Castrated or Non-Existent?

Last October, the test was the heterodoxy on the gay marriage issue. On the one hand, the pro-gay marriage Fr. Massingale got near unlimited space to blather on in "our" Catholic Herald...but in the other hand he was was suddenly canceled when he was scheduled to offer his tripe at St. John Vianney Parish in Brookfield (recently given new, if only temporary, leadership).

Now His Excellency, the chief teacher and guardian of orthodoxy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has another chance to prove what he's got.

Thanks to Fr. Bob Wilde's, wild, wild west side university, we will soon get to see if Archbishop Dolan has the courage to do what other bishops have done, and prevent the atrocity of a supposedly "Catholic" University putting on THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES.

To help provide vertabrae for His Excellency's backbone, every faithful Catholic should do two things: Write a letter to Fr. Bob Wilde-side, with a copy to His Excellency; and a separate letter to His Excellency with a copy to Fr. Wilde. Paper copies are better than e-mail.

Here are the addresses:

The Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan
Archdiocese of Milwaukee
P. O. Box 070912
Milwaukee, WI 53207-0912


Fr. Robert Wilde, S.J.
Office of the President
P. O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881

I offer all of this with no real hope that anything will really be done by the feminist powers that be at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Please do write.

Mike

News from the west.

Sources at the parish tell me that Fr. Paul Hartmann has been appointed "administrator" of St. John Vianney Parish in Brookfield. The pastor, Fr. Leonard Van Vlaenderen, (yes, Archbishop Weakland's right hand man) is said to be taking a leave for "health" reasons.

Fr. Hartmann is said to be originally from St. John's parish. He seems to be the got-to troubleshooter for Archbishop Dolan.

Time will tell how this develops regarding both Fr. Van Vlaenderen and Fr. Hartmann.

Freudian? I think not.

OK, so I know what he probably meant to say, but somebody should teach our priests how to speak more succinctly...

From today's MJS article about the difficulty of selling closed churches:

"We would not sell the property to anyone who would be using it for a purpose contrary to the nature, purpose or morality of a church - an abortion clinic, maybe, a gentlemen's club," he said.

Does that mean that a "gentlemen's club" might be an option? Is the airport lounge looking to expand?

The better questions might be about what snide comments we all want to read into this: freudian slip, over compensation, deep dark secret...

Stop the Hypocritic Express!

Belated Merry Christmas to all!

Two postings from a recent thread (which I intentionally brought to a close) which demand reacting to:

Anonymous said...

I have been a faithful reader of this blog. I have also provided information which I probably should not have. If my identity was discovered, I could be in big trouble and possibly without a job. Given the fact that this site has allowed "nasty" people like dad29 to spread harmful rumors, I will provide no information in the future. I would not be able to live with the slimey feeling.

Monday, December 25, 2006 11:09:00 AM

First off, even I was not so addicted to the words of wisdom that appear herein that I was able to get here on Christmas Day.

Second, if you could get fired, I can only guess that your own boss might think you are "nasty". But, you made postings because you thought it was, in the end, the right thing to do. Maybe you wanted something to be different. Other posters to this blog might think that the public perceptions that are created by this "cohabitation" are worth raising questions about. If you have some unwritten right to violate the trust of your boss, that seems to be of a different order than a member of the Catholic faithful asking questions about accountability. Please, don't try to make your risk seem like the high road.

Anonymous said...

You people are sick sick sick. Amazing how your speculation leaps (no, sprints!) to laying blame on lefties and barely muting your hatred of gays. No wonder people look on us as a bunch of modern day Klansmen.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 10:56:00 AM

Whoa. The second stop on the Express train.

Lefties? Where at all are they mentioned at all?

Hatred of gays? Two things here: 1) You may not like it, but the behavior is still a moral problem in the Church and, I would add, that the political aspects of what seems to be Mr. Montoya's agenda are open to criticism for many reasons; 2) Homosexual or otherwise, a priest cohabitating with a man or a woman begs some questions from those members of the Catholic faithful who are scandalized by it.

Now don't give me that tired "but there may be a good explanation" tripe. When there is one good explanation among a dozen bad ones, the role of the questioner is either to allow the clarification of the reason to benefit all (especially, in this case the dignity of the priesthood and all priests), or to indicate the need for a correction in behaviors.

Folks, perceptions are real (just turn on your TV), and for public people like our priests, there is an even greater responsibility to attend to those perceptions and how they are created or reinforced.

For the last forty years one of the great criticisms of the Church has been a lack of accountability among priests and bishops. It may be a somewhat course dialogue that occurs on blogs like this, but it is certainly one of the few mechanisms to either express frustration that there is no real accountability here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee or it could be the mechanism that might just bring about some of that accountability.

These priests can't have both ways...all the rights they want, but none of the responsibilities that many of us bear as well.

Mike

Cheap Grace II, the truth comes out?

So, did anyone attend the "Communal Reconciliation Service" at St. Mary's, Hales Corners? Did you get the general absolution that all have been blogging about?

If yes....what will His Excellency do? Don't hold your breath.
If no....was it never actually planned? Were the illicit plans changed thanks to blogs like this bringing it up?

Lastly, who preached the warm fuzzies homily?

Mike

Cheap Grace?

It has been reported here by an anonymous poster to the last thread that St. Mary's Parish, Hales Corners, will be offering general absolution for anyone who happens into the church on Wednesday, December 20th. Other than the parish bulletin making an odd distinction between "Communal Reconciliation" and "Individual Reconciliation", I have not found conclusive proof that this will occur. But, since Fr. Chuck will likely be out shopping for new ties, and Mary Matestic will be the presider at the service, I can find it believable. If someone knows for sure, please let me know.

Remember when His Excellency Timothy M. Dolan implied that he was taking a stance on this? He even gave the implication that general absolution was the first step down the slope to denying our own sinfulness. But, we should be getting used to the fact that sometimes people say a whole lot more than they are actually willing to act on.

Could this be happening with His Excellency's advance knowledge and, gasp!, approval? There is no question that it is the Archbishop's responsibility alone to determine if general absolution can be used. Well, while I think there is a lot more orthodoxy in what the Archbishop says than in what he has ever done, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. His priests (and priestesses) just flat out ignore him and the Church in so many ways.

The problem for all of us simple, hopeful Catholics, is that we are left with no good option to trust him. Here are the choices that I see: either the Archbishop:

a) has no intention of having his warm fuzzy words be matched with any actions;
b) says one thing, but (at least tacitly) approves of something else; or,
c) when confronted with dissenting activities, he does nothing to discipline the wayward priests or diocesan center bureaucrats.

For a little more perspective, from what I have been told, the tie-wearing Fr. Charles was already a problem with his questionable practices at his last parish, St. Sebastian's. But, under the present Archbishop, his negative impact is neither corrected nor isolated. Instead, it is moved from a medium sized parish, to a larger stage.

Reluctantly, I even have to offer props to at least one Cousins Center underling. Even the impossible to navigate, user-unfriendly, website indicates that, if reports are true, Fr. Cheap-Ties will be violating something.

For more useful information that anyone can print off and mail to St. Mary's Parish, or to the Archbishop himself, check out what the Vatican says. (Fr. Cheap-Ties...the Vatican, that's that big Church in Rome.)

I would love to hear if other places are using general absolution.

Gotta finish some Christmas cards.

Mike

From the comments section...

Not much on my mind lately other than preparing for Christmas. But the Archdiocese does keep things interesting.

Posted in another thread:

Dad29 said...
Just for fun--which Archdiocesan priest, assigned to a prosperous West Suburban parish, just moved in with Jeff Montoya?
Saturday, December 16, 2006 9:40:00 AM

So, just who is Jeff Montoya?

Actually, I don't know the priest to whom Dad29 refers. Anyone want to share more hints?

Happy shopping.

Mike

I know I am late.

Saw a little note in the National Catholic Register. It refers to the following pronouncement from Marquette University:

Department Annouces New Major in Theology
Web Posted: 10/05/2006

Marquette’s Department of Theology announces a new “Major in Catholic Theology.” The new major is designed to provide students with the level of preparation more and more required of theology teachers in Catholic high schools across the nation. Although it will officially begin with its listing in the 2007 UNDERGRADUATE BULLETIN, students can already take courses in the program beginning the fall of 2006.

First, the spelling error is in the orignal! Wow, that Jesuit education just keeps on proving itself.

Second,
A NEW "Major in Catholic Theology"?
NEW?
What theology have you been teaching thus far?

I guess this serves as a tacit admission that what Fr. Bobby Wilde's and Fr. Bryan Massingale's theology department have been teaching up to now HAS NOT BEEN CATHOLIC.

Sadly, I fear that one step forward represented by this momentary honesty, will be undermined by the fact that MU's view of things Catholic, went the way of the Warriors a long time ago....this will be no different.

Mike

P.S. A few weeks until my first anniversary as a blogger. 9,694 unique visits thus far. Let's shoot for 10,000 by the 29th! Invite your friends.

By the company they keep.

One of the most intriguing conundrums to an astute observer of the Archdiocese of Milquetoast bureaucracy has to be the just under the surface machinations of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund.

Now, this seeming legacy that stems from keeping crazy old men on life support long enough to declare their will null, is in the news again.

Like most of the good Weaklandistas, this Weakland era holdover has found the great left-wing bogie man of the new millenium: Halliburton!

With Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan holding one, out of the grand total of three votes (that's consultative for you), this namesake of the local Church is now lead plaintiff in the vast left-wing paranoia about a vast right-wing conspiracy.

Their first lawyers are admitted tools of the Democratic (read as baby-killers) party.
Even other law firms are critical of them. Ain't that the sharks turning on one another.
And look at their winning record: Al Gore in Florida, and Napster.

It all seems just a little too sleazy, from the life support in the 90's to the liberal shilling in this millenia. Why is a Catholic archbishop associated with all of this?

Oh yea, millions of dollars! With that as the context, when "jump" is called I guess the only response to Erica John is an archepiscopal "How high"?

Mike

Some good advice.

Sorry, holiday week. That means it was pretty slow among the oddball crowd of archdiocesan bureaucracy.

Thanks to Diogenes, I saw great...let me say that again, GREAT...advice for every Catholic bishop, local or otherwise. hehehehe.

Restating an article in the Wall Street Journal:

Last month several dozen top Catholic theologians crowded into a Vatican chapel for 7:30 a.m. mass with Benedict.

The pontiff gave pointed marching orders:"Speaking just to find applause or to tell people what they want to hear ... is like prostitution," he told the theologians, according to a transcript. "Don't look for applause, but look to obey the truth."

Emphasis mine!

Hmmmm? Who could this be directed at??????

Mike

P.S. There are still rumblings on the auxiliary bishop front. (I thought you priests weren't supposed to comment about the backround checks?) I must be careful, would not want my free speaking source to clam up too soon. Just remember fathers, parish councils have mouths too. Is there a surprise on offing? Someone not previously handicapped?

Clarification, or "Would You Believe It..part 2"

Just so nobody thinks I getting soft, maybe the cynical sentence below should read:

"That picture is a better ad for vocations than anything the archdiocese puts forth on it's website."

Would you believe it....

Five seminarians...
Five white albs (cassocks would be nicer)...
Two (maybe three) bowed in prayer...
One striking his breast in a mea culpa...
And this in the Journal-Sentinal...

It's getting cold out, but I did not think it was that cold.

A better ad for vocations than anything the archdiocese puts forth on it's website. Check out a Video Message from Father Lobacz. Can't you just feel the inspiration to solid young Catholic men? A smile wouldn't hurt would it?

Thanks to the guys who take their vocation seriously.

Mike

Interesting tidbits.

For those interested, a sober article on the problems with how bishops are chosen, entitled "Choosing Our Shepherds", by Charles Wilson of the St. Joseph's Foundation. I must say that I find this group to be interesting. A good resource for traditional Catholics who feel brushed aside by bishps, but themselves rather populist in their approach to things. I have to think about this one for a while.

As an observation...the Archbishop's New York State of Mind seems to have faded as quickly as it flared up (at least for now). I wonder what the cocktail party chats were in the USCCB meetings?

If it is true that a priest, or priests, are being researched as a possible auxiliary, and that the prospects of immediate cardinalatial needs in NYC and Chicago have passed (and Detroit just got a new auxiliary for Cardinal Maida to break-in) I guess His Excellency might be staying for awhile. But then again, was last week's trip to Baltimore just a dry-run?

Unrelated, but interesting...who is Penitens? Very interesting mix of favorite music and favorite movies.

Tidbits from Sitemeter, the program used to track visits to this website:

WOW, the first, and thus far only, visitor to this little site by someone in Singapore during the same time that President Bush was visiting there. Coincidence? LOL. Even I know better.

Pretty regular visits from someone in Anchorage, AK. Hmmmm...who could that be? Is he looking to take over another Catholic newspaper?

If you want visitors from predominantly Muslim countries, be sure the the words "gay" and "homosexual" are there to be found by search engines. I wonder if those burkhas are covering a too much for too long...what is a randy man supposed to do?

Enough for now...off to mass.

Mike

Death and Taxes.

Ironic that on All Soul's Day, November 2, 2006, His Excellency, Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan, included this little tidbit about taxes in a message to his priests. (Thanks to my favorite anonymous contact among the Milwaukee presbyterate...)

3. For the last 18 months, members of my administrative team have been studying the possibility of raising the archdiocesan parish assessment. There is compelling data as to why we should raise the assessment, including the facts that there has not been a change to our formula for close to 30 years, that our assessment is among the lowest in the nation, and because, let’s face it, the cost of doing business continues to rise steadily each year. Part of the process was to have included consultations with important stakeholders this fall.

However, the work of the team analyzing the assessment was stalled as we prepared for the California lawsuits. Once those cases were resolved, we realized that thoughtful, adequate preparation could not be completed in time for the consultations. So, we’ve decided to postpone our consultations on the parish assessment until next fall. That does not mean that we won’t continue work on the issue. Your input, along with that of your key collaborators, such as your business manager, trustees, finance chair, among others, will be helpful to us as we continue to study the issue. I would appreciate it if you would share this information with these folks, but for now, know that the earliest we would do anything with the parish assessment would be for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

So, the Archbishop is going to raise the "assessment" on his parishes. Make no mistake, this is a TAX. It is a tax that pays for bad liturgy, questionable guidance on religious education, and supports all of the self-proclaimed auxiliary bishops at the soon to be defunct Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center.

Let's unpack this little bomb for a moment....

"...members of my administrative team have been studying the possibility of raising the archdiocesan parish assessment."

Why not tell us who your "administrative team" is? I am guessing that few, if any, have ever worked in a parish, or worked in a real-world setting. (At least not recently.) By real-world, I mean a job where income is directly based on product. Offer something of value to a clientele, and income follows. But, for an "administrative team" it is far easier to be "administrative" when you are not really answerable to anyone.

"...there has not been a change to our formula for close to 30 years."

By "formula" I am assuming that this refers to some sort of manner of determining a percentage, vrs a flat fee rate. Your Excelleny, if your recently smitten finance staff has not exlained this, but it means that your income grows, or does not grow, at the exact same rate as everyone else. Sadly, the implication of your message is that you (or your "administrative team") feels that the central bureaucracy deserves a greater portion than do your parishes. My, aren't we happy with ourselves!

"...our assessment is among the lowest in the nation..."

And the percentage of sex abusers is higher than national average; the size of our priest union is larger than average; the amount of heresy in our parishes is above average. Like good democratic politicians, this assertion presumes that a low rate of taxation is inherently bad.

"...the cost of doing business continues to rise steadily each year."

As do the costs for parishes, and the families who make up those parishes. Even given that, Your Excellency's "administrative team" presumes to have a greater claim on those limited funds than does the parish or the family. "Formula" presumes percentage...therefore your income increases at the same rate as everyone else. A greater increase requires greater justification than presented here.

"...the work of the team analyzing the assessment was stalled as we prepared for the California lawsuits..."

Again, I question who precisely is this "team"? But, as regards to California lawsuits...those pedophile priests are such a bitch. Does your "administrative team" include anyone who facilitated past cover-ups? Or helped hide your predecessors Nantucket trysts? Oh yeah, they deserve pay raises!

"...the earliest we would do anything with the parish assessment would be for the 2008-2009 fiscal year."

So, the presumption is that increased taxation is going to happen. Then why consult?

All in all, I am of the mind that if the Archbishop wants to raise the tax, he should just do it. Stop playing games with fake consultation if the decision is already made.

But, I have great big questions about how anyone at the Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center could justify demanding more money (taken from the resources of our schools and parishes) that would go to a rather useless bureaucracy.

What do all of you say? Does the Cousins Center Coven deserve more money? LOL!

Mike

P.S. Two VERY interesting tidbits from the diocesan offices....

Are possible auxiliary bishops actually being vetted by the Papal Nuncio?

Are those civil, but not sacramental, wedding bells we hear near the archdiocesan offices?