"Mind your own business" was the great motto of the Midwest in years past. If the business was not your very own, you were trained not to speak of it. We are responsible to speak truth in love in our families and in the world. but not to spread stories of another person's sins.
No, no, no...there is no reason for this.
Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour 1 Peter 5:8 DR
Pointing out error is a good, but being caught up constantly in an adversarial spirit is not a good.
Who is called the Adversary? Satan.
More and more frequently in the Church, I am seeing traditional Catholics who are laymen stepping out of their worlds, their own spheres of influence and condemning things over which they have no authority.
Our lay world provides enough grist for the mill-we are supposed to be evangelizing our families, our friends, our workplace.
To try and pretend we have the right and duty to continually criticize the clergy, including bishops, cardinals and popes reveals hubris and the adversarial spirit.
If one is continually looking for faults and not giving real answers on how to deal with these faults, in other words, giving remedies. one has fallen into the spirit of the adversary.
The adversarial spirit is not kind, charitable nor fair. It judges and does not bear with the burdens of others. There are few who are pure enough in heart, mind and soul to be real critics.
The adversarial spirit causes hatred, dissension, and eventually, schisms and splits in the Church.
If you are finding that you argue too much and are always finding fault, look towards your own sins and failings first.
Those who want to change priests and bishops only have to raise holy boys to become holy men to go out and change the Church as holy priests and bishops.
It is not only naive but wrong to think the crusader spirit must be aimed at the Church first. No. Our enemies are those of the devil and the world, as well as the flesh. If such enemies have inflitrated the Church, even at high levels, we can pray, but our words mean nothing.
Tearing down is not building up.
A person caught up in the adversarial spirit will not find peace in God, but fall into rancor,anger and depression. If you are merely tearing down, you have let satan use you. Eventually, the person with the adversarial spirit becomes a heresiarch. Those people most likely will find themselves judged as they have judged-severely and without mercy.
We are here for the building up of the Church.
In a grown man, the adversarial spirit could be connected to a male being caught up in teen-age rebellion-a sign of the peter pan. The teen thinks he knows better than the parent and rebels against imperfections, not understanding that he himself is a sinner. It is too easy to point out the evils of another, rather than looking at one's own sin.
Ask yourself if you are constantly arguing.
Ask yourself if you are playing into the hands of the great Adversary of the Church.
He has been defeated but is still looking maliciously for souls to bring down with him in defeat.
Ask yourself if you are constantly arguing.
Ask yourself if you are playing into the hands of the great Adversary of the Church.
He has been defeated but is still looking maliciously for souls to bring down with him in defeat.
29 Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God: whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.31 Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice.32 And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ. from Ephesians
I think I know which parish you are writing about.
ReplyDeleteIt is important that people are able to voice their grave concern should a priest resign and tell people on social media (not gossip) that he is 'free' now.
I am really not interested in his personal vices at all.
What has shocked me is the total lack of respect that he has shown for his people and for the Church.
This individual has ruined a parish and perhaps seriously damaged the faith of the people over whom God set him.
Catholics angered by his behaviour, but more by his 'devil may care' attitude towards the Church and his flock should be allowed to voice their deep concern - even anger - at his lack of charity towards them.
Quid pro Quo Laurence
ReplyDeleteWithin a matter of days of Fr Fisher's arrival in Blackfen parishioner public grievances were being thrown around the public forum and being revealed in great detail online [to be discussed, dissected, judged and condemned by the 'greater assembly] antagonising, compromising his leadership , publicly humiliating and being emotively unjustly confrontational with the new Parish Priest.
Anything he did was being constantly reported, any liturgical or pastoral or even domestic action he chose was being undermined [to the extent he had to order people to leave things alone and stop interfering and deliberately arbitrarily reversing things he had set in motion]
Agreed this led to petulant inappropriate hostile outbursts during liturgies - his either ignorant or wilfully misleading statements from the pulpit regarding certain practices - but nevertheless his vain and vainglorious attempts at trying to enforce authority or leadership on a treacherous - yes treacherous - minority; wilfully seeking to publicly undermine him online or by contacting professional media Catholics to relay every minor detail of their 'struggle and persecution under this new interloper.'
Now I don't know if you remember but I made public statements at the time that the traditionalist members of the parish [and those territorially external to it] were counterproductively being self-destructive in constantly goading and being antagonistically confrontational and divisive - as well as being utterly thoughtless in publicising these activities - thus leaving very little room for either Priest or traditionalists to achieve some resolution, compromise or accommodation. They were wilfully providing no opportunity for conciliation.
I argued that when Fr Fisher arrived of course they should never have expected a continuance of the exclusive plethora of Extraordinary Form luxury 'gratuity' which was afforded them under the ultra-sympathetic Fr Finigan.
That instead they should have been exceedingly grateful - and expressed heartfelt gratitude - to Fr Fisher that he was willing to oblige the faithful with the EF mass - given so many were not so privileged.
That as parishioners they should have been extraordinarily obliging and receptive and welcoming and devotedly loyal to him - and by words and actions convince Fr Fisher that their first priority was the Parish and community and assistance to him - and not some set of traditionalist demands and ultimatums.
If they 'went out of their way' to show they were the most devout, devoted, loyal and the essential fabric of the parish then Fr Fisher - under a sense of responsibility, duty and obliging heartfelt reciprocity - would have felt more than welcome in maintaining their preferential form of worship.
"anything for friends"
As well as this even if Fr Fisher introduced innovations or diversions or severances from past parish practice [eg benedixion in english to be more inclusive] they should bide their time and hold their tongues and 'kill with kindness' and wait for the opportunity to gently coerce and convince Fr Fisher for some form of compromise [eg once a month or an additional feast day or weekday benedixion]. Instead they chose otherwise.
Gentleness, prudence and persistence was the way forward - service and sacrifice and affability and welcoming and friendship was the way forward - letting the priest know he was loved, giving him the opportunity to recognise it and [in his own way] reflect it - to the extent that after some time he might be more accommodating and obliging to further requests for restorations of past practices...
...and in some instances being ready to bite their tongues, make a fist in their pockets and endure whatever negatives they were enduring, to be humble in it all, subservient, and bide their time until opportunities arose....to keep their powder dry...
[to be continued]
.ESPECIALLY given Blackfen was already a hornets' nest of defiant tabletista ACTA-motivated rebels with 41% of the parish opposed to any Latin or Traditionalist activity.
ReplyDeleteIf Fr Fisher was provoked with hostility - the chances were he'd seek allies or friends or some sort of loyalty from other quarters were very risky indeed. Previously Fr Finigan had to maintain some sort of accommodating balance with those who were his ideological enemies to ensure a continuance and furtherance of his traditionalist rites - in many ways he had to relieve the tension and guarantee a modicum of reciprocity among all.
Fr Fisher, once provoked and undermined and humiliated with the most outrageous online hostility and muck-raking - and complaints to Archbishop Smith? Was under no such obligation to persist in this paradigm of mutual understanding...
Hence the somewhat petulant defiant 'I don't have to put up with this' hyperbolic overreaction of halting the EF mass.
Principally we have only heard one version of the events in Blackfen - but we have witnessed the online activities
of those hostile to Fr Fisher...
...and we can therefore conjecture and speculate that far from feeling welcomed, feeling comforted and secure and settled as a spiritual and pastoral leader...
...instead Fr Fisher suffered all manner of stresses, tensions, anxieties, and sufferings and mental, physical and spiritual exhaustions during these constant internecine squabbles...feeling guilty at overreacting, feeling there was no way of resolving any of it...feeling a tension of both despondency mixed with self-righteous defiance...a mixture of feeling he was a poor leader mixed with the notion 'he must put his foot down and they should respect his authority' and also a sense of garnering alliances and 'making his mark' among other groups in the parish. Like forming a parish council among those antipathetic to the traditionalists.
You can sense the psychology...and you can realise its inherent dangers.
And the susceptibility to run and hide from it all and seek solace and false comfort in sinfulness to which one has a weakness...and to seek out associations
...and given even if he only went half-way?
He'd found allies amongst the wrong sort of parishioners - the progressive accommodating wilfully rebellious ACTA mob with their pervasive libertine attitudes to immorality....
More and more compounded reasonings to equivocate and self-justify and hoodwink himself with constant 'I am who I am' and "I don't have to put up with this' and 'this love is not wrong' mantras...
...and be even goaded on and vindicated and reassured by those around him that...
"why should he bother? why should he carry on? why should he have to put up with all this? why can't he just jack it all in and live the life others seem to be so happy - and free- leading?..."
A mix of mental exhaustion, nervous breakdown, spiritual identity crisis, mid-life crisis, narcissistic rebelliousness and external corrupting influences who were more and more enticing and tempting as means fo escape...
The devil saw an opening and got in!!!
[to be continued]
...and now we've seen the floodgates open.
ReplyDeleteHe's resigned, is being laicised and is becoming a teacher in a Catholic school.
He's made blatantly defiant online gestures, has resorted to banal inappropriate [somewhat salacious] overtly sociable activity with homosexual friends online - he has made overtly pro-homosexual gestures and portrayed his resignation as 'breaking the chains of bondage' from which one may surmise he means both his clerical life and 'closetted' homosexual proclivities.
[which incidentally he did not defiantly flagrantly publicise - this was instead revealed to the public by social media Catholics deliberately pursuing him and stalking his timeline and detractively revealing it to all and sundry]
This evidence in NO WAY suggests he is either presently or ever was [except in highly speculative potential previous moral/spiritual crises or intermittent fallings away] guilty of breaking his celibacy or being an active homosexual.
Nevertheless this has been the most widespread accusation made against him by a frankly calumnous, libellous malicious witch-hunting lynch-mob on social media and even now - after Christina Niles's Church Militant report - the Catholic media - without any corroborative substantive evidence they have stated Fr Fisher is guilty of 'living a lifestyle in directly contrary Church teaching" - ie he is an active homosexual violating his vow of Chastity.
...and irrespective of this lack of evidence - the accusations are fuelling and fomenting a lynch-mob mentality which seeks to drive him out of his new teaching role.
This is blatant sinful persecution - it is a witch-hunt - and utterly unsubstantiated by any evidence.
BUT it might nevertheless - given Fr Fisher's disposition and frailty and insecurity and rudderlessness - provoke further reactionary resistance and defiance against this treatment.
[to be continued]
Yes there have been many calls for prayers for both Fr Fisher and for the parishioners of Blackfen.
ReplyDeleteBut there has been significantly more despicable, deplorable, appalling, malicious, vindictive and utterly anti-Catholic activity from people who purportedly call themselves traditionalist Catholics and loyal parishioners of Blackfen.
Prurient, salacious, hate and malice-filled attacks on anyone who attempts to suggest the divisiveness within the parish might have been the final straw on Fr Fisher's already fragile vocation and that even in a minor way the confrontational belligerent activity might have lit a touch-paper leading to Fr Fisher's abandonment of the Priesthood - they have been maliciously attacked.
To the extent that when a Deacon from the Southwark diocese made claims that Fr Fisher had worked a great deal of cohesive, community building, pastoral good in the parish. [of course all a matter of speculation and conjecture but nevertheless a clerical opinion by an ordained Deacon within the diocese]
..and that given many online engaging in the malice were online social media 'associates' of Fr Finigan - and that his silence in not remonstrating with and condemning their activities made his 'official silence' by default partisan - and Fr Finigan should feel obliged to say something and publicly dissociate from their activity lest he be inadvertently and incorrectly seen to be endorsing it....[yet again an opinion with which one may or may not agree - Fr Finigan is perfectly entitled to stay silent on these issues [however awkwardly any visible social media association with such people may seem]]
...instead there was an intensification of the ongoing hate-campaign and malicious persecution of this Deacon - there is not a quarter of an hour goes by - day in-day out where the poor Deacon has to endure some form of calumny or smear or hate-filled bile or downright lie regarding his character, his vocation or his Catholicism.
While many - many - MANY Catholics look on and say nothing - they continue to support and endorse and laugh and joke with these individuals - to promote their online activity which persecutes this Deacon.
I am utterly ashamed by so many of my fellow Catholics in this regard.
...and if Fr Fisher has to endure the minutest fraction of persecution this poor Deacon has endured?
well God forgive them!
I in no way defend or endorse ANY of Fr Fisher's recent activity - I am appalled at his lack of sensitivity and his sheer thoughtless petty bloody-mindedness - I am angered at the way he can treat his parishioners with such scorn and contempt with his online activities....
...but in comparison with the way he's been treated online over the past few days?
I have a message for these people
I do not want to know you
You do not represent Holy Mother Church with your violence, your hate and your grave violations of God's commands
Your self-righteous pharisaical witch-hunt, lynch-mob mentality is despicable.
And for you all to cowardly hide being anonymous psudonyms to give furtherance to your campaign of hate shames us all.
We are not your shield: Get to the confessional.
In my opinion, and from experience, trads mostly refuse to work with a new environment as they have
ReplyDelete"claimed" their turf. No one has turf in the Catholic Church.
Perhaps, if they had worked with this priest, he would not be in the position he is now. Does anyone understand long-suffering?
No one...