Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Will Cardinal Wuerl Suspend Courageous Priest?

Update: the Diocese has apologized to this woman who attempted to commit an act of sacrilege and has publicly thrown its priest to the wolves in one sense.  Disciplinary actions are sure to follow since the perpetrator now wants to inflict harm on the man just doing his job.  Hey, if you don't agree with the Church's teaching, don't believe it and don't expect its ministers to act in a way that aids and abets your errors.

Here's the pathetic response from ++Wuerl's anemic chancery:


Late Tuesday, Johnson received a letter of apology from the Rev. Barry Knestout, one of the archdiocese’s highest-ranking administrators, who said the lack of “kindness” she and her family received “is a cause of great concern and personal regret to me.”

“I am sorry that what should have been a celebration of your mother’s life, in light of her faith in Jesus Christ, was overshadowed by a lack of pastoral sensitivity,” Knestout wrote. “I hope that healing and reconciliation with the Church might be possible for you and any others who were affected by this experience. In the meantime, I will offer Mass for the happy repose of your mother’s soul. May God bring you and your family comfort in your grief and hope in the Resurrection.”


Edit: This is about denying communion to those who cause scandal. It's the right of a priest and an obligation to do it. It's what Cardinal Wuerl has been urged to do.

Well, another priest who is presenting the authentic but non-PC teaching on the sin that cries out will in all likelihood be punished. You'll remember the great Father Gomez who was recently suspended for telling it like it is, or the Linz Pastor, Father Skoblicki, who was hounded from his post just for being offensive to a few people who rarely went to church and the Austrian media.

 Not surprisingly, this particular priest may find himself punished in turn.  He is of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C..  The See of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who may be overseeing disciplinary action against him for being culturally insensitive to a scandalous woman whom the priest had the courage to publicly chastise.

Cardinal Wuerl has himself been a scandal in the past, and seems eager to add further wounds to the body of Christ by giving tacit approval to behavior well outside of Catholic moral teaching.

Why is the priest allowing "lay eulogies" anyway? And why would he be suspended for doing the job many Bishops have been refusing to do for more than half a century with respect to pro-abort and Liberal politicians? Surely, this priest should be able to find a home in a Diocese that's not so hostile to the practice of the Catholic Faith in the event that the ensuing media storm extracts action from Cardinal Wuerl to act on behalf of the Zeitgest?

The following excerpt of an article from USCatholic underscores the confusion.  The public scandal caused by a homosexual couple living in sin certainly does constitute scandal.  Not sure how a priest doing his job causes scandal, but USCatholic thinks so.  On the other hand, where does this writer's expertise lie, save perhaps in suffering from a disordered state himself?

Predictably, the anti-Catholic and inaptly named USCatholic is "shocked" by such "callous" behavior.

We're still shocked they're still allowed to describe themselves as Catholic. Isn't that false advertising?

From the category of "you cannot be serious": A priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, has,according to the Washington Post, denied communion to woman at her mother's funeral because she is a lesbian and living with a woman. He informed her of that in the communion line. He also left the altar when she delivered the post-communion eulogy for her mother.

What? Now Catholic women who are lesbian cannot even be heard in church? So far the best the archdiocese has done is restate its policy that denying someone communion should be explained in a private, pastoral setting. What it doesn't say is that it is up to the conscience of the communicant whether to present herself for communion and, as a general rule, the minister offering communion is not to question that judgment, except in cases of scandal. I hardly think that a daughter wanting to receive communion at her mother's funeral--not even at a regular Sunday Mass--would cause such a scandal. Nor does living with a woman rise to "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin," in the proper understanding of canon 915. (Ask any canonist.) This priest's behavior, on the other hand, has scandalized Catholics the world over.

What we are witnessing can only be described as the small-minded behavior of people that don't even understand Catholic history or tradition, the intricacies of canon law--including and especially canon 915 (and the linked commentator doesn't get it either)--and the rights of the faithful, or even the demands of charity. The fact that a man who could so callously display his disdain for one of the baptized daughters of the church is even ordained is breathtaking.
Link to USCatholic...

8 comments:

Mommy on a mission said...

I say good job Father!!!

Anonymous said...

Agreed!

schmenz said...

I've just responded to the idiotic article on USCatholic and I am certain it will be followed by the usual band of foaming-at-the-mouth Catholic apostates.

AngelaA said...

Let those among you without sin be the first to cast the cast.... Shame on all of you!!!!!!

Tancred said...

Hold on everyone, let any meaningful discussion cease, someone has just played some kind of politically correct card.

Anonymous said...

Wuerl acts like a bully on the block. He is a poor example for a priest let alone a cardinal. He hurt a priest in Pittsburgh who was falsely accused. Wuerl has a sordid reputation of being a homosexual. His mean way of treating priests will send him straight to Hell. he most likely became a cardinal through the Masons that are in the Varican, I lost respect for Ratzinger, Pope Benedict after he sent Wuerl to Washington DC and to add injury to insult made Wuerl a cardinal.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Love one another as I have loved you because God is Love. But always remember and rehearse in your heart, Love as virtue has bounds which demarcate it from vice! Thanks!

Concerned Priest

Denyutali

Anonymous said...

CONSIDER THIS :
Nyerere's daughter refused communion for kneeling down to receive on the tongue in Tanzania during her father's funeral mass.This is abuse of power by the church leaders in Africa.Check this out on the web

Charles IK