Today we look around with dismay at the state of affairs in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and realize that a more striking dichotomy could hardly exist. We have arrived at the point where good is stamped out as something evil, and evil is permitted to flourish as a good.
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Despite the fact that the Church has taught clearly and concisely on marriage and homosexuality, there appears to be great confusion on these subjects among those whom you would expect to know better within the archdiocese.
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At the Office of Indian Ministry in Minneapolis, one can find a unique example of a multi-cultural liturgy by Fr. James Notebaart, a priest featured on the archdiocesan website as an expert in building and remodeling churches, and a consultant on nearly all church renovations in the archdiocese within the last 30 years. Fr. Notebaart has designed a "Catholic" liturgy that incorporates several aspects of Native American pagan worship and is greatly influenced by his direct contact with medicine men in northern Minnesota.
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Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul-Minneapolis was the first US bishop to start such a committee in 1979. COW supports radical feminism in the Church and the inclusion of women to the priesthood. Their 2005 Women’s Research Forum featured a variety of feminist speakers, including Mary Feeley who told how inclusive language “is a passion for her” and that women “need to hear that God is Mother.”
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With more than 225 parishes in the archdiocese and over 400 priests, there is certainly no valid need for general absolution services in St. Paul-Minneapolis. However, it is reported that approximately 75 parishes provide general absolution on a regular basis, either monthly or in preparation for the feasts of Easter and Christmas. This is a gross violation of Catholic Church teaching, and yet this practice has continued unhindered in the archdiocese for years.
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We might also ask why he does nothing about the most notorious public scandal in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis: the Church of St. Joan of Arc. St. Joan’s continues to shock with no interference from the local chancery. In 2004, due to the inactivity of the Archbishop, the Vatican was forced to directly request that they remove their gay pride web pages and stop the practice of lay homilists. Well, the gay pride page came down, but the GLBT ministry page is still up.
And lay homilists? They cleverly substituted “Sunday presentations” for the homilies, and most of these are still given by the laity and clerics of other religions. One of the most popular pages on their website is the preview of upcoming homilies, and transcriptions of these are available on the website.
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The First Communion preparation for children includes a wine and host sampling and a tour of the sacristy where they are shown “the priest’s vestments, baptismal candles, communion supplies and even the sink where the unused wine is disposed of.” Based on terms used in the report, it is understood that the unused wine referred to is actually the Precious Blood. That is not a good thing to be teaching the little ones because, according to Canon 1367, a person who throws away the consecrated species incurs an automatic excommunication.
Then there is the annual Seder Meal celebrated on Holy Thursday. It is a “celebration of the Eucharist in small groups at tables” where hostesses serve consecrated pita bread from large platters and glass decanters of consecrated wine are distributed to parishioners in a mock restaurant atmosphere. It’s a gala event with candles and a vase of flowers on every table.
And just last month, April 28-29, 2006, the infamous heretic and apostate priest Matthew Fox was given the red carpet treatment at St. Joan of Arc Church for two speaking engagements.
A week after the Fox visit, Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates visited St. Joan of Arc to formally install Fr. DeBruycker as pastor. According to The Wanderer, Bishop Pates assured parishioners that “Fr. DeBruycker has the full support of Archbishop Flynn.” In confirmation of this, Archbishop Flynn himself (along with Bishop Pates) paid a visit to St. Joan of Arc on May 24, 2006, to preside at the funeral Mass for Fr. Harvey Egan, former pastor of St. Joan’s. Fr. Egan is the founder of their famous and controversial “gym Mass.”
A local Catholic who attended the funeral gave a detailed description of what he saw. [gulp!]
[snip] Spero News
Who is Spero News?
Madrid, Spain/Houston, Texas /April 11/ — Communication in today’s world requires openness and a new approach with respect to media. Spero News is that new approach.
Initially in English, and soon expanding into Spanish, Spero News is a bi-lingual weekly electronic magazine and community spanning the globe providing premium content submitted from its nearly 100 collaborators. Spero News aims to enhance society by creating a premier, alternative network for readers seeking quality news, information and interaction through the Internet by providing news, commentary, and analysis that encourages citizen participation. In that respect, Spero News is a unique experience towards creating a constructive dialogue between media and readers with the aim of promoting a correctly informed and discerning public opinion as reflected in Judeo-Christian values. By melding journalists, citizen journalists and sector professionals, Spero News also guarantees that its news is by the people and for the people. [snip] The Blog from the Core
4 comments:
A comment on the "general absolutions". I have to wonder if Spero news got it right. I saw several "Communal Penance Services" advertized, NONE Of which mentioned "General Absolution", and all of which commented on the number of priests available after the penance services. I know that St. Stephen's in Anoka does General Absolutions and Pax Christi proudly advertises theirs, but I don't know for certain any of the others (although I'd have a good guess).
adoro - I had the exact same thought. 75 seems awful high.
I was also disappointed with how the article gave the most negative spin possible on the cited examples. For example, as disappointing as it was that UST required Ben Kessler to issue an apology, to say "Apparently, the University of St. Thomas wants nothing to do with true Catholic doctrine" is a bit over-the-top. They did, after all, just issue the no-cohabitation travel policy, which took some fortitude.
It's a good and important thing to keep abreast of the problems in the diocese. But anything less than a fair treatment of the issues doesn't help to provide much clarity.
I agree as well - that does seem like a very high number. All of the parishes I'm aware of that offer communal penance made a point of mentioning the need for individual confessions afterward.
I can understand how you can judge the institutional nature of the archdiocese based on the actions of its most extreme parishes, but I think this gives a deceptive description of the spiritual nature of the archdiocese as a whole.
As we've discussed before, there are many, many good parishes here - articles like this, though they are valuable in highlighting the problems that do need to be addressed, can really give people from outside the archdiocese the impression that there are only two or three decent parishes here. I don't believe in sugarcoating, but at the same time when you paint with a broad brush, you have a hard time being taken seriously.
I didn't think it was possible, but it sounds like things are actually worse at Saint Joan's since Fr. Wertin has retired. I probably shouldn't say that, because it sounds like the Archbishop has no problems with what's going on there, so who am I to complain?
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