Posted on 08/15/2006 7:34:34 AM PDT by NYer
Rev. Rouville Fisher, a priest of the Diocese of St. Augustine, has been formally excommunicated by Bishop Victor Galeone. Father Fisher was excommunicated because he has publicly joined the “Rent a Priest” organization and is offering his priestly services outside of, and apart from the Diocese of St.Augustine, and in violation of the directives of the Bishop. The faithful are advised that any knowing support of or participation in the schismatic ministry of Father Fisher is gravely sinful.
Bishop Victor Galeone [memo in the August 6, 2006 bulletin of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, Palm Coast, FL]
[Via Christopher Blosser at Episcopal Spine Alert]
More reasons to love my own Bishop. I don't know any of the details of this case other than that he was a Deacon just five years ago and was probably a late vocation priest judging by his pictures.
can you say "apostacy?"
Doesn't sound like one I would want to rent. LOL!
Remindis us that the first Protestant "Reformers" were rebellious priests.
Bp. Galeone knows how to do it. Maybe we can trade Bishops...
I always thought that you couldn't PAY for the Sacraments -- that anything that was given was a free will offering.
Seems like renting by the hour is a little . . . sordid.
Bp. Galeone is wonderful. I live in his diocese (in fact, in the Cathedral parish) and we want to keep him! Forever!
Actually, he is probably fairly close to retirement by now. He has only been a bishop for about 5 years and this is is first see; he was appointed virtually against his will. He's from Baltimore, I believe, originally, but spent many years in Peru as a missionary.
He has done wonderful things for this diocese in just a short time, particularly in the area of catechizing and "re-Catholicizing" the faithful.
Good point. This is simony.Canon Law on simony and the Catechism:
Can. 1380 A person who through simony celebrates or receives a sacrament, is to be punished with an interdict or suspension.
2121 Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things. To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!" Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay." It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.
Good for Bishop Galeone, but I have to wonder why more of them aren't being censured.
Yep...
Saddening--though I can't understand why anybody who considers themself a good Catholic (and presumably would know that using a "Rent-a-priest" is wrong) wouldn't want to marry in a Catholic Church. It just seems unnatural.
I have a gut feeling my cousin's wedding next week is going to feature one of these...
Agreed .... perhaps they could call themselves "Luther's Guild"
It seems on a par with renting a motel room by the hour ... (Yuck)
More specifically, of the title song in the musical Cabaret . . . Elsie, who lived with the singer in "four sordid rooms in Chelsea."
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