in agreement, Alinskee would growl and bare his teeth. After all, it is important to agree with one of the most highly esteemed clerics in the county when he is speaking almost “ex cathedra” on such a burning social issue.
Apparently, Father’s words carried the day and Alinskee, a most satisfied and contented social justice hound, returned to the rectory knowing that he was the dog that won that fight.
Post Script: Dear gentle readers, if the sarcasm and satire in this post seem unduly harsh, consider all the other things that a Catholic priest could do on a Monday night:
- There is no other person in the county who can say a Mass;
- There is no other person in the county who can absolve sins; and
- There is no other person in the county who can administer the Last Rites.
Anyone, absolutely anyone, even a dumb dog named Alinskee can go to a meeting and lobby for a “bike path”. No one, absolutely no one, except for our Pastor can hear confessions.
There are perhaps hundreds of people in this county who urgently need the guidance of a priest and to be invited to hear God’s message of salvation. See our last post (For the Sheep of Kephas – Bulletin 2017-10-01, 2. Learn why Christians are muslims) for an example of one person who would benefit from that guidance.
We need, no, we must have our priests doing what they were ordained to do. For those priests who have strayed somewhat from that calling, it is the duty of the laity to fight to win them back. Dear Sheep in Exile, my dog is in that fight, and he’s in that fight to win.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary and the Battle of Lepanto, pray for us!
Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #22 – … and Here Are Some of Your Friends
The more we learn about the friends of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) the more we must return to what we said in April in our post Rules and Tools For Radical Pastors #21 – Be Careful Whom You Choose for Friends. Please take the time to re-read that post so that you know where the AUSCP stands on one facet of the this post’s concern. In April, we concluded by saying:
It appears that our Pastor has chosen the 1,200 priests of AUSCP to be his friends. That might have been a bad choice. That is why we have entitled this post “Be Careful Whom You Choose for Friends.”
Now, let’s meet some other friends of the AUSCP, and by association, possible friends of our Pastor. They are Bishop Robert McElroy of the Diocese of San Diego and the Jesuit priest and author, Father James Martin, SJ. Before we venture into our discussion, you need to know that Bishop McElroy will be a featured speaker at the AUSCP 2018 Assembly in Albuquerque, June 25-28.
The other thing I thought about as I read the Bishop’s unfortunate phrase is that Our Lady of Fatima warned about sins against chastity.
Our Lady said:
“More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.”
Bottom Line: If our Pastor attends the AUSCP 2018 Assembly as he did in 2016 and 2017, he will will be with his AUSCP friends, his Bishop McElroy friend, and at least in spirit with his Fr. Martin friend. Dear Pastor, consider our Blessed Mother – your Blessed Mother, would she want you to hang out with friends like that. The “salvation of souls is the supreme law.”
Rebuilding the Tower of Babel – We will be “separated by the same language”
“England and America are two countries separated by the same language.”
After reading the article Speaking of storms on the horizon: Motu Proprio on approval of liturgical translations in Fr. Z’s Blog, my inner linguist and I held a rambling dialogue on how the actions of Association of the U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) and its members may lead the English speaking Catholic world into greater separation and disunity.
If you like, you may read further and share in some of that rambling dialogue.
Actually: My beautiful spouse and I are trying to purge our speech of the useless and obnoxious filler word “actually.” When we catch ourselves falling into the trap of using it, we try to replace it with “factually.” Even if that substitution cannot atone for “linguistic sin”, the word “factually” at least signals that what is to follow comes from a reliable source.
Linguistic Sin: Factually, for some 50 years, my work has revolved around technical proficiency in two foreign languages. In addition to those two languages, I have been formally trained in three other languages. That includes two years of Latin. Be assured, I am no doctoral-level linguist. Nevertheless, my training in languages has put bread on our family table for 45 years.
My professional reputation is founded on my ability to interpret intended meaning and to convey that meaning faithfully to others in a different language. In my line of work, words, most assuredly, mean something. That is why I disagree with our Pastor and his beloved AUSCP. They do not have the same respect for words and their meanings that I do. They would rather abandon meaning because they are overly sensitive to “awkward grammar and diction.” – They would rather be wrong than stilted.
This is what the AUSCP Roman Missal Working Group and, by association and regular practice, our Pastor say about their Roman Missal Translation Concerns:
Purpose: To collect and voice the complaints of priests and laity about the awkward grammar and diction of the new Roman Missal’s “English translation” so as to move the USCCB Committee for Divine Worship to hear the concern and take steps to improve the texts used for our most important liturgical prayer.
Based on my observations and study of our Pastor’s frequent changes to the text of the Mass (many of which we have recorded here in this blog), I would say he either does not understand the original Latin or he does not agree with the meaning of the Latin terms he changes. Either way, he is in lock-step with his 1,200 brothers in the AUSCP.
As we have said before, “The AUSCP agenda is well served by our Pastor.”
In my line of work, when a translation intentionally changes the original meaning, it is a linguistic sin – a grave sin. People who commit that sin lose their jobs and their professional reputations.
This blog has established that our radical Pastor is an activist who is well versed in the Rules for Radical Pastors and other Saul Alinsky variations. I’m sure that he would be able to relate to the following guidance that appeared on the AUSCP site in April 2016.
The AUSCP Leadership Team is asking our members to become active in addressing the problems which so many are having with the New Roman Missal. The problems will multiply if Liturgiam authenticam continues to be used in the translation of other liturgical texts. WE NEED THE HELP AND LEADERSHIP OF OUR BISHOPS IN THIS MATTER.
Throughout the English speaking world, priests are on the front lines of church ministry. Every day we embrace the challenge to communicate and celebrate the gospel in “the language of our people.” We are expected to use the Roman Missal as it is. The “vernacular” used in the Roman Missal English translation has produced complicated and awkward phrasing and a strange vocabulary. The purpose of language is to communicate and build relationship. The language used in Eucharistic celebration should generate a sense of the sacral — not bewilderment and aggravation. To do our job well, we need good tools. The current translation of the Roman Missal using the translation method of Liturgiam authenticam has created a problematic tool.
And so, we encourage all members to request a “sit-down” and “face-to-face” meeting with their own bishop(s) (ordinaries & auxiliaries), not as a representative of AUSCP but as a concerned priest within their presbyterate serving the pastoral care of God’s People. These talking points may be helpful:
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Assure your bishops that displeasure with the New Missal is widespread among priests and the people of God as verified by a number of surveys.
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Prepare yourself by reviewing below a listing of commonly experienced problems and concerns submitted by our members. Please realize that sharing your own experience is of greatest value.
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Emphasize that priests cannot maintain their joy in presiding when so many texts in the Missal cause frustration and that, from a pastoral approach, the new Roman Missal is not found to be a good tool for effective ministry with God’s people.
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Beg for an intervention by your bishop(s) to:
- Stop translating liturgical texts using the Liturgian authenticam method; and
- To correct the translations we already have according to Liturgiam authenticam norms, especially the Missal and the Rites of Ordination.
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Above all, PLEAD for your bishop’s assistance in this matter, leaving with him, if prudent, a copy of the article Mission intelligible” by Fr. Michael Ryan. [Read the article carefully yourself by clicking HERE.
To every bishop in the United States, be prepared for this organized threat and please post your “No whining!” signs prominently.
Catholic Cultural Revolution #3: The Parish Pastoral Council has been “Disappeared”
I went to the St. Peter Catholic Church Website this week to find out what’s new. Every now and then I find some useful information. For example, last week I found out that Father was missing in action – again. (See Catholic Cultural Revolution #2: Where’s Father? Again!)
To really know what’s going on in the parish, I need to hire a good detective.
This week, oh my goodness, I found out that the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) is missing in action. It is gone. There is no trace. Either the PPC and all of its members have disappeared or, even worse, they were “disappeared”.
This really calls for a good detective.
- So, you might ask, who is the PPC member for your Mass? You can’t find that on the Website anymore.
- What wonderful works of the New Evangelization are being developed by our PPC? Sorry, you can’t find that out on the Website.
- What plans for savings souls have been considered? Nope, you won’t find it.
- In fact, you just can’t find anything about the PPC anymore.
Not Really “Disappeared”: Although the minutes of past PPC meetings have been “disappeared” from the parish Website, that does not mean the Sheep in Exile no longer have access to them. (This was the first success for our newly hired detective.)
For our Pastor, in case you want a personal copy, here are the ‘disappeared’ PPC minutes:
Char’s Commentary:
Our radical Pastor has once again made a sneaky move to cover up an inconvenient truth – The PPC is not what parishioners have been led to think. Although I can’t read his mind, there is every reason to suspect that the PPC always was, and as long as Father is at St. Peter’s, always will be just another tool used in the Catholic Cultural Revolution. There is also every reason to suspect that this PPC charade is fully in accordance with RULE 2 for Radical Pastors.
RULE 2: Build an organization by presenting a vision of where you are going and moving toward it.
Saul Alinsky said that people were to have the power that their ideas and programs should come to the surface. But he also understood that the organizer had to capture the best of those ideas and present them as a vision so that people could move toward them. Alinsky wrote, “The organizer’s biggest job is to give people the feeling that they can do something”
Dear readers, RULE 2 is why Father established the PPC. As Alinsky wrote, “The organizer’s biggest job is to give people the feeling that they can do something”. It doesn’t matter if anything is accomplished or any souls are saved. Our Pastor’s vision of a good PPC is a coffee clutch that has the feeling that they can do something.
More importantly – keep no records and keep the parish in the dark. Mushrooms grow well at St. Peter’s where PPC minutes and members get “disappeared”.
That’s it folks. The PPC is charade. If it remains missing from public view, it might just become another self-licking ice cream cone and book club like the PPC at Father’s last parish, St. Charles Borromeo. Woohoo!!! (Read: Minutes – Pastoral Council Meeting – St. Charles Borromeo Church – April 21, 2014)
“Oh, just one more thing” … Meet my new detective!
Rules and Tools For Radical Pastors #21 – Be Careful Whom You Choose for Friends
Dear and gentle reader, we will speak softly and charitably on this evening’s topic – The Gift of the Priestly Vocation. This document, promulgated by the Congregation for the Clergy on December 8, 2016, makes a clear point in a respectful and charitable way:
c) Persons with Homosexual Tendencies199. In relation to persons with homosexual tendencies who seek admission to Seminary, or discover such a situation in the course of formation, consistent with her own Magisterium, “the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture’. Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies”.
“We find it also unfounded and insulting,” the group said, adding that the clergy congregation document “implies that ordained priests with a homosexual orientation who serve the Church with distinction ‘find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women.’ ““If the Congregation for the Clergy document had stated that heterosexual and homosexual persons who are living chaste lives can be admitted to ordination to the priesthood it would have been more respectful and inclusive. The issue for discernment is whether the applicant or candidate has integrated his sexual identity with Catholic Christian faith and spirituality,”
Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #20 – Priest-less Parishes?
There was a time when real men, real men with strong faith, real men with strong faith and courage were pastors. This is the pastor I knew in my youth in Ohio: (Click here for the full history.)
Bishop Edward Hoban founded this parish [St. Mary Magdalene] on January 27, 1949 and Fr. Harold Laubacher was pastor from then until he retired on September 10, 1968. During his pastorate the parish grew enormously- from 600 to 4,000 families. There were 196 students during the 1949-50 school year, and by 1968 there were 1,549 children in grades one through eight.
After Fr. Laubacher retired, the new “men” came, the somewhat less admirable men, the men who have somewhat less courage, some of them may be the very same men who are now members of the Ohio-based Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP). They were not builders. They were too weak. They could not and did not boldly profess the hard teachings of the Church such as those contained in Humanae Vitae. Inevitably, through their weakness, the parish that Fr. Laubacher had built began to decay. By 2006: (Click here.)
Our day school enrollment had dwindled to barely 200 students while maintenance costs for our large, aging school building required more money than we received from tuition and parishioner contributions.
What a a great irony and a sad commentary it is when we come to the final lines of the current history of St. Mary Magdalene Parish: (Click here.)
Most rooms in our nearly 60-year-old school stand empty and our financial situation suggests that we need to consider repurposing that building. However, we are reminded that our buildings do not define us as a parish. Throughout the past 60 years, the people of St. Mary Magdalene have celebrated God’s love, cared for those in need, shared our faith with children and adults, ministered to each other and participated in parish groups. We have done this together in the past and will continue to do this in the future because we are a vibrant parish.
This is the St. Mary Magdalene I remember. In that sanctuary, arrayed with spiritual murals and scripture, is where I served Mass. On the side of St. Joseph we boys would sit when Fr. Laubacher described and explained the mysteries of the Church and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He was stern and demanding, he was gentle and humorous, he was a father in the Faith, and he would expect nothing, absolutely nothing, less than our best.
The new “men” came, the somewhat less than admirable men, and they tore down the altar; they destroyed the murals, they smashed the very wall behind the altar and built a new entrance to the parking lot. Half way up the main nave they erected a cheap wooden table and called it an altar. They hung felt “symbolic art” banners and they replaced disciplined altar boys with white-robed, distracting, little altar people. They replaced majesty with pretentious mediocrity. Meanwhile, in the nave, they removed the kneelers and arranged the seating to give all a ringside view of the spectacle.
But the greatest accomplishment of these new “men” was when they banished the tabernacle and the Blessed Sacrament to a hidden place where the main entrance to the church used to be. Just as there was no room in the inn, there is no room near the altar for God.
That brings us to the present. Today, the new “men” by their own admission are “… mostly older priests who were educated and formed by Vatican II”. On their watch the Church in the US has gone into a steep decline and parishes like St. Mary Magdalene are beginning to turn off the lights and are preparing to close their doors. In their own words the priests of the AUSCP tell us that: (Click here to see the full story.)
- 30 percent of U.S. Catholics have left the church;
- Church marriages have declined 60 percent since 1980;
- “Apart from Hispanic members,” Catholic total membership is declining.
With this as their background of accomplishment the priests of the AUSCP come to us and say: (Click here and here to see the full story.)
The AUSCP Working Group on “Pastoral Care for Priest-less Parishes” has prepared a draft PROPOSAL FOR PASTORAL CARE IN & THRU PRIESTLESS PARISHES, found below. We want and need your input. So please review and comment.
Now that we know our Pastor is probably a member of the AUSCP and we as a Catholic family and as members of St. Peter’s have a stake in this matter, we feel that it is appropriate to provide the AUSCP Working Group on “Pastoral Care for Priest-less Parishes” our comments.
Comment 1: We submit to you that you are the new “men”, the somewhat less admirable men, the men who have somewhat less courage. We submit that parishes like St. Mary Magdalene were, in some ways, already priest-less while you lived in the rectories of those parishes. A real man with strong faith and courage, a real pastor like Fr. Laubacher would have saved the Catholic school under his charge. And a real pastor would have fostered vocations so that there never would be a priest-less parish.
Comment 2: You have already done your harm. You have already spiritually abused your flocks. You have already done what you could to turn the sheep away from the saving grace of the Sacraments. What can you possibly offer in your PROPOSAL FOR PASTORAL CARE IN & THRU PRIESTLESS PARISHES? A close reading of the text shows that you only seek to perpetuate and magnify the shameful destruction you have wrought.
Comment 3: All that we have said to this point applies to St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Willowick, Ohio and the Diocese of Cleveland, but, now that we know our Pastor is probably a member of the AUSCP, we feel that it is appropriate to provide a brief reminder of one small chapter in the history of the Diocese of Arlington:
2014-01-17 St. Charles announces school restructuring
2014-01-28 Parents floored over closure of Arlington Catholic school
2014-01-22 St. Charles parents react to school closing
2014-06-10 St. Charles Borromeo Pastor Gets Transferred, Speaks Out
Our question is, “Is it really possible that the type of thinking that binds AUSCP members together could ever really solve the problem of priest-less parishes?” Our next question is, “Now that we know our Pastor is probably a member of the AUSCP, is it possible that some day in the Diocese of Arlington there will be a priest-less parish?”
As my wife so frequently asks, “How many souls will be saved?”
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!
Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #19 – God or Mammon?
This is the second in a series of posts analyzing the implications of our Pastor’s probable membership in the Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP). (See Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #18 – Our Radical Pastor and the AUSCP for background.)
Members: What can we say about priests who are members of AUSCP? The best place to begin is with what they say about themselves: (See Priests’ association celebrates values of Vatican II. Check out picture No. 8)
“We’re mostly older priests who were educated and formed by Vatican II,” said Father Bernard “Bob” Bonnot, the association’s president. He was ordained for the Diocese of Youngstown, in 1967.
When the group was founded, he said, members felt that some of the council’s [Vatican II] openness to the world was being closed off.
“We wanted to stand for it and we wanted to fight for it,” Bonnot said. “We want to move our pilgrim church forward as the Spirit inspires.”
Membership – Priests: What is required to become a member of AUSCP? According to the AUSCP website only two criteria are listed: (Click here.)
- Completion of a registration form, and
- Paying a membership fee ($50 for “Basic” membership and $150 for “Supporting” membership)
Membership – AUSCP “FRIEND”: What is required to become an AUSCP “FRIEND”? According to the AUSCP website four criteria are listed. The first two are essentially the same as for priests: (Click here.)
- Completion of a registration form, and
- Voluntarily paying of a suggested donation of $50 or some other amount
Now this is where things become a bit confusing. On a different page, FRIENDS of AUSCP are described as: (Click here.)
Persons or organizations who –
• Support the mission and work of AUSCP with prayer, time, talent, wisdom, encouragement and treasure
• Do not publicize or publicly promote positions contrary to church teaching or AUSCP positions
There are two points to be made here:
- Logic would suggest that, in addition to FRIENDS, AUSCP priest members would also be required to refrain from publicizing or publicly promoting “positions contrary to church teaching or AUSCP positions”.
- Without providing a clear definition of church teaching, both priest members and FRIENDS might encounter obvious conflicts between church teaching or AUSCP positions. Consequently, any of the current AUSCP positions being developed in current AUSCP Working Groups could be seen as pushing the line on church teaching.
Rather than enter into an argument over words, let’s consider what a founding member of AUSCP, Fr. Frank Eckart from Toledo had to say on this point: (Click here.)
“We push those issues that are not set in stone, but that are not contrary to dogma or faith, although we believe in dialogue with dissenting groups.”
And there it is, dear Readers, our radical Pastor probably is an active member of a group that is promoting positions that are right on the edge. That same group believes in dialogue with dissenting groups. Our question is, when he encounters a conflict between a church teaching and an AUSCP position, which will he choose to promote to his parishioners or to those attending a Cursillo weekend?
We must remember Matthew 6:24 – “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #18 – Our Radical Pastor and the AUSCP
Our apologies to those following by email. Please disregard the earlier, incomplete email posting sent out under this same title.
What’s in our radical Pastor’s hand?
My beautiful wife has requested that I keep it simple! So, I will.
Recent information now explains our Pastor’s absence in late June of last year. (See For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2016-06-26.) To be sure, while the rest of us were enjoying the Summer weather, our radical Pastor was busily meeting with like minded priests who want to change the Roman Catholic Church in these United States of America. Following are your takeaway points concerning our radical Pastor:
- There is an 85-90% probability that he is a member of the Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP). (Click here.)
- As a probable member, he attended AUSCP’s assembly’s main Eucharistic Liturgy on Wednesday, June 29 [some sources say June 30] at Our Lady of Hope Church in Rosemont, IL. Archbishop Blase Cupich presided. (We have our Pastor’s picture; click here and here.)
- To understand AUSCP’s goals (and by inference our Pastor’s goals) read about the various AUSCP Working Groups.
- Prior to pulling down their Links page last year, these were the links to the groups AUSCP consider worthwhile – AUSCP Related Links.
Over the next few weeks we will explore our Pastor’s relationship to AUSCP and the serious implications to our parish and the Diocese of Arlington.
Although we report and you decide, it is necessary for you to read so that you can actually decide. Please take a look at the links we have added to this post.
We hope that the Chancery is reading this post and takes the time to consider what our Pastor is doing. Consider the questions my wife just asked me. “Why, why do these priests want to destroy our Catholic faith? How will souls be saved by this abandonment of all that is good in our Church?”
The Sheep of Kephas 