Bishop Galante & Co. must really not like Salem County. The closure rate there is simply unbelievable. When all is said and done there will be almost nothing left of the Catholic Church in the entire county. In this article, we read that Bishop Guilfoyle School in Carneys Point will close in June. Parents who want to send their kids to Catholic school will have to travel to Gloucester County, Cumberland County, or go over the bridge to Delaware, but as we all know, school and church closures are occurring all around us at an unprecedented rate, so enrolling a child in a Catholic school anywhere holds no guarantees. Parents who choose to enroll their child in a nearby regional Catholic school will have a lot of hard thinking to do as to how much "change" they are willing to put their children through. Let's face it, most of these kids are likely to end up in public school, not another Catholic school.

Lingering questions about Catholic school closures & Catholic education:

• What has the Diocese done to ensure proper financial management of these schools?
• What has the Diocese done to help support and assign good administrators to these schools? 
• What has the Diocese done to help provide quality, uncompromising, Catholic education and challenging curricula?
• What has the Diocese done to encourage the influx of teaching religious orders to the Diocese? Why has the Diocese turned away orders that have offered to come here?
• What has the Diocese done to help re-think making Catholic education truly affordable to parents? (Even in the past sixteen years or so, the tuition at my Catholic high school has roughly tripled.)
  
• How has the Diocese provided support to the new generation of Catholic home educators, those who have been either priced out of Catholic education and dissatisfied with the quality of some Catholic schools?
• Has the Diocese actually spoken to families and teachers at these schools or has it just decided to abandon them, sight unseen?
  

Read article by clicking HERE.

Snip:

By Phil Dunn, pdunn@sjnewsco.com

CARNEYS POINT TWP. -- Bishop Guilfoyle Regional Catholic School here will close its doors at the end of this school year, bringing an end to Catholic school education in Salem County.

The imminent closure was announced to parents of students via an e-mail from the Georgetown Road school's principal.

The school, operated by the Diocese of Camden, joins a growing list of Catholic schools in South Jersey to be shuttered.

"Declining enrollment in our schools, rising deficits and heavy burdens on the sponsoring parishes," have been cited as reasons Bishop Guilfoyle will close, according to the letter parents received.

The letter says the population of the area the school serves has declined 30 percent over the past 50 years, a situation that "has contributed to a marked decline in enrollment from our peak of 373 students in 2001-2002 to just 111 this year."

The school teaches students from pre-kindergarden through eighth grade.

Diane Sparks, a resident of Pennsville, has two girls enrolled at Bishop Guilfoyle. She has also been a marketing volunteer for the past five years at the school.

"We've talked to several families that came to the open house and they were interested in Bishop Guilfoyle," said Sparks. "Other families that had left last year were also considering coming back to enroll their children."

Catholic schools have long been favored by Catholic families and non-Catholics who believed the education their children would receive would be superior to public schools. But with the closing of the schools parents are now forced to return their children to the public school system or travel a longer distances for Catholic schooling.

"That is the most upsetting thing," said Sparks on Wednesday. "I don't want to bus my child 50 minutes away to a Catholic school in Gloucester County. It's just not reasonable."

This severe under-enrollment has resulted in a reduction of tuition income, thereby placing upward pressure on tuition rates, which, in turn, has made it difficult to increase enrollment, especially during difficult economic times.

This has resulted in rising deficits, which will be nearly $400,000 this year, the Diocese says.

Right now at Bishop Guilfoyle parents are paying tuition rates of $3,600 for the first child enrolled and $2,800 for the second child, said Sparks.

If parents choose to transfer their children to another Catholic school, the Diocese of Camden will be offering $1,000 vouchers to help reduce tuition costs at a new school.

"We are exploring the possibility of having the tuition reimbursement honored at area Catholic schools outside of the Camden Diocese as well," said Andrew Walton, spokesman for the Diocese.

Jennifer Jones, whose daughter is enrolled at Bishop Guilfoyle feels the Diocese did not look deep enough for a solution to declining enrollment.

"I'm devastated and I'm not sure they did everything they could to keep Catholic education in Salem County," said Jones who serves as executive director of the Salem County Chamber of Commerce. "It seems to me there are a number of smaller buildings in the county that could of been optioned to keep the school open."

Walton directed those parents who wish to voice their concern about the closing to the school administration.

"I think that if parents have a particular concern they should certainly surface those concerns to the leadership of the school," said Walton. "If the school administration and sponsoring parishes believe the bishop doesn't have the information he needs, they will forward it to the Diocese for review."

As for the school's staff, the letter parents received said the Diocese would help place as many teachers from Bishop Guilfoyle as possible in other Catholic schools and for those it can't, it would offer "an assistance package" during their transition to other employment.

The fate of the building itself is unclear.

Some parent were taken aback by the sudden decision to close the doors of the last Catholic school in Salem County.

"Most of the talk going on at board meetings was the consolidation of Bishop Guilfoyle and Guardian Angels (Catholic school) in Paulsboro," said Bishop Guilfoyle PTA President Tom Hassler. "So it caught me off guard."

Hassler said they were looking to consolidate the school under a new name and use the Bishop Guilfoyle location.

Those not wanted to travel to Gloucester or Cumberland County have been looking to schools in the Wilmington Diocese in neighboring Delaware.

"From what I heard, schools in New Castle and Wilmington will apparently welcome us with open arms," said Hassler. "They are willing to work with us to provide some type of transportation, too."

Hassler also believes the Wilmington Diocese has a more educational sound system in place.

"The Wilmington Diocese is pro education," said Hassler. "Wilmington gets the school up and running before they add a church."

Bishop Guilfoyle's closing is the second major blow to Catholic education in the county in the past decade. It's been about 10 years since the Diocese closed St. James High School (which was located in the building now used by Bishop Guilfoyle) and St. Mary Regional School in Salem and St. James Elementary School in Penns Grove.

 The students from the two elementary schools, along with another Catholic elementary school in Gloucester County, were transferred to Bishop Guilfoyle.

The news of the school's closing comes at the same time the Diocese of Camden is consolidating neighborhood parishes in Salem County. That action has left many Catholics unhappy.

The Diocese of Camden, Hassler said, has written off Salem County.

"They are going to lose a whole new generation of Catholics," said Hassler. "It's spiraling down more than it already was."

• Because a church is a sacred, consecrated space. Churches are permanently consecrated. The one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church has always taught this, continues to teach this, and it has been a major point of difference and contention between protestants and Catholics. While mass can be held anywhere, ideally it should not be held just anywhere. That is why Catholics have churches. God deserves reverence and this is why a beautiful and lovingly created church is best suited to His worship in the highest form of prayer, the holy sacrifice of the mass.*

• Because we love our little community. For goodness sakes, that is reason enough! If "the Church is the people," as is the popular sentiment these days, then it does matter that when I look around the church, I know the people around me. It does matter that I can notice someone has been absent awhile and I can check on them to see if they are ok. If one has not been a member of a true and united community of Faith like this, it may be hard to understand why that community is such a treasure. This treasure should not be needlessly destroyed.

• Because small is wonderful!

• Because with the loss of churches come the loss of souls who are not as strong in the Faith or who are disillusioned by the corruption around them. These souls matter to Our Lord and should not be written off as unimportant. We need to try to help them and strengthen them in the Faith. We can only do that if our doors are open and if the churches they know, love, and are familiar with are still there. Because of this, when we close our church's doors, we often close off the last possibility that a soul will return to Holy Mother Church. Those who have already left the Church--and they are many--are no longer around to tell their stories.
  

• Because in struggling to hold on to our parish, we are hope and strength and justice to others who are not strong enough to speak up. We have been confirmed in this countless times.
  

• Because in the case of St. Mary's, we are truly an "intergenerational" community, which is something the Diocese sorely wants churches to try to be and is trying to implement in its "lifelong faith formation" program. We already are, so why destroy it only to try to rebuild something that approximates it?

• Because while we are happy to do things with others, a parish has a right to existence as stipulated by canon law. Wanting one's parish to remain as it is does not make one an "isolationist." It makes one content.

• Because our forefathers and mothers worked hard and sacrificed to give us the great gift of St. Mary's and we do not take this gift for granted.

• Because the church belongs to the people of the parish. They built and maintain it and it belongs to them.

• Because St. Mary's has been financially solvent and debt-free since 1922 and there is no reason it cannot continue to be. St. Mary's parishioners have always been very generous in donating, fundraising, and contributing their time and efforts to directly maintaining the parish. This is part of our culture.
  

• Because we are obligated, by virtue of our baptism and confirmation, to defend the church from error and attack, both from within and without. See Pope St. Pius X's encyclical against the modernists for more on this. It is not just St. Mary's and other churches that are under attack here, but the Faith itself. Purporting that our churches are "just buildings" is example enough. Look at the bishop's job positions, which include audio visual technicians whose job is to install and maintain screens and sound systems, as well as the inclusion of rock bands during mass. Visit any number of "modern" catholic churches which have had their tabernacles removed from a place of prominence on the altar. Look at how many times Bishop Galante has held up Gloucester County Community Church, an evangelical protestant church, as an example to be striven towards. We could go on. Which leads to the following point...

• Because we want to remain Catholic, and that includes holding on to our traditional churches.  

• Because St. Mary's has had and continues to have wonderful devotions available to all, including Eucharistic Adoration from Wed. morning through Friday evening every week. This is something not found at every parish.

• Because our CCD program is small, personal, affordable, our kids love it, and it is worth saving.

• Because we should not have to defend our right to exist, and no parish should.

• Because there has never been a saint who became holy by closing churches, only saints who became holy by erecting them.

• Because many priests, bishops, and even popes have been wrong in the history of the Church. We have an obligation to defend Her. Many saints have been redeemed in time. Saints Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Avila, Thomas More, and John Fisher (the only bishop to defend the Faith against evil Henry VIII), ora pro nobis!

• Because keeping open or closing a parish is not a "managerial" decision. Our Church is not a corporation and should not be run like one.
  

• Because we must obey Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church first and foremost, not men.
  

* We have written extensively on this in the past so we will not include references and links here. If you would like them, search our site or the Catholic Encyclopedia online (newadvent.com). You may also refer to the Catechism of John Paul II, the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X, the Baltimore Catechism, canon law, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, countless papal encyclicals, and on and on. That the church is "just a building" is a protestant view, not a Catholic one. Now this heterodox view is expediently and shamefully used by the very men charged with defending our Faith and our churches and because they are in positions of authority, people trust them, listen, and believe them.

This was sent from an anonymous reader. We get lots of email since we are so prominent in the struggle to save our church.

Do not be misled: These mergers (closures) are not going well and people are not happy about them. Even at Diocesan sponsored events, we have heard widespread discontent, and this is among those who are sticking with "the program"...for now.

People are leaving their churches in droves, and in some case they are so disgusted they are leaving The Church. Why? They are appalled. They are disillusioned. Their Faith as been shaken, and who can blame them? If your answer is, "who cares?" let us enlighten you. You should care if for no other reason than that they are taking their wallets with them.

But money or no money, downsizing the Church does not strengthen the Church. Among Christ's words were not, "Go, therefore, and consolidate." No, he said this: Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19

We ought to care of souls are being led astray! As this reader and so many others have expressed, what is happening is evil. If we are children of God by our Baptism and soldiers of Christ by our Confirmation, we cannot support that which is evil. We are called to resist it.

Email follows:

As of today, 1/13/10, St. John Vianney has ceased to exist as a Catholic parish. It feels as if there's been a death, it's heart rending and gut wrenching. I can hardly believe any of this has happened, the destruction of the Catholic Church in the Camden Diocese.

The wonderful ex-pastor of St. John Vianney will now be doing non-pastoral work, along with many other good priests from the diocese. If there's a priest shortage, why on earth have there been so many assignments to work other than pastoral work?

I cannot understand how people do not see this is evil work being done? Is this diocese blind? Is Rome blind? It seems there is a systematic destruction of the Catholic churches schools, orchestrated by the current leadership--the thing is, I cannot figure out why? It has to be more than power. It has to be more than believing their left-of-center ways are "best"? It is nothing but pure, unadulterated evil.
.....
...this bishop has no mercy and no compassion, and I think he'll do anything he can
to close every single remotely-traditional parish in this diocese.

Take a good, hard look. We at savestmarys are not saying we agree with all the sentiments expressed, only that this is the inevitable result of the message that is being sent by the Diocese. We are not surprised at people's disillusionment. Souls will be and are being lost.

See also: Keep Wildwood Catholic High School Alive Facebook Page and Save Wildwood Catholic High School Facebook Page

These comments are only from the last few hours from the Wildwood Catholic article. Bishop Galante, Average Joe and Jane Catholic are pissed, disgusted, fed up. Don't you care? People are leaving the church, and those who have already left are feeling justified in their decision. Don't you care? Souls are being lost. Your reputation is in the garbage bin? Don't you care? You will go down as the bishop who single-handedly destroyed the Diocese of Camden and drove people from the Church en masse. It is your job to care. Why don't you care?

Wakeup People the Catholic church has been dieing for the last few years, They have been closing churchs and catholic schools in the area for the last few years. Why would they leave WC open when they can force you to go to HOLY SPIRIT for a lot more money. I am surprised that WC was not closed years ago.

Donnachie: What was your posting about? Especially that last line? If you are a practicing Catholic you should know better than anyone how the institution manipulates the flock toward one end -- and only one end --and that is always money. The whole irony here is that the Catholic Church is the richest organized religion in the world and is now hitting on some tough times with the abuse scandal payouts but we have to believe its coffers are FAR from empty. Many of us know or have read about the Vatican's vast real estate holdings and silent partnerships around the world and the true "business" that the church really is. For hundreds of years, these male church leaders have always been dominant and controlling with little regard for the nuns (except to dictate how they should conduct themselves and their order) and other "second class citizens" (females and children)who serve in different capacities throughout the system.

From "Galante Has To Go"
With all the school and church closings in this diocese, a good businessman would realize that the next step is to consolidate the Diocese of Camden with another, larger diocese. Exactly what is the overhead of keeping Camden as a diocese? The bishop's expenses - living quarters, food, car & drivers, secretaries; the staff at Catholic Charities & Diocesan Housing; the Star Herald newspaper. Wow! We probably could have afforded to keep our schools open if the schools were given the money being used to maintain this top heavy organization.

What an absolute disgrace, the so-called Christian decision makers should be ashamed of themselves. From the start what happened yesterday at Wildwood Catholic High School was horrible. While you can understand the point of financial problems, which raises the question, how did these problems come about? What you did to these poor children and the families was anything but Christian. What it is is just another example of how mismanagement is destroying the catholic lifestyle. So to the local managing body or the Bishop, you could never imagine what it is like to get a phone call from your child, crying uncontrollably saying that they were just told that their high school is closing forever in 6 months. Knowing that after being there for three years of their life, knowing that they will not graduate from their school, the horrible feeling of not knowing where they will go, if they will be with their friends and how this is going to affect the rest of their lives. You made these decisions without any input, concern, questions from the families. I understand that decisions like this are difficult but you could have let the families know what was going on, what was being considered, to give these families and children an idea of what to expect. And what about the teachers and the school administration, these teachers were not told anything, the school administration was not told anything until yesterday about your misguided, ill-managed and totally insensitive decision. Let's talk about the financial point. These people put their heart and soul into this school. Working for less money then any other teacher would in the public sector. I do not blame the teaching and administrative staff of Wildwood Catholic for this disaster; I blame the Catholic Church administrators and the people who were responsible for the decision to close this school. Enrolment is down because tuition is too high. The powers to be would say tuition is high because enrollment is down. You should have "bit the bullet" for a while and lowered tuition to increase enrollment. Most importantly why could you not keep the students at wildwood catholic there until they graduate, or at least keep the junior class of this year there next year to graduate. Its not like the school building is going to be closed,,, you are boosting about how the grade school is moving in there and how wonderful its going to be,,,so keep these kids there and let them graduate over the next three years and then do away with the high school level. It is such a cruel, uncaring decision. Lets not give up! Facebook Keep Wildwood Catholic High School Alive

This is a direct result of problems that the Principal Barbara Byrne from Bishop McHugh School has caused. She personally drove the enrollment from 420 to 200 in 3 years. Bishop Galante refused to take action and left her there. The priests of the sending parish's did nothing also. Galante has systematically destroyed the morale of Cape May and had done gamage to the Church that will take generations to repair.

2 points here of comment. Who on earth would bus their kids to Holy Spirit/ It is easily a 45 minute to one hour ride to Absecon. The school pools from all Cape May County and if you live south of Court House the ride is easily as stated.Second the students of Wildwood Ctholic will be in for a real culture shock if they attend public school now. The culture is night and day plain and simple!!!

Welcome to the new world of the "Economics of the Christian Religious Faith". Unfortunately this, once again, shows how religion in America has less about morals,values, and faith and more a business. The bureaucracy of religion has put America's faith and values directly in its crosshairs. Is it a wonder why we have a crisis in America concerning morals, values, and faith? However, this does nothing for the youth and families of these youth of Wildwood Cathlic High School. Keep the faith even if the Camden Diocese took a non-Christian approach in announcing their decision. Merry post Christmas!Yep, run down to Wildwood, tell the school youth of the decision without their parents present, and then run right back out of town without facing the parents after school or in a nightly meeting. What Christian values and morals did this teach these youth? This community? Maybe the Camden Diocese needs to take a look at their own faith and values. Agaim, keep the faith to the students, faculty, staff, and community of Wildwood Catholic! Even if the Diocese mo longer does.

"If you want your children to lost the faith, send them to Catholic School". Fulton Sheen said this 30 years or so ago and how true it has come. The Anarchy after Vatican II- all the changes we Traditionalists feel have gone way too far- well I would not ever send my children to a Catholic School. The Catholic Schools are not Catholic anymore. We would rather homeschool our children and bring them up Catholic than send them to Catholic school and have them lose their faith. The Diocese needs to wake up, the Church needs to wake up. Liberalizing is not drawing people to the Church, it is only driving true Catholics away.

I just wanted to say how sad this is for Cape May County. Many family members and friends were proud to call this school their school. But this is no surprise given the way this bishop has continually treated area students and their families. Perhaps if he had cleaned house at Bishop Mc Hugh 5 years ago those 80 families and the subsequent 125 kids wouldn't have chosen public school over their precious Catholic school. And if he hadn't lied to the families at St. Raymond's they wouldn't have gone onto to public school. And the same goes for Star of the Sea parents this year. My family has moved out of the area-to the Southern Bible Belt in fact. The few Catholic schools are thriving and there's an enrollment wait list and tuition for elementary is nearly same as Wildwood Catholic. Proudly, we are in planning stages to build a Catholic High School here. So many Catholics are fed up with the North East and the lies and have moved. People stand in the aisles for Sunday mass. Nobody should be surprised that familes and especially children come behind the almighty dollar and concealer.

As a Catholic, I detect an insurmountable public relations problem for the entire institution that started early on when this -- the most rapidly growing religion and today still the one claiming the largest membership of any other -- employed the practice of constantly "poor-mouthing" and the "do as I say not as I do" mentality. This fund-raising strategy imploded when the abuse scandals finally came to light. Denial has always been among the leadership's most reliable tools; however, with the testimony of real live pedophilia victims over the last two decades, there's no recourse but to pay --- in millions of dollars and image. These bishops are a bunch of businessmen (Galante only pretends to care when he sits in at the parish pow-wows attended by very distraught and long-time, old-school parishioners who actually think their protests will make any difference) and not very good ones at that. But I'll betcha their retirement packages are secure -- strong and solid as the gilded walls of the Vatican.

What a total contradiction. Earlier, The Press reported that the rumors of the school closing were unsubstantiated... Who wants to bus their kids from Wildwood to Holy Spirit and who is going to pay for that transportation?

after school or in a nightly meeting. What Christian values and morals did this teach these youth? This community? Maybe the

This quote from the eminently quotable C.S. Lewis, from his book Mere Christianity, is so appropriate for our Church today and our diocese in particular. In our case, the sense of Bishop Galante, Msgr. McGrath and others is that we must move "forward" and be "progressive." We must close up those stodgy old churches that are too "Catholicy" in favor of the new-fangled non-denominational megachurch model, with their big screens, fancy sound systems, new spiritual techniques, and hip new "ministries." Here's what Mr. Lewis has to say about those reluctant to look back on "old" ways that were not broken in the first place, and bullheaded insistence on false progress.

You may have felt you were ready to listen to me as long as you thought I had anything new to say; but if it turns out to be only religion, well, the world has tried that and you cannot put the clock back. If anyone is feeling that way I should like to say three things to him.

First, as to putting the clock back. Would you think I was joking if I said that you can put a clock back, and that if the clock is wrong it is often a very sensible thing to do? But I would rather get away from that whole idea of clocks. We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when doing arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start over again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think that if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistakes. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.

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.

Update: We have been informed that the church in question is the new Assumption Church in Galloway Township. How sad. You'll notice on the website that the exterior of the facility isn't so bad, but the inside is pretty sparse. I've been to the old Assumption Church and school, which is sitting on prime real estate in Pomona (and presumably why the new one is not located there) since I grew up not too far from there. It wasn't the most beautiful church in the world, nor was it the first one in that location. However it at least looked "Catholic" and was not a generic auditorium. If you're nervous about what your new McChurch would look like, just take a gander at the newest churches in the Diocese to get an idea.

Here are a couple of snippets of the comments sent to savestmarys in response:

• It looks like an evangelical, non-denominational Protestant place of worship. it reminds me of the River of Life Church in Cherry Hill, which is the church that my son's friend attend. On the outside, it does not look like a warehouse. The service begins with music which is scrolled on a screen in front of the church.

• I don't know where this church is; not familiar as one I have been to recently but it sure looks like a Catholic Charismatic Conference thing to me.  The Charismatic Ministry was once called Hearts Afire and Let the Fire Fall when it was so active in Steubenville, Ohio. That was in the 80's.The people from Steubenville used to travel around doing special presentations, especially around Pentecost. I can remember  being at masses where people sang like that and were "on fire" with the spirit.  People spoke in tongues and rested in the spirit...The altar is visible in one picture but it does seem diminished; does this happen every week at this church supposedly? We were to a church in Colorado where they had the big screens like this; it was so people could know the prayers being said we were told.  In some areas where there are great singers and musicians who volunteer their talents , I could see this happening.  The people seem middle aged and the right age to have been "charismatic Catholics" back in the day. Just an opinion.

In response to the Bishop of Scranton being removed, we received emails to this effect. Here is one of them:

• Terrific.  Maybe our diocese will be as lucky and this person some call our bishop will be recalled or whatever

***

We couldn't find any details, so does anyone know where in the diocese this mystery church is located? Click HERE for pictures. It is something called the "Hearts of Fire Ministry" and it appears very...not Catholic. The church looks like an auditorium, complete with sound system and giant screens. It very much resembles, truth be told, Gloucester County Community Church and other protestant megachurches we've seen, aside from the crucifix. You can't even see the altar since the giant praise choir must be covering it up with their backs. Tabernacle? Who knows. Morbid curiosity causes us to inquire.

We put up this article last Oct. 27th--we did not write it ourselves. It deserves a reprinting. Take a look and see if it doesn't sound familiar. Even if you don't read the whole article, be sure to scroll down to the "Suppressing (Closing) Parishes" section, which we put in italics for you. You will see that the scandals and the agenda demonstrated by our current bishop are not new in the history of the American Catholic Church, only the latest attack on Holy Mother Church. Apparently, the power hungry nature of the American bishopric is notorious and long standing. We put in bold the most relevant information so you can easily skim. However we highly recommend you read it carefully. This article is so eerily familiar and gives important background to our current situation, despite its being written about 14 years ago. It may also be read here.

ZAP! YOUR CHURCH IS RENOVATED!
SLAM! YOUR PARISH IS CLOSED! Duane Galles

---

[The following article is drawn from legal opinions and pleadings in the files of the St. Joseph Foundation. The primary contributor is Duane Galles. The editing and a small portion of the text is Charles M. Wilson's and he accepts full responsibility for any flaws.]

We know that Christ's Church is not a democracy and we acknowledge that those who exercise the ministry of governance are not accountable to those they govern. We understand also that the faithful are obliged to follow whatever legitimate authorities determine as leaders of the Church, but the above two citations--and lots of others which could be used--tell us quite a lot about the way in which ecclesiastical authority should be exercised. Unfortunately, there have been times during the 2,000 year history of our Church when these principles have been honored more in the breach than the observance. Perhaps the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council had this in mind when they said:

"By the power of the Holy Spirit the Church is the faithful spouse of the Lord and will never fail to be a sign of salvation in the world; but it is by no means unaware that down through the centuries there have been among its members, both clerical and lay, some who were disloyal to the Spirit of God. Today, as well, the Church is not blind to the discrepancy between the message it proclaims and the human weakness of those to whom the Gospel has been entrusted. Whatever is history's judgment on these shortcomings, we cannot ignore them and we must combat them earnestly, lest they hinder the spread of the Gospel" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, <Gaudium et Spes>, No. 43).

When we think about this, most of us will recall those sad moments in history when priests, bishops and even some popes were guilty of grossly scandalous conduct and showed themselves to be unworthy of their offices.

But we might also consider those times when Church leaders exhibited other less spectacular weaknesses such as capriciousness, arrogance, cruelty, duplicity, intransigence and authoritarianism. When linked to conditions which have frequently permitted the exercise of power with unrestrained discretion on the part of ecclesiastical authorities, we can rightly wonder if these flaws have not over time caused more harm to the Church and the loss of more souls than the excesses of the likes of John XII, Benedict IX and Alexander VI. It is this exercise of discretionary authority by bishops or their bureaucrats which has resulted in recent heated controversies over many issues, prominent among them being--especially in the United States and Canada--the renovation of parish church buildings and the closure of parishes.

Before proceeding to the consideration of these particular issues, it would be worthwhile to take just a glance at how episcopal discretion has been exercised in the United States and those parts of Canada where English is the predominant language. Going back to the end of the eighteenth century, we see that both had very few Catholics and that, coupled with the difficulties in communication, resulted in Rome taking a more or less "out of sight, out of mind" attitude. In sum, the day-to-day governance of the dioceses was, for better or worse, left almost entirely in the hands of the bishops.

Anyone who holds a position of authority, subject only to a distant and not overly concerned higher authority, is tempted to exercise power not in a spirit of service but often arbitrarily and sometimes abusively. We see an example of this in the nineteenth century when the American bishops, at the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1829, attempted by decree to overstate the obligation of obedience of diocesan priests to their bishops and, in effect, reduce them to the condition of religious priests with respect to their superiors. Although, thankfully, the Holy See did intervene to suppress that decree, the bishops resourcefully employed other means to achieve the same end.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the American bishops refused to erect canonical parishes and thereby prevented diocesan priests from acquiring the rights and security of tenure conferred on pastors by the universal law of the Church. Unlike priests in the Catholic countries of Europe, their American counterparts were canonically merely rectors of missions with delegated instead of ordinary powers which could be withdrawn at the pleasure of the bishops.

Indeed, then, the power of the American bishop over his clergy was awesome. He could appoint, remove, transfer and discipline them at will. He controlled their compensation and regulated their lifestyle to an extent and in a manner that no European bishop would have dared. The situation was such that even Pope Pius IX could joke about it. When asked one day by a supplicant for a favor, the pontiff reportedly replied: "What you ask is not in my power to grant, but there is an American bishop in town. Go ask him!"

Another contributing element was the fact that not only were the American bishops subject to little restraint by the Holy See, they were not subject to the type of influence which certain civil authorities could employ in Europe. Centuries of intricate relations between state and Church on that continent resulted in many constraints upon ecclesiastical authority that were never implemented in North America. One example was the right of presentation, or the right of civil governments to propose candidates for Church offices. Even the election of popes could be influenced, as happened in this very century when the Emperor of Austria exercised his right of veto and blocked the election of Cardinal Rampolla as pope in 1903.

An important and beneficial change took place with the promulgation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which instantly transformed the "missions" in North America into canonical parishes and thereby transformed their "rectors" into pastors, with all the protections of the law. An even more sweeping change flowed from the ecclesiology of Vatican II, which reemphasized the notion of authority as a ministry of service rather than one of power.

We see this reformed ecclesiology made present in the law in several ways. In 1967 Pope Paul VI in his apostolic constitution, <Regimini Ecclesiae Universae,> created the Second Section of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura to enforce the rights of Christ's faithful even against public ecclesiastical authorities. Sixteen years later, the revised Code of Canon Law, in contrast to its predecessor, codified the rights and duties of the faithful. Perhaps the most important of the 1752 canons in the new Code is number 128, which states that "Anyone who unlawfully inflicts damage upon someone by a juridic act, or indeed by any other act placed with malice or culpability, is obliged to compensate for the damage inflicted." This means that the arbitrary and capricious use of discretionary power is no longer acceptable under the 1983 Code.

The Effects Of The Reforms

While the reforms of Vatican II and the 1983 Code look good on paper, the sad fact is that one can see few positive changes on the parish and diocesan level. Aside from the historical reality that change sometimes takes place very slowly in the Church, our conclusion is that there are three reasons for this: (1) Since Vatican II, the concept of "collegiality" has become something of an obsession and the Holy See has been extremely reluctant to interfere-even when there are good reasons to do so-in diocesan affairs. (2) Too many bishops in the United States and Canada have allowed their authority to be undermined by "experts" on their staffs. (3) The canon 221, 3 of the 1983 Code stated that the "Christian faithful can legitimately vindicate and defend the rights which they enjoy in the Church before a competent ecclesiastical court in accord with the norm of law," but the Code says very little as to how this theoretical right can be put into practice.

There are others who have come to similar conclusions, not all of whom may share our theological views. One, for example, was Fr. Joseph A. Komonchak, Associate Professor of Religion and Religious Education at the Catholic University of America, who said;

"More than a few lay people have noted that their rights to participation in the Church have not always been better respected by the addition to the traditional clerical hierarchy of a new and larger body of "professionals" and "experts". It is an occupational hazard of bureaucrats to believe that they know better than the people in the field how things should be done. And if they turn to management theories elaborated for business and government for ideas on how to plan for the Church's future, it is not surprising to hear complaints that the Church appears much more like a giant and impersonal organization than like a living community of brothers and sisters-a complaint, by the way, that by no means is aimed only at episcopal or papal targets" (<Origins>, April 2, 1987, p. 378).

A prominent American canonist has added a legal dimension to Fr. Komonchak's observation and applied it to parishes, which are often the victims of those "professionals" and "experts."

"Parishes and other local congregations are not branch offices or local outlets of a central corporation, like banks or auto agencies or service stations. They are unique communities of Christian people. They are authentic Churches, just like those described in the New Testament (in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Corinth, in Ephesus), and they must be respected as such. The Church is "built up from below" by these local communities of God's people...

Sometimes the impression is given that the parishes exist for the sake of the diocese, when just the opposite is true. The organization and governance of the Church is most often stated and interpreted by those in diocesan offices. They subtly begin to believe that their functions are primary, and that they represent the first and most important level of the Church's life' since they are more immediately related to the bishop's authority. They gradually come to consider parish communities as derivative and secondary, almost as managerial units. They speak of planning for "clusters of parishes" or "pastoral zones of the diocese" (meaning that they are preparing to suppress or merge parishes) and of reorganizing local communities for reasons of more efficient use of personnel and financial resources. [In a footnote, the author adds, Economy and efficiency are praiseworthy, but the dignity and quality of local communities is even more important. Ed.] They relate to the local churches in the same ways that corporate executives of Safeway and McDonalds relate to their local stores.

No one is baptized in a chancery office. People enter the Church, grow in faith, give praise to God, and lend loving assistance to their neighbors in parishes and other local communities. These local congregations of the faithful have a proper and authentic autonomy which must be respected> ("The Vindication of Parish Rights," by James A. Coriden, <The Jurist> 54 (1994), pp. 23-24).

Much more along these same lines could be said, but we believe Frs. Komonchak and Coriden have adequately and fairly summarized, for the purposes of this discussion, the atmosphere that prevails in the majority of dioceses in North America.

Renovation Of Church Buildings

We must admit that church buildings are places of worship, not museums, and that hardly any, including St. Peter's Basilica, never undergo some changes. Even so, the many "horror stories" in our case files and those we have seen elsewhere confirm that most "renovations" go far beyond--and in some cases are even contrary to--the legal norms. And this is not a problem that has arisen recently. Almost twenty five years ago, the Holy See issued the following sound advice: "<Mindful of the legislation of Vatican Council II and of the directives in the documents of the Holy See, bishops are to exercise unfailing vigilance to ensure that the remodeling of places of worship is carried out with the utmost caution>" (Congregation for Clergy, Circular Letter <Opera artis>, April 11, 1971).

Virtually all renovation projects are grounded in what the parishioners are told are the needs of the reformed Vatican II liturgy. In fact, they are often motivated by erroneous interpretations of liturgical law arising from the Council's Constitution on the Liturgy, <Sacrosanctum concilium> (SC). Three key concepts of SC, it seems, are commonly misinterpreted and misapplied. This, in turn, has motivated the iconoclasm and destruction of so much cultural church property in the United States and Canada.

The first key concept which has been misinterpreted and misapplied is <participatio actuosa> of SC. It has been mistranslated as "active participation" which, in English, can imply that for participation to be genuine it must involve physical activity. For a proper understanding of the phrase, one can paraphrase the original Latin of the 1958 instruction, <De musica sacra>, to say that participation ought to be internal and, certainly, exercised with a spirit of piety and heartfelt affection. Given this understanding of the concept, "actual participation" might be a more accurate translation. In any event, the liturgical "establishment's" understanding has had pernicious consequences, such as the attentive assistance at Mass and participation in the changes in posture or responses being dismissed by some liturgists as inadequate. Thus, communion rails are destroyed, altars thrust forward like theaters-in-the-round, statues are removed and the Blessed Sacrament banished, since their presence would inhibit a maximum of activity, which inevitably deteriorates into mere busyness.

The second concept misinterpreted is that of <nobilis pulchritudo> (noble beauty) of Article 124 of SC, which has often been translated as "noble simplicity." In the name of "simplicity," altars have been smashed, statues trashed, paintings whitewashed, organs silenced and the ignoble--burlap vestments and crude ceramic vessels, for example--introduced into the temple to serve as its ornaments.

The third concept misunderstood is that of the common priesthood of the laity. In advancing this notion beyond its proper scope, some liturgists demand the abolition of any distinctions whatever between the sacred minister and the laity. Thus, any physical barriers between them are taboo. Communion rails are especially hated and any physical reminder of a "holy of holies" must go, so hordes of lay functionaries can swarm in and out of the "sanctuary."

In addition to the physical renovations themselves, the methods by which they are inflicted are of equal or even greater concern. The "process" leading up to the actual arrival of the bulldozers begins with the appearance of the ubiquitous "experts" and "professionals" who tell the people only what they are supposed to hear. Glossy, one-sided hand-outs are distributed at "listening sessions" while the people are assured that "no final decisions have been made." Usually, a renovation committee consisting of carefully selected parishioners emerges' to announce the final plans, while any alternative suggestions or proposals are stifled by whatever methods-gentle or not so gentle-that circumstances require. There are no credible estimates that we know of as to how much money has been wasted over the last thirty years on needless renovations of North American church buildings, but it must be in the hundreds of millions, or perhaps billions, of dollars.

To close this part of the discussion on a hopeful note, there is a rather remote but growing possibility that (if our prayers are answered) most of the renovations may eventually have to be undone. The first signs of a true "reform of the reform" may have appeared and are reported on page two of this issue. Should this come to pass, even more billions will be needed to set things right. But, we suspect, the people will not mind putting up the money.

Suppressing (Closing) Parishes

Just as we admitted that places of worship cannot remain unchanged forever, we must concede that not every parish has a right to perpetual existence. Acknowledging this general rule, though, does not mean that we have to agree with every suppression decreed by every chancery.

There is one very important difference between renovating church buildings and suppressing parishes. Buildings, of course, do not in themselves have rights and the renovation, or even destruction, of a parish church does not alter the legal status of the parish, which has what is called a juridic personality. In other words, a juridic person in canon law is roughly equivalent to a corporation in secular law. And like a corporation, a juridic person has rights and duties under the law. The primary and fundamental right of any person, natural or legal, is to existence. Father Coriden puts it this way:

"Once a stable community of faithful people has taken shape, it has the right to canonical recognition (e.g., first as a mission or quasi-parish, then as a parish; c. 516). Once established as a parish, the community possesses juridic personality and is, nature sue perpetual (cc. 515, #3; 120, #1). In other words, the parish should remain in existence until overwhelming reasons for its alteration or suppression are clearly demonstrated."

After hearing about or becoming directly involved in parish suppression cases throughout the country, we have yet to see a single example of "overwhelming" reasons. Indeed, virtually all suppressions--and absolutely all which are contested by the parishioners--are justified on the basis of a shortage of priests, more efficient use of facilities, even distribution of people, financial considerations or other factors which have little or nothing to do with the vitality of the community.

Sometimes the reasons given for suppression make no sense at all. For example, the city of Clinton, Iowa, in the Diocese of Davenport used to have five parishes. In 1990, all five were suppressed and one "mega parish" was created in their place. The bishop's letter announcing and attempting to support the action said this:

"And yet, I see that the needs of the past, e.g., for ethnic parishes, are not the needs of today. In fact, the need for unity and united action are the paramount needs of today. (*Almost the exact same thing was stated in this week's Star Herald -Julie)

In other words, five parishes competing for people, funds and personnel is not what the Catholic community needs."

In truth, none of the five parishes was "ethnic" and all were vibrant communities of faith. No one in Clinton has ever understood why their city could not have more than one parish when other cities in the diocese (Davenport, Iowa City, Muscatine, etc.) continue to have several. No one in the chancery has ever been able to explain why either.

Although renovations and suppressions are different kinds of actions, the "process" leading up to them is often remarkably similar. The ever-present "professionals" and "expert consultants" arrive to "soften-up" the parishioners with unctuous assurances that "no decisions will be made without everyone having their say." Then, as in the case of renovations, all those who have opinions contrary to the outcome desired by the chancery are marginalized or excluded from the discussions by whatever means necessary. We have even seen instances where elderly parishioners were threatened with denial of Christian burial if they continued to object.

Should the consultation process produce recommendations which the bishop does not like, such as recently happened in the diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he simply rides roughshod over the procedures he himself established and decrees whatever he wishes.

In short, the decisions to suppress are utterly lacking in reasonable motives and the "consultation processes" lack even a scintilla of justice. The ultimate injustice occurs when a parish suffers the "double whammy" of being forced to renovate its church and then, several years later, being suppressed.

In Conclusion

In spite of the discouraging trends, there are reasons for hope. One of these reasons is that many of the courageous faithful who try to save their churches from the renovators or their parishes from the axe simply refuse to give up. Even when they lose, as often happens, their efforts are not wasted. We know of cases where renovations were prevented and parishes slated for suppression were saved because the "professionals" did not want to face another struggle which might even involve an appeal to Rome.

And who knows? With enough prayer and hard work, we may even see in our lifetime a system of appeal which will see cases decided on the law and the facts instead of ecclesiastical politics and influence peddling.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm constantly reading children's books. We go to the library a lot. This last weekend I attended a Catholic homeschool conference with a friend of mine and found so many wonderful books. Some of the true gems, such as the great readers from the 40s and 50s, are books that are no longer in print. I'm sometimes asked what some good titles are for parents wanting to immerse their children in the Faith. Here are some I could not resist this weekend:

The Story of God's Love: My Bible by Melissa Wright. This is an excellent children's Bible. I've been looking for a good one for a long time. This one, I'd say, is ideal for kids 5-8. It is published by Pauline books and Media (the Pauline Sisters are sisters who publish various media and I recommend their materials highly, particularly their coloring books). $25 (The Pauline site is down so here's a link to the title.)

A Catholic Child's Picture Dictionary by Ruth Hannon. This is a beautifully illustrated picture dictionary, primarily on Catholic terms. Originally published in 1956, it is now put out by the wonderful Angelus Press: www.angeluspress.org. $20

A Child's Rule of Life by Robert Hugh Benson. This is a gorgeous, black-and-white book published by Neumann Press. It takes you through a child's day, including the Holy Mass. This book is indescribably beautiful. Perhaps I'll have time to post a picture and excerpt in the future. $20. Sold by Keller Books: www.kellerbooks.com (However I didn't have luck with Keller's search function, so here's a link to the title.)

Mary by Demi. This is a beautifully illustrated book all about the life of the Blessed Mother of God. It must be seen to be believed. Each page has a different scene from her life and Bible excerpt. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books in 2006. $20 Also purchased from Keller Books. (However, no picture on the Keller site, so here's a link.)

A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families by Monica McConkey. This book is a spiral bound activity book that takes you through the Church year and gives activities for various saint days and holidays. I was happy to meet Mrs. McConkey at the conference. Trained as an architect, she has many really great items available. Check them out at www.armadei.com $22

Make Your Own Noah's Ark by Clare Beaton. "Stand-up Noah's Ark scene. Figures for cutting out, coloring, and playing." A great book with readymade activity! Published and sold by the Paulines: www.pauline.org.$10 (By the way, the Daughters of St. Paul have a Books & Media Center in Northeast Philadelphia, well worth a visit.)

Though these aren't books, you simply must check out Jody's Hands On Learning. Jody, who I met at the conference, is a homeschooling mother who was simply trying to help her kids memorize their prayers and catechism lessons. She wound up inventing this neat system of games, devices, and activities. I hope to show them to our pastor soon. They are good for training altar servers, teachings kids their prayers, you name it. If your child is a kinesthetic learner (as most are) or if you prefer a fun, Montessouri-style approach to learning, check out her stuff!

Although I haven't yet tried it out, I subscribed to a year of CD-roms that will be sent to my house through the mail from Nippert & Company, also known as Catholic Art Works. I purchased the Teacher's Helper CDs. The idea is that I will receive them every month or so and there are many countless Catholic art activites able to be printed out from my computer, from art sheets to holy cards and beyond. I tell you the man's work is beautiful and I can't wait to try them out. The year of CDs, which can be used over and over again (unlike online subscriptions can be) cost $42. One of the projects he had displayed that impressed me was of a little altar the child could color, cut, and construct, and a priest. But if you turn the priest around, you instead see Jesus Himself. It is meant to teach that the priest stands in persona Christi. How clever.

Well, that's all for now, but it doesn't even scratch the surface of all we saw. If you would like more information on any of these titles and cannot find them through the webistes above, I'd be happy to talk more about them. Just let us know. Remember, these homeschool conferences aren't just for homeschoolers. Any Catholic can go and explore the wealth of materials available. Plus, there are excellent talks given and confessions heard, too. The one in Virginia was totally free, but more locally CHAPLET, a South Jersey homeschooling group, hosts one each spring at Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, NJ that is equally good.

Here are some recent comments in response to the article regarding the bishop's 1.5 million dollar luxury estate--oh wait, no, "convent"--in Pittsgrove. As a comment of our own, it has occurred to us that undoubtedly the diocesan administration must be exerting tremendous pressure on the poor sisters at this time, who must truly feel caught between satisfying the bishop's requests and fulfilling their vow of poverty, a promise they made to God. It is outrageous that the chancery would put out a statement supposedly made by Sr. Bernadette, while no one from the media has spoken directly to her, to the best of our knowledge. There is no way of verifying that she actually said what they claim she did. Press Comments: Is Andrew Walton coming unwound? His comments are hysterical, not to mention completely contradictory. He's another way our diocese is wasting money. I wonder how much he's getting paid for his "services." Posted by: hahaha on Sun Mar 15, 2009, 11:28 PM

	How much money does Andrew Walton make that he thinks an $800,000 house is a 'modest' living arrangement? Posted by: elaine on Sun Mar 15, 2009, 11:38 PM

	Not to be mean but with all the church and school closings recently and more in the future, why do they need new nuns? What are they going to do? Posted by: theFlyingNun on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 2:32 AM

	wake up parishoners! YOU'VE BEEN DUPED!! welcome to CAMP ALTAR BOY!!! Posted by: no sin no win on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 3:58 AM

	Ahhhhhhhh...haters and cafeteria Catholics. Some things you can just go to sleep on. Posted by: Truth on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 5:13 AM

	Isn't this awful when the diocese closes St Nicholas School in Egg Harbor City and wants to shut St Nick's church! This is an outrage!!!!! Posted by: MaysLandingJane on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 6:14 AM

	As with any charity...most donated funds go to administrative costs...I am sure the 'Bishops Annual Appeal' needed a new headquarters to operate from... counting your gold in a lavish country estate seems Medival in a way Posted by: mikeyd__ on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 6:18 AM

	simple math: $8 million divided by 5 nuns = $1.6 million per nun. talk about HIGH MAINTENANCE BABES!!! Posted by: collection plate - not! on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 8:21 AM

	This purchase gives a whole new meaning to "House of Charity". But seriously, why should I give a dime? They clearly don't need my hard earned money. Posted by: Maria on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 8:30 AM

	from Kenyan grass hut to upscale rural estate. nice career move girls! ps: but do they know how use the wet bar and ice maker? Posted by: papist scam on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 8:31 AM

If you had a bunch of people giving you money every week wouldnt you spend it...They havn't spent it properly in a long time. I went to Rome on vacation a few years ago and I am getting on the plane walking to my coach seat and what do I see a priest sitting in first class. I know when I searched to purchase those seats were like $15k round trip...I have not given a dime to the church since I saw that Posted by: scam on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 8:41 AM

Why does this come as a shock to anyone? The Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest entities on the planet! They preach poverty yet acquire lavish property, jewels and artwork all the time. The vatican houses some of the most precious artworks of all time. They are not strapped for cash and never have been. They are considered to be among the larges private land holders in the world, and are estimated to have billions of dollars in banks and stocks around the world. It is one of the biggest businesses on earth. In his newest list of sins that will send you to "you know where," the pope has included accumulating vast wealth, but the Church has been doing that every day since its inception. Interesting, isn't it? And sorry, but it's not 8 million dollars, it's 800 thousand dollars. Guess the math wasn't so simple for the brain trust who thought he'd make a point. Too funny. Posted by: Really? on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 8:55 AM

	Okay, everyone get your Catholic-bashing out of your system. Just remember when you are done, that Catholics are a very devout group of people. Unfortunately, their leadership is self-serving...just like our politicians. Ever notice that no matter what the group, power corrupts? Posted by: njstorm on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 9:12 AM

	"Spirit of poverty" while living in a $1.5 million dollar home? That's kind of like saying the Bishop has a "Spirit of fasting." Greed, corruption, lies - all from the Catholic heirarchy - it is disheartening to say the least. Bishop Gallante should resign. Posted by: outraged in ocean city on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 9:32 AM

	The church is big business. The road to heaven is paved with good intentions now send me the dollars. Posted by: executioner1 on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 9:38 AM

	I am somewhat familiar with the situation, and can tell you that the sisters are not at all comfortable with the sitaution. This was all Gallante. Posted by: maverick on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 9:39 AM

If someone wants to know the excess of the hierarchy of the Catholic church in our Diocese, as well as in Philadelphia's, look at the ownership of several beachfront homes in Ventnor ... just a block from where St. James R.C. Church and school faced closings. And not begrudging just the beachfront property, but the excessive nature INSIDE those homes (yes, I have seen it firsthand). When the Diocese decided to close St. Augustine School in Ocean City, knowing full well prior to their decision that those students did NOT have another school that could take them, I knew I had given the Diocese my last time. I think Catholics in this Diocese need to express their displeasure in the only way the Diocese and the Bishop understand ... financially. That is what bought several churches at least temporary reprieves already. The religion and the faith of Catholics are strong (and yes I am one) ... its the leadership - the human element - that is flawed. Posted by: truth not rhetoric on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 9:46 AM

	There are way tooooo many empty Convents throughout the state to allow this to happen. The house should have been sold or rented for a lot of money. The Nuns are very nice people who deserve whatever they get however there are many many empty houses in this and other states for them to live in for free. Posted by: Empty nests' on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 10:02 AM

OK...so here we are with hundreds of billions of OUR dollars going out to greedy banks and business men to "save" them all. This is all OUR money and will cost us and our children for decades to come. I have a great idea. this will eliminate the current billions in debt and settle the national debt. If we just tax the Catholic church on its real estate holding in the U.S. we will raise enough cash to cancel out all the problems. All of the faithful can then empty there wallets into a brass plate on Sunday to help the churches pay there tax bills. Now the church will really now what poverty is like. We pay our tax bills every year now it is there turn. Just look around town next time you take a drive. no matter what town you live in the churches own the nicest land and the nicest homes in the nicest sections of town. Then go home and look at your home and your tax bill and just do some math and you will get an idea of the value of some of this land and structures. Posted by: njscanner on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 10:03 AM

	I am outraged by this article. There are devote Catholics who tried their best in preventing the merger from happening last year. They even poured in money from their personal savings. In return, we here about a eight-hundred thousand dollar convent. Posted by: Listen here on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 10:29 AM

This is appalling! There are many, many underused convents in the diocese. The diocese has a retreat center in Blackwood and to believe we would trust they're purchase of this property as a 'future retreat center' is ridiculous. What is it with this bishop, he comes across like the leaders of the financial institution we have bailed out. Totally out of touch with his pariashioners, he is getting bad advice from those around him They should reverse this purchase and sell this property. Posted by: uneasy catholic on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 10:44 AM

Talk about irresponsible actions. We were advised that the Bishop has increased the amount of money he wants to renovate the kitchen in the new, dynamic, vibrant elementary school in Clayton to the tune of $200,000 dollars. Andy Walton tried to justify the spending by saying the price was dropped from $1.5 million to $800,000 dollars. What he failed to mention was that the home was on the market for a year and when the recession/depression hit, it couldn't sell for the original listing price. So the "good catholic family took their money and moved south. How about the $1.7 million dollars for the sale of St. Bridget's school that went toward reducing the debt of that parish rather than helping to support the new elementary school in Clayton. There are too many instances of flagrant misuse of monies by the CEO of the Camden diocese and his constituents to print here. I wonder if they would agree to an audit of how they are spending their monies and make it an open report to the parishioners whose money they are spending. Sounds similar to the AIG scandalous use of taxpayers money with the backing of the government. We are being told by Bishop Galante that he is concerned about the number of Catholics leaving the church, well I suggest he look in the mirror to see how he is a major reason why this is happening. Posted by: mazz on Mon Mar 16, 2009, 10:58 AM

We gleaned from the initials following her last name, "SSM," that Ms. ("Sr.") Marilyn Vollmer, commonly known as "the other bishop" around the Diocese, likely belongs to an order called Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Founded by German Mother Frances Streitel, the SSMs describe themselves as Franciscan and involve themselves primarily with healthcare and education among the poor. Quote:

The purpose of our Congregation is to hold out to society the witness of God's love and in so doing invite people to turn to God. We are dedicated to the Franciscan values of peacemaking, hospitality and reverence for all creation.

Other than that, the order's official website has very little information on it, and it appears to be a very small, aging order. Surprisingly, pictured in one of the few photos on the site are a couple of sisters wearing habits. Not surprisingly, there are no newsletters in their newsletter section and there is no way of finding out how to visit or join the order.

In any case, one wonders why an order like this one would allow one of its members to go around the country doing "work" like Ms. Vollmer is engaged in (coast-to-coast diocesan take-down aid for bishops involved with corruption scandals, etc.). How would a member of a seemingly modest Franciscan order from Wisconsin get involved with this sort of thing?

On the Archdiocese of Milwaukee site, it says that the SSMs'

ministries focus on those who suffer deprivation, social fragmentation, family disintegration, and personal isolation.

How ironic! It does not say that their ministries include causing these things, it only says that their ministries focus on these things. Hmmm. Oh, it's made a little clearer here, a little further down:

We minister in many places, from the central city to the AODA unit, from retreat centers to board rooms, from migrant camps to offices.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's website directs us to an SSM website with literally no content whatsoever: ssmfranciscans.org. That's no help. But maybe they are a small order, but not such a modest one. On the Marian Healthcare System site, they tell us just a tad more. They came to this country in part to help an ailing hospital in Kansas, and

The Sisters stayed busy during the 19th century, establishing healthcare ministries throughout Wisconsin and in Denville, New Jersey. The congregation has continued its growth in healthcare and education with ministries established in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Iowa, New Jersey and several foreign nations.

And this leads us to a 1997 article that describes a name change for the sisters' ministry, and this is where we learn of the order's extensive involvement with the health care industry:

Health care isn't the kind of mission called to mind by the name Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother.

So beginning April 1, Sisters of Sorrowful Mother Ministry Corp. will be known as Ministry Health Care to better represent the Milwaukee-based health care system's purpose.

"The name Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother -- while it reflects the system's Catholic sponsor -- doesn't carry a lot of meaning for the average consumer that we're meeting in our marketplace," said Sister Lois Bush, chief executive officer. "The new name is simple and reflects what we do, which is the business of health care."

The article goes on to say that the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother's health care system is "one of the largest in the state [of Wisconsin]." However, when we looked up the "SSM Ministry Corp" nothing much in the way of information is available, but we did find another name: "SSM Diversified Health Services" located at 11925 West Lake Park Drive, Suite 100, Milwaukee, WI 53224, phone (414) 359-1070.

Maybe they've changed their name again? There's something called "Ministry Health Care" that describes itself in this way:

When you walk into any Ministry hospital or clinic, you will see the healing ministry and values of our founders, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, at work. Here, everyone works together, as one, to provide the best care available for all patients. 

At Ministry, we continually look to tomorrow. We push ourselves as an organization and as individuals to grow, to take the extra step, to work as hard as we can to bring hope, respect and dignity to each patient and their family.

Here, we see that a "Ministry" can be a business, even a multiple-clinic and hospital health care system, "one of the largest in the state" of Wisconsin.

I'm confused. Is this a non-profit group? If so, what services are they providing? It would seem, based on Ms. Vollmer, that it's just a bunch of professional women sharing their income, but maybe this is just something we need to do more research into.

Anyway, the point is that it is pretty clear that health care has been the mission and apostolate of the SSMs from the beginning. And indeed they continue in this booming industry now. So again, what is Marilyn Vollmer doing here in the Diocese of Camden? Why is she not off nursing, teaching, helping the poor in some way, or manning a retreat center somewhere? And how can we get her retrained?

(BTW, they also have "Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother International Finance, Inc.": link, which is sort of funny.)

As a side note, there is another question, which is sure to become an issue at some point.  Most members of this type of order, because of their vows of poverty, do not pay income taxes.  At what point, however, does this "vow of poverty" become a joke?  How is a "sister" who has a solid middle management position (with wages that are more than competitive for her level of ability) and who lives independently from the order to which she belongs different from the rest of us?  What is she giving to society, as a whole, to warrant special tax treatment?

...Now with Twice the Vibrancy (and Still No Transfats)

 

Recently, St. Mary's reassessed its ministries and was delighted to find that we have not only increased our ministries but, in fact, have doubled them.  Not since the days of New Coke has something transformed itself so remarkably. 

 

Last month, at a birthday party for Fr. Romanowski and Leah, who share a September 2 birthday, we put many of our new ministries proudly on display.

 

First, our Celebration of Important Things Ministry conceived the idea.  They had already had a party for Fr. Romanowski the previous weekend (prior to his birthday), but they are a vibrant group and opted to have another party the weekend after his birthday.

 

The Outreach to the Bishop in Hopes to Convince Him to Stop his Dastardly Scheme Ministry sent invites to the Bishop and some of his friends at the Chancery.  Sadly, they did not attend, although Msgr. McGrath was kind enough to send his regrets.

 

 

Another new ministry, the Cake Delivery Ministry completed its second project of the year. 

 

Click here to see the first.

 

At the party, we also unveiled our new Cappuccino Ministry. This seems to be a staple of any vibrant parish.

 

  

Unfortunately, Charlotte burnt her finger while providing this ministry, which prompted a quick response from our Next-Best-Thing-to-Your-Mother Empathy Ministry

.

After a healthy dose of empathy, the First Aid Ministry (or in this case Second to Next-Best-Thing-to-Your-Mother Empathy Aid) sprung into action.

 

 

 

Charlotte's new at this, so our Cleanup Ministry was also involved.

 

This is just a sampling of the many new ministries we have introduced lately.  Some of our other new ministries include:

 

Ø      Picketing the Bishop Ministry

Ø      Sending Letters to Apostolic Nuncio, Etc. Ministry

Ø      Media Ministry

Ø      Website Ministry

Ø      Canon Law Appeal Ministry

Ø      Civil Law Ministry

Ø      Blogging Ministry

Ø      Fundraising for Save St. Mary's Ministry

Ø      Planning the Billboard Campaign Ministry (Coming Soon to Highways Near You) 

Ø      Planning the Vigil Campaign (ala Boston)

 

The ministries are so vibrant, it makes me wonder why we didn't start them years ago.  Oh, wait . . . that's right, BECAUSE NO ONE WAS TRYING TO STEAL, I MEAN CLOSE, OUR CHURCH BACK THEN! 

 

Not to go on about our ministries, but we also discovered from a recent Courier-Post propaganda piece that we already have many "ministries" that we didn't even know were ministries. Like the church in Richardson, TX, we also have a Bulletin Ministry.  And by the same ministry identification logic, we have a Bathroom Ministry (actually two - one for men and another for women).

We have a Warmth Ministry, although this only operates in the Winter.  In the Summer, we offer a Cooling Ministry.  We also have a Parking Ministry, which shares space with our Basketball Hoop Ministry.  I could really go on and on, but I don't like to brag - we're not perfect.  We don't have a labyrinth, after all, although we are thinking about a Corn Maze Ministry for next year. 

 

So stop by the New St. Mary's, a MegaVibrant SuperParish in the Diocese of Camden.

 

Editor's Note:  This blog entry was provided by our Sarcasm Ministry.  This new ministry will remain active throughout our Denial Stage of the Diocese of Camden's Four-Step Mourning Process.  If you don't like it, beware of the Anger Phase.

All photos copyright of St. Mary's PhotoMinistry.

On my way to the rally the other day I popped on the radio. I admit I'm a religion nerd, and American denominational issues and religious trends are of a particular interest to me. I have no idea why. In any case, that is just to say that I put on the protestant radio station that is generally affiliated with Calvary Chapel, a denomination with whom my workplace shares a parking lot. In any case, this man David Jeremiah, the pastor of a megachurch in Southern California called Shadow Mountain Community Church, was on. The show was called, "Turning Point." Normally I would have changed the station right away because eight times out of ten, I'm not interested in what's on that station. But this time what he was talking about caught my ear.


Mr. (Dr.) Jeremiah posed the following question (I paraphrase): "Why do people in a stadium of 60,000 not feel lonely, but in a church (with far fewer people), they feel isolated and out-of-place?" The "profound" answer he came to (Mr. Jeremiah's sarcasm, not mine) was "tailgate parties." He said (paraphrasing again), "When do you ever see a single individual going into a game? Not too often. Usually you see people going in groups of 2, 3, 5 or more."

His point was twofold:
 
1. People often like to be among be crowds and large events because it makes them feel as if they're part of something important. In that big building, there's something important going on, and by virtue of my attendance and participation there, that makes me important too.

2. The "tailgate party" is just as important as the game. A tailgate party is made up of a smaller group of people and affords an opportunity to bond and have fun together. It's a place where "everybody knows your name." (As I recall, he used this phrase.)



So far as I can tell, this David Jeremiah is a pretty smart guy. A little too smart, actually. His reasoning is flawless...when it comes to a marketing rationale and apology for his self-described megachurch.** But there was really no religious content at all, other than that God designed us to be known and to have our voices recognized. Now doesn't that feel good?



Needless to say, everything about this approach to religion was "me-centered" and had more to do with social and personal psychology and emotionalism than with God and the nature of the Church. Big  events make me feel good because I feel as if I'm witnessing something important. Then, so I have an interpersonally sense of fulfilled I participate in a small group at my church. Certainly we do not have to go all the way to southern California to see examples of this model of church. It seems to me that our own bishop is promoting it, as a matter of fact. Gloucester County Community Church in Wahington Township,  St. John the Evangelist in Naples (FL), and St. Joseph in Richardson (TX) all have significant aspects of this model in common, and all have been recommended by Bishop Galante.*

I do not mean to be overly dismissive here. I'm not saying that one cannot actually have positive experiences in, well, in just about any Christian religious context. God can get to us even when there's the slightest crack in the door because He is God, He made us, He knows us, and He want us to love Him as much as He loves us. Certainly we can experience God's presence and learn about God outside of the Catholic Church--it's just that other Christian communities fall short of the whole Truth.

The problem with this particular church model is that religion is not about feelings and worship isn't about what "we" get out of it. Religion is, ultimately, about God and worship is about how we can best give glory to God in a manner befitting His Majesty. He is the King of the universe and should be the King of our hearts, and anything that falls short of what he deserves cheapens the gift. You don't come to a birthday party and hand somebody a gift still in the plastic bag. (Well, actually, that's happened to me before, and that's ok!) Yes, it's the thought that counts and just the act of showing up or bringing a gift is important and there is something to be said for that. But when it comes to the Creator and Sustainer of all things, I hope to bring him a gift that not only is nice underneath all the wrappings, but also looks nice, too. Why? Because He's God. He made us, and seeing even our tiniest little efforts to love and glorify Him, allows His love to grow in us. "You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them." (St. Therese of the Child Jesus)

So after listening to the "Turning Point" broadcast I actually felt sorry for the protestant megachurchers because as a Catholic, I know that it really has nothing to do with how many people are in attendance, even though of course it would be nice if the whole world believed in Christ and the Truths contained in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Christ himself said that "where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of you."* We do not need to be among huge crowds of people in an immense structure with jumbotrons, a band, great lighting and sound systems, and all the other drama that accompanies christian "edutainment."

We read in Matthew 26:26, John 6:51-72, and elsewhere He gave us Himself in the Holy Eucharist, so no matter how many are present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, he is still there. Yes, we are a part of something very important when we assist at Mass, but the Mass is still the Mass and God is still God whether there are two or 2,000. We, like the Apostles, are to be fishers of men, and certainly we need to evangelize. But we must never lose sight of the fact that even if there were no one at all in the church during Mass, God still--literally--offers Himself to us. I've heard a particular priest say a couple of times that if on the holy altar of God Christ actually appeared to us in his full splendor and majesty, as He appears in Heaven among the throngs of angels and saints, we would fall down on our faces and drag ourselves up the aisle. I could not agree more. Truly something important is going on in a Catholic church no matter how many happen to be there.

So let them have their "tailgate parties" at the church called "Shadow Mountain" and others like it. The churches so many of us are blessed to attend here in South Jersey may be small, but in them the King of the Universe is enthroned. It is our privilege to be in His midst. (In fact, "level of energy" is like Christmas every day...only not in a mall. Like in a church.)

The biggest problem is that in our contemporary society, people place demands on their churches as if the church should conform to their lifestyle (book a Caribbean cruise with David Jeremiah here). But we know that this is not what Christ expects of us. He asks each of us to be willing to forsake our families and everything we have to follow Him. That's a tall order. He wants us to offer our sufferings in union with His on the cross. We are to conform ourselves to the cross of Christ. Carmelites have a cross with no corpus because they are expected to place themselves upon it in their daily sacrifices.

I thank You, O my God! For all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion. (St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 19th century
Carmelite nun and saint)

Needless to say, we ought not to go to church expecting entertainment, expecting to be comfortable. It is so sad that some become impatient when the sermon runs a little long or the Mass goes over 45 minutes, and after holy communion make a mad dash for the exit before the priest--who represents Christ himself--processes. The traditional Mass--the dignified and holy worship of God--has been called the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven. So I for one would not feel comfortable attending a church in which one could expect the Rockettes to emerge, legs kicking wildly, from stage right.

We have been meaning to share some quotes with you from the wonderful and well-researched book, Goodbye, Good Men by Michael S. Rose. The book focuses largely on the true reasons for the supposed "priest shortage." Admittedly, the book is shocking even to those familiar with the darker sides of church politics, but it is very convincing and well-documented. Intermittently we will share quotes with you from this book since it is so relevant to the situation at hand in so many diocese around the country including, presumably, our own.

The fact is that many qualified candidates for the priesthood have been turned away for political reasons over the past three decades. Systematic, ideological discrimination has been practiced against seminarians who uphold Catholic teaching on sexuality and other issues; dissenters from Catholic teaching--including teaching on homosexuality--have been rewarded.

Goodbye, Good Men exposes this corruption: the deliberate infiltration of Catholic seminaries by what Andrew Greeley has dubbed the "Lavender Mafia," a clique of homosexual dilettantes with an underground of liberal faculty members determined to change the doctrines, disciplines, and mission of the Catholic Church from within. Through the seminaries, liberals have brought a moral meltdown into the Catholic priesthood. If the sex scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church are to end, the individuals responsible for this moral meltdown must be rooted out. (page xi)

To use the words of a friend's father with regard to the last sentence above, "If there's a rat in the corn crib, you get rid of the rat, you don't quit farming." He lamented the fact that instead of rooting out the rats, corrupt bishops elected instead to keep child abusing priests around to destroy the Church and the souls entrusted to Her. As a result of all the financial settlements, some church leaders have decided to deal with the likes of con-man Rafaello Follieri to sell off diocesan properties as quickly as possible and access cash for the settlements. So with the closure of churches and schools, they've effectively decided to "quit farming," so to speak: to get out of the business of saving souls and into the business of saving skin.

To drastically understate the case, some seriously poor decisions were made, but instead of repenting of these and making a serious attempt to turn things around and restore the trust of the laity and the Bride of Christ generally, another series of poor decisions was made--to close our churches and schools. Perhaps worst of all, the rationale for doing so has been covered with misinformation and false rationales (there's a priest shortage, there are demographic shifts, etc.) because the truth is simply too horrible to admit to. And now look where we are?! We, the faithful in the pews, are paying the price for one bad decision after the next. And now we must pay for these sins by sacrificing our very houses of God, our schools, and even our Faith? We must expose and reject the pretenses for closing our churches, which we know to be untrue. One such pretense is the availability of priests (or lack thereof). While particulars vary from diocese to diocese, on a broader national scale the decline has been traced to far-reaching and disturbing trends.

According to Michael Rose, the priest shortage, where it does in fact exist, is "artificial and contrived." He quotes Archbishop of Omaha Nebraska, Elden F. Curtiss, who says

It seems to me that the vocation "crisis" is precipitated by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these ministries. I personally am aware of certain vocations directors, vocations teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the rosary.

Rose goes on to mention unapologetically orthodox bishops whose diocese have experienced dramatic increases in vocations to the priesthood. Of course, most of us are familiar with religious orders that are experiencing vocations booms as well. After all, if one is going to sacrifice his or her life for the cause of Christ, whether one's vocation be lay or religious in nature, it must be worth it!

We will explore more of Goodbye, Good Men in the future. More to come...

This article has little to do, directly, with the campaign, but it definitely reveals the mindset of those Galante and McGrath surround themselves with. Like Ms. vollmer, formerly of LA and then Dallas, of "it's a process, not a program" fame. Liberals love "process," let me tell you. It makes things appear to be in flux rather than a set plan. But I digress.

Funny thing, I wasn't aware that the "social Gospel" was the "one and only Gospel." I just thought the Gospel was the Truth, the message of salvation, the Word of God, the Good News...the Gospel. Bizarre.

Funnier thing, I do consider myself a "liberal" when it comes to social programs and things, yet I don't at all relate to this rhetoric. Making political (ie something secular, worldly, and generally icky) the Sacred Heart of Our Lord is just not my thing. The implication here, to my mind, is that Jesus and St. Benedict were sort of proto-Marxists. They did Marxism better. Ummm...ok? I guess I just don't get it. I think of Our Lord as my Savior, the One who leads us unto all Truth, not a political figure.

Reminds me of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Naples, FL that Bishop Galante wants to model the new "Church of South Jersey" after. They'd love this stuff. (More on St.John the Evangelist parish here.)

Snippet from Fr. Gregorio's article (emphasis mine):

Priests and deacons preaching the social Gospel (i.e., the one and only Gospel) often are accused of siding with one party or one economic school, even failed ones like Marxism. They should reply that Jesus came before Marx, and that Marx inadvertently borrowed from the rule of Benedict and how Benedictine monasteries run: classless society, ownership of the means of production by the proletariat, no private property, etc. However a monk is always free to leave the community while one may not leave communist China.

Beware of the old rubbish being resurrected about the evils of liberalism. Many damn this leftward slant because of its squishy tolerance of sexual hedonism but ignore its thrust to use government to raise the minimal standard of living of the nation's disadvantaged, most of whom by serious analysis are where they are because of an economic system flawed so badly it would break a bleeding heart.

Notice so many spearheading the movement to save our Faith from immanent destruction are under 50, even under 40. Here's an article that explains why.

Here's a snippet (for more read the entire article below). Catholic leaders are saying that:

"Young people are leaving the Church in droves because of its refusal to conform to the times!" As a young person, I tell you this is rubbish.  It is a smokescreen.  I do not dispute that there are many young, "enlightened" Catholics who have left the Church with these reasons on their lips.  But they are using these reasons as excuses to mask the real problem:  They have either lost their faith or they never really had it.  The need in this case is not for accommodation, but for conversion.  These young Catholics have never been taught that Christianity is not about self-fulfillment, it's about self-denial; it's not about worldly power, it's about humility; it's not about control, it's about obedience; and it's not about some misguided, gender feminist idea of equality, it's about Truth.


I Was Robbed!
by Leila Miller     

I was robbed.

I am a "Generation X" Catholic, raised and catechized in the tumultuous aftermath of Vatican II.  I was a victim of "renewal" and experimentation gone awry, and so were my peers.  With great regret and without exaggeration, I contend that the results have been catastrophic for my generation.  It is my firm belief that the overwhelming majority of young Catholics don't have even an elemental understanding of their Faith.  As a direct result of that ignorance, young Catholics are leaving the Church in a steady stream (or, dare I say, tidal wave?).

It's not entirely accurate to say that I left the Catholic Church (though I considered it), but it's clear to me now that for most of my young adulthood, I was not in the Catholic Church.  Let me give you an overview of my upbringing, which will sound familiar to countless young Catholics.  I was born in the late 1960s into a believing and practicing Catholic family, and my sister and I were taught by our parents to love our Faith.  Barring illness, we attended Sunday Mass and holy days of obligation without exception.  We attended public schools, but we were enrolled in weekly CCD classes at our parish every year.

By the time I began religious education, memorizing the Baltimore Catechism was out, and feeling the "experience of Christ" was in.  My parish priest, I believe, could not have known how the new, more "enlightened" philosophy of catechism would affect the moral development of those in his charge; at the time, he was simply caught up in the so-called "spirit of Vatican II," and was being obedient to what were considered Vatican II "mandates."  Meanwhile, my parents, like the other parents, trusted that religious education classes would teach us the Faith.  Sadly, that never happened.

In general, the volunteer CCD teachers were good-hearted parishioners who probably tried their best with the vacuous material they were given.  Looking back, I can see that a couple of them must have been alarmed at the "new and improved" methods, and wanted to teach us the fundamentals of our Faith; for example, one year a teacher made us memorize the Ten Commandments; another year (9th or 10th grade, I believe) I heard the word transubstantiation for the first and last time.  Aside from these rare moments, I assure you that precious little substantive information was imparted to us youngsters; the countless hours I spent in religious education were missed opportunities.

I can tell you in three phrases the content of a decade of catechesis:  God is good, Jesus loves you, and love your neighbor.  (All very good and true, don't get me wrong, but if you read your Bible you'll see that that's only half the Gospel.  And sometimes half of the truth is more treacherous than an outright lie.)  We were shown a lot of cartoon slide shows depicting Jesus and his parables, and I have nice images of multiplying loaves, the Good Samaritan, and Jesus' empty tomb.  I don't remember anything particularly Catholic about the presentations, aside from a foray into the sacraments when it was time for First Communion or Confirmation.  (But if you'd have asked me to explain what a sacrament was, I couldn't have told you.)

We weren't taught any Catholic prayers, although we all knew the Our Father from Mass attendance, and in my case from nightly prayers.  I learned the Hail Mary along the way, but for many years I knew only the first half.  We never discussed the lives of the saints, or even mentioned their names for that matter.  (Sitting at Mass, I could never figure out who this "Paul" fellow was who wrote so many letters!)

I am thankful at least that I was born before the last vestiges of Catholic tradition could be stamped out, and in the 1970s some of the more pious and beautiful hymns were still often included in the Mass.  Songs like The Church's One Foundation, Immaculate Mary, and At That First Eucharist were powerful to a child, and they have stuck with me to this day.  The dramatic, colorful Bible story books I read at home also presented an unshakable image of a just and mighty God and his glorious and majestic Son.  These haunting melodies and images, combined with my parents' faith and the common themes of my religious education did instill some important truths in my heart:  I never wavered in my belief in God Almighty and in the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of His Son.  Just who or what the Holy Spirit was or did was anybody's guess, although I did recognize that the Holy Spirit was one of the Persons of the Trinity -- whatever that meant.  (I believe this particular bit of knowledge came from the repetition of another traditional hymn, which spoke of "God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity."  Since traditional hymns are no longer sung on a regular basis, I can only surmise that young Catholics today are learning less than I did!)

I went through my school years believing I was a strong Catholic -- in fact, as I got older I would often identify myself as "devout" -- and after my high school graduation I chose to attend a Jesuit university, in part to increase my chances of meeting and marrying a nice Catholic man and raising children in a strong Catholic home.  I made many Catholic friends during my years at Boston College, many of whom were products of Catholic elementary and high schools and most of whom were, like me, practicing Catholics. Just touching on this subject brings up many difficult emotions in me, but it is hard to overstate the tragedy occurring at most Catholic universities across the country -- namely, the betrayal of  parents entrusting a child to a college that identifies itself as "Catholic" while it allows and even encourages fiercely anti-Catholic beliefs and practices to permeate the campus and poison impressionable minds.  I do not know one Catholic who grew in his or her Faith at B.C.  Indeed, many who entered Boston College as practicing Catholics graduated indifferent or hostile to Catholicism.  I assure you that Satan is having a good time at B.C. and universities like it.  Though modern sensibilities may scoff at this notion, I don't mean it metaphorically.

Anyway, to give you an idea what all of those years of religious training and formation amounted to, allow me to throw out a short list of terms that, for my first 28 years, had no meaning to me:

Sacred Tradition	Mass Cards	Scapular
Sanctifying Grace	Benediction	Pentecost
Magisterium	Act of Contrition	Four Marks of the Church
Sacramentals	The "Glory Be"	Joyful/Sorrowful/Glorious Mysteries
Corporal Works of Mercy	Apostolic Succession	Four Last Things
Indulgences	Perpetual Adoration	Spiritual Works of Mercy

In my experience, most Catholics of my generation are unable to explain or even recognize the above.  And to follow are some terms that may sound familiar to my post-Vatican II peers, but that they don't understand correctly and/or believe for a second:

Purgatory	Communion of Saints	Papal Infallibility
Transubstantiation	Mortal and Venial Sin	Immaculate Conception

The attitudes of my Catholic peers are no mystery.  Confession?  Sure, great sacrament -- I'll get there one of these years (wink, wink).  No pre-marital sex?  No artificial contraception?  Yeah right, get real!  Evangelize?  Are you kidding?  Why?  After all, Buddhism, Islam, New Age, Christianity -- they're all equal paths to God.  Who are Catholics to say they have the truth?  A mature spirituality requires the understanding that everyone can be right!

In general, Generation X Catholics don't feel any obligation to live as the Church teaches, and I promise you that they do not fear the fires of Hell, nor do they believe in Purgatory.  (But really, how could they?  They've gone to Mass faithfully for decades and never heard such topics discussed, much less defended!)

The culture we live in is merciless when it comes into contact with a poorly catechized Catholic.  American society today is designed to destroy one's faith, as objective truth and moral absolutes are rejected concepts.  When modern, "enlightened"
catechesis echoes the messages of the culture, and when those charged with informing the Catholic conscience and transmitting the Faith take an "experiential" rather than informative approach, what can you expect?  You can expect exactly what was taught.You can expect young Catholics who believe "conscience" means "opinion" and you can expect subjective feelings and personal experience to supplant objective truth.  In fact, the prevailing philosophy of my peers is that there is no one "truth" -- truth is whatever we want it to be.  You have your truth, I have mine.  (Kind of puts the lie to Christ's definitive statement, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" doesn't it?  It also doesn't sound like anything worth dying for -- those silly martyrs!)

We reap what we sow, and when pop-psychology all but replaces sound catechesis the results should not surprise anyone.  The practices and beliefs of my circle of Catholic friends tell a sad story.  Pre-marital sex?  Yes, with a series of different partners.  Contraception?  Of course -- it's a virtue.  Living together, a.k.a. living in sin?  It's a non-issue.  (One Catholic friend did go so far as to find a "compassionate" priest who consented to give her absolution before she moved in with a man!)  Active homosexuality?  A lifestyle choice.  Abortion?  Sad, and we don't like it, but it's a woman's private decision -- too bad her partner didn't use a condom.

Most of my Catholic friends attend Mass sporadically or not at all.  Some get their spiritual guidance from gender feminism (which is a fiercely anti-Catholic movement) and/or New Age philosophies. Overall, the Catholic call to holiness is an unfamiliar concept to them, and I do not for a moment attempt to exempt myself from this scrutiny.  Confession is a sacrament that was never emphasized (I made my first Confession at nine years of age while sitting on a priest's lap), and after my first couple of confessions during grade school, I never went back; I shudder when I think of how often I received Holy Communion unworthily.

So how is it that a Catholic who went to Mass every Sunday and went through all the proper catechism programs at her church could continue on unconcerned while carrying several serious sins on her soul?  I do not offer this as an excuse for doing wrong, but you must understand my actions in the context of what I was taught.  My generation of Catholics grew up with a keen understanding of God's infinite love for us.  We knew that His mercy could not be exhausted, no matter how badly we behaved.  But at the same time, we heard almost nothing about God's justice.  That while God is perfectly merciful, He is also perfectly just.  Somehow, that part was lost, or suppressed.  I guess no one wanted to hurt our feelings with Church teaching; for example, that by persisting in serious, unrepented sins, we could damn ourselves to an eternity in Hell.

Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate.  The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it.  But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!" (Matt 7:13-14)  Jesus mentions Hell over a dozen times in the Gospels, but our teachers and priests only presented us with the Jesus of the Beatitudes, or the Jesus who continuously forgave sinners.  We were never reminded that Jesus forgave repentant sinners, those with contrite hearts and the intention to sin no more.

The God presented to American Catholics today is the Rodney Dangerfield of gods:  He gets no respect.  Today, God hardly needs to be worshipped, since He's our buddy, our pal, our equal.  No need to fear Him or stand in awe, no difficult obligations on our part -- we need only feel the warm fuzzies He showers upon us, until we die and He takes us instantly to Heaven.

Such was the image that my generation got of God our Father.  But what would we say of any other father who asks no obedience, forgives every sin unconditionally and automatically, with no requirement for an apology or recompense?  We would call him a wimp, a pushover, a sap, a fool.  Good and loving parents don't reward bad behavior and disobedience.  They set down boundaries that a child, for his own good, must not cross.  Should that child choose to persist in disobedience and wrong-doing, good parents don't expand the boundaries to encompass his bad behavior, they hold firm and hope for his repentance precisely because they desire his happiness and success.  They do not cease to love him, even as they let him experience the consequences of his poor choices.  Such it is with God and sinful man.  He loves us infinitely, but He cannot force us to love and obey Him against our free will.  None of this was explained to post-Vatican II Catholics.

Although many of my peers will leave the Church and Christianity altogether, many will do as I did.  That is, I never once considered forsaking Christianity, nor did I question Christ's divinity (I felt strongly that to deny Christ would be blasphemous and a sacrilege).  But I was guilty of presumption.  I thought that because of my "deep faith" I could continue in one or another mortal sin and God would forgive me, or make an exception on my behalf.  I just knew he would respect my "conscience!"

I never did disagree with the Church's stand on controversial issues such as abortion or homosexuality.  I had even heard, almost by accident, some of the Church's arguments against artificial contraception, and they made sense to me.  I thought the Church was probably right on this issue (how magnanimous of me!), but of course I could never be expected to actually go along with this teaching!  I did plan to learn Natural Family Planning one day, sure, but certainly not now, in my young married years.  After all, God understands.

Though I presumed on God's mercy, I still believed in moral absolutes, and I never went the way of moral relativism; in fact, another young mother and I spent a year and a half writing an editorial column for our state's largest newspaper in which we rejected moral relativism and defended the concept of objective truth.  This friend, Kim, had spent six years as a gender feminist and New Ager, but motherhood combined with writing our column eventually led her back to Christianity and into a local Bible church.              (Read Kim's story here)

Kim had been a lapsed Episcopalian and I was a waning Catholic, so we had never really had religious discussions until then; but because of my strong belief in an objective right and wrong, I was attracted to what she was telling me about the Bible church.  These evangelicals stood firm on moral issues and were not afraid of offending anyone with Christian moral truths.  I couldn't say as much for the Catholic parish I was sporadically attending, where moral courage was sadly lacking and politically correct sermons and liturgies were the norm.  A Church that sought to blend in with the culture was not the kind of religious community I wanted.  I was raising children in a scary society, and I needed support from others who believed as I did and who would be a refuge from the "pagan world."  In my disgust with what American Catholicism had become, I flirted with the idea of leaving it for the Bible church.

Let me back up here and fill in some details.  Shortly after I graduated college, I became engaged to Dean Miller, a nice agnostic Jewish boy (so much for my attempts to find a Catholic husband!).  My identity as a Catholic was strong enough that I had come to this relationship with certain non-negotiables:  I would never get married outside the Church, and any children of mine would be baptized and raised Catholic.  Dean (who, ironically, attended a Catholic high school) respectfully and unselfishly agreed to my conditions, and we were married a year later in a Catholic church by my childhood priest.

Over the next four years, I gave birth to three beautiful babies.  As you might imagine, this provided me with any number of excuses for not going to Mass on Sundays, and almost never on holy days.  Of course, when one does not understand what takes place during the Mass, it is easy to become lax about attending.  During those years, I lived in two major cities and had done a bit of "church-hopping," trying to find a parish I liked.  I became disillusioned by the seemingly endless (and lame) attempts to make the Mass "hip" and entertaining.  All of the hand-holding, applauding, trite songs and political correctness was a monumental turn-off for me.  I felt no reverence, no awe; there was nothing in these Masses to snap me to attention, to take me out of myself and focus my mind and heart up to God in His Heaven.  I wasn't "getting anything out of it."  (Like so many others, I did not fully comprehend that one doesn't go to Mass to "get something out of it" -- one goes to worship God.)  When I did get myself to church, I felt as if I were "putting in my time," mechanically fulfilling an obligation.  I often ducked out right after Communion.

Because I was raised to never miss Mass, I felt guilty for skipping it so often (as well I should have, considering the gravity of the sin!).  I half-teasingly blamed Dean for my not getting to church, but he wouldn't let me get away with such scapegoating.  He and I knew I had no one but myself to blame.  Though my actions were inexcusable, allow me once again to explain my state of mind during these years.  I had grown up in a culture that had, with amazing rapidity and nonchalance, thrown all of the old value systems out the window.  Nothing was sure and eternal anymore, and it had gradually become unacceptable to believe in a right and wrong.  The idea of sin was deemed positively medieval, and  "morality" became a dirty word.  "Getting one's needs met" was the focus of each individual's personal growth, with the question being,  "What's best for me, and what makes me comfortable?"

Of course, Christ's message to the world is exactly the opposite.  We Christians must die to self, take up our crosses in suffering and sacrifice, and do the will of our Heavenly Father.  The Catholic Church in America seemed to me to have forgotten this message, and was all too eager to fit right in with the culture.  Instead of the Church going forth in courage to influence and change the world, the world was influencing the Church.  Worshipping and glorifying God seemed to take a back seat to worshipping and glorifying ourselves.  I knew enough about Christ's message to recognize that a serious gulf existed between what the Pope and the Bible were saying and what American Catholics were hearing.  At some point, the American Church and the world became almost indistinguishable in my eyes.

Case in point:  The only moral challenges given to the faithful from the pulpit were (and are) calls to help the poor, or admonitions against racism and sexism.  But it was obvious to me that every good atheist, pagan or non-believer out there was saying the same thing.  So why bother being a Christian?  Why get out of bed on Sunday morning and go to Mass when I could turn on any news program or TV series and get the same message?  Young Americans generally are sensitive to social justice issues, since we've been immersed in a culture that never ceases to speak out on such things.  To this day, when I hear yet another social justice homily, I want to yell out:  "We get it!  We get it!  But what we never hear about is the need for personal morality!  For repentance!  For conversion!  For holiness!  What we don't understand is our Faith!  Teach us!  Challenge us!  Help us get to Heaven!"  Have too many leaders of the Catholic Church in America forgotten that their mission is to save souls?

The abuses and trials one must endure at Mass today are legendary among the faithful, and it was just such instances which helped fuel my estrangement from the Church.  For example, I have been at Masses where I have been driven to distraction as I read the words of Sacred Scripture in a missalette while the lector read a distorted "inclusive language" version of the same text.  My intelligence has been insulted as I've witnessed the disappearance of words like "brothers" and "men" from both liturgy and song -- apparently the political correctness police have decided that I as a woman am either too stupid or too fragile to understand that such words include me, too.  I have sat through an Easter Mass where the priest donned a bunny suit for a homily/skit, and balloons were tied to the pews.  And I have sat with my mouth hanging open as I heard one priest use that morning's gospel reading to condone homosexuality.  After a while, it didn't seem worth it anymore; I could no longer see the point to attending Mass.  Looking back, it is clear that I had lost respect for the Catholic Church.

Which brings me back to my flirting with the idea of leaving for a Bible church.  I had listened to my friend Kim tell me about the powerful and courageous sermons she heard week after week at her non-denominational church.  The pastor spoke out against the immorality that surrounded Christians today.  He spoke of right and wrong, and he used Sacred Scripture to show his flock the proper way a Christian should conduct himself.  The evangelicals at this church did not pretend to blend into the culture, they were fighting against it, in a loving, Christ-centered way.  They kept their eyes on God.  And the faithful were actually instructed in Christianity!  Kim was attending Sunday services, weekly Bible study, a doctrine class and a Christian parenting class.  She loved it because her soul was being fed, and for the first time she understood what it meant to be a Christian!  What a contrast to what I was experiencing in my Catholic parish.  No wonder a good portion of her church's congregation consisted of ex-Catholics -- young ex-Catholics like me, who were raising families.

Maybe this is a good place to debunk a myth that desperately needs debunking.  One of the classic lines from liberal, dissenting Catholics is this:  "The Church needs to change its outdated teachings and must ordain women, replace the patriarchal language in the liturgy, allow divorce and remarriage, sanction birth control, masturbation, homosexuality, abortion [and so on, ad nauseum].  Young people are leaving the Church in droves because of its refusal to conform to the times!"

As a young person, I tell you this is rubbish.  It is a smokescreen.  I do not dispute that there are many young, "enlightened" Catholics who have left the Church with these reasons on their lips.  But they are using these reasons as excuses to mask the real problem:  They have either lost their faith or they never really had it.  The need in this case is not for accommodation, but for conversion.  These young Catholics have never been taught that Christianity is not about self-fulfillment, it's about self-denial; it's not about worldly power, it's about humility; it's not about control, it's about obedience; and it's not about some misguided, gender feminist idea of equality, it's about Truth.

But for all of the young Catholics who leave the Church because it is not politically correct enough for them, there are equal numbers (mainly those who have begun families) who are leaving for opposite reasons; namely, they feel the Church has become too liberal, too morally lax, too reflective of the secular culture.  These Catholics are filling the pews of fundamentalist and evangelical churches, whose leaders hold fast to Christian morality, and where the Ten Commandments are still understood to be commands, not suggestions.  These young adults are searching for an anchor in a world gone mad.  They are searching for Christ and a high standard of Christian morality, and they don't believe they can find either in the Catholic Church.  (Ironically, by leaving the Catholic Church, they are actually walking away from the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and leaving the faith that holds the highest and most difficult moral code of them all!)

I leaned toward a Bible church because of the moral courage I knew I would find there, because of the pride in Christ Jesus that so permeated the place, and because I would receive instruction in my faith, not an apology for it.  Yet if you ask a liberal, dissenting Catholic why Catholics are leaving the Church, they'll tell you it's because we haven't gone far enough in liberalizing the Faith!  It's as if they're saying, "Let's neutralize Christianity completely, ignore our heritage and traditions, throw out the sacraments, deny the existence of Original Sin, disclaim the divinity of Christ, drain the Faith of any truth or meaning, and then the churches will be bursting at the seams!"  It makes you wonder if the people so hell-bent on liberalizing the Catholic Church are acting out of love for the Faith or acting out of a desire to destroy it.

Nevertheless, by February of 1995, I just wanted out.  I was ready to send out a trial balloon to my mom, to see how she would react to my inclination to leave the Church.  I specifically did not approach my dad first, as I knew he would be heartbroken at the thought; but because my mother was raised a Protestant (she came into the Catholic Church when I was three), I thought she would be easier to talk to.  Mom is a very rational and stoic person, and she is known for giving sound advice.  After I popped the question:  "How would you feel if I left the Church for a Bible church?" she gave me the answer that would change not only my life, but the lives of many others as well.  She said, "Before you leave, you should find out what it is that you're leaving."

She then proceeded to give me some of the reasons she had left Protestantism.  For instance, she said it never made sense to her that Protestants place all their belief in the Bible alone.  The question for her became, which Bible?  There were so many different translations, and everyone had a different view on which version was authoritative.  She was also wary of non-denominational churches in general, and she talked about "the cult of the personality," or the tendency in such churches for the congregation to rally around a well-liked, dynamic pastor who usually had a new and "brilliant" interpretation of Scripture.  He would be the reason that they came, and if that particular pastor left, the congregation would leave with him.

Everything she said made sense to me, and that evening my thoughts of leaving Catholicism were at least neutralized.  The big blow came a couple of weeks later when my mom, in her matter-of-fact way, presented me with a book.  It was the kind of book I had never seen before.  The kind of book I never knew existed.  It was a book of Catholic apologetics.  It was Karl Keating's Catholicism and Fundamentalism .

Some people may roll their eyes in disbelief when I say that I never knew such a book existed.  I don't blame them -- even I cannot believe that it never occurred to me that someone out there might find it necessary, useful, even noble to defend the Faith!  It seems so silly to me now.  How could I have been ready to jump ship to a Bible church without even investigating the doctrinal issues involved?  Why did it never even cross my mind that a Church of 2,000 years might be able to present an argument on her behalf?  Maybe it's because in my lifetime as a Catholic, I had never heard anyone defend the Faith.  No one had ever given me any reasons why Catholics were right, why we had the fullest truth.  The only thing approaching an apologetics argument was my parents' statements that ours was the oldest Christian church.  That we Catholics were here first!  During my childhood and adolescence, I remember being quite proud of that fact.  Too bad no one ever elaborated on that point.

But once that glorious book was placed in my hands, it was all over.  I was excited, amazed, impressed that someone had taken the time to spell out the differences between Protestants and Catholics, not mechanically and neutrally, but passionately and full of love for the Catholic Faith!  And Mr. Keating used the Bible itself to illustrate the truth of Catholic doctrine!  It only took reading a few pages of this wonderful book to not only keep me Catholic, but to set me on a path of knowledge that has led my soul to burn for the Faith.  Sound dramatic?  It is!  Thanks to two years of study and the grace of God, I have found treasures that I never dreamed possible in this world, and yet I have come to understand that I have only dipped my little toe into the vast and glorious ocean that is Catholicism.

Over the next several months, my friend Kim and I engaged in a series of friendly, but extremely intense, theological debates. We went back and forth about issues such as Papal authority, the Real Presence, Mary, sanctification of the soul, and the implications of the Inquisition.  We gave special attention to the two doctrines that separate Protestants and Catholics:  sola scriptura (the Reformers' belief that the Bible is a Christian's only authority) and sola fide (the Reformers' belief that we are saved by our faith alone).  At times it was like the blind leading the blind, but I used the best arguments for Catholicism I knew at the time, and Kim got a hold of the best apologetics that Protestantism had to offer.

The phone calls were intense, and they would leave us physically and emotionally drained.  A couple of our conversations lasted seven hours!  After about six months of this mini replay of the Reformation, we hit what we call "the brick wall" and we agreed it was time to stop talking about theology for awhile, as we were frustrated and getting nowhere.

Meanwhile, my husband Dean was being sucked into all this "God talk" whether he wanted to or not (I was so excited about what I was learning that I discussed it with him when he let me).  Together, Kim and I had "discovered" the Old Testament prophesies which so clearly vindicate Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, and I excitedly pointed out these passages to my dear Jewish husband.  I'll never forget the almost panicked look in Dean's eyes when he reluctantly admitted one night that it appeared Jesus might actually be the Son of God.

In their own journeys to faith, both Dean and Kim had one overriding principle:  They were searching for objective truth.  They didn't make their faith decisions based on their own opinions or what "felt right."  They weren't looking for what was comfortable, they were looking for what was true.  And of course that's what God asks of each of us.  Just as the Savior took up His Cross, we are each expected to take up our own, following in the footsteps of Truth Himself, even if it costs us our comfort, our security, even our very lives.

In Kim's quest for Truth at all costs, she kept praying and studying, even after we hit our "brick wall."  She gave the Catholics one last chance to prove themselves by reading Patrick Madrid's now legendary book, Surprised By Truth , in which eleven converts -- many of them Protestant ministers -- give their reasons for becoming Catholic.  In three nights (she calls them the darkest nights of her life), she was shown the Biblical and historical truth of Catholicism.  Six months later, at great personal cost but with great joy, Kim did what was previously inconceivable to her:  She received the Sacraments of the Church, and is now a devout Catholic.  Within a year, and after an initial reluctance, her husband announced his own intention to convert.  And with great rejoicing and all gratitude to God, I can report my husband Dean's profound conversion as well.  (Yep, I got a Catholic husband after all, and a devout one at that!)

Some other fruits of my "conversion"?  I have returned to confession after more than fifteen years, and I now reap the graces of that wonderful, previously unknown sacrament.  Mass, which I once avoided, is now an other-worldly experience for me.  Contraception?  Gone, with great benefit to my marriage.  I continue to uncover the treasures of Christ's Church, and Kim and I now teach the Faith to others.  I guess you could say that in Catholicism I've found the secret of the universe, and nothing can compare to its majesty.

Which brings me back to a sadness.  How easily I could have lost it all!  How easily my friends and contemporaries have lost or could lose a Faith they never really understood.  Feel-good, inoffensive, nebulous psycho-babble catechesis doesn't provide an even minimal foundation of faith, and a faith built on such a weak and erroneous foundation could not withstand even the smallest challenge.  For proof of this, note that fundamentalist Christians have successfully pulled millions of Catholics out of the Church just by quoting a few Bible verses out of their proper context.  And at the other end of the spectrum, feminists and New Agers lure Generation Xers out of Catholicism simply by loudly and repeatedly applying snide labels to the Church, such as "patriarchal," "oppressive," "reactionary," "judgmental," "irrelevant," etc.  A poorly catechized Catholic is virtually helpless against these tactics.

So, just what did I learn on my own that I never learned in religious ed.?  Almost everything, but here are some of the biggies that shocked me:  I learned that after Christ's ascension into Heaven, He did not leave us floating out here alone on Earth with just a book to try to interpret individually until He comes again (and since the vast majority of humanity was and is illiterate, why would He?).  I learned that the Catholic Church is the one Church explicitly founded by Jesus Christ on the rock of Peter, the first pope, and that the Bible is a product of the Catholic Church (and thus subject to her interpretation).  I learned that as Christ promised, the Holy Spirit has been protecting and guiding the successors to Peter and the Apostles for all these 20 centuries.  I learned that, because of this promised guidance, the teaching authority of the Church cannot err when speaking on issues of faith and morals; the Church does not, has not and will not change such teachings because she cannot!  The deposit of faith has remained pure and intact since public revelation ended with the death of St. John, the last Apostle.  I learned that the Church has always rightly claimed to be the protector of Christ's Truth, with the authority to proclaim, explain and apply that revealed Truth to the world.  I learned that submission to Church teaching is submission to Christ.

I learned that the crown jewel of Christianity, the Eucharist, is clearly evident in the New Testament, and that it was brilliantly prefigured in the Old Testament by many different writers, thousands of years prior to Christ's institution of that sacrament.  It's no wonder, then, that the earliest Christians and all of the Church Fathers were staunch believers in the Real Presence, and were thoroughly Catholic in the rest of their doctrine.  The writings of the Fathers would stun any Protestant, and most Catholics as well!  I learned that the seven sacraments of the Church were explicitly instituted by Christ and are the direct channels of God's grace into our souls, the surest links between Heaven and Earth.  I learned that God did not make it difficult for man to find the Truth, provided that man seek the Truth.

The thing that shocked me most of all?  Everything I mentioned above can be proven biblically, historically, and through an exercise of reason.  Catholicism is not a religion of blind faith.  Kim and I have played devil's advocate for every controversial claim or issue regarding the Church, and the Church has won every time -- in fact, the Church's case gets stronger and more exquisitely beautiful every time it's tested!  Yet young Catholics were never told any of this.

As I said at the beginning:  I was robbed and my peers were robbed.  The loss is incalculable, as how do you count the cost of even a single lost soul?  As for blame, well, there's enough blame to go around, and I am fully aware of my own culpability in all of this.  I could have asked more questions, and I could have sought to do God's will as best I understood it, but in many cases I did not.  I have had long discussions with my parents, and they have willingly accepted their share of the blame as well.  But if I were giving a prize for biggest subverters of the Faith, it would have to go to liberal, dissenting Catholics, especially those in positions of power within the Church, be they theologians, bishops or catechetical directors.  They have witnessed an entire generation raised up in complete ignorance of the Faith as a result of catechetical failure, they see wide-scale rebellion and disdain for Church teaching and authority, and yet they still push to further liberalize the Church, pushing more and more people out of the Light and into darkness.

When I hear of dissident movements such as Call To Action and We Are Church, and when certain bishops, priests and sisters support and even lead these causes, I am indignant.  While these so-called "progressive" Catholics work to undermine the Faith and  fall all over themselves apologizing for the teachings of Holy Mother Church, I just wonder when any of them is going to apologize to me?  Or to my contemporaries?  When will they apologize for putting a  generation of souls in jeopardy?

Maybe they should be reminded of the Second Epistle of St. John, verses 9-11:  "Anyone who is so 'progressive' that he does not remain rooted in the teaching of Christ does not possess God, while anyone who remains rooted in the teaching possesses both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you who does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house; do not even greet him, for whoever greets him shares in the evil he does."

Or how about St. Paul writing to the Galatians (1:8-9):  "For even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel not in accord with the one we delivered to you, let a curse be upon him!  I repeat what I have just said:  If anyone preaches a gospel to you other than the one you received, let a curse be upon him!"

Here are Jesus' words on the subject:  "Whosoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matt. 18:6)

Catholics -- be they priests, bishops, religious, theologians or laymen -- who do not profess loyalty to the Holy Father and the Magisterium should have the integrity to identify themselves as Protestants, for that is what they are, i.e. they exist in a state of protest against the Roman Catholic Church.  And those influential Catholics who have so obviously lost their faith have no business teaching or influencing the next generation.

I am not so naive or despairing to believe that even wide-scale apostasy among American Catholics at every level will destroy the Church.  We know from Christ Himself  that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against His Bride.  So even though we needn't be concerned with the Church's survival, we should all concern ourselves with the Church's primary mission on earth: the salvation of souls.  Too many souls have been allowed to slip out of the Church due to catechetical neglect, and it's time to stem the tide.

Perhaps the first step in reversing this trend is to throw ourselves at the mercy of God, begging forgiveness for the mess we've made in His Church and His world.  Second, we must pray for the conversion of those within our Church who seek to undermine the very Faith they claim to profess.  Third, each Catholic must take it upon himself to learn the Faith, and then commit himself to a life of proclaiming the Truth to others -- this is the "new evangelization" by the laity advocated by His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

Finally, I humbly propose a Catholics' Bill of Rights, to be handed out to every new Christian along with his baptismal candle.  Maybe it could go something like this:

You have a right to your Catholic heritage.  You have the right to hear the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  You have the right to have the Faith of the Apostles transmitted to you unfiltered and undefiled.  You have the right to be catechized by an instructor who must first be required to profess his loyalty and obedience to Rome, and who humbly submits to all the teachings of Christ through His Church.  Anything less is not only nonsensical but scandalous, and might lead you away from the truth of the Church.  You have the right to expect Catholic orthodoxy in all Catholic classrooms and institutions, and you have the most blessed and merciful right never to hear radical feminism or pantheism taught as if it had anything remotely to do with Catholicism.  You have the right to remain Catholic.  If you give up that right, it will be your free will choice and not the result of poor or scandalous catechesis.  (In other words, you have the right to know what you're leaving before you leave it.)  And finally, you have the right to be indignant if you look back 28 years from now and realize that most of these rights have been denied you.

Praise God, my joy at having found the Faith is greater than my righteous anger at those who had a hand in keeping it from me for so long.  I know that I cherish my faith so dearly precisely because I almost lost it.  I know that God's ways are not man's ways, and I am forever grateful that He chose this way to lead me back home.  I only pray that He might somehow lead my contemporaries back home as well.


Leila and her husband have five beautiful children.
You may send her email at this address.
Leila@lisaslighthouse.org

For link click here (transcripts to the show)

Here's a snippet for ya, from Alan Keyes show on June 13, 2002:

We have with us tonight the author of a book, "Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church." Michael Rose is somebody who hasn't shrunk from looking at this aspect of the issue head-on, going into whether there is in fact a factual basis for this concern about tolerance for homosexuality within the priesthood and it's effects.

Michael Rose, welcome to MAKING SENSE.

MICHAEL ROSE, AUTHOR: Thank you so much, Alan. Thanks for having me on.

KEYES: Now, obviously you have thought about this very question, in terms of the contribution made by homosexuality to this crisis and the role that it played. What would you say is, in fact, the role of homosexuality? Is it a root cause here? Is it a symptom, in terms of the kind of problems that have emerged over the course of the last months and years?

ROSE: Well, I think the problem really is the gay subculture that has flourished in the seminaries over the last 35 years. And in my research, one of the obstacles to young men becoming priests in the Catholic Church has been the presence of that active gay subculture.

Often a young man will enter a Catholic seminary expecting to find wise, strong men, like Bing Crosby or Spencer Tracy. And what he finds instead sometimes are the Village People. At St. Mary's in Baltimore, for example, there were many students who recounted to me seeing fellow students and also faculty members actually gathering together to go cruise the gay bars on the weekend.

And if that wasn't bad enough, when the students complained about the gay subculture, oftentimes they were persecuted. They were sent to psychological counseling for being homophobic. They were labeled sexually disordered, and eventually expunged from the system.

(CROSSTALK)

KEYES: Go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt.

ROSE: Well, I was just going to add that what I found in my research, interviewing over 150 men who were in the seminaries, is that there's been sort of a reverse discrimination. There's been a systematic rooting out of the man who accepts the teachings of the Catholic Church, and especially the teachings on sexual morality. And I'm talking over the last three decades, or so.

I haven't read this book, but it may be a good one. It's called Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church by Michael S. Rose. Here's a link to the Amazon description and lots of reviews: click here

Here's a brief description of the book:

From Library Journal
Written shortly before the current scandal broke upon the Roman Catholic Church, Rose's book seems almost prophetic as he documents the systematic rejection of pious, orthodox seminary applicants in many dioceses and the encouragement of questionable attitudes and agendas. Rose (Ugly As Sin), who was editor of St. Catherine Review for seven years, is the author of numerous articles, essays, and books that question the wisdom of contemporary liberal Catholicism. Here, he discusses the causes of the chronic priest shortage, including the misuse of psychological screening and what appears to be blatant discrimination against the kind of young men who were once considered ideal candidates for the vocation. He gives a disturbing glimpse behind the scenes that may go far in explaining the church's present difficulties. Based primarily on interviews, the book is carefully footnoted and contains a bibliography of sources cited and consulted. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this prominent topic, and for public and academic libraries. C. Robert Nixon, MLS, Lafayette, IN

I may have to buy this book. Sound familiar? Michael S. Rose also wrote another book called  Goodbye! Good Men: How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations from the Priesthood. He also wrote Priest: Portraits of Ten Good Men Serving the Church Today.

Let us know if you've read any of Rose's books, if you have a review you'd like to share of these or other books, or if they'd be of interest to you.

Dear Editor,

I am beyond disgusted with the state of the Diocese of Camden. This is not only due to the closings of 66 beloved parishes but due to those who purport themselves to be speaking in the best interest of our collective Catholic futures. Take Father James Maggart, the former pastor of Assumption Church in Atco. For whatever personal reasons, this man has had it in for St. Anthony's Parish for years. He has used his position on the Deanery to pursue his own vendetta against our little parish. Even though St. Anthony's is larger than Sacred Heart, has better parking, seven beautifully renovated, fully functioning classrooms, a newly renovated kitchen, all by the way paid for by the parishioners because we were assured that we WERE NOT CLOSING. Father Maggart used his influence to close us down. Now I have just learned that he has either been asked or voluntarily resigned his position this past Tuesday because (wait for it) he's either already or soon to be getting married. This is who this bishop has been ill advised by. While I can't blame Bishop Galante for the actions of this priest, my grandmother's old adage of "you lay down with dogs, you're going to get fleas" keeps popping in my head.

I speak not only for St. Anthony's Parish in Waterford but for all of the little parishes who are also being bullied and bulldozed into a situation they neither want or had any hand in creating. The speak up sessions, the planning committees, even the notification system this bishop has employed is a complete and utter joke. He does not respect or represent anyone in this diocese except perhaps himself. Why he would go out of his way to tear out our hearts is beyond me and and beyond cruel.

Bishop Galante's advisers are not only misinformed as to the best course of action for the future of this Diocese but seem hell bent on destroying so many faithful followers, mostly the elderly who have spent generations building and maintaining their parishes, which are without a doubt the hearts of each and every local community.

My hope is that anyone who made a pledge to the Bishop's House of Charity Appeal will stop payments immediately and donate any and all funds to their local parishes and/or charities of their choice. Don't support a bishop who won't support us!!! Send a message to this bishop that he has lied to us, misled us and screwed with us FOR THE LAST TIME!!!

I am a Eucharistic Minister, a Sunday School Teacher for the last twelve years, the current leader of three Girl Scout troops run out of St. Anthony's Church, an active member of the parish, as well as a former member of my Parish Council. I am also the mother of a 17-year-old Lector, a 14-year-old Altar Server and twin eight-year-old, up-and-coming Alter Servers. I do not write so adamantly against my bishop lightly, but with a heavy heart and with a sense of absolute necessity. Stop this madness and give us back the homes of our hearts and our faith.

A Furiously Disillusioned Catholic,
Patty Gioffre
609-567-7927
St. Anthony's Parish, Waterford



Bravo, Patty. A letter well-written. You speak my mind and the minds of many, many, many South Jersey Catholics. Thank you1  -Julie