PopeWatch: Coalition For Canceled Priests
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I have a close traditional Priest friend who has just been “retired.” Not his real choice. How widespread is this virus?
What father cancels his children? I’ve never heard of such a thing in a real family. So many of these swisshops are merely faithless vipers. May God have mercy on their souls, if they truly haven’t sold them already.
So what happens to a priest who gets “cancelled?” Where does he live? How does he put food on the table? Mom and Dad? Other family? Friends?
Father Z seems hesitant about recommending the group. Let’s remember that “cancelled” is a fake word, and there are a lot of reasons a priest could be disciplined. Good or bad priests disciplined by good or bad bishops. And if the worst scenario is true, a good priest punished by a bad bishop for his orthodoxy, then we should rejoice for the priest’s soul if he remains obedient.
A priest’s first duty is always to Christ.
As Fr. Z points out in his blog post, a ‘canceled’ priest cannot simply move to another diocese on his own— his old bishop has to release him, and his new bishop has to accept him and confirm his faculties. There’s an entire legal dance that has to happen.
It is a sorry pass, that bishops were perfectly willing to transfer priests when they were known to be sexual predators, but would deny transfers to priests because they are too inconveniently orthodox.
It would appear that Their Excellencies’ position is that they must be ‘merciful’ and ‘pastoral’ with sexual predators, (and, there’s a priest shortage, so they have to work with what’s available); but if a priest is too orthodox that is the bridge too far, and he must be crushed. Am I missing something here?
It will be well to closely watch this unfold. Fr Altman is not the usual timid priest. He is 62 y/o and came to this calling late in life. He is dedicated to the Latin Mass which puts him at odds with the casual catholic (small “c” version). True, I’m tired of the BS, Catholics need a priest like him to rally around. All bishops will rue the day they shutdown their parishes over the CHINESE FLU. This priest speaks the Truth loud and clear. He is a true shepherd. Check him out.
The website for the Coalition seems pretty straight forward. On the otherhand my ex sister-in-law , a bigamist when “married” to my brother, used http://www.rentapriest.com to marry her third husband 15+ years ago. The website, which I couldn’t find tonight, stressed that its former priests had been vetted and were not sexual predators. I suspect many had been laicized and were married. These priests were available to perform baptisms and second marriages for a stipend.
Our parish priest suggested to me that there was a farm for cancelled priests. Although not cancelled as yet Fr William (Billy) Kosco is an AZ priest who speaks out against the Eucharist for pro abort priests.
God bless these traditional priests!
oops pro abort POLITICIANS, Late night tired eyes.