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August 1997 Roman Catholic Faithful, P.O. Box 109, Petersburg, IL. 62675   
 (217-632-5920)    (Fax 217-632-7054)

 

 


Heavenly Father, we ask Your blessing on our efforts. Show us the way to spread the Truth of the Catholic faith in the midst of error and infidelity. Fill our hearts with authentic love for our priests, bishops and all the clergy, a love that moves us to unceasing prayer for their souls and to constant exhortation to faithfully fulfill their sacred task of preaching the Whole Truth of the Catholic Faith without compromise.

Grant us wisdom in our deliberations, courage in promoting the truth, prudence in exposing error, and Charity in all the things we do. Bless our Holy Father the Pope by granting him loyalty and fidelity from the bishops and all the clergy of the church.

We ask these things through the intercession
of our Holy Mother Mary.


INDEX:
[The cries of the Faithful go unanswered
as the Catholic hierarchy protects its own]

[As RCF moves into the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Fr. Malachi Martin speaks out]
[Thoughts and Comments]
["It's Time For a Little Gathering"]
[Donna Steichen's Statement of Support for Roman Catholic Faithful]
[Letter from an RCF member]

[When Do We Speak? Addressing Clerical Scandals in Indianapolis]
[Open Letter to a Friend]  [Can You Help?]   [RCF Meetings]
[Re-educating Catholics:Raising FutureChurch while Razing the Body of Christ]

[Priest Correspondents Pot Pourri]
[Miscellany]


The cries of the Faithful go unanswered as the Catholic hierarchy protects its own!!

by S. G. Brady

For years Catholic parents have had to put up with every form of heresy and abuse within Catholic schools and religion programs. We have heard from hundreds of parents whose cries to their bishops went unanswered. In some cases these parents were persecuted for trying to save the souls of their children. Now that more and more parents are home schooling and thereby exercising their rights as "teachers", many of our bishops feel the need to control the parents by issuing "guidelines for home catechesis." While it is the responsibility of pastors to make sure children are properly educated in the faith before receiving the Sacraments, one must question the motives of those Bishops who now find it necessary to make sure parents are doing their job while many diocesan catechetical programs teach anything but the Faith, and in some cases, destroy the innocence of children!

July 24, 1997, the Diocese of Dallas was ordered to pay $120 million in a sex abuse case. Now that the truth is out, (printed on the front pages of many newspapers)it has been reported that the bishop is in "pursuit of justice". According to the victims no one in the chancery was interested in "justice" until they were hauled into court. In the sex abuse cases that we are aware of, every effort is being made to protect the "good" name of the Bishop at the expense of the abused. As one reporter put it, "the bishops are following their lawyers instead of Jesus."

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, prefect of the Pontifical Council for the Family recently rebuked "Mothers Watch", by name, for going too far in defending our children. Mothers Watch had criticized " The Catholic Vision of Love" a sex education program put out by Bishop Donald Wuerl. The good Cardinal’s actions might have been easier to swallow had he first rebuked, by name, every bishop that had gone too far when it came to destroying the innocence of our children and rebuke by name those Bishops who have not done enough to protect Catholic children from sexual predators. Once again the hierarchy defends its own while ignoring the cries of the faithful.

Many of our Bishops are the problem. They have the authority to protect our children and teach the True Faith and they have the power, by their actions or lack thereof, to scandalize our children, destroy innocence, and make a mockery of Catholicism.

Until our Bishops start exercising their authority in defense of the Faith and for the salvation of souls, RCF will continue to publicly identify, if need be, those bishops and Cardinals who are betraying Christ by failing to insist that the fullness of Faith be taught and upheld in their Dioceses.

On November 8, 9, 10, and 11, 1997, you will have a chance to send a powerful message to those bishops who have not been able to find their backbone. Dr. Thomas Droleskey, Stephen Brady of RCF, James Bendell of RCF, Dr. William Marra, Stephanie Block, and Joe Scheidler will be meeting in Washington D.C. for a day-long conference to discuss the attack on parental rights and to hold a prayerful protest outside the Papal Nuncio's office. We will also be demanding that the U.S. Bishops formally adopt a resolution supporting Humanae Vitae and its absolute binding effect, without exception. If our Bishops and the NCCB & USCC want the financial backing of the faithful, they would do well to address the real issues: abuse of power, immorality, cowardice and destruction of the Faith by those in a position of authority. I wait for the day when 40 American Bishops will publicly stand with the Holy Father and against those Bishops who betray Holy Mother Church!

Every Catholic individual and or group that accepts all that the Catholic Church teaches, and recognizes the authority of the Holy Father, must come together in defense of the Faith. We cannot debate every issue but we should stand as one in an effort to speak loud and clear to those who are in a position of authority and negligent in their duties. Litigation and public exposure is a universal language that all will understand. Will you join RCF?


 We receive hundreds of letters and phone calls each week. We try to return every phone call but it is impossible to answer every letter. Every piece of information sent to RCF is put to use in some way. Everyone who sends a donation is
added to RCF’s mailing list.

 

 As RCF moves into the
Los Angeles Archdiocese
Fr. Malachi Martin speaks out

Sunday, August 10, 1997, Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF), an orthodox Catholic group based in Illinois, held a public meeting at the Holiday Inn in Goleta, CA, to launch their "Los Angeles Project."

According to Stephen Brady, President of RCF, "after receiving many letters and phone calls from Catholics concerned about Cardinal Mahony's Pastoral Letter on the Liturgy and other abuses within the archdiocese, the RCF has decided to confront the Cardinal".

The first week of July a letter was sent by RCF, along with an announcement of the Goleta meeting to 1400 priests living within the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The letter stated in part:

"Father, we need your help. We need the information that you have regarding heretical teaching, abuse of power, homosexual activity being endorsed or promoted, and so on. We will never use your name or give it out without your permission. With the information you provide we can launch our own investigation.

.......We have found that the life of any diocese is often a reflection of its bishop's life. If the diocese is morally bankrupt then prudence would dictate a close scrutiny of the diocesan bishops and administration.

Father, if you provide the information RCF needs, by the grace of God, we can bring about change, and we can make a difference for the good of Christ's Roman Catholic Church. We have found that litigation and public exposure can help rid the Church of scandal and corruption".

One week after the letter was sent out, RCF received offers of help from several priests of the Los Angeles archdiocese. "I didn't know you were out there" said one priest.

Brady started the four hour Goleta meeting by explaining to the 300 Catholics present how the abuses within the Springfield diocese in Illinois led to the forming of Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc.

Next, James Bendell, a Washington state trial attorney and board member of RCF, started his presentation by reading a statement from Fr. Malachi Martin:

"Blessings on your endeavors. I will be praying for you all.
These days and months of 1997, there seems to be a long and slow but steady sunset all over the Roman Catholic Church organization of Pope John Paul II. And no matter what he does, no matter how large the crowds at his "mega-Masses", no matter how many prayers are offered day and night by the Saints in the Church: no matter how many authenticated appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary are granted us (often with manifest miracles): no matter how many seers and visionaries--- stigmatists among them---bring us warning messages from beyond the created cosmos of man; nothing, but nothing seemingly arrests the oncoming darkness of a night feared by every believing Christian alive today.

We would have to be blind not to see that our human day as Roman Catholics is declining inexorably into that ever-encroaching darkness. Nor is this anything like the welcoming darkness of night beckoning us to enter into a well-earned sleep in preparation for a glorious and still more strenuous tomorrow. Far from it.

Rather, all the reliable signs tell us--and Christ Himself advised us in no uncertain terms to be diligent in reading the "signs of the times"--that this is the sepulchral darkness which will entomb a spent age and its desiccated institutions and organizations. These are the shades of the charnel-house now awaiting us at the end of our Catholic times. It all fits. So dreadfully. So sadly.

Even though we are sure we always will have a Pope of Rome until the end of all human time, it is still a sad scene. And especially so when we realize the horrible nature of that darkness. It is not a question of mere heresy--false teaching--nor of schism as a revolt against authority. This, my friends and fellow Catholics, is the darkness of apostasy: the systematic evacuation of basic Roman Catholic dogmas by those in charge of teaching the Faithful.

On the testimony of competent observers from all over North and South America as well as from Europe and from official Rome itself, the regime of His Eminence, Cardinal Mahony, has been marked by a steady de-Romanization and de-Catholicization of the once flourishing Los Angeles archdiocese.

Many priests, nuns, bishops--under His Eminence's jurisdiction--are not espousing the teaching of the Church. They follow another agenda. Under the guise of the "Spirit of Vatican II" as a catch-all for any whim and caprice, there occur unauthorized liturgical innovations (for example: standing during the Consecration, omission of parts of the Mass, "liturgical" dancing, invalid bread used for Holy Communion, etc.etc.). There are rampant spiritual and canonical abuses (general absolution in place of individual confession, the use of an invalid formula for absolution, First Communion before First Reconciliation for children as the norm, sex education for children that is designed to rob them of their innocence, the pouring of Consecrated Wine down the waste faucets of bathrooms, etc.etc.). Church buildings are renovated on the basis of Environment and Art in Catholic Worship" But this document was never approved by the National Conferences of Catholic Bishops, and it reflects the personal ideas of certain individuals about whose faith one can have very legitimate doubts.

What observers remark is that an overall plan for radical change is being implemented-- but in small increments, without the overall goal being frankly and candidly stated. Many of these observers will aver that the not so obvious aim of all this change is the establishment of another non-Roman Catholic form of our Faith.

It is, then, a lugubrious fact that, bit by bit, without their knowing it, or realizing it, great sections of the Church in North America headed by their clergy are being led by the nose out of Catholicism and into the darkness of a very comfortable apostasy.

One of the most important statements of the Second Vatican Council emphasizes the new role that the Roman Catholic laity are called upon to play in the life of the Church. We know that more than once in the 2,000 year history of the Church, the laity have been used, as the Council teaches, by the Holy Spirit in order to protect, nourish and preserve the Church.

Lo! and behold! In our day, and precisely when it was most needed, the Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. (RCF) organization has sprung up in Illinois. When it began in 1996, somebody referred to it as "a little pebble" on the mountain-side of a huge Church. But, let me tell you, this little pebble rolling down that mountain-side is producing an avalanche of faithful Catholics who will no longer tolerate this apostasy from our Roman Catholic Faith. The RCF has members in all 50 states and abroad in half-a-dozen countries. RCF is dedicated to the defense of Orthodoxy and the Holy Father. It is engaged in activities from New York to California, from Illinois to Florida.

The ever-swelling number of members in the RCF will now make sure that His Eminence Cardinal Mahony as well as other bishops, will be reminded by voices from 100,000 throats:

--that he is only one of over 4,000 bishops in the Church, all of whom--like him--are subject to the infallible teaching of the papacy, past and present;

--that, while by papal permission, he has jurisdiction over the Los Angeles Archdiocese, he has no personal jurisdiction over the Church Universal and its dogmas;

--that he, like all us sinners, will have to render to Our Lord Jesus a strict accounting of his Los Angeles stewardship;

--that his chief obligation is to preserve and foment the Faith in that diocese; and any deliberate neglect or infringement of that obligation is punishable with Hellfire.

Let no Catholic shrink from admonishing priests, bishops, or Cardinals, if they act in ways that are irreconcilable with the Faith of our Fathers. This is Papal teaching, this is the teaching of the Church Councils, this is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas: We have an obligation to do so. The simple but painful fact is that even higher members of the Church's hierarchy are quite capable of treason.

Let us, in our generation, do our duty by Holy Mother Church, so that those who come after us in the generation of the Faithful, will say about us: They were giants in Faith, and they fought the good fight."


After reading Martin's statement, Bendell discussed Cardinal Mahony's Pastoral on the Liturgy and went on to explain the need for Catholics to help those who have been affected by the abuses and negligence of their bishops. He said:

"In our Church today, we have many wounded laying by the wayside. And, as in our Lord's parable of the Good Samaritan, many clergy (Bishops) just walk on by. In fact, in some cases the Bishops have done the wounding."

For a copy of RCF's Plan of Action for the Los Angeles Archdiocese and audio tapes of the Goleta, CA meeting, contact: Roman Catholic Faithful, P.O. Box 109, Petersburg, IL. 62675 ph: 217-632-5920

 Los Angeles Province

RCF needs any documentation, news articles or information you may have concerning the Los Angeles Province.

The Los Angeles Plan of Action needs to be distributed as widely as possible. Get to work. As soon as we gather the information we need we will be scheduling meetings and press conferences around the Archdiocese to announce our plans!

 

[Return to Index]

Thoughts and comments
S.G.B.

Once again we would like to thank our members for their prayers and financial support. A monthly donation, no matter how small, helps a great deal. RCF has used private investigators in the past and will most likely have the need to do so in the future. Your donations make this possible.

In an effort to answer some of the questions RCF receives through the mail I would like to make the following comments:

  1. RCF is made up of religious and laity:
    *who believe we should not ask our Lord to do for us that which we should be doing for ourselves.
    * who believe "It is not an act of charity to allow ones neighbor to run headlong into Hell."
    *who believe Bishops have responsibilities as well as authority
    *who know the difference between a person who commits a sin and a person (religious or laity) who promotes sin in the name of Catholicism, choice, or conscience.
    *who expect every priest to follow the disciplines of the Church as he promised to do.
    *who will not sit back and remain silent while bishop after bishop allows or promotes the teaching or preaching of any belief (on Church property) that contradicts Church teaching as defined by the Holy Father and the Magisterium.
  2. RCF welcomes the help and participation of any Catholic individual or group who accepts the teachings of the Church and recognizes the authority of the Holy Father. This does not mean we agree with every stand taken by other groups or individuals. We do not intend to enter a debate on every issue. RCF will be dealing with abuse of power, corruption of the Faith and clear negligence by those in a position of authority.
  3. No one will be speaking for RCF except one of the Board Members. (Stephen Brady, Jo Brady, Pam Bultmann, or James Bendell).
  4. RCF constantly seeks guidance from Catholic Priests and every step we take involves a priest in some way.
  5. RCF is gathering information from around the country concerning abuses within the Church. Once we have the documentation needed we are prepared to take whatever action is available to us in Canon law and Civil law in an effort to correct the disordered state of affairs within any diocese.

[Return to Index]

 Call to Holiness
P.O. Box 1260
Sterling Heights, MI 48311-1260

1-888-638-5424

Director and newsletter is Jay Mcnally. (313) 285-7442. jaywmc@aol.com


"It's Time For a Little Gathering"

In the April 1997 issue of Christ or Chaos there is an article titled IT’S TIME FOR A LITTLE GATHERING in which Dr. Droleskey suggests a possible protest of sorts to take place in Washington, D.C. in November at the NCCB conference.

The following is a small part of the article which list some demands which could be made to the bishops.


With the Vatican unwilling (yes, unwilling) to come to the assistance of priests and laity being browbeaten and persecuted by bishops and their staffs, the time has come for the laity of today to do what our fathers in the faith had done at Ephesus: to gather around the bishops when they meet as a means of demanding our right to have the true faith taught in all of its integrity. I believe that it is time for a little gathering to take place in November of this year when the bishops convene in Washington at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel for their semi-annual meeting. The purposes of this meeting are several-fold:

  1. To prayerfully and respectfully demand the removal of those bishops who are promoting the very thing that caused our Lord to suffer in His Sacred Humanity, sin. It is mind- boggling to watch bishops attend conferences exalting sodomy! No bishop who does such a thing is in de facto communion with Christ and His Church. Oh, he might have de jure (juridical)authority. But such a man is no longer a believing Catholic.
  2. To demand of those bishops who are slaves to the ecclesiastical bureaucracy the courage that is needed to stand up to proclaim the faith boldly, and to demand that all of their employees submit to a statement of orthodox Catholic faith.
  3. To demand an end to the persecution of seminarians and priests who are deemed "too rigid" (that is, too committed to the unchanging truths of the splendor of Truth Incarnate).
  4. To demand that teachers in Catholic schools and religious education programs be practicing Catholics who dissent from not one whit of what our Lord has handed down to us from the Apostles.
  5. To demand the abolition of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.
  6. To demand that the right of parents to serve as principal educators of their children be respected and assisted by pastors.
  7. To demand that the Church stop subsidizing, through Catholic Charities and the Campaign for Human Development, any and all programs that are inimical to the Cross of Christ.
  8. To demand that the bishops mount a vigorous opposition to Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party he heads, regardless of the consequences this might have insofar as the Church’s tax-exempt status is concerned.
  9. The bishops have wasted much time issuing pastoral letters on matters of prudential judgment; it is time for them to issue letters and statements about personal morality, upon which social justice is based. They must demand that Republicans stop taking contributions from such firms, and that those Republicans stop RU-486, reverse FACE and and fetal experimentation, and stop confirming all of Clinton’s pro-abortion and pro -sodomite judicial nominees.
  10. To demand the removal of the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, for his abject failure to come to the assistance of priests and laity who are being manhandled by the bishops.
  11. To demonstrate to the Holy Father, who has the authority to remove any bishop he wants to at any time, that there are Catholics in this country who will no longer tolerate the lack of interest in our situation that seems to characterize many of the offices in the Holy See. As loyal sons and daughters of the Church, we are looking to him to be our spiritual father, to discipline those who are leading their flocks astray.

How many more souls have to be lost? How much more scandal has to be endured? How much more money has to be paid out in settlements to those who have been abused by priests and bishops? How many more vocations have to be turned away? How many more people have to endure the needless heartbreak of being browbeaten by ecclesiastical authorities because of their steadfast devotion to the fullness of the faith? How many more people are going to be reaffirmed in their sins? How many more people are going to believe that it is perfectly acceptable to vote for candidates of either major political party who support the destruction of Christ’s innocent ones in the womb? How many more people must die in Catholic hospitals by means of euthanasia? How many more children will never be exposed to the true faith in their educational programs? How much longer can the Mass be profaned?

As people of faith, we know we have to stay on board the Ship of Peter. We know God’s grace is sufficient for us to endure these problems. But we also need to act.

A gathering in Washington this November, which would start with a candlelight vigil and Rosary rally in front of the Nunciature on Massachusetts Avenue, might be the start of the process of re-taking the Church for Christ and Him Crucified. For such an effort is vital if this country is to know the surety that comes from recognizing Christ as King.

We’ll keep you posted on the response we receive to this suggestion for a little gathering in Washington.

After receiving feedback Dr. Droleskey had the following to say:

Dear Subscribers

...We have gotten some feedback to my suggestion for a "little gathering" in Washington this coming November.... I do want to take this opportunity to explain my remarks about the Papal nuncio.

There have been repeated cases in which Archbishop Cacciavillan has dealt with the legitimate concerns of priests and laity about the alleged misconduct of bishops (both personal and doctrinal) by sending documentation provided to him directly to the bishops in question. The nuncio has violated a cardinal principle of confidentiality, has needlessly put the career of priests in jeopardy, and has appeared to care for little other than pleasing the bishops and their apparatchiks.

This was especially the case with respect to the Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, the Most Reverend Daniel Ryan. Serious, detailed charges about him were made by a priest (who remains in hiding) in a confidential letter to the nuncio. Archbishop Cacciavillan never contacted the priest. He never asked for further documentation. He did not seek the advice or the counsel of others who could have verified the priest's story. Acting arbitrarily, the nuncio sent the confidential statement back to Ryan, who perfunctorily denied the charges. The nuncio then said the case was closed. Closed without an investigation into serious charges.

The nature of these charges were outlined in a news story of mine which appeared in The Wanderer three months ago. They involve allegations that Bishop Ryan sought to importune priests into having sexual relations with him. Serious charges. The nuncio's method of handling this delicate matter led, unfortunately, to the whole matter becoming public. And it was shortly after the story did break (and after a delegation went to the Vatican to discuss the matter) that the Holy See began to undertake its own inquiry into Ryan's conduct.

The Springfield case has not been the only one which has seen Archbishop Caccivillian violate the trust of priests and the laity. He sent a videotape containing sensitive material about an explosive situation in another Midwestern diocese back to the bishop who was in the middle of covering up the situation there. Again, there was not a word conveyed by the nuncio to the people who provided him with the videotape and supporting documentation. He dismissed their concerns out of hand. No investigation. No communication. That story also went public, one that detailed how one-fourth of the diocese's priests had been involved in sexual misconduct.

Archbishop Caccivillian also gave comfort to the now retired Archbishop of Honolulu, the Most Reverend Joseph Ferrario, who had excommunicated a number of people who he deemed to be troublemakers in his archdiocese. The Signatora overturned the excommunications. But the nuncio told Ferrario that he was well-justified to have attempted to do what he did! He has also shown no interest in the many documented cases of priests being sent to psychiatric facilities as a form of punishment for their orthodoxy.

There are numerous other cases. However, the nuncio's behavior in the Ryan case, which involved the safety of a priest and the on-going abuse of episcopal power, was justification enough for me to make the demand that I did in "It's Time For A Little Gathering." The faithful are entitled to a nuncio who will handle sensitive matters with due regard for the rights of the accused, to be sure, but also with full respect for the confidentiality and safety of those making accusations. Cases cannot be closed before impartial visitors are appointed to examine the facts.

.... I do want to drive home the point that the pope's representative in this country should be solicitous of the legitimate concerns of Christ's flock, not a company man who wants good relations with the bishops at the cost of doctrinal integrity, liturgical reverence, and a disregard for the unrepentant conduct of bishops intent on abusing their episcopal authority to engage in immorality.

I am still eliciting reaction from readers about the gathering. The specific nature of demands actually made at the gathering is subject, as I noted, to examination and modification. I wanted to take this opportunity, however, to address some of the feedback we have received thus far.

Please know of my prayers for all of you each day. Our May issue is an expanded one, making up for the fact that we were late in getting the last issue to you. Once again, thanks for your loyalty.

Wishing you God's blessings and our Lady's maternal protection, I remain,


Thomas A. Droleskey, Ph. D.


 

 Roman Catholic Faithful joins Dr. Droleskey & Others for a Little Gathering in Washington D.C.!!

Conference in Washington, DC!

On Sunday, November 9, 1997, RCF, working with Dr. Thomas Droleskey,will be hosting a day-long conference at the Holiday Inn on The Hill, (415 New Jersey Ave, NW, Washington DC 20001) across the street from where the NCCB will be having its semi-annual meeting.

Saturday, November 8th: 7:30 p.m.: Candlelight prayer vigil in front of the Papal Nunciature, 3339 Massachusetts Avenue. All fifteen decades of our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary will be prayed for the intentions of the Holy Father—and that his personal ambassador to the United States will take seriously the legitimate grievances of the faithful against Bishops who are at war with Christ and His Holy Church.

Sunday, November 9th will be the day long conference at the Holiday Inn on the Hill. The list of speakers will include: Dr. Thomas Droleskey, Stephanie Block, Joe Scheidler, Dr. William Marra, Stephen Brady & James Bendell of RCF.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Nov. 10-12, prayerful protests will be arranged for outside the NCCB meetings. More on this event to be announced.

Two Press Conferences will be held, a meeting with the bishops will be sought, and Radio & TV will be contacted.

 Christ or Chaos

A monthly newsletter connecting man's spiritual life in Christ with his social life as a citizen.

Editor..........................

Dr. Thomas Droleskey
Christ or Chaos
P.O. Box 428807
Cincinnati, OH 45242



Conference location:
    Holiday Inn on the Hill
    
415 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
     ph: 202-638-1616. You must arrange your own hotel accommodations.
     ask for a special rate for the RCF conference.

Transportation:
    Washington Dulles International Airport
703-661-2700
    Washington National Airport 
703-417-8000
    Baltimore/Washington International Airport
301-261-1000
    Amtrak
202-484-7540 or 1-800-872-7245
    Greyhound
1-800-231-2222

Information:
    Washington DC Chamber of Commerce
    
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 309, Washington, DC
     ph: 202-347-7201    fax: 202-347-3538




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 I will be attending the all day conference Sunday Nov. 9, 1997 at the Holiday Inn on the Hill. Enclosed is my $25.00 per person donation to cover the cost of the dinner. (Talks start at 1:00 PM)

I will also be attending the Candlelight prayer vigil in front of the Papal Nunciature, Sunday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 PM.

I will help protest outside the Hyatt Regency, (Monday, Nov. 10, 1997) as the bishops arrive for the NCCB meeting.



Name:______________________________No. Attending:_________

Address:_____________________________State_____Zip:________

Phone:_______________Fax:______________e-mail:_____________

Mail registration form and donations to:
     Roman Catholic Faithful, P.O. Box 109, Petersburg, IL 62675
     ph.: 217-632-5920     fax: 217-632-7054

[Return to Index]


Statement of Support
for Roman Catholic Faithful

What do the Catholic faithful ask of the Church? They ask for shepherds who will teach them her saving truth, provide them with grace through her Sacraments, and enable them to worship in the Sacred Mysteries where Christ Himself becomes the Bread of Life to feed them. These are Divine gifts, precious beyond counting, yet they are what Our Lord promised to provide.

Additionally, faithful Catholics expect their spiritual shepherds to defend them from the world's wolves by identifying and condemning the prevalent errors of the day, whether in society or in the Church.

Thirty years ago, most of the faithful so deeply trusted their shepherds to fulfill those expectations that, as the Church in America collapsed and disintegrated, many of them followed bad shepherds into chaos, and called it renewal. Scandalized, nominal or apathetic Catholics gradually vanished from the pews, but other sheep remained so docile that they went wherever any religious professional pointed, even if it were off a cliff into the sea. In their blind trust, such Catholics exhibited the simplicity of the dove without the wisdom of the serpent, and so enabled rash and arrogant innovators to dismantle the healthy Catholic subculture that had sustained a flourishing Church. In this they were not following Christ, who said we must be both simple and wise.

The saving faith with which Our Lord endowed His Church is transmitted to new generations through culture, liturgy and catechesis. Today, Catholic culture is dead in America. Liturgy is unstable and, in most places, ugly, irreverent and banal. Two generations of Catholics are effectively uncatechized. As a consequence, the Church is in such grave disarray in America that it may never recover.

Faithful Catholics are not mere consumers of religion, mere subjects owing unexamined obedience to whichever religious bureaucrats happen to be directing parishes and dioceses. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart: Catholic Christians, loyal to Christ and to His Vicar,who leads His Church on earth. They command our faithful and uncompromising obedience, even if religious authority figures closer to us should rebel
against them.

Our present situation is too desperate for us to keep silent out of human respect. When our children are being robbed of their saving heritage, we must stop the robbery and expose the thieves. Immortal souls are being lost.

We cannot wait for permission from bureaucrats or intervention by distant authorities. We must exercise our responsibility as adult Catholics to defend the faith now.

That is the mission of faithful Catholics, and the reason I support Roman Catholic Faithful.

Sincerely in Christ,

Donna Steichen

[Return to Index]



Dear Mr. Brady,

I am so proud of what you and RCF are doing. I have been furious for years watching what has been taking place in our Catholic Church, including the Church in my hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Catholic doctrine is either ignored, denigrated or denied- on an ongoing basis. I don’t trust the Catholic schools or colleges here anymore to instill Catholic truths and doctrines in their students. This situation provokes anger in me and brings tears to my eyes.

RCF, for me, is a beacon of hope- hope that something can be done about this deplorable state of affairs. May the Almighty grant us the grace and strength to carry out His will- for surely the way things are now does not reflect God’s will.

I will stop writing now- I could go on for pages. I just wanted to let you know that I and my family are praying for success in the endeavors of RCF and appreciate the efforts of so many people to do something about the most horrible situation surrounding us.

God bless you Mr. Brady (San Antonio, Texas)

This letter is just one of several hundred received by RCF in the past few months. Can there be any doubt that the time for action is now? AMDG

[Return to Index]


When Do We Speak?
Addressing Clerical Scandals in Indianapolis
By Stephanie Block

Self-interest aside, are there valid reasons for a bishop to ask his laity to silently endure serious clerical abuses? Consider the following example: "Indianapolis Catholic Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein spoke out…in support of Lafayette Diocese Bishop William Higi and suggested that prayers, rather than news stories, are a better way to confront evil." These remarks were part of an archdiocesan rebuttal, carried in The Indianapolis Star, February 18, 1997, after the paper’s in-depth, three-day series on clerical sexual scandals.

"We must resist the temptation to sensationalize the tragic failures of persons who hold positions of trust in government, in civic affairs or in the church," the archbishop continued. "Do ‘investigative reports’ such as the one recently conducted by The Indianapolis Star concerning cases in the Lafayette Diocese help us better understand and respond to problems of sexual misconduct and child abuse in our society? I think not."

The paper countered, in turn, that the unusually high number of priests in the diocese who have been accused of sexual abuse and misconduct -- at least 12% as compared to 2-3% nationally -- merited investigation. Most disturbingly, "Once caught, even the worst predators get off easily and their transgressions are kept under wraps." ("Bishop Will Look to Chicago Archdiocese for Help," Will Higgins, The Indianapolis Star, 2/20/97.)

The Star argued further that "Newspapers are predicated on openness, on the belief that the more informed people are, the more knowledgeable and balanced their judgments. The tendency of all institutions, not just religious ones, to safeguard their privacy is understandable. But violations of civil law are not private matters." ("Abuse Among Clergy," Indianapolis Star editorial, 2/23/97.)

Who has the more valid argument, Archbishop Buechlein or The Indianapolis Star?

The Indianapolis Star articles are brutally graphic. Two incidents of scandal involved close friends of the bishop. At least five cases of clerical abuse involved young children. Nine other cases, all but one of which were homosexual in nature, concerned adults, most who had sought counseling from the offending priest and felt that their emotional vulnerability had been exploited.

The articles convey the frustration of the laity to receive adequate redress for their complaints against abusive priests. Although by law, for example, suspicions of child abuse must be disclosed to Child Protective Services or to the police, the County Prosecutor who has covered Lafayette for the past 16 years complained that he has never heard of a case against a priest in that time. ("The Bishop’s Justice," Linda Graham Caleca and Richard D. Walton, The Indianapolis Star, 2/17/97.) Or, unlike neighboring Chicago, whose review process of abuse cases must involve lay people outside of archdiocesan employ, the Indianapolis review process is run entirely by church officials. ("Chicago Archdiocese Broke Mold with Open Investigation," Judith Cebula, The Indianapolis Star, 12/16/97.) Victims frequently feel betrayed twice -- once by the offending priest and a second time by an offending hierarchy. ("Faith Betrayed," Linda Graham Caleca and Richard D. Walton, The Indianapolis Star, 2/16/97.) From that standpoint, victims welcome the opportunity to bring their stories into the light. They are not seeking vengeance. They are asking for acknowledgment.

Father Melvin J. Bennett, an archdiocesan priest, argues that the secrecy around clerical misconduct is a grave mistake. "We keep thinking that this Church is going to be damaged by the Truth…No! The Church is set free by the Truth!" Even fellow priests have been kept in the dark about charges against their accused brothers. ("Faith Betrayed," Linda Graham Caleca and Richard D. Walton, The Indianapolis Star, 2/16/97.)

The articles make painful reading for a Catholic. They are painful from the perspective of the sympathy they arouse in the reader, who aches for the abused. They are painful from the perspective of the reader’s faith, which is challenged by the dissonance between spiritual ideals and human failure. They are painful because the reader recoils from having to face the imperfections of beloved priests, who have betrayed that love and abused their authority. It is painful because we are unsteady about our feelings -- which are complicated. We want to forgive the sinner. We want to help the wounded. We want to protect the innocent. We want to avoid exacerbating the scandal. We want to take every reasonable precaution against this happening again. Sometimes these feeling conflict with one another.

Justice is out of the question. There can never be justice on this earth for young victims of molestation. No punitive act can reclaim a violated childhood. There can never be justice on this earth for souls lost.

The Catholic laity can, however, seek recourse -- assurances that the perpetrator will not be at liberty to repeat his behavior with a new victim, and that the hierarchy will cultivate chastity and discipline in its clergy, weeding out the mentally unstable.

What happens when the normal channels of recourse are closed? What is the laity to do when it becomes apparent that their bishop is ineffective, at best, or, at worst, possibly himself compromised? This is a difficult question, because meekness and long-suffering are, rightly, bred into the Catholic bone.

Catholicism has a long and venerable history of protecting its clergy. St. Catherine of Siena, recording what God has spoken to her about errant priests, writes in The Dialogues, "Because of the dignity and authority I have given them, it never has nor ever will be my will that the hand of civil law should touch them for any sin of theirs. To do so would be a wretched offense against me."

A more contemporary example of the this attitude comes from a small, popular booklet of prayers and devotions, The Pieta. According to Mutter Vogel, in purported revelations occurring between 1929-1939, priests are never to be attacked, even when in error. Mutter Vogel tells the faithful that God says "[R]ather one should pray and do penance that I’ll grant him My grace again….When a Priest falls we should extend him a helping hand through prayer and not through attacks! I myself will be his judge, no one but I!"

How does one answer such exhortations? Are there ever circumstances when, in addition to prayer, it is appropriate to place a priest in the hands of civil law or to make public outcry against him?

       There are two such circumstances. The first of these circumstances concerns the criminal cleric. There are no ecclesial courts, complete with dungeons, to handle the felonies of today’s criminal cleric as there were in St. Catherine’s time. Her advice to not report a priest to civil authorities was appropriate when the Church was structured in such a way that it could protect society from its pathological members. It is extremely dangerous advice -- not to mention illegal, in certain cases -- for a Church that has no penal structure to suggest that fellow priests and the laity should remain passive while the sick and sinful molest those who are most defenseless.

The second circumstance in which the laity must act, as well as pray, is when heresy is openly preached and the bishop, having been notified, neglects to correct the situation, or possibly himself concurs with it. For the sake of souls, the laity must speak out, expose the error, and promote the truth.

Dietrich von Hildebrand has written, "Today, with so many heretical and dangerous and confusing ‘new opinions’ abroad, the faithful must hope -- and if necessary, they must demand -- that their bishops and others in authority in the Church fulfill their strict obligation to protect their flocks by silencing or suspending those who are spreading heresy and error." (Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Charitable Anathema, Roman Catholic Books, 1993.)

Scripture supports this. 1 Timothy 5: 19-20 cautions, "Do not accept an accusation against a priest unless it is supported by two or three witnesses." If such witness is given, we are to then "Reprimand publicly those who do sin, so that the rest also will be afraid."

These two circumstances make a serious distinction between the personal "flaws" of a weak man and those actions he takes which have public ramifications. They allow for instances when, as a "last resort," the laity must speak up. This is not to be confused with the "We Are Church" cabal, in which the vox populi claims to be the voice of God. The lay faithful ask for nothing that the Church has not asserted for 2000 years. It speaks out only after all other attempts to get the bishop to exercise his authority have failed.

The priest who physically harms his flock needs to be stopped. The priest who regularly abuses the faith of his congregation with heresy needs to be stopped. The usual channel to stop him is the bishop. Whether the bishop has abdicated his authority or not, the abusive priest must still be stopped. What is left but the voice of the laity?

Stephanie Block

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Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc.
P.O. Box 109, Petersburg, IL 62675
ph: (217) 632-5920  Fax: (217) 632-7054
http://www.rcf.org    e-mail: amdg_online@rcf.org

 

Open Letter to a Friend

My dear friend,

It was with unspeakable sorrow that I received your terse message on the answering machine last night, in which you spoke of your temptation to leave the Church.

To say I am "surprised" doesn't begin to express the emotions I feel. You have been one of the Church's strongest defenders. You're the person in the parish who, unintimidated, was willing to confront the principal, and later the school board, about their wretched and impure sex ed program. You're the one who has consistently spoken out at the diocesan pro-life meetings about the need for diocesan oversight of these programs. You've gone up to the state capitol and spoken fearlessly on behalf of the unborn. You've researched and written and prayed and inspired. You've always been one of the leaders in this perpetual battle for the Faith. Why would you, of all people, cast your back on the Church?

Even as I write this, I think I know your answer. The few times we've spoken have been sufficient to convey the overwhelming betrayal you feel. I understand how disappointed and frustrated you are by priests and nuns and laity who are obviously cynical, materialistic, and profane people. Their faithlessness has scandalized you. I understand.

That acknowledged, why would you willingly add yourself to their ranks? Do you mean to tell me that because the devil is prowling around the Church, seeking souls to devour, you're going to allow him to frighten you away? You're going to give him the power to run you off your own property? To divest you of your inheritance? To keep you from the Sacraments?

It's good that you care as strongly as you do. The depth of your temptation reveals the depth of your passion for Christ and His Church. It's better to be "hot or cold" than one of those lukewarm pew-warmers who sleeps through Mass and is content with whatever programs or liturgies his parish provides, so long as no one disturbs his slumber. Passion is not enough, however.

I'm familiar with this "other" church you've visited. There are many good Christians there, and you're feeling "fed" on the good-will of their fellowship and the serious, intense Bible-study they offer. You've been attracted to one of the "traditional" Catholic groups around town, too, where there are at least valid -if silent- Sacraments. You're thinking one of these new "homes" may afford you a place to lick your wounds and create a haven in which you can heal from the strain of battle. May I ask you a question? Why are you bothering to fight with your parish priest over his abandonment of one doctrine, while willing to uncritically embrace an entire denomination or schismatic splinter group which has abandoned another? Aren't you picking and choosing which articles of the faith are most important to you like any other cafeteria modernist? Haven't you placed those doctrines into your own private hierarchy of importance, deciding for yourself which ones are all right to put aside and which ones you'll keep? Is it really O.K. for Christendom to work in fragments, so long as the school has a healthy curriculum?

This quest for purity is at the very heart of the problem. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting that you and I, as individual Christians, ought not to be pure. God forbid! Nor am I suggesting that you and I, as individual Christians, ought to stop fighting for that purity ;in our Church-you know me better than that! What I am saying is that to follow Christ is to accept an entire package, which includes much mystery-not the least of which is an imperfect Church. While that Church struggles on earth, it is inhabited by imperfect people, starting with myself.

There's nowhere - in Christ - that you can go to get away from the institutional imperfections and scandals of the Church. Every attempt to cut oneself off from the filth and outrage does worse damage, as if a wholesome finger were to leap off a cancer-riddles body in an effort to escape malignancy. Sadly, the finger can't survive independently for long.

So, if we aren't to capitulate to evil, and if we are not to ignore or accept wrongdoing and error, yet are stuck in a corrupt and corrupting institution, what is expected of us? I think we must be metaphorical housewives, called upon to sweep both within our own souls and within the institutional Church today, knowing full well that tomorrow we'll have to sweep again. we must be moral gardeners, with the life-long task of weeding. We must become poor of spirit and persecuted and meek. Blessed the man who is persistent in this work.

The Church need you, my friend. She needs people who will accept that being a Christian is difficult and discouraging at times. She needs lovers who will lay down their lives not only for their friends, but also for their enemies. We needs missionaries who are prepared to speak the truth anywhere and everywhere-even within parish walls. She needs saints who will admit their sins and strive toward God despite them.

But more than all that, you need the Church. You may find a small society of others outside the Church with whom you are comfortable, but comfort is not what you need. You need the unlimited opportunities to prove your fidelity, and to test your virtue. You need a place to forgive (and to be forgiven). You need the Sacramental life. You need the chance to be the friend where there is no fellowship. You need to carry your cross.

I have some practical suggestions. It's one thing to care passionately about the Church's welfare: it's another to allow earthly failures to damage your peace of mind. Maybe you also need to temporarily pull out of the confrontational aspects of the battle for awhile and immerse yourself in prayer and Mass. Read the lives of the saints. Fast. Allow your spiritual fields a sabbatical in which to lie fallow. Then come back into the fray refreshed and renewed and prepared to do the Lord's work.

You have no business grumbling about "leaving the Church." You know that's wrong. Yet other once-staunch Catholics have fallen for the subtle lure of soft solutions before. Don't join them!

I'll keep you in my prayers.


Yours in Christ,
Stephanie Block

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 The Catholic Home School Network
of America
P.O. Box 6343
River Forest, IL 60305-6343
fax: 708-386-3380

Newsletter



Can You Help?

RCF needs any information, documentation, or paper articles you may have concerning inappropriate sex ed programs or sex scandals involving clergy. We are preparing a report to be sent to every American Bishop.

We need mailing labels, for every priest in the following dioceses: Pittsburgh, PA, Santa Fe, NM, and Rochester, NY.

Any information, documentation, or articles you may have concerning the following dioceses: Los Angeles, Albany, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Santa Fe.

RCF has recently been contacted by several priests and parents concerning sexual abuse taking place in a "Catholic" school, seminary and parish. If you have first hand information regarding such behavior, please contact RCF. No names will be given out or made public. We can help!

Roman Catholic Faithful, Attn. Stephen Brady
P.O. Box 109
Petersburg, IL 62675
ph: 217-632-5920 fax: 217-632-7054


RCF Meetings

Wednesday, September 17, 1997, 7:30 PM at the Holiday Inn Pittsburgh South, 164 Fort Couch Rd. Pittsburgh, PA. Sponsored by: Reclaiming Our Catholic Kids (ROCK). Speaker: Stephen Brady.

Friday, September 19, 1997, 7:30 PM at the Oasis Motor Inn, 340 Chestnut St., Oneonta, NY 13820-1212. Speaker: Stephen Brady
For more information contact: Rita at P.O. Box 483, Oneonta, NY 13820

Saturday, September 20, 1997 (All day event) Mass at 8:30 am, program 9:30- 5:00 pm. at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel and Conference Center, 1357 Washington Ave. Albany, NY 518-459-3100.  Speakers: James Bendell, Washington State trial attorney and RCF board member and Stephen Brady, President RCF.  For more information and registration contact: Coalition Of Concerned Catholics, P.O. Box 15-532, Albany, NY 12212-3532 Ph: 518-842-5532 There is a small charge for this conference.

Saturday, September 27, 1997, 7:00 PM at the UNM Continuing Education Conference Center Auditorium, 1634 University Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM Speaker: Stephen Brady. For Information call Lorenzo at 505-247-3235.

Monday, October 20, 1997 Stephen Brady, RCF will be speaking in Ohio. Details to be announced.

Sunday, Nov. 9, 1997 Don’t forget Washington DC. Registration form in this newsletter.

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Re-Educating Catholics:
Raising FutureChurch while
Razing the Body of Christ

Baltimore, Maryland: In 1995, a remarkable news story broke which concerned Notre Dame Prep, a Catholic girls school located in Baltimore. For ten years the school had been showing its students the video Not A Love Story, a documentary about the pornography industry.

The film was made to expose the perversity of pornography, and does that most successfully. The viewer is taken into peep shows and strip tease joints, to watch the gyrations of naked young women and to hear the vulgar remarks of the aroused male audience around them. The women are later interviewed, and they grimly reveal their hatred of men, of sex, and of their own acts.

As the film progresses, the sexually explicit shots of human anatomy in action become increasingly grotesque and violent. The film maker skillfully and graphically conveys the brutalizing effects of sexuality used as an object, in and of itself. Interviews with women (and a few men) express a deep awareness of how the body is desecrated and degraded by pornographic exploitation. The film also reveals an intense fury at the silence and the willingness of "good people" to avert their eyes from the licentious and commercial use of women.

Therefore, as a deterrent to anyone’s ever thinking that pornography is an innocent pastime, the film "works." It might, perhaps, be legitimately used as a sort of "aversion therapy" for adults who have developed a pornography addiction. There is nothing attractive or titillating in the film’s images. It evokes only horror and revulsion.

As a educational vehicle, however, even at the high school level, Not a Love Story is a violent assault against any shreds of innocence that there may be in a young adult. Coarse images of copulation and couplings are a bizarre pedagogical tool for teaching virtue. The Church has consistently condemned such approaches, insisting that they are at best unnecessary, and are often themselves an occasion of sin.

Further, the young, the unmarried, or the inexperienced risk mistaking the impersonal, joyless, mechanical, and perverse sexual activity they are observing in the film for a loving, conjugal relationship. In fact, this confusion seems to be the response of a number of people interviewed on the film, only one of whom appears to be married, and that single example of a marriage seems a rather "peculiar" one, at that. It is entirely understandable that a young person might to be seriously frightened by the film’s clips of women being beaten and sexually "used."

If these were an insufficient objections to showing Not A Love Story to young people, there is a third. The film does not approach its subject matter from a moral perspective, beyond the obvious condemnation of pornography. Twisted commentary is thrown out by the women who are making the film or who are reflecting on the topic. One woman writer explains that the antidote to pornography is letting people experience more sex, and to have more sexual partners. Another woman writer, weeping, says that a woman has no alternative but to live in pain, and that "to be female and conscious anywhere on this planet is to be in a continual state of rage." As the opinions of these "good" women are contrasted to the unhappy women who are making their living off of pornography, their opinions carry a lot of weight.

One striking example of the film’s peculiar moral perspective occurs during the denouement of the film, which concerns a strip teaser. The feelings of the strip teaser about her work were recorded over a period of several months. During those months, the film-makers began a recorded process in which they "conscientized" the stripper, bringing her to another point of awareness about her "profession." By the end of the film, the stripper had an emotional "epiphany," which the viewer would be expected to sympathetically approve. This approval is wrung from the viewer because of its emotional content, but not because of its moral strength. The stripper explained that she was now able to differentiate between the erotic and the pornographic. However, neither she nor the film appeared to observe or value any difference between the chaste and the impure.

It was hardly a surprise that some parents, therefore, once they had viewed Not A Love Story for themselves, were outraged that their high school daughters had been shown this video. Although they had been presented with permission slips, parents had not been informed of the film’s graphic content, nor of its XXX-rating, which appears on the video’s jacket cover.

In response to parental complaints and having received a copy of Not A Love Story to critique, Cardinal Keeler called the film "appalling" and "inappropriate" and banned its use at Notre Dame Prep [March 22, 1995, Maryland Sun, "NPS Ordered to Stop using Video on Sex"]. The film was then replaced by a second, equally objectionable video, "The Accused," which contains a brutal, 15 minute bar-scene gang rape. A third film shown to the girls was "The Coming Out of Heidi Lightner."

The Cardinal also promised an archdiocesan assessment of the school, which parents eagerly applauded. The school administration, for its part, publicly offered to meet with the troubled parents so that they might air their concerns, which were rapidly spreading beyond distress over the video to include what parents feared were further school-related abuses, including liturgical irregularities, dissident scripture analysis, an incident in which a religion teacher had taught a small class the benefits of female masturbation, the invitation of homosexual and lesbian activists to address Notre Dame Prep students, the showing of homosexual rights documentaries, and the support for lesbian relationships which were articulated by several Notre Dame Prep teachers..

On April 5, 1995 parents were treated to what the school administration considered an appropriate forum for hearing their concerns. Rather than meeting privately with the parents who had collected evidence of impropriety, all 600 parents of Notre Dame Prep were invited to an open assembly led by a six-member panel comprised of school personnel. In what was perceived as an effort to intimidate the "complainers," parents were met at the school doors by four police cars and a paddy wagon. Upon entering the building, they were ushered down a gauntlet of tables and required to give their daughter’s name and class. In order to speak before the administrators, parents were required to again identify their daughter by name and grade. The administration also maintained a tight control over the question and answer component of the meeting. The concerned parents felt that these tactics were intentionally designed to keep confrontational remarks at a minimum and found that none of the problems they wished to discuss were addressed in a meaningful way.

While parents pressed for a private meeting in which to present their evidence, the diocese arranged for an investigation at Notre Dame Prep. In evident preparation for the archdiocesan investigation, students and one teacher observed that the day before the investigative team was to arrive, members of the religion department were hauling boxes of books out of their offices and the school library. When the investigation was concluded in May, the Archdiocesan report gave Notre Dame Prep a clean bill of health.

Parents were outraged. Not once had they been contacted by the Archdiocese or its investigative team. The parents’ testimony was no part of the 15-page report. Charges that Notre Dame Prep had systematically undermined the Catholic faith and morals of its student body were found to be ungrounded, because the evidence behind those charges was left unexamined.

Adding insult to injury, when the school year came to a close, the teacher who had shown the Not a Love Story video was presented with a "teacher of the year award" and was profiled in the archdiocesan newspaper. If this were insufficiently surreal, several parents became the object of a million-dollar lawsuit, leveled against them by the chairman of Notre Dame Prep’s religion department. They were charged with defamation, loss of consortium, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy, among other things.

The parents were not dismayed by the suit, but welcomed it as an opportunity to bring their charges against Notre Dame Prep further into the open. To their chagrin, however, they discovered that insurance lawyers had settled the case out of court, awarding the plaintiff money to drop the matter. "It was not at all what we would have done," complained one parent, "and justice has been perverted. We can remove our daughters from the school, but the abuses inside Notre Dame Prep’s walls will continue, because their perpetrators have been rewarded."

After three years of frustration and anger, the parents feel betrayed. "What is most disappointing to me personally, is the willingness of the Archdiocese to sweep this scandal under the rug and to turn its back on the truth and on its Catholic parents. Our faith is under assault from the very persons we once expected to uphold it. The bricks with which I laid the foundation of my daughter’s religious education and moral instruction were attacked at a so-called Catholic school. I feel that my training and her faith were undermined there."

Stephanie Block - Reeducating Catholics: Raising FutureChurch while Razing the Body of Christ

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Priest Correspondents
Pot Pourri

(Submitted by a priest/member of RCF)

  1. To your last issue of Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, I hardly know how to react. It was a menus detailing a smorgasbord of the diabolical abuses now rampant in our Catholic Church. Not that I was not disheartened. I was. I have in my character what some may regard as a quirk, an aberration: sympathy and empathy for Almighty God. Not that I was dumbfounded. It was the extent of these rampant heresies and immoralities that startled me.

    Still, I knew the Blessed Mother's prophecy of the "Great Apostasy." That was enough to unravel me. It is here now, even at our door. The evil spirits have their day now--before the great theophany when Jesus, true to His word, will appear not as redeemer, but as judge to settle all accounts. Our prayerful reaction must be the conviction to be found on the right side with the sheep, not with the "goats".
  2. The pastor of the Margaretville, N.Y. parish was guilty of scandalous conduct, disrespect for the Blessed Sacrament. As for Bishop Ryan of the Springfield diocese, my advice would be that he flee from the "goats." It would be a superhuman task to kick them all out. they are entrenched. Shades of my distant cousin, Abraham Lincoln! He would need to emancipate again, in his own hometown.
  3. To Donna Steichen I say: Bravo! We need more confessors of the faith. Not to worry, Donna, about accusations of slander and libel. As the old Romans used to say: "Scriptum manet"(the written remains). So do the TV tapes. Why are not these champions of the homosexual lifestyle, true to their Ordination vow, inculcating the pure life the Blessed Mother enjoins?
  4. Oh, horrors! Let's not imply impurity in unnatural sexlust! They are only holding hands, Yep. That is what they do., That is what they did, down Sodom and Gomorrah-way. But God is not blind. Nor is he mocked. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the Lord, ye people of Gomorrah." (Isaias l:10)
  5. To the Sodom and Gomorrahites in our midst, God still says:"Flee and look not back." And with Saint Philip Neri, put a clothespin on your nose to avoid the stench of mortal sin.
  6. I sorrow at the degradation of Holy Family parish. I knew it as a center of unadulterated faith and the zealous practice of the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. Now, reportedly, parishioners must tolerate the mouthings of priests who adulterate Catholic doctrine. The Call to Action devotees dictate their heretical surrenders. "Birds of a feather flock together."

    "None of us is fighting, disagreeing, arguing about anything that counts", says pat Brennan. Is the man plain ignorant or plain vindictive? "Every issue is human-made, timebound." The Church to which this character swore allegiance thinks otherwise, thinking as Catholics have always thought, in spite of redundant heresiarchs, in almost every age.

    Brennan actually raises the banneret of apostasy: "What is the role of the American bishops vis-a-vis the Papacy? Why is it that some of us take a style or an expression of Catholicism," he asks. so the faith of our fathers is only a style, a passing fad. Well, I say that Brennan and his ilk are a passing fad, and we need a Bishop Bruskewicz to initiate their passing.
  7. I read with a feeling of sadness how slow our Australian brethren are in recognizing the shameful lapses of their clergy. Again, I say: priests who tolerate and tout the horn for homosexuality probably are letting the cat out of the bag. Again, it becomes a matter of fleeing from Sodom and Gomorrah. The faithful should have no truck with these priests. In old Nagasaki, Japan, the children of the martyrs would not so much as speak to the apostates from the faith. Let's cease using big words to cover the enormity of unnatural sex! Homosexuality is not just another clean lifestyle. It is dirty, in the sight of God. Who said so? Sodom and Gomorrah. I once swam in the Dead Sea. Boy, oh boy, what an unforgettable, eerie experience!
  8. These characters who are taking over our pulpits to defend heretical, schismatic, even immoral practices should be denied access to the pulpits of our churches. Let them go preach in the San Francisco bath houses. Parishioners should threaten legal action against them, charging them with harassment, and disturbance of the peace. In the meantime, parishioners should stand up and protest, then exit the church in droves. Let the jackasses bray to the rafters.

    I remember a dear, old, saintly lady saying that she would no longer tolerate their diabolical rantings. "Now , Father," she said, "I stay home and say my prayers in bed." Bravo, Bridget. At least, you will not become an accomplice in their sin.
  9. The very idea of a pastor permitting a Masonic service in his church! Perhaps, many fine members of Masonic lodges are ignorant of their association's past: that Masonry is a religion; that Masons have labored to destroy the Catholic Church in many lands: the Knights Templars in France, the Church in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, the wonderful Jesuit humanitarian foundations in Paraguay. Masonic discriminations exist frequently today. False religions and enemies of the faith should not be invited into the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

    As for Masons honoring the late Cardinal Bernardin for his peace efforts, peace at any price is not my cup of tea. Jesus might well have said to the murderous claque of Israeli priests who fairly salivated for his death: "There is something in what you say." But there are times that try men's souls, and brave, good men have always stood the test. "Viva Christo Rey!" cried the priests of Mexico before the firing squads.
  10. If the homosexual lifestyle is legitimated into law as just another lifestyle, how many priests will come forward dauntlessly to defend our citadels? Precious few will risk fines and imprisonment for discriminating against this riffraff. Well, if I live to face this invasion, I will issue membership tickets only to parishioners in good standing. At the door, a Porter in Minor Orders will check tickets and deny admission to all others.

    Eventually, we may be reduced to the House Church lifestyle of our wonderful Catholic brethren in Communist China and the frenetic Islamic countries. They did it in old Japan for 400 years after Saint Xavier left them.
  11. If I were driven to it, I would not hesitate to operate my parish on the lines of the first Catholic parishes, in apostolic times. The known sinners were excluded from the church. They got only as far as the parking lots. Not the dyed-in-the-wool sinners of our days, the brash, admitted homosexuals, the attackers of our traditional doctrines and our moral lifestyles, those sinners were rational and sincere enough to confess their errors and seek restoration of membership.

    Not so nowadays. The proponents of Sodom and Gomorrah lusts are poised to legislate their lifestyle into law. Under the guise of economic opportunity, these perverts will invade our churches, monasteries and convents as eligible employees. The fox will then be in the chicken coop; the wasp at the heart of the fig.
  12. Here is some he-man talk from the he-man disciples of Christ. "Do not trust every spirit. Put the spirits to a test to see if they belong to God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world." (I John 4:1) "Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in lust. They practiced unnatural vice. These men are blotches on your Christian banquets. They join in your solemn feasts without shame. (Jude 7:12). "Remember, Beloved, the prophetic words of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they kept telling you: In the last days there will be impostors living by their godless passions. These sensualists are causing divisions among. Even with those you pity be on your guard: abhor so much as their flesh-stained clothing. (Epistle of Saint Jude 17-19).

    What is happening in the church today is only a repeat of what happened in the beginning. We have too many heretics, schismatics and sodomites on the loose in our churches. And too many Milquetoasts who are afraid to take issue with them. The "homos" are out of the woodwork now. It is time for the Milquetoasts to emerge from hiding and stand up, button bright, for the sanctities of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church was not born of cowards! Let us hope it will not die of cowardice, in these United States!

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Ireland

200-300 Roman Catholic Faithful members in Ireland gathered to protest outside a newspapers office in Cork Ireland after a reporter for the Cork Examiner criticized the Pope. The event was covered by newspapers in England and Ireland.

Just maybe we could learn something from our Irish brothers. RCF needs to hear from Springfield Catholics who are willing to protest!


 Dear RCF,

You are to be congratulated for the superb work you are doing in publicizing unorthodox and disgraceful living of some of our priests and bishops.

This is all an attack on life. God is life-Satan is anti-life. The Catholic people must know whose side we are on.

There was a time when we had bishops of gold and crosiers of wood, now we have bishops of wood and crosiers of gold.

Enclosed is a check.

Best wishes and may God be with you in this war on Satan..

Msgr.__________

Catholics of Clinton, Iowa:
Don't forget to send RCF mailing labels
for all priests living in your diocese!!!

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