More good stuff from St. Thomas More, via the College of St. Thomas More:

More warns that, if a leader allows weariness to so grip "the mind that its strength is sapped and reason gives up the reins, if a [leader] is so overcome by heavy-hearted sleep that he neglects to do what the duty of his office requires ... -- like a cowardly ship's captain who is so disheartened by the furious din of a storm that he deserts the helm, hides away cowering in some cranny, and abandons the ship to the waves -- if a [leader] does this, I would certainly not hesitate to juxtapose and compare his sadness with the sadness that leads as [Paul] says, to hell.... (Sadness of Christ, Scepter Press, p. 47)

We can't link to the article for you since the Diocese of Camden, oops I meant the "Catholic Star Herald," took the article down. One wonders, why? Do they have something to hide? Why is it they do not want people to know the truth of the matter? When you're in the Truth, you have nothing to hide. But then, I guess we all know by now that our current diocesan administration is very far from the Truth.

We will share the article with you when we get it, but for now, the gist of it is this: the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy has notified St. Vincent Pallotti that their request for recourse regarding the merger was not upheld. The Congregation wrote that "decisions as to the location of the offices of the merged parish, and the appointment of the pastor for that parish, fall within the direct competence only of the local bishop, and therefore outside the scope of a canonical recourse."

Continued from Part I...

As you know, this is no exaggeration as the stripping of our churches of their Catholicity has already happened. You can step into churches like this any day of the week (that is, if they are unlocked).

Here is an imaginary dialogue that the author recreated. Sadly, it's not far off. A church I attended for some time had any number of statues of saints (very large ones, too), all of which had been quite literally trash picked. Yes, all in the name of "reform." I have also been to many churches where it was difficult to find the tabernacle or where the tabernacle was removed from the altar. One of these churches was a cathedral in a largely conservative diocese. Finally, I have seen heretical religious education texts and even met one such textbook writer/publisher in a graduate level class on Catholicism. He was a guest speaker, portrayed by the professor as a poor, persecuted reformer.

"Get your tabernacle off the altar, and put it out of the way in a corner."

"But why, Your Excellency?"

"Because I tell you to!"

"I hear and I obey."

"Now smash the altar up."

"Mine not to reason why."

"Burn the altar rails."

"Why stop now?"

"Throw out the statues."

"If you say so."

"Get rid of the Baltimore Catechism. Use this textbook."

"Has Your Excellency noticed that it's full of heresy?"

"Full of heresy, full of heresy--can't you tell the difference between heresy and contemporary insights? Have it in your school tomorrow."

"I'll get it there today."

It goes on. Now we need to go on to wonder, naturally, who is being obeyed here? Such dilemmas beg the question: at what point must we draw the line at supposed "obedience?" If we know that we are being told to do something in direct contradiction to the clear teaching of the Church, what are we and what are our priests to do? This is certainly a tough one.

The author gives many examples of divergence from orthodoxy in the case of one particular contemporary bishop and remarks that, in such cases, it is crucial that the flock be protected from error: "The manifest duty of a Catholic priest submitting himself to the supreme law of charity, showing true Catholic obedience, is to protect his people from such a bishop." He cites a well known description of the life of a layman, Eusebius, in 428:

When the shepherd turns into a wolf the first duty of the flock is to defend itself. As a general rule, doctrine comes from the bishops to the faithful, and it is not for the faithful, who are subjects in the order of Faith, to pass judgment on their superiors. But every Christian, by virtue of his title to the name Christian, has not only the necessary knowledge of the essentials of the treasure of Revelation, but also the duty of safeguarding them. The principle is the same, whether it is a matter of belief or conduct, that is of dogma or morals.

The implications of all this, as told by Davies, are quite alarming. One doesn't want to believe them, yet they ring horrifyingly true. In any case, the author claims that the only real choice for priests charged with true spiritual care of the faithful is to uphold orthodoxy--the Truth--at all costs.

To be continued.

This was originally posted January 31, 2009. We thought it was worth republishing.

Catholic theology and Church teaching are not accidental. Holy Mother Church teaches unchanging, eternal Truths. Moreover, these Truths are all connected and interconnected. Like all systems, each Truth depends upon the other; they are the structures that support the building. We do not, after all, have an atomistic system wherein one truth may stand up as a pillar without the others. Generally speaking, it is not possible, nor is it logical, to accept one teaching of the Catholic Church and dispense with the others, as if one was unrelated to the next. Once we begin to do this, the structure loses its supports and comes tumbling down.

Take, for example, our church buildings and chapels. They are designed for the worship of Christ, the King of the Universe. They are supposed to give us a glimpse of heaven. They are to surround us with examples of how we should live (depictions of the lives of Christ and the saints), who we are and were designed to be (holy sons and daughters of Our Lord), and the physical and spiritual means of getting there.


As Catholics, we believe that Christ is truly and physically present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and that his Eucharistic Presence resides in the Tabernacle. If the King of the Universe resides in the Tabernacle, it only makes sense that that Tabernacle be located in a prominent place, front and center.


If the King of the Universe in the Tabernacle is located front and center in our churches, it only makes sense that we reverently face Him. If the King of the Universe is located in the Tabernacle, front and center, and we are all facing His Majesty, it only makes sense that we be able to kneel before Him in humility and out of love and devotion to Him.


If we truly believe that Jesus Christ, King and Redeemer of our fallen race has come to be with us sacramentally in the Holy Eucharist and that He resides in our Catholic churches, then our souls and minds ought to be elevated, our whole selves reminded of Him while we are in church, whether mass is going on or not. Throughout most of human history, people have not been literate, and even today we need reminders of what it means to live the Christian life. God allows us to use our senses to know Him. To glorify God and for the help of our souls, we are given works of art in the form of paintings, stained glass windows, statues, and other things within our churches.


Consider this. When you have a guest coming to your house, you clean up. You make ready. You prepare. If you were to have an "important" guest come to your house, you would want it to look good. In this case we have an important guest--the most important Guest possible, our Creator--coming to be with us, so great is His love for us. We should want all around us to remind us of His loving and sacrificial Presence.

Says the Catholic Church of England and Wales:

A Church for us is more than a building - it is a Sacred Space, filled with God's presence. Everything within that space - the paintings, the statues, the stained glass - exists for a spiritual purpose.

This is to provide people with a focus for prayer and an insight into God: literally a 'glimpse of heaven'. The word 'Patrimony' describes the Church's cultural inheritance in terms of architecture, art and artefacts. All witness to our Catholic past: a history of persecution, struggle and ultimately, revival. We are just custodians, with a duty to preserve these sacred treasures for the future. Today we also create the Patrimony of tomorrow by commissioning high quality Sacred art.

But now, after roughly two thousand years of Holy Mother Church teaching us

• about the sacredness the church building,
• about how we must be ever vigilant of the possibility of sacrilege not only personally but also in our churches and shrines,
• about how Our Lord would be with us even until the end of time both spiritually and in the Holy Eucharist in our churches and sacred places,
• about Christians sacrificing all they had materially and even their own lives for the sake of their holy churches erection and continuation,
  
• to fall on our knees before God in our beloved churches,

now, in late twentieth and early twenty-first century America we are told to believe that our churches are "just buildings" and we ought not be attached to them. I don't know about you, but my mother taught me when I was just a child that this is one of the most important things that distinguishes us as Catholics from the protestants: our churches are open because we believe that they are holy places, that Our Lord is there, and that they are not just buildings. My mother was no liar.

Places where Our Lord has come to us sacramentally in His unbloody sacrifice, day after day after day, we are now told to believe are buildings like any other. That isn't Catholicism. That is materialism. And that, my friends, is precisely what the devil himself would have us believe. To believe our churches are only buildings would be to deny Our Lord's Eucharistic Presence, our ultimate and eternal destiny, and that for which we were created--the worship of God. In fact, to claim that our churches are just buildings would be to deny our spiritual nature, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and even our sacred baptisms and confirmations. To claim that our churches are just buildings is to deny the validity of their consecrations and blessings. To claim that our churches are just buildings is an insidious lie. And a lie is a lie no matter who says it.

By a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXII), Mass should not be celebrated in any place except a consecrated or blessed church. Hence it is the wish of the Church that at least cathedrals and parish churches be solemnly consecrated, and that smaller churches be blessed (Cong. Sac. Rit., 7 Aug., 1875), but any church and public or semi-public oratory may be consecrated (Cong. Sac. Rit., 5 June, 1899). Both by consecration and by blessing a church is dedicated to Divine worship, which forbids its use for common or profane purposes. Consecration is a rite reserved to a bishop, who by the solemn anointing with holy chrism, and in the prescribed form, dedicates a building to the service of God, thereby raising it in perpetuum to a higher order, removing it from the malign influence of Satan, and rendering it a place in which favours are more graciously granted by God (Pontificale Romanum).  (From New Advent, the Catholic Encyclopedia.)

In the past, Catholics and Catholic buildings alike have been the targets of hatred and persecution. I need not list the litany of specific examples, but priests have been tarred and feathered, buildings blown up, altars desecrated, the Sacred Body of Our Lord maligned, churches vandalized. The history of anti-Catholicism in this country is well-documented and is, in fact, alive and well today. Of course in this country Catholics not even permitted to run for public office (and even when they were, there was serious doubt about their "patriotism"). Catholics have experienced horrible persecution in this and other countries, and by extension our houses of worship desecrated in the worst possible ways. Suffice it to say that many of you have likely heard the stories of your own ancestors and what they went through to preserve the faith, or even just to get to mass. I know I grew up hearing these stories of perseverance in the Faith, and my own family sacrificed much and for that I am so proud and so grateful. It is a great privilege to be born into a good Catholic family and to receive the benefits of our patrimony. The fruit of all that sacrifice is made real to us by virtue of worshiping in the places bequeathed to us by our ancestors and by the grace of God.


It is amazing that at this point in American Catholic history, instead of the Catholic Church being the object of hostile attacks from without, our church buildings and even the Church itself is being attacked from within. Sadly, our shepherds are leading their sheep astray, and many souls will be lost. Instead of protecting our churches, our patrimony, they are being closed (and often the contents sold on ebay) and when faithful Catholics hold tight to the timeless teachings of their Faith, they are called all manner of things from "disobedient" to "unchristian" and worse. Sometimes these attacks are leveled, shamefully, by their own priests and bishops. Yes, many of the very bishops who

• harbored child abusers, shuffling them from one parish to the next
• affiliate themselves and do business with the likes of criminals who would steal churches and schools right out from under unsuspecting Catholics
• allow the rampant sexual impropriety of priests in their diocese
• advocate such unorthodox doctrine as married, gay, and "womyn" priests; as well as downplay of the sacrificial nature of the mass and many other things
• repeatedly lie to the faithful in matters ranging from real estate transactions to canon law to theological Truth
  
• justify closing churches by claiming there's a "priest shortage" and then persecuting and sending away priests by the dozen...
  

...yes, some of the very same bishops would be so blind and arrogant as to criticize the faithful Catholics who merely want to worship their Lord and Savior in the manner they always have: in their own churches. This is an outrage, and it should not be tolerated by any thinking Catholic.

Today, June 16th, is the feast day of Blessed William Greenwood, one of the Carthusian martyrs murdered by King Henry VIII. Because the monks and priests refused to show approval for the king's divorce and remarriage, and subsequent break with the One True Church, they died horrible deaths. Blessed William Greenwood died of starvation in Newgate Prison, and many others were hung, then disemboweled while still alive, and finally quartered. Check out this great website which will tell you a little more about a few of the martyrs at Tyburn. (It is the website of the Catholic Benedictine nuns located at Tyburn.)

Although their feast is not until the end of the summer (as one of the "Forty Martyrs of England and Wales"), and they died roughly 50 years later, this would be a good time to mention Saints Margaret Clitherow and Margaret Ward, pictured to the right in the painting above (left and right). Margaret Ward was executed for trying to rescue a priest from prison.

Margaret Ward was kept in irons for eight days, was hung up by the hands, and scourged, but absolutely refused to disclose the priest's whereabouts. At her trial, she admitted to having helped Fr. Watson to escape, and rejoiced in "having delivered an innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves." She was offered a pardon if she would attend a Protestant service, but refused.

Margaret Clitherow (1556?-1586), whose feast day is March 25th (individually) also has a very interesting story. From Bert Ghezzi's Voices of the Saints:

St. Margaret Clitherow became a convert at her hometown of York in 1573 when it was dangerous to be a Catholic in England. Pope Pius V had excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1570, provoking an intense persecution of Catholics. Mass was outlawed, priests were regarded as traitors, and harboring them was a capital crime. Margaret disobeyed the law, keeping secret rooms in her house and at a neighbor's house where priests hid and celebrated Mass.

On March 10, 1586, sheriff's men raided Margaret's house. They found a schoolmaster with her children, whom they mistook for a priest, but he escaped through the secret chamber. The officers terrorized an 11-year-old Flemish boy who lived with the family. The frightened child led them to the priests' room, where they found vessels and books for Mass. So Margaret was taken to prison to await a hearing.

John Mush, Margaret's biographer, report that she accepted her persecution lightheartedly. She and Anne Tesh, her friend also betrayed by the boy, laughed so much that Margaret said, "Sister, we are having so much fun that I'm afraid unless we are separated we shall be in danger of losing the merit of our imprisonment." And just before she was to appear before the judge, Margaret decided to cheer the 35 other Catholic prisoners across the hall. "She looked out of a window towards them," writes Mush, "and she made a pair of gallows on her fingers and pleasantly laughed at them."

In the above picture, St. Margaret Clitherow is in the foreground, towards the center, just to the
left of the gallows, wearing the red and lavender dress. Margaret Ward is standing on the left,
just in front of the tree, with the red head covering. I presume the white-clad figures are 4
of the Carthusian monks martyred.

Margaret was charged with harboring and maintaining priests. When the judge asked her if she were guilty or not, she declined to enter a plea. The judge warned her that the law required the death penalty for anyone refusing to plead. He told Margaret that she would be stripped, arms stretched out and bound to stakes, and pressed to death with a sharp stone on her back. "I am not worthy of so good a death as this," was her reply.

Margaret believed that her death was inevitable. Had she pled to the charges, her husband and children would have to testify against her and her neighbor's guilt would have been exposed, possibilities she could not bear. Her love for her family intensified her suffering, but did not deter her. "I love my husband next to God in this world," she wrote.

"And I have care over my children as a mother ought to have. I trust I have done my duty by bringing them up in the fear of God, and so I trust now I am discharged of them. And for this cause I am willing to offer them freely to God who sent them to me, rather than I will yield one jot from my faith."

Thus, on the Friday in Passion Week, 1586, she was pressed to death under 800 pounds of weight. Fittingly, she must have thought, she died like Christ, with her arms extended, as on a cross.

Supposedly St. Margaret Clitherow was also pregnant at the time of her death. She was publicly stripped and humiliated, as Christ, prior to her barbaric execution. Later on, her two sons became priests and her daughter a nun in France.

The English martyrs are an inspiration to all of us. May we be granted the tremendous faith they had, and may we be willing to lay our lives on the line for the sake of the Truth if necessary. May we always be willing to defend our precious Faith.

Blessed Thomas Greenwood and Saints Margaret Ward and Margaret Clitherow, pray for us!

Here is one of the Church's holy men for us to emulate. Matt Talbot was a regular guy if ever there was one, a working class alcoholic who changed and sanctified his life with the help of God. He never gave up. He even died while walking to mass. Read about his life here and here and here. This website is also dedicated to him.

Interestingly, Matt had a keen sense of justice. "He refused to return to work after a strike in 1900 and sought another job." He believed strongly in the rights and dignity of the working man. He was a very hard worker. Along these lines, it is his perseverance that Matt Talbot is most known for. "It is consistancy that God seeks," he said. 

He was a great adorer of Our Lord in the Eucharist. It is written:

Young Matt Talbot, known as the "saint in overalls," also knelt outside the doors of his church for hours every morning. Once inside, he would prostrate himself on the floor in the form of a cross before entering his pew. Every Sunday, he spent seven hours in Church without moving, "his arms crossed, his elbows not resting on anything, his body from the knees up as rigid and straight as the candles on the altar," Kaczmarek writes. He did this every Sunday for 40 years.

A tremendous son of Our Blessed Mother, in addition to praying the rosary and angelus, one of his favorite little prayers, which he sometimes kept written on his hand, was, "O Virgin I ask three things from you: the grace of God, the presence of God, the blessing of God" and "O blessed Mother, obtain for me from Jesus that I may participate in His folly." I love that one. 

Most notably, of course, Matt Talbot is known for his total conversion of life away from alcohol addiction, something he described as like "escaping Hell." Almost a year ago, while visiting Australia, Pope Benedict XVI visited a rehabilitation community and made the following comments with regard to addictions and recovery, which are amazingly insightful (not surprising). Turning away from addiction and towards God is a choice for life. "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live: And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him." (Deuteronomy 30: 19-20) Here's what the pope said:

"They had to turn away from other gods and worship the true God," the pope said.

The false gods competing for people's allegiance today, he said, are associated with the worship of material things, possessive and manipulative forms of love and power.

"The cult of material possessions, the cult of possessive love and the cult of power often lead people to attempt to 'play God,' to try to seize total control with no regard for the wisdom of the commandments that God has made known to us," the pope said. "This is the path that leads toward death."

But, Pope Benedict said, worshipping the true God, recognizing him as the source of goodness, entrusting oneself to him, opening oneself to his healing power and obeying his commandments are the choices that lead to life.

Let's pray for the conviction and perseverance of Venerable Matt Talbot, may the Holy Ghost grant it! Here is a prayer that you may say for the canonization of the Irish holy man, Matt Talbot. You may also use it as a novena prayer. Begin today and say for 9 days. His feast is on June 19th!

Lord, in your servant, Matt Talbot you have given us a wonderful example of triumph over addiction, of devotion to duty, and of lifelong reverence of the Holy Sacrament. May his life of prayer and penance give us courage to take up our crosses and follow in the footsteps of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Father, if it be your will that your beloved servant should be glorified by your Church, make known by your heavenly favours the power he enjoys in your sight. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

I'm told surveyors were working at the St. Gregory's property this morning!!!  Fascinating how quickly things can happen when $10 million is involved.

What I cannot help but wonder though is how this is possible.  The church property is supposed to go to the new parish once it is created.  Since the new parish hasn't been created yet, it can have no trustees to approve a sale of property.  That means that either the Bishop is acting beyond the scope of his authority (which would not be surprising) or the church is being sold by St. Gregory's parish, which would almost certainly involve a breach of fiduciary duty to the parishioners of St. Gregory.

That this is apparently being done while an appeal of the merger is still pending before the Congregation of the Clergy is also alarming.

On the wonderful blog romancatholicblog.com is an entry that is about a year and a half old that truly speaks to our current situation here in the Diocese of Camden. All due credit to the author, whose name isn't given but whose email is "Maximus." We just stumbled upon this entry today.

Click here to read the piece on his blog.

Is It A Sin To Rebuke A Priest?

A reader has suggested that it is sinful to speak ill of a priest or a bishop and that rather than speak out against corruption within the clergy, Catholics should pray and remain silent.

I couldn't disagree more.

Although I would caution Catholics against the sin of rash judgment, and remind people to be mindful of the requirements of the Eighth Commandment, I firmly maintain that Catholics have a duty to rebuke the clergy when they have gone astray and to warn others against such clerics so they will not be confused by the errors wayward priests and/or bishops are observed to be spreading.

There are provisions for rebuking clergy described in Sacred Scripture:

"Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning." (1 Timothy 5:19-20)

"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." (Matthew 18:15-17)

There are also examples:

"And when Kephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.   For, until some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised.   And the rest of the Jews (also) acted hypocritically along with him, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.  But when I saw that they were not on the right road in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Kephas in front of all,  'If you, though a Jew, are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews ?'" (Galatians 2:11-14)

During the Arian heresy, approximately one third of the bishops in the Church became Arian, along with countless priests and entire dioceses. Yet if we are to believe, as apparently some Catholics do, that priests and bishops may never be corrected, never challenged, and/or never exposed, it was wrong to say that Arian priests and bishops were teaching error.

The same would follow for countless other heretical sects that had their origins in heretical Catholic clergy.

Martin Luther was a Catholic priest. Can he not be criticized?

Saints were often critical of priests and religious:

St. Catherine of Siena made a pilgrimage to Avignon in Southern France to persuade the Pontiff Pope Gregory XI to return from exile to Rome where he belonged. After the death of Gregory XI on March 26, 1378, the Great Schism began when Pope Urban VI was selected as his successor. Several of the dissident French cardinals objected and elected their own at Fondi Robert of Geneva who became the antipope Clement VII and set up his headquarters in Avignon. St. Catherine knew Urban was the true Pope and did all in her power to secure support for him and end the schism. While she was a staunch supporter of his Primacy, she did not hesitate to rebuke him when she saw weakness or knew he was wrong.

St. Catherine was also critical of priests in her Dialogue (the work which was the primary reason she was made a Doctor of the Church):

"Your miseries are not hid from you now, for the worm of conscience sleeps no longer, but is gnawing you, the devils shout and render to you the reward which they are accustomed to give their servants, that is to say, confusion and condemnation; they wish to bring you to despair, so that at the moment of death you may not escape from their hands, and therefore they try to confuse you, so that afterwards when you are with them they may render to you of the part which is theirs. Oh, wretch! the dignity in which I placed you, you now see shining as it really is, and you know to your shame that you have held and used in such guilty darkness the substance of the holy Church, that you see yourself to be a thief, a debtor, who ought to pay his debt to the poor and the holy Church. Then your conscience represents to you that you have spent the money on public harlots, and have brought up your children and enriched your relations, and have thrown it away on gluttony and on many silver vessels and other adornments for your house. Whereas you should have lived in voluntary poverty."

"Your conscience represents to you the divine office which you neglected, by which you fell into the guilt of mortal sin, and how even when you recited it with your mouth your heart was far from Me. Conscience also shows you your subjects, that is to say, the love and hunger which you should have felt towards nourishing them in virtue, giving them the example of your life and striking them with the hand of mercy and the rod of justice, and because you did the contrary your conscience and the horrible likeness of the Devil reproves you."

"And if as a prelate you have given prelacies or any charge of souls unjustly to one of your subjects, that is, that you have not considered to whom and how you were giving it, the Devil puts this also before your conscience, because you ought to have given it, not on account of pleasant words, nor in order to please creatures, nor for the sake of gifts, but solely with regard to virtue, My honor and the salvation of souls. And since you have not done so you are reproved, and for your greater pain and confusion you have before your conscience and the light of your intellect that which you have done and ought not to have done, and that which you ought to have done and have not done."

The reforms of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross were due to the laxity in their religious order. Both were openly critical of such laxity and met with opposition because of their reforms.

The Norbertine Order was started because of the widespread laxity, and even debauchery among priests in St. Norbert's day. St. Norbert exhorted and even rebuked his fellow priests, and they responded by attempting to assassinate him.

It is ludicrous to think that clerics are beyond correction, as if infallible by virtue of their office. It is disturbing that such a simplistic outlook exists after the egregious wrongdoing (and that is putting things mildly) of so many priests and even bishops was exposed because of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Church in recent years.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law makes provisions for the laity to address their concerns about priests:

Canon 212:

§1. Conscious of their own responsibility, the Christian faithful are bound to follow with Christian obedience those things which the sacred pastors, inasmuch as they represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or establish as rulers of the Church.

§2. The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires.

§3. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.

I also include the following for consideration:

"When there is an imminent danger for the Faith, Prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects." ~ St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II, II, q. 33, a. 4

"It is better that scandals arise than the truth be suppressed." ~ Pope St. Gregory the Great

"When circumstances make it necessary, it is not prelates alone who have to watch over the integrity of the faith." ~ Pope Leo XIII

"The road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests, with bishops as their signposts." ~ St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Doctor of the Church, generally considered the most prominent doctor of the Greek Church and the greatest preacher ever heard in a Christian pulpit.

"The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." ~ St. Athanasius

"The road to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." ~ Saint John Eudes

"But how, I ask, does it happen that the saints, who live only for God, resist their ordination through a sense of their unworthiness, and that some run blindly to the priesthood, and rest not until they attain it by lawful or unlawful means? Ah. Unhappy men! Says St. Bernard, to be registered among the priests of God shall be for them the same as to be enrolled on the catalogue of the damned. And why? Because such persons are generally called to the priesthood, not by God, but by relatives, by interest, or ambition. Thus they enter the house of God, not through the motive a priest should have, but through worldly motives. Behold why the faithful are abandoned, the Church dishonored, so many souls perish, and with them such priests are also damned." ~ St. Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church (Moral Theology), Founder of the Redemptorist congregation

Saints were even critical of homosexual priests and/or religious:

"Any cleric or monk who seduces young men or boys, or who is apprehended in kissing or in any shameful situation, shall be publicly flogged and shall lose his clerical tonsure. Thus shorn, he shall be disgraced by spitting into his face, bound in iron chains, wasted by six months of close confinement, and for three days each week put on barley bread given him toward evening. Following this period, he shall spend a further six months living in a small segregated courtyard in the custody of a spiritual elder, kept busy with manual labor and prayer, subjected to vigils and prayers, forced to walk at all times in the company of two spiritual brothers, never again allowed to associate with young men for purposes of improper conversation or advice." ~ St. Basil the Great (329-379), Bishop of Caesarea, Father of the Church, and one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church.

"The befouling cancer of sodomy is, in fact, spreading so through the clergy or rather, like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless abandon through the flock of Christ, that for many of them it would be more salutary to be burdened with service in the world than, under the pretext of religion, to be enslaved so easily under the iron rule of satanic tyranny. It would be better for them to perish alone as laymen that, after having changed their attire but not their disposition, to drag others with them to destruction, as Truth itself testifies when It says, "But if anyone is a cause of stumbling to one of these little ones, it would be better for him to be drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck." Unless immediate effort be exerted by the Apostolic See, there is little that, even if one wished to curb this unbridled evil, he could not check the momentum of its progress."

"Unquestionable, this vice, since it surpasses the enormity of all others, is impossible to compare with any other vice. Without fail it brings death of the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust. It leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind, prepares a trap for the traveller and secures the pit and makes it impossible for the victim to escape. It opens up Hell and closes the gates Paradise, changes a citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem into an heir of infernal Babylon, and turns a Heavenly star into chaff for eternal fire; it cuts off a member of the Church and hurls him into the depths of the devouring flames of Hell." ~ St. Peter Damian (1007 -1072), Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia

It seems to me that the clericalist attitude that priests and bishops are beyond reproach is actually quite dangerous. The idea has a pietistic veneer, and those who hold it may be sincere, but do they realize that attitudes like that contributed to the mentality that allowed the priestly abuse scandals to stay under the radar for so long?

Do they realize that Catholics have an obligation to lead others to the truth and away from error?

The Nicene Creed states that whoever wishes to be saved must, above all,  keep the Catholic faith. For unless a person keeps this faith, whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever. The Church teaches that God is the final judge of a person's salvation. Since the Lord gave St. Peter the keys of the kingdom, the power to bind and to loose, then we must obey the teachings of the Church. In order to do so, every person must be steeped in the teaching of the Church. We must never back off, deny, or water down the keeping of the Commandments as the Church interprets them.

The Catholic Church teaches that people may come together as a parish and have available a church whereby they can worship God in the proper way through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The effective way this happens is through stability of that group and that structure. Primarily, souls are saved by this action of the Mass with the priest as the leader of the sacrifice because of his sacramental gift he receives in the Holy Orders. The worship is strengthened by the Sacrament of Penance and a strong devotional life. When someone attacks this primary duty to worship properly, that person must be opposed, be he bishop or governor.

True Catholics always face this dilemma: to play it safe and risk the salvation of souls or to profess and defend the true Faith and church at the risk of our very lives. This is exactly what the Catholic Church teaches. When we confront a person who has a false concept of autonomy--which means he professes to believe he is the last word on everything that the Savior and thus the Church teaches--we justly and righteously protest that false pretense of power because that person is not teaching the Truth. Autonomy belongs to God alone and anyone who tries to usurp God's domain is offending against the First Commandment and it is a sin that has consequences in every part of man's existence.

When we see a place like St. Mary's giving honor and glory to God, resisting and refuting every every temptation to give into the popular and false type of living, we can never give in. It is the Holy Spirit through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and all the angels and saints who sustain us. St. Paul to the Ephesians and the Malagans:

So stand your ground with truth buckled around your waist, and integrity for a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet eagerness to spread the gospel of peace and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one. (Ephesians 6:14-16)

More to come on thie subject of highest importance.

Praise be Jesus Christ!
Now and Forever.

Fr. Jerome Charles Romanowski

7/15/08 Update: Relevant link to newspaper article click here. Priests must submit reassignment preferences by July 15th. "However, Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the diocese, said that priests were only being asked to express preferences for assignment." Boy that's the understatement of the year. Our inside sources inform us that a significant number of priests have not bothered to apply for reassignment or even requested to review the parish profiles. We presume this is because they fully realize that the reassignments are a done deal. In fact, we just learned of three additional priests in the past two days who have already been assigned outside the diocese, and the priest reassignments have not even been announced yet.

Save the Priesthood

by Chris, A Mater Ecclesiae Parishioner

When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul." At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass."

                                                     -St. John Vianney

In the Catholic Church, our religious vocations are the lifeblood that sustains us.  The Camden Diocese is imploding under a modernist agenda that is pushing "lay leadership" on the faithful.  Accept this now for what it is; the blind leading the blind. 

We have slumbered for too many generations in the Church.  We have given and received bad catechesis, we have rebelled against God given revelation and the teaching of the Church.  We have failed ourselves and our children with our contented ignorance.  It is our materialism that has pacified us, and the cost of this comfortably numb state is nothing less than our souls. 

Make no mistake about it.  We are living in, as Dietrich von Hildebrand aptly named it, a devastated vineyard.  The fruitful vineyard of the Lord, that for so many centuries and through so many persecutions and trials that has borne so much fruit, is a withered branch.  Our children leave the church after their confirmation, and are only there so their parents can throw a party for the occasion.  This cultural Catholocism is one who feels no obligation to either accept or reject the teachings of the church as a whole. And why should they, when they are neither taught these things, or that their soul's destiny hangs in the balance of whether they choose to live the Catholic life, or merely a pharisaical version of that life. 

We move toward empty shells, dressed up as adult daycare.  There is a constant drift towards the lowest common denominator, instead of pushing ourselves and each other (as a communion of saints should) toward the highest and the eternal goal which is Heaven.  We have come to assume we will all go to Heaven and have become complacent.  We are more interested in "dialogue" than in truth.  This is a waste of time and usually money.  We have a problem with buying worthy vessels to hold the Blood of Our Lord, but we put much of our treasure into funding committees and workshops designed to distract and never actually come to the truth.

We should be praying as we begin any endeavor, but there is no prayer as our diocesan planning officials begin dismantling the churches and parish communities built by our parents, and grandparents or further back.  Dialogue purports that there is no absolute truth.  Our Lord tells us He is the Way, and the Truth.  Choose your side carefully.  You can flounder away under committee meetings, photo ops and other feel good nonsense, or you can guide your life by the same lamp post that has for generations made men and women better themselves by forgetting themselves and conforming their hearts to Christ's.

Our lay leaders dialogue while the faith is dying.  We are perishing.  Our children stand very little chance in this world without a sense that they can choose a Catholic Church that stands apart from the world, and in most cases in opposition to it, or one that tries to dance with the Devil and make peace with him.  There is no in between. 

I went through a CCD program and observed as it failed my generation miserably.  I fell away from the Church for a time, and when I returned, I noticed that though I had come back I had no peers.  They had left, and had not returned.  Pope John Paul II tells us in Catechesi Tradendae that catechesis is a sacred duty and a right of all the faithful. If we teach error, we have to account for that. It is not our opinion that we teach, but the Faith and how to live it.  It is the right of our children and we are failing. The laity has been in charge of this since my generation, and they have failed miserably. That is why our children are leaving the church in droves. That is why even adults not only don't know the faith, but act with apathy towards it. The designers constantly pander to what their notion of "hip" is (which is usually very outdated) or what they think will bring youth back to the church.  Keep in mind that whatever watered down version of current pop culture they dress up in church clothes, kids will see it as just that, and much less entertaining than what they can actually get with their pop culture.  Entertainment is not religion, nor is excitement religion.  Each year, a new trend arises from the sewage of pop culture, and we are trying to find ways to integrate that into our churches.  By the time it is integrated, it is already outdated.  From the tambourine and guitar bands of the 70's, to the praise and worship bands of today, we look to the world instead of just simply looking to our Catholic Heritage.  Remember G.K. Chesteron's words:

which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.  

True, joyful and undiluted Catholicism is for all time, and in the bosom of this Church can we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  We need our priests to shepherd us.  Who would want to give their lives as a priest in the new "vision" of the church that is being put before us?  Perhaps that is a goal of this agenda.  Discourage vocations by emasculating and removing everything from the priesthood leaving it solely as a sacramental function. 

Without our convents and monasteries, we have few holy examples, few modern living saints to guide us, to pray for us or to sacrifice for us.  Indeed, these notions are largely ignored in the modern church.  When I see a religious habit, I see behind it the power of God, where these days I see religious and see only the power suit. 

We need to pray for holy men and women to lead us out of this spiritual desert.  And we not only need to pray for good and holy priests, but we need to rise up now and defend them.  We have precious few in this diocese, and we are watching as 21 of them at the writing of this piece are being sent into exile, forced into retirement or what have you.  Yet if the priest shortage was the concern, would we not need to keep these priests?  It must follow that they are being persecuted.  I know as a Knight of Columbus that I took an oath to defend the priesthood, which I intended to do with my own life were it ever necessary.  This is a time that I call on all knights of the diocese to rise up and defend their priests.  Their vocations are being destroyed, their priesthood taken away from them, and their spiritual fatherhood disintegrated before our very eyes.  If you do nothing now, you are not living up to your oath, and you will find yourself in a church devoid of the presence of Our Lord and in the middle of a lot of hand clapping and emptiness. 

Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them. -Pope Saint Felix III

We are entering a dark time, and it will require men and women of virtue, courage and strength.  We must rise to meet the challenges of our time, and defend our faith.  Now, the priesthood needs our defense.  Support your priests, and accept nothing less than priests.  Pray and fast for them and for new vocations. 

When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul." If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept." "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest." "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord." O God! O God! how Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does Saint Philomena, then, obey the Cure of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him. -St. John Vianney

So can we live without our priests?  Can we do without the Mass?  Perhaps as we should, we can place the blame on ourselves.  It is God's justice which brings chastisement into our lives, and it is always just.

St. John Eudes said:

The most evident mark of God's anger, and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world, is manifest when he permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are more in name than in deed, preists who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. 

We have many good priests who are being persecuted, and there are those who are going along with the plan to dismantle our lives and replace it with something entirely different.  If you do not resist, you will find yourself guided by the person that until then sat next to you in the pew, but that thinks highly enough of their place to lead the congregation in a desolate liturgy that is not the sacrifice of Calvary we need to sustain us.  This is not the Church, and will not be the Church when they implement it. Consider the final message of Akita from Our Lady:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their conferees...churches and altars sacked, the Church will be full of those who accept compromise and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.

If you don't see the writing on the wall, or the work that goes against the church your eyes are closed and you are still sleeping.   The following prophecy was given by Our Lady to Ven. Sister Marrianne de Jesus Torres in the 16^th century!

The sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised, for in doing this, one scorns and defiles the Church of God, and even God himself, represented by his priests.  The Demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way, and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them.  These corrupted priests who will thus scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all the priests.  This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church, to the great majority of good priests, and to the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth, who will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of his God and Lord, beseeching light, sanctity and perfection for all the Clergy of the world, of which he is the King and Father.  Moreover, in these unhappy times there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will lose themselves.  Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those whom it behooves to speak will fall silent.

This is for our time.  Our Lady told Sr. Marianne that it was a prophecy for the 20^th century, and the scandals we have endured have done this.  We need our good and holy priests to be an example.  They are trying to put two married ex-protestants on the fast track to the priesthood at present, and they are trying to replace the priesthood with the laity.  And our priests who have given up their lives in service to Our Lord and to us are suffering and they have no one to defend them.  If you are Catholic you are called to defend your priests now.  Accept no model of "newchurch" that has anyone other than a priest pastoring to you.  Offer words of encouragement and support to your priests, as well as your prayers and your fasting.  Storm Heaven with your prayers and fasting now to stop the decimation of the faith in our diocese. 

We need to involve one of our nearest neighboring diocese. We need to CALL CARDINAL RIGALI and not let up until he agrees to meet with us.

His number is: 215-587-4538

Why should Cardinal Rigali intervene?

Because we are not little mini-churches in vacuums. The Church that we belong to is the ONE, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. If the bishop in one diocese falls into error and is intent on bringing all the souls of the diocese with him, something must be done. There is not an option to do otherwise than intervene. Cardinal Rigali is a successor to the Apostles in the Apostolic Church. The job of a bishop or archbishop is to tend the Lord's sheep and keep them from wolves! "We cannot interfere" is an unacceptable and indefensible position. It is certainly no reason to fail to stand up for what is Right and True. Church leaders must be held accountable.

We want Cardinal Rigali to intervene on our behalf, but the least he could do is hear us out. Bishop Galante cannot close half the diocese, ship off many of its priests, and institute general chaos without a word from his colleagues. We are Christians--lay and religious--and it is our duty to speak the Truth. Where are you, faithful shepherds of the Lord? Priests, Bishops, Archbishops, what do you have to be afraid of besides the justice of God?!

From catechism:

363 Q. Are we bound tohonor and obey others than our parents?
         A. We are bound to honor and obey our bishops, pastors, magistrates, teachers, and other lawful superiors.

362 Q. What are we commanded by the Fourth Commandment?
         A. We are commanded by the Fourth Commandment to honor, love, and obey our parents in all that is not sin.

Explanation:
"In all that is not sin," because if our parents or superiors, being wicked, bid us do things that we know to be certainly sinful, then we must not obey them under any circumstances. God will not excuse us for doing wrong because we were commanded. But if, on the contrary, we are forced in spite of our resistance to do the sinful act, then not we but they have to answer for the sin....

364 Q. Have parents and superiors any duties toward those who are under their charge?
         A. It is the duty of parents and superiors to take good care of all under their charge and give them proper direction and example.

Explanation:
It is so much their duty that God will hold them responsible for it, and punish them for neglecting it...

True Motivation of the Merger Process:
It's Financial
by An Anonymous Contributor
(hey, if the Catholic Star Herald can have anonymous writers, so
can we!)

The Catholic Star Herald recently published the following Q&A on
its webpage further explaining the merger process as Galante
would have it happen. 

Read it here. 

What the answer fails to include, however, is that the Bishop
is ordering these "Priest Conveners," as their very first
duty upon appointment, to take an ENTIRE INVENTORY OF THE
PARISH. He's apparently concerned with preventing theft.
(Seriously, this is the exact reason he provides for ordering
these inventories!) This is ironic since he keeps saying the
mergers are about "vibrancy," but his very first directive
with respect to the mergers is clearly MATERIAL in nature.

As if we're too simple to see past his patronizing one-
dimensional answers, Galante has brushed aside our concerns by
explaining that parish assets don't belong to the diocese. Well
if it's not his plan to have his new parish priests sell all
the assets and funnel the $$$ back to the diocese to create the
ultimate legacy (of his ego), then why is he so concerned with
trying to protect his (OUR!) possessions from theft by the
faithful? Which concern is, in itself, so telling about his
notions of spirituality!

__________________________________________________________

6/22 Editorial Note:
Although it may be true that Canon law makes necessary the
inventory of all material goods of a parish, the point of the
above writer is well-taken. The material aspect of this
"reconfiguration" is over-emphasized.

On multiple occasions the bishop has spoken about the assets
of particular parishes and emphasized his role as being over
the entire diocese. A parish with significant funds and/or
property will eventually be "merged" with another parish that
does not. After that time, the first parish will cease to exist
as an entity, but because it was "merged" rather than suppressed,
the money is still usable.

In other words, it is clear that assets of parishes not in
arrears will be used (at least in part) to "bail out" parishes
that are. Take for example the case of Our Lady Queen of Peace
in Pitman and Our Lady of Lourdes. Bishop Galante wishes to 
merge these two churches. The former parish has significant
assets, the latter is in debt. While the bishop may be
concerned about theft from the diocese on some level, what's
really going on is pure and simple theft from parishes by the
diocese. The bishop wishes to legitimately seize
assets from parishes for the benefit of the diocese. If the
church doesn't have cash assets, they may be strategically
located on potentially valuable real estate. I can think of
many such parishes off the top of my head. In the end, who knows
what will really happen to these funds.

Further we see multiple rationales given for the
"reconfiguration"--an eventual priest shortage,
demographic shifts [evidence please ???], lack of funds, and a
need for slick, paid "ministries," the need to strengthen or
"revitalize" the diocese, whatever happens to be the
"rationale du jour. Financial difficulties are often on
the list. The bishop and Msgr. McGrath still are able to dig deep
and find--without apparent problem--five MILLION dollars to buy
land for a new high school that will cost tens of millions of
dollars.

Meanwhile, he shutters our beloved churches and schools 
and ups the "Appeal" goals for most parishes to astronomical levels.
He makes demeaning comments in a television interview quipping
that parents want a "quality" education for their children, 
clearly implying that the schools he chose to close did not
provide "quality" educations. Those poor teachers must feel
horrible to receive such a put-down for their years of service.
But to Galante, the more money you can throw at a school or parish,
the better the "quality."

The point? Money's a huge motivator. Unfortunately that old
saying my dad used to quote all the time still holds true:
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It's
such a shame that this is happening in the Church Christ founded.
No, in fact, it's embarrasing.