The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the religious order of dearly beloved friar, Benedict Groeschel, released a letter yesterday to Apostolic Nuncio Christophe Pierre, calling on Pope Francis to institute an investigation into all the charges by Archbishop Vigano -- to either prove or disprove them. They also reiterated the need of bishops to ban from the seminary those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies or those who live or actively promote the gay lifestyle. Amen to that!
This order of priests and brothers is completely dedicated to the poor. They began as a reform movement walking in the steps of St. Francis of Assisi:
The Friars of the Renewal are Franciscans in life and rule but this particular incarnation of the spirit of the poor man of Assisi is relatively recent. The community began in 1987 when eight Capuchin friars, desiring to work for personal and communal reform within the Catholic Church, joined together. The life and apostolate of the friars’ common life, as seen on the streets of inner cities and poor communities throughout the world, are rooted in the ideals and spirit of the Capuchin reform born in the early 16th century. [Read more....]The friars are men in love with life. They pray at the bedsides of the homeless. They operate soup kitchens. And they care deeply about the little ones in the womb waiting to be born. One of the friars, Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, CFR, participated in a Red Rose Rescue (RRR) in 2017 offering help inside an Alexandria, VA abortion mill to the women planning to kill their babies. The friars released a statement about the RRR that says the order supports acts of "conscientious objection to actions that attack the inviolability of human life and seek to break the common bond of human solidarity.” They also state:
Through our prayers, public witness, and solidarity with the unborn, the elderly, and all those whose lives are threatened by death as the proposed solution to problems, we seek to uphold the right to life and the dignity of every human being. We try to accomplish this within a variety of apostolic works and commitments including supporting crisis pregnancy centers and homes for expectant mothers, prayer and counseling at places where abortions occur, spiritual retreats for those who have been affected by abortion, and providing programs for inner-city youth.I want to publicly thank the friars for joining their voices to the call for openness, transparency and action to clean out the cancerous rot in the hierarchy. Read the letter! Let us all pray for Pope Francis and for the bishops that they do the right thing!
Lord Jesus Christ, High Priest and head of the Mystical Body, have mercy on us.
Our Lady, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us.
"His" Order is NOT a role model. It's founder, Groeschel, had a lot of homosexual issues, always down playing it. I used to listen to him at one time and he was a huge promoter of Card. Cooke, who was one of the Prelates behind McCarrick's advancement.
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia...
"Groeschel also made controversial comments in a 2012 interview published by the National Catholic Register on August 27 related to the sexual abuse of children by priests: "Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer."
and
"Well, it’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that."
You can read the whole thing here...
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/pedophiles-entitled-to-one-get-out-of-jail-free-card-says-priest/comment-page-1/
Sad. But now that you mention it, I recall Fr. Groeschel being very sympathetic to Fr. Bruce Ritter, founder of Covenant House. But Groeschel was not the "founder" of the order according to their website. There were several priests who made the decision together to break away and begin a new reformed order. Even Jesus had a Judas, a repentant denyer, and ten cowards. The only one who really stood up to the test was the baby of the group.
ReplyDeleteIf Groeschel was not the founder, then I apologize for that mistake.
ReplyDeleteFr. Groeschel holds no sway for me, that's for sure. But besides that, asking (or even demanding) the Pope to start an investigation, expecting this Pope to hire an "independent" investigator, would be the height of idiocy. I'm sorry but I don't trust anything that is in any way connected to him, no matter how seemingly distant.
ReplyDeleteFor years I sent money to Fr. Ritter's Covenant House and am saddened to read that because Fr. Groeschel spoke highly of him or admiringly that somehow that sullies him. As for the comment about what a very young child can come up with, I grew up in the same sort of neighborhood the friars serve. A very young child who has had their latency period destroyed by indoctrination of the culture of drugs, porn, prostitutes and bad home lives many "Daddies", would curl your hair. These children do not believe in Santa. They're 7 going on 60. Fr. Groeschel's reputation was irreparably damaged. It's a terrible thing, he was a good man and a holy priest.
ReplyDeleteI do not disagree with you, Anna. I also was a supporter of Covenant House, but it was interesting that Fr. Ritter always used the white kids from the Midwest to raise money instead of the inner city black kids who were their primary clientele. And I didn't mean Fr. Groeschel's association with Fr. Ritter to be a condemnation of him. What I recall about the article is asking Fr. Ritter why he didn't turn off all the news excoriating him and he said, basically, that he deserved it. I hope he died in the good graces of God. I met Fr. Groeschel once and he seemed like a good and humble priest. When he made those statements he was already old and sick. And I've met some street wise kids myself. It's still outrageous for anybody to blame the kids versus and adult who knows better.
ReplyDeleteTo Elizabeth you are correct to worry about the putative pope investigating. Indeed all should all whether annulment of the pontificate, extinguishing its mostly unholy effects, is not better than resigning, which consolidates them.
ReplyDeleteI am one of Fr. Benedict's many students, who took classes with him. Fr. Benedict was one of the eight founders of the CFRs. He was the most well-known one.
ReplyDeleteFr. Benedict's thought on homosexuals "evolved." In his 1988 "The Courage to Be Chaste" he embraced Church teaching and opposed sex change surgery. In his 2010 "Travelers Along the Way" (pp. 69-71) he wrote of a young woman he met when she served his Mass at a cloistered convent; she appeared to be a man. He inaccurately describes her as a former religious, although she had been only a postulant and had taken no vows. He states that he considers his former position on sex change surgery as "glib" and gives this glowing portrait of the transsexual:
"After leaving the convent she eventually underwent sex change procedures, which included surgery and extensive hormonal therapy. She now lived as a man, feeling peace for the first time. and also feeling that she had finally become the person she was meant to be from the beginning. This young woman assured me that she was leading a devout and chaste life. I have no reason to doubt this." (p. 70)
How at peace could she have been if she felt compelled to announce that she was "formerly" a woman?
Sadly, Fr. Benedict contributed to the homosexual scandals, as priests he vouched for went on to abuse more victims; see https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_03_02_Egerton_PriestPlays.htm and
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/2003_03_04_Kremen_RodimerPsychologist.htm. Fr.'s response is at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/858280/posts.
Fr. Benedict's "From Scandal to Hope" (2003) was written as damage control for the priestly sex abuse scandal. It presents one argument that now appears in Anthony Esolen's recent article at https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/what-the-priest-scandal-is-and-is-not-about.
Rod Dreher's article has been cited by John Kennedy: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/father-groeschel-goes/
I disagree that Fr. Benedict's remarks in his fatal "National Catholic Register" article were due to old age and illness. I believe they reflected the influence of his boss and other clerical high-ups. Fr. Benedict was very deferential to Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop in whose archdiocese Benedict served. Cardinal Dolan has allowed homosexuals to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade (although the courts had ruled this did not have to be done), ineffectively opposed gay marriage in New York, and ignored the appeals for help from the parishioners of St. Francis de Chantal in the Bronx against their flagrantly homosexual pastor. See my blog article at https://dorothydayworker.blogspot.com/2015/12/hurry-up-please-its-time-cardinal-dolan.html?q=st+frances+de+chantal+church.
I was once acquainted with a Manhattan Catholic priest who was leaving the priesthood accusing Dolan of having his own issues with homosexuality and even a boyfriend in Rome" Is this a disgruntled priest or is there a true Lavendar Mafia, which forced Benedict out.
DeleteThanks for sharing this. One more reason to weep for poor Holy Mother Church. What happens to people's brains. How can there be peace grounded in falsehood?
ReplyDeleteMakes me sad.