Not Silenced Yet: Pray for Fr. James Altman and for his bishop, William Patrick Callahan!

Thanks to all who signed the Open Letter to Bishop Callahan and left comments for Bishop Callahan and Fr. Altman and promises to pray. I urge everyone to drop the bishop a short note or postcard saying you are praying for him and urging him to restore the live-streamed Masses offered by Fr. Altman. The Bishop's address is:

Are bishops who punish priests for speaking against Democratic party betraying the faith?

September 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The City of God has a problem, a big problem. Many of those charged with protecting and defending her have gone over to the enemy. Some are active members of the treasonous conspiracy; others commit treason by their silence. They are the “nice guys” who want to be liked and admired. They don’t want anyone rocking the boat by insisting on unpleasant truths. So they say and do nothing while the active conspirators within and the enemies without take jackhammers and wrecking balls to the foundations of the holy city.  [Read more here....]

How Many Good Priests Have Been Thrown Under the Bus?

Double standard in action!

How many good priests have been thrown under the bus? Their number is legion. In my own diocese (Arlington) Bishop Burbidge eliminated two priests who were removed from ministry with the assurance they would be reinstated after a time. One was forced into early retirement; the other remains in liturgical limbo. Both are good priests who deserved better (as did their flocks). I grieve for these betrayed priests both of whom I know personally.

Ask the Question!

Bishop Burbidge, Where is Fr. Escalante?

The Diocese of Arlington criticizes "lapse of journalistic standards" over Fr. Escalante article.

Fr. Ron Escalante

Below is the statement on the Arlington diocesan website responding to the Blue Ridge Leader's article about the unjust treatment of Fr. Ron Escalante who was removed as pastor at St. Francis de Sales in Purcellville over an alleged "boundary violation" with a teenage girl. [See article here.]

Excuse my eye-rolling over the diocese's statement. What a bunch of hooey! We hear all the time about how bishops want openness and transparency. Don't believe it! My mom raised me to be too much of a lady to use the language that comes to mind. I doubt if protecting Fr. Escalante's privacy is the main point in all this and their attack on the Blue Ridge Leader is nothing but a diversion. I want to commend Valerie Cury and the Blue Ridge Leader for defending the rights of a good priest. I trust their investigation more than I trust the diocese's. If the sex abuse crisis has taught us anything, it's to be skeptical, not of the Church, but of the Church bureaucracy. My comments are in red.

Rorate Caeli Exposes What?

Update 2/28/2015: Well, there is more to the story than this video which apparently has been misrepresented by bloggers since it was not, in fact, shot the day the seminary closed. I'm linking to a post by Fr.Angelo Geiger that disputes much of what's been circulating on the internet about the papal investigation of the Friars. He doesn't discuss the reasons for the initial investigation or the suppression of the TLM withn the order by the Vatican. 

Frankly, I don't know what to make of a lot of it, but Father is himself a friar so presumably he knows what's what, and he appears to be just seeking truth and justice in the matter. Catholic World Report ran an article in 2013 and even it doesn't get the story completely straight as the comment section shows. Fairness in reporting is important to me and I don't like the thought that other bloggers are posting dishonest material as fact which I may be inadvertently promoting. So read Fr. Geiger's blog post, the CWR article, and pray for the Friars. We live in confusing times. It is sad when Catholic bloggers either deliberately or inadvertently spread false information adding to the confusion.

Original Post --

"On December 8, 2013, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Theological Seminary of the Immaculate Mediatrix (STIM) of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FI) was closed by their Apostolic Commissioner, Fr. Fidenzio Volpi. On the same day, one of the friars filmed the entire day, which presents, along with additional footage, the way of life in that same seminary."



"A great number of the friars seen in this film

Too Darn Sadly True!

I can testify to the consequences to the laity. I've been blacklisted from the diocesan newspaper for twenty years. Before that I wrote occasional articles and frequent letters to the editor. But, hey, there are other places to write. And this blog and the Les Femmes newsletter, The Truth, plug away defending the faith and evangelizing. We're called to do it and so we do. Thanks be to God for the grace of fortitude. May the Lord pour out a triple dose on our faithful priests!

Rorate Caeli Update on Persecuted Priest Fr. Justin Wylie

Check it out here.

Shame on Cardinal Dolan!

And the Persecution of Good Priests Continues

New York Archdiocese Retaliates against Priest

I'm not surprised by this. Too many bishops today act like tyrannical monarchs who will not brook anything that smacks of criticism. Funny how two thirds of the bishops had no problem covering up the abuse problem and moving the pederast around. The double standard  described by Dietrich von Hildebrand in The Devastate Vineyard continues:

The drivel of heretics, both priests and laymen, is tolerated; the bishops tacitly acquiesce to the poisoning of the faithful. But they want to silence the faithful believers who take up the cause of orthodoxy.

Pray for Wylie and for Cardinal Dolan who has much for which to answer.

Les Miserables: Persecuted Priests

Amen to everything in this video. Orthodox priests in my diocese and many others have definitely suffered. See here and here and here and here.

Persecuted Priests Deserve Our Help

Most faithful Catholics these days are aware of the persecution being suffered by many good priests. You can help one -- Fr. James Haley. See here.  By the way, Father is not allowed to present himself as a priest, wear clerics, etc. He has been forcibly dismissed from the priesthood although he is also not allowed to see the canonical proceedings that led to his "sentence." What happened to him reminds me of the machinations used by other politician-bishops throughout history to remove "troublesome" priests.

Father has been told he may not use the name "Father," and he suggested I not call him that. I cannot think of him as anything else. May God forgive those responsible for the vendetta that led to his dismissal. By the way, a fictionalized account of his story will be coming out in a few months with publication of a book written by a friend of mine, a published author. You won't want to miss it. Most of it is based on fact and some of the most outlandish things in the book really happened. More on that later.

No Letup in Fr. Guarnizo Persecution

(Sigh...) It goes on and on. An article on the Washington Post Blog on Sunday discussed the Archdiocese's letter suspending Fr. Guarnizo for actions "unrelated" to refusing Communion to Buddhist lesbian Barbara Johnson at her mother's funeral Mass last month. Fr. LaHood, pastor at St. John Neuman where Fr. Guarnizo was serving before his removal read the letter on Sunday at Mass; then, according to the Post, said, "I realize this letter is hard to hear. Please keep mind that this is a first personnel issue, dealing with issues of ministry in the church. Father Guarnizo will have every opportunity to present his position."

Really? Excuse my cynicism, but I've seen how bishops allow priests to "present [their] positions." Fr. Guarnizo is now being accused of "intimidating" somebody at the parish. Wow! Nice little two-step there. All the revelations coming out about lesbian activist Barbara Johnson has made it hard to hoist Fr. Guarnizo on that petard, so the Archdiocese chooses a more general accusation that is hard to define or refute. What was his "intimidating" behavior? Did Fr. Guarnizo lose his temper and make somebody feel bad? Gosh, I've had priests' "intimidate" me with angry responses when I gently challenged their liturgical abuses. One leaned over and contemptuously said in my ear, "You're full of it, Honey." He then stomped off giving me the single digit salute over his shoulder. Hmm...I should have accused him of sexual harassment, but it didn't occur to me. Do you think his bishop would have suspended him?  So what did Fr. Guarnizo do, roll his eyes at some loony-tune comment? Did he kick a can in the parking lot that scared a liberal wimp? -- They have such tender feelings.

As one who's been accused of "violence" by liberal dissenters for daring to disagree with them,

Bishop Loverde's Pattern of Persecuting Priests

This story is the lead article in the Winter issue of the Les Femmes newsletter. It won't go on-line at the website for several weeks, but I decided to post it now. Pray for the bishop and for all the priests in the Diocese of Arlington. They are all vulnerable, especially the orthodox, to be punished for anything or nothing.

Bishop Loverde's Pattern of Persecuting Priests

     Bishop Paul S. Loverde recently made his ad limina visit to Rome to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, the first since 2004 when he met with the seriously ill Pope John Paul II. The bishop presented Pope Benedict a 300 page state-of-the-diocese summary prepared by Mark Herrmann, the diocesan lawyer-chancellor. It included, according to the Arlington Herald, "everything from population statistics and evangelization efforts to child protection programs and the status of diocesan vocations." One of the things definitely excluded was a description of the pattern of persecution in this diocese against faithful priests and laity. Since Bishop Loverde's installation in Arlington in 1999, at least a dozen priests that I know of have experienced persecution in one form or another, often for minor infractions of diocesan rules or deviating from the bishop’s preferences. I have written about some of these cases previously. Read more here....

Standing up for the Truth at a Cost

The pope recently said that the greatest crisis is not the attack from outside, but the sin within the Church. Mike Voris at the Vortex speaks about it in one of his latest video commentaries which had special meaning for me because it talked about the cost of speaking the truth.

Fr. James Haley knows exactly what that cost is. When he brought information to Bishop Loverde he ended up being thrown out of the rectory and essentially cut off from the family of the Church. For a year he was silenced and shunned, but when he responded to a legal deposition exposing the horrors he discovered the persecution escalated and he became a man without a church, an outcast from his brothers, the rejected man.

A pastor of mine once said that there is no one deader than a dead priest because he has no family and is easily forgotten. There are few people to pray for him. But I think even "deader" than he is is a priest like Fr. Haley who is not only forgotten, but a pariah.

This is the cost of exposing the homosexual priest problem and a few priests have paid it. Most just leave, but some, forced out but reluctant to start a new life, live in a perennial limbo.

And is the problem really behind us? When an entire diocese (Miami) is exposed as being run by a homosexual cabal, one can only wonder how many others operate in the same way? How many continue to keep the secret?

Look at a diocese filled with dissent and there is likely a homosexual connection. The truth and the lie cannot coexist. And the homosexual bishop or priest is living a lie. He pretends to choose a celibate lifestyle, i.e., not to marry, but he has no interest in marriage in the first place. His choice of the priesthood, rather than being a sacrifice, puts him in his ideal situation. He is surrounded by men, some homosexuals like himself. He lives with men, vacations with men, enjoys the company of men and no one thinks anything of it. It's normal. His "special friend" raises few alarms.

Milwaukee under homosexual bishop Rembert Weakland is a perfect example of the dissent-ridden church created by a homosexual. The most immoral sex ed programs were introduced there. Dissent was rampant. Cleaning up the mess, like the fifth work of Hercules (to clean out the Augean stables in a single day), is a daunting task. And the problem is multiplied many times over throughout the U.S. with bishops who may be homosexual themselves or homosexualists who enable the ongoing problem.

Another aspect of the problem is that homosexuals also tend to be narcissistic. The homosexual priest loves being the center of attention. If he's a pastor, he's the Lord of his parish. He may use the money of his people to redecorate his rectory with lavish accoutrements. On the altar he stands in the spotlight. He enjoys the attention. He preaches sweetness and light or, in some cases, a watered down orthodoxy. But one thing is for sure. He will not preach the fullness of the truth about the Church's sexual morality. He cannot. And he is often the ringmaster at the liturgical circus.

Even if he is trying to live a faithful life, his disordered nature makes his situation untenable. If he is assigned with a priest to whom he is attracted, he lives in a constant occasion of sin and a serious state of tempation -- like a man living with his fiance before marriage. If his confessor tells him to get out of the situation, where can he go? If he is in the closet, how does he explain the situation to his bishop? No, homosexuals do not belong in the priesthood -- ever. Those who are already there should never be given a position of authority. It is simply too dangerous. We have seen the result in the chaotic situation in the Church today. Not to deal with it head on and vigorously is irresponsible.

As the pope said, the greatest attack on the Church comes from sin within.  Part of the sin, I believe, is the attack on good priests who dared to expose the pornographic horrors in the rectory closet and on the rectory computers. Part of the sin is continuing to downplay the seriousness of homosexuals in the priesthood as some bishops do. And part of the sin is the omission of preaching the fullness of the truth to the people in the pews.

Let us pray for persecuted priests and for our beloved Church. She is also a victim, the battered bride of Christ.

Please Join Me in Praying the Novena of St. Joseph for Fr. James Haley and other persecuted priests

If you are unfamiliar with the story of Fr. James Haley pay a visit to my blog outlining the case and those of other persecuted priests who blew the whistle on homosexual immorality in the priesthood. Sadly, it continues as the recent scandal at the Vatican shows. Homosexual priest should be an oxymoron, but unfortunately it isn't. In fact, a number of priests celebrate homosexuality, a sign that they are either homosexual themselves or homosexualists who advance the homosexual agenda. Pray for the poor men driven out of the priesthood because they dared to oppose the homosexual agenda in many dioceses. Please pray for them.

Happy Birthday, Fr. Haley and Faithful Priests of the Church

Today is the feast of the priesthood when Jesus first told his apostles, "Do this in memory of me." I wish all the faithful priests in our diocese (Arlington, VA) a happy birthday. Thank you for washing our feet through your service.

Today I'm launching a new blog dedicated to Fr. James Haley and the on-going scandal of his treatment by Bishop Loverde. I invite you to visit the blog and take a look at the Table of Contents.

Has the cancer in the Church really been cut out? Or did the doctor just give the patient an aspirin and a bandaid? In view of the on-going scandals taking place every day can anyone doubt the answer?

Please attend the Mass of the Lord's Supper this evening and watch an hour with Him before the Altar of Repose. Prayer and sacrifice are the greatest needs today of Holy Mother Church. After that, put on the armour of Christ and engage in the battle for souls.