Each passing week, many parishes in the Diocese of Rochester continue to see moral, theological, financial, liturgical, and spiritual declines. None more so than the once-proud and majestic St. Anne Church on Mt. Hope venue. Without fail, we receive a constant stream of Joan Sobala-related items from our readers and staffers, most of which we just omit because they’re the pathetic dying breaths of a dying breed of heretics. However, this is one we just had to convey to you, the readers, so that you can grasp the depths to which Sr. Sobala has dragged the people of the parish.
Every year, since the parish’s inception, the parishioners have held a beautiful and well-attended “Novena to St. Anne” which attracts, not only the parishioners themselves, but devotion-loving Catholics from the entire Diocese. Each year, a noted preacher from out of town has delivered the nightly sermons – all prestigious for their theological prowess. This pattern came to an abrupt end in 2008, when Sr. Sobala & Co. took over St. Anne. That year, Fr. Michael Marigliano, a Franciscan, was the preacher. I attended some of the nightly services, and I was moved by his zeal for the Faith and the Church. However, he did not care for Sr. Sobala’s seditious actions at the parish, and he made his sentiments known. Indeed, he inserted into the petitions at the closing Mass certain words to the effect of “We pray also for those faithful who suffer under corrupt leaders in the parish setting. May they suffer spiritual martyrdom for the glory of God and His Church.”
And so, Sr. Sobala has stopped the three-quarter century tradition of preaching excellence in favor of a more affordable (fine), simpler (fine), more local and controllable approach (not fine). The parish went from having priests like Fr. Marigliano preaching firey sermons to – now get this – Fr.’s Kennedy and Palumbos. Of course, this is an improvement over last year’s Sobala-Tyman-Lawlor rotation, but still . . . consider their orthodoxy. They have both been long-associated with being (I put this tactfully) associated with the “plight” of gays and lesbians in the Church. I know we need to reach out to these people, but not by signing our names to a letter of open dissent. They also contribute proudly to organizations of dubious moral focus.
So what are the people of the parish to expect this year, in terms of sermons? They used to be solid, theologically beautiful, and proud of their Catholicity. But now, it seems that cost and politicking are dancing hand-in-hand down the aisle at St. Anne. I fear for the people who still attend this novena, for many are unaware of the immense damage that the staff of the parish has caused.
Let us pray that Fr.'s Kennedy and Palumbos do not slip their political quest into the prayerful tone of the annual St. Anne Novena.
Now, I wholly understand needing to trim the budget. That’s a good thing to do, and if you can find preachers of the same caliber for no cost, that’s the way to go. But you cannot whore out a devotion for the cause of politicking (politickling?) gay rights. We can hope this doesn’t come up, but when you think of a list of DoR priests who are openly fighting for gays in ways they ought not to, what two names are at the top of the list? Kennedy and Palumbos. Of course, I’m sure they’re both charming gentlemen, but they (and many like them) need to realize that the pulpit is no place for dissenting political views.
What strikes me as the most telling fact in all this is the perpetual decline in attendance at St. Anne. If people liked what they were hearing at Mass (and things like the novena) attendance wouldn’t have dropped by around 50%. In a similar way, if people are engaged and challenged by what they hear on Sunday, they will become even more active in the parish. St. Anne is no longer attracting the vast number of volunteers it once had – you can see that in their bulletins, where the same names are repeated week after week. Indeed, they don’t even have children serving their 4:00 Mass anymore – when young people are replaced by the elderly, there is something seriously wrong there. If a child of 12 or 13 knows there’s something bad going on at Mass, so too should well-informed people in our situation.The novena used to be something which everyone at the parish looked forward to, and was advertised all around the diocese. I myself found out about it from Catholic Radio around 10 years ago. But now, the novena is just one more thing they (and we) have to worry about. “Will there be sound preaching?” “Will they be vested in a proper and dignified way?” “Will there be overt politicking/politickling?” The faithful ought not to worry whether or not church will be uplifting, and that’s why we’re seeing a massive decline in attendance, not just at St. Anne, but at every parish whose curriculum vitae leans away from Church doctrine and towards the glorification of error.
If anyone is planning on attending the novena, I would encourage you to record and document it to the best of your ability. Fr. Tyman himself has disparagingly referred to us as the “self-appointed bulldogs of orthodoxy,” so let’s not disappoint.
