These words were spoken to me by a friend who is a priest in . . . a troubled area, shall I say? We were discussing the whole situation about women like Barb and Nancy and Joan, and he said the following:
(I paraphrase)
“John, we should live in a Church devoid of fear on the part of the clergy. Without us, there is no Eucharist, and without the Eucharist, no Church. Our bishops should not be siding with the politicking liberals amongst us, but rather, with his brother priests. We are of a sacred order, and this is something which some bishops do not realize. I’m afraid to speak up against abuse because the women in charge are closer to the bishop’s ear than am I, so I ask you, who do you think he’d support? A friend or a priest? The laity cannot readily run the Church, save from a financial end. The priest must have sole authority and answer only to his ordinary. In making ‘priest’ merely a job in the hierarchy, the Church has lost focus. Of course, by ‘Church’ I mean the R_____ Diocese.”
Let us pray for the good folks in the diocese of . . . Ramblesburg? Rickshawville? I think we can discern of which diocese the good padre spoke. Only in Rochester is the priest put on trial for the errors of the laity who so ineptly run our parishes.
How sad. I will make a much better effort to pray for the good orthodox priests of the DoR being treated as second class citizens to the bishop's circle of priestesses. God bless them, and may the Lord give them the strength to put up with 3 year more years of suffering before they will be allowed to celebrate their liturgies with the greatest reverence, and flourish.
The priest have nothing to fear. on the other hand on judgement day the priestesses will be very unhappy.
You have to get this type of information out of Rochester.
Send it to the Vatican, Papal Nuncio, the media and other blogs.
Spread the blog addresses to all Catholics on your email list.
http://cleansingfiredor.blogspot.com/
http://dorcatholic.blogspot.com/
http://rochestercatholic.com/
http://richleonardi.blogspot.com/
http://www.thereoughttobealaw.net/
I agree completely. However, the same office which deals with liturgical and political abuses in the Church also handles such things as the underground Church in China. Yes, we have it rather badly right now, but at least we have our lives held as sacred. Although, with Mr. Obama, who knows what will happen to orthodox Catholics . . .
The environment we currently have in the DoR is probably nowhere near what these priests were expecting when they stepped forward to answer the Lord's call. Soon, in three years, it will be the orthodox priests' time to shine. We can dream of the day when a priest can give a homily on the issues of today (i.e- abortion, contraception, homosexual unions and weddings) without worrying about ticking off some overly-sensitive progressive and receiving a call from Buffalo Road about not being sensitive enough in their homilies. This is not how it should be, and this hopefully is not how it will be when we receive our new bishop.
According to the "official" Clark Retirement Widget, there are 1,128 days to go. Glory be, we're almost there.
~Dr. K
No wonder nobody answers the call anymore in the DoR. The vocations are there, but the young men don't want to be treated like dirt by the bishop, by lay pastoral administrator, and by committees of laypersons. Restore respect for the priesthood, and the priesthood will flourish.
Speaking of liturgy, I found an obit that mention Barbara Swiecki officating, along with Father Statt. This obit was from 2002. The deceased person's name is Irene Harness as you scroll through the obits.
The link is http://www.clarioncall.com/obits/obits011002.html
"Officiating"
When I die, I don't want some lay person "officiating" with a priestly puppet. I want a priest presiding.
If Jesus appeared before us at our parish today, would you fight hard, with everything you've got, to protect him or would you let the others kill him again?
We have to expose these female lay administrators who are doing so much damage to our Church.
I would like to see pictures and all legal and published information about them, their husbands and family, posted on a Blog. I want to know where they live and where their husbands work.
If these so-called administrators are going to be paid with "parishioner money", then the parishioners should know everything about them.
No more secrets in the Diocese of Rochester.
Anon 9:57: "I want to know where they live and where their husbands work."
I'm not going to advocate anything like that. When you start to dig into their personal comings and goings, you open yourself up to the same lack of privacy. Their personal lives, as interesting as some may be based on the rumors I've heard of certain DoR personalities, are just that; their personal lives. What they do with regard to our parishes, on the other hand, is fair game. Any of their involvements with questionable organizations (i.e- Call to Action, WoC, Corpus, etc.) also comes into play. But as for what color car Joan Sobala drives, how tall she keeps her grass, and how much Avon she buys, I really don't care.
We do know some general info on Ms. DeRycke that is basically public knowledge already by nature of her status as a public figure. She is married to a former Rochester priest, Ron Stacy, and she herself is a former Sister of St. Joseph who was involved with the Women's Ordination Conference along with Sr. Joan Sobala. She has organized prayer services in the Rochester area with the intent of praying for the ordination of women and married men. These services took place after Pope John Paul II slammed the door on the idea of the ordination of women.
Again, what type of cereal they eat doesn't interest me, and has no impact on the issues of their management of parishes. I understand the frustration, and I feel a lot of it too, but we need to keep this related to their Catholic activities, and not their personal lives.
~Dr. K
lol, do I see a triumphant return of the Clark Retirement Widget? 🙂
~Dr. K
Indeed you do, lol.
And she drives a red car, by the way. The one time I was at Our Lady of Lourdes (her rectory) her grass was kept at about 3 and two thirds inches. As for Avon, her radiant complexion does not merit its use. I apologize if my sarcasm is apparent. 😉
LOL
I hear she enjoys Frosted Mini Wheat as well.
~Dr. K
With all due respect, you can laugh a little bit, but I take you back to the question: If Jesus appeared before us at our parish today, would you fight hard, with everything you've got, to protect him or would you let the others kill him again?
When it comes to protecting our Lord's Church, unfortunately at times, you have to fight fire with fire. Or you will continue to watch the Diocese of Rochester die, right before your eyes.
Well, Jesus does appear before us everyday at our parishes. That's what the Blessed Sacrament is. 😉
And, I dare say, we do fight vigorously to preserve Him from defilement. We just don't broadcast our efforts. For many of us, this would be more of a detriment to our efforts than a boon to them.
Did all these wannabe priests come in the same spaceship?
Let's hope they all leave in the same one too. 😉