Does your diocese have a good shepherd? Does your parish? How can you tell? Scripture says, "By their fruits you shall know them." The measure of a good shepherd is how zealously he defends the faith and protects his flock from scandal. If you are fortunate enough to have a good shepherd, be sure to express your gratitude.
And now I have a story to tell from my own two dioceses, Richmond and Arlington. Arlington is blessed to have many faithful priests. How grateful I am for them because they have kept Arlington from going the way of so many places that have essentially lost the faith altogether. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. warned about the crisis of faith for years and predicted that entire dioceses would lose the faith. Has that happened in your diocese? He described the crisis in a 1997 article that outlined what has become ever more obvious. Who can deny it today?
But now to my story, a true story about a crisis in Arlington in 1996.
I've lived through several bishops in the Richmond and Arlington Dioceses. When I got married in 1969 northern Virginia was still part of the Richmond Diocese under Bishop John Russell. He was succeeded in 1974 by Bishop Walter Sullivan who was the auxiliary. That same year Richmond was divided and the Diocese of Arlington was established under Bishop Thomas Welsh. Following his transfer to Allentown in 1983, Bishop John Keating was assigned. He was succeeded by Bishop Paul Loverde in 1999 after Keating's sudden death in Rome the preceding year. And finally, when Bishop Loverde retired in 2013, Bishop Michael Burbidge became the fourth bishop of Arlington.
I began publishing a newsletter in the mid 90s in the diocese because of the number of scandals taking place. A priest told me once that if you can't stop a scandal, the next best thing is to shine light on it and that's what the newsletter was meant to do. The precipitating event was the group Call to Action (CTA) organizing in parishes run by hirelings.
If you aren't familiar with CTA, they dissent from many church teachings particularly related to sexuality, women priests, and all things progressive. Here's one dissenting bit from their website today about their goals which continue to be evil:
Gender Justice
A church that fosters gender justice, including the ordination of women, trans, and non-binary folks.
Sexuality & LGBTQ+ Justice
A church that promotes and cultivates dignity among all peoples and families, regardless of their marital status or sexual and/or romantic relationships.
As for ordaining women, one of CTA's Virginia members, Sr. Bridget Meehan was later "ordained" a priestess and now claims to be a bishop of the Association of Women Catholic Priests.
While CTA has dwindled and no longer has a Virginia chapter (I think Les Femmes contributed to their demise.), at the time the local chapter was actively mobilizing. The first parish they invaded was Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria where they promoted Rent-a-Priest, an organization of priest who left the Church to marry and rented themselves out for liturgical services and Promises, a support group for women involved in sexual relationships with priests in active ministry. Yes, you read that right. Would a good shepherd allow this group to meet in his parish?
At their second meeting held at Christ the Redeemer in Sterling, a group of us, all rescuers from the pro-life movement, went to the church to protest. The pastor fled and left the Director of Religious Education, a liberal like himself, to be in charge. They obviously planned to use this meeting to intimidate and make sure they could continue organizing in other churches led by hirelings. The police were there already when we arrived. As the meeting began several us demanded to know by whose authority they were meeting in the churches. They refused to answer. One of the CTA organizers who had no connection to the parish then told the police to arrest us. When the officer came to arrest me, I asked by whose authority he was making the arrest. He didn't know.
Let me back up here. We tried to get the diocese to stop it. I talked to the Chancellor and he said they would not take any action. I made it clear that if the bishop wouldn't do anything about it we would. That's why we were there. Our shepherd refused to protect the sheep. To his credit one diocesan priest attended to defend the faith. When he began speaking the CTA members told him to shut up. There were about a hundred people at the meeting, at least a third opposing the disgraceful meeting which was held in a room directly behind the sanctuary. We were praying the rosary out loud as the situation deteriorated. Six of us were arrested and ended up in court. Our experience in the rescue movement made us accustomed to arrest, so we were not intimidated by CTAs tactic.
To make a long story short, we went to trial and subpoenaed the bishop because he is the owner of the parish properties. He was not happy! In the end, though, he responded by issuing a letter to all the priests saying they could not allow any groups dissenting from the faith to meet in our parishes. CTA moved to Protestant churches and we continued to expose their antics over a number of years. I still pray for several of them and, in fact, we held a "cast party" after the trial and invited several of the CTA members as a joke. One of them took me up on it and called and asked if I was serious. I was shocked but said of course and he came with, I believe, his third wife. His agenda in all this was no fault Catholic divorce. He later left that wife and married a fourth time. At the party he said he was glad we could get together and dialogue about these things. I could only laugh and say, "Charlie, don't misunderstand. I think you're a heretic, but I like you."
So how does this long story, rather a digression, relate to the Good Shepherd? It identifies two priests who, rather than being shepherds, were hirelings. The pastor of Christ the Redeemer literally fled before the meeting. The other priest shoved a friend of mine against the wall and fled from his office when she went to confront him about allowing CTA access to his flock. It was easy to see that these two pastors, both well known for their dissent, were not true shepherds but hirelings. I pray they repented before they died since they have both gone to the judgment seat of God. Bishop Keating failed initially to act like a shepherd, but, in the end, he did the right thing by protecting the flock from a clearly heretical group! I'm sure that contributed to its eventual demise.
We need good shepherds desperately. Let us never stop praying for them and encouraging our shepherds when they do good things, but also confronting them in love when their actions endanger the faith.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place all our trust in You.
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