Fr. Altier’s Reassignment Shows Double Standard By Archbishop Flynn

Here’s a tale of two priests. It’s a sort of “Groundhog Day” scenario that has played itself over and over again over the past 40 years, a bishop taking punitive action against a solid priest for upholding the teachings of the Church, especially the rights of parents and families, while rewarding another priest who promotes schism, heresy, and apostasy.

Earlier this month, Fr. Robert Altier, associate pastor of the world-renowned St. Agnes Church in St. Paul for 14 years, was named assistant chaplain at a small, remote nursing home by Archbishop Harry Flynn. This was apparently for Altier’s speaking up against the “child-safety” or “safe environment” programs the archbishop mandated for use in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis as a response to the long-running scandal of clerical sex abuse.

As Elizabeth Schwab wrote for Spero News:

“This is a priest who generously spends long hours in the confessional bringing souls back to God, who has been responsible for guiding numerous young people to offer their lives in religious vocations, who for years has painstakingly given instruction through his Fundamentals of Catholicism course to over 150 people each year and brought hundreds of converts into the Catholic Church, who is renowned for his skills in spiritual direction, who acts as board member and adviser to several orthodox Catholic organizations, and who up until recently had been preaching to a worldwide audience via the desertvoice web site and Relevant Radio broadcasting....
“With approximately 10-12 parishes in the archdiocese lacking a resident priest, it is certainly surprising that a priest of Fr. Altier’s caliber would be sent to a destination where he will have an overabundance of time on his hands. [snip] The Wanderer


Elizabeth Schwab, referred to in this Wanderer article by Paul Likoudis is the author of the Spero News article of May 31, 2006, attacking the Archdiocese of St Paul - Minneapolis, and Archbishop Flynn, for a half dozen reasons. See it immediately below this article.