Kerry’s Auxiliary Bishops

The presidential race is full of religious ironies, pitting a Protestant who quotes the Pope against a Catholic who rejects the Pope. The Protestant -- campaigning on opposition to abortion and homosexual marriage -- will likely get the Catholic vote. The Catholic -- campaigning on embryo-destruction, partial-birth abortion, and the alternative lifestyles of pagan antiquity -- will get the mainline Protestant vote.

In one more irony and historical marker of clerical decadence, the Catholic candidate will receive a higher percentage of support from the Catholic episcopate than the Catholic laity -- the very episcopate Kerry has made a point of saying that he will ignore on matters of morality. John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter writes that "if the Holy See were to vote in a secret ballot for the American president, Kerry would beat Bush 60-40." Polling of American bishops would even be higher. Priests like Richard McBrien have appeared in clerical collar on national television to justify voting for Kerry. The dean of Notre Dame, which the bishops regard as their Harvard, recently published a piece saturated with third-rate casuistry urging Catholics to vote for pro-abortion Democrats.

Incapable of transcending long-elapsed stereotypes, the secular media cast Kerry's Catholic problem as a conflict with a reactionary hierarchy. Would that it were so. A few bishops oppose Kerry, but many more privately support him and have whispered against the handful of brave bishops who threatened to withhold communion from him.

Kerry's Catholic problem started not with the clergy but with the laity. The Roger Mahonys of the hierarchy are Democratic activists and dilettantes, not guardians of the ancient faith. (For more on Cardinal Mahony, click here.) They have no problem supporting an open heretic like Kerry, because their faith in Catholicism is as ambivalent as his. Kerry is their idea of a good Vatican II Catholic -- liberal on economics, avant garde on morality. Indeed, a loss for Kerry represents a loss for them. He embodies the liberal catechesis they have tried to drill into the laity for decades. If a majority of the Catholic laity vote against Kerry, it will be one more rude confirmation to Roger Mahony and company that their post-Vatican II project to liberalize the laity has flopped.

''We are looking at a broader picture, a more global picture,'' said Bishop Gabino Zavala, one of Mahony’s auxiliary bishops, to the New York Times. ''If you look at the totality of issues as a matter of conscience, someone could come to the decision to vote for either candidate.'' For the Democratic bishops, infanticide and minimum wage are weighted the same. Kerry knew early on that most of these bishops wouldn’t confront him, given their passivity and weakness for Democratic politicians who make the right social-justice noises from time to time. Kerry’s allies in the Democratic Party scrambled to produce a "Catholic Voting Scorecard" to show that he and other pro-abortion Catholics have adhered more closely to the positions of the "U.S. Catholic hierarchy" than to their Catholic Republican counterparts. By highlighting Kerry’s support for the liberal politics of the bishops -- on the Senate floor, he once read from their inane pastoral letter on Reaganomics -- the Democrats had hoped to cancel out the perception that Kerry was a heretic no self-respecting Catholic could vote for.

Kerry's plans to hide his heresies under Roger Mahony's Seamless Garment were blown out the water by the lay Catholic equivalent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Numerous lay Catholic groups have exposed Kerry's Catholicism as a fraud and have coaxed out of timid bishops a few words of rebuke toward Kerry.

Not that the bishops aren't still constructing rationalizations for Kerry even after a debate before millions in which he misrepresented Catholicism wildly, managing to reject at least a third of the Ten Commandments. On Tuesday The Drudge Report had one of those blood-red headlines titled, "Vatican Denies It Responded To Lawyer Seeking Kerry’s Excommunication." This was a life raft the bishops were trying to throw the Kerry campaign. The story came from the Catholic News Service, the propaganda outlet the bishops use whenever they want to muddy an issue to the benefit of a pro-abortion Catholic.

Kerry has rejected Catholic teachings Martin Luther didn’t touch, yet CNS was frantic to dispel the notion that he is a heretic. "One Vatican official contacted by CNS said no church official had seriously approached the point of declaring Kerry a heretic. 'No, Kerry is not a heretic,' he said."

The National Catholic Reporter, which also speaks for many bishops (they advertise in its pages for chancery jobs) even as it wars on Catholic orthodoxy , is advising Kerry "to talk religion." It denounced the "small and narrow" group of Catholic laity opposing him and noted that many bishops support Kerry. But if Kerry takes its advice and campaigns on heretical Catholicism, where can he go without getting booed? Perhaps Roger Mahony, who encouraged his congregation to give Bill and Hillary Clinton a standing ovation on Palm Sunday during Clinton's race against Bob Dole, could arrange a town hall meeting at the Los Angeles Cathedral. But then Kerry had that vote sewn up a long time ago.

Roger Mahony is the worst Cardinal in the world and is more politician than priest. I served as an alter boy for a funeral of a State Senator's wife once that he presided over and he was so mean and arrogant that even at 12 years old I had to question if this man was even christian let alone a man of God in the Catholic church. That first impression has lasted a life time.

Mahony appointed Bishop John Steinbach from Los Angeles to the Diocese of Fresno. Steinbach removed a very good and conservative preist Father Baca from St. Anthonys of Padua in Fresno because Baca gave a sermon supporting our military forces ( he gave a homily on the Church’s just war theory using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as his source)the same week that the Bishop sent a letter out to condem the war and be read at mass at all parishes. The bishop's letter was not religion and pure politics. Father Baca was loved at St. Anothony's and as punishment Steinbock sent Baca to another parish in Merced, Ca.

At St. Patrick’s, Father Baca found a divided parish. Many parishioners began flocking to Father Baca’s Masses, where he eliminated the use of inclusive language and gave homilies on the Church’s positions on hell, abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, women’s ordination, and pro-life voting responsibilities. Father Baca began a catechism class that grew so popular that, after three weeks, there was not enough room for everyone. Penitents began returning to the sacrament of confession.

The pastor Father Jean-Michael Lastiri did not like the conservative Baca and conspired against him and lied to the Bishop and had Baca removed and punished for being a good priest and now Baca has no church or parish as Steinbock removed Baca again taking the word and lies of Lastiri.

Bishop Steinbock and Father Lastiri may have had more at stake than saving face about a bad decision. Parishioners at St. Patrick’s were alarmed when the June 2, 2002 Fresno Bee published an interview with a homosexual priest using the pseudonym “Father Henry.” Father Henry admits his attraction to males as well as his deviations from the vow of chastity: “I’ve slipped a few times.” The story quotes another Fresno priest, Father Jerry Amerando, saying that the bishop, “doesn’t consider this an issue.” It also quotes Bishop Steinbock on his tolerance of homosexual clergy: “A priest, no matter what his orientation, can be a good, loving priest.”

Including court records as proof with his letter, Walsh gave Bishop Steinbock all the details of the case, including a detailed report from Detective Mike Montejano regarding the search of Banuelos’ residence at the parish. Among the items found were condoms, sex toys, women’s underwear, 53 hard-core pornographic magazines, and framed photos and a card to Banuelos from Father Lastiri, among other things.

On October 7, Walsh distributed a flyer to parishioners detailing Father Lastiri’s relationship with Banuelos and suggesting that parishioners withhold financial support until the diocese take action. On October 10, Bishop Steinbock wrote a letter denying the charges in the flyer and accusing the parishioners who produced it of “hate.” After a meeting with parishioners on October 15, Father Lastiri had the letters removed from the bulletins and shredded. On October 27, Bishop Steinbock wrote Walsh accusing him of sending court records that presented “rumor and gossip.” The bishop enclosed an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church concerning defamation of character, suggesting Walsh “reflect on it seriously.” Walsh responded by writing Steinbock that the information was neither rumor nor gossip but had been referred to by the district attorney as the “testimony of several witnesses.”

If Father Baca’s presence did not initiate Father Lastiri’s troubles, his departure did not end them. In early July, 2004, some parishioners discovered discarded instant messages to and from Father Lastiri printed on the parish letterhead. After using the information to do an AOL internet search, they discovered a homosexual men’s website, www.bear411.com, and buddybear.net, where Father Lastiri had posted his own picture and profile, using the name “basqueoso.” Many of the profile photos at the site show explicit poses of naked men, but Lastiri’s showed him dressed in lay clothes, and he described his profession as “counseling.” The site also had 60 pages of messages, profiles, and e-mails exchanged between Father Lastiri and various members of the “bear” group, including information on trips Lastiri had made to Amsterdam, Florida, New Orleans, Huntington Beach, and Las Vegas. The last message posted by Lastiri was July 13.

On July 14, parishioners made the information public and presented it to Bishop Steinbock. The bishop quietly removed Lastiri from the parish. On July 16, in a statement appearing in the Modesto Bee, Bishop Steinbock said he had received information “regarding a Web page and chat room of Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri that was totally inappropriate.” The bishop said he spoke to Lastiri “the very next day, July 15;” Lastiri “denied any inappropriate sexual activity on his part and declared that he only entertained fantasies through this activity on the Internet.”

Steinbock said he realized Lastiri’s behavior was “compulsive and addictive.” The bishop announced he was “removing Father Lastiri from St. Patrick’s parish and sending him to St. Luke’s Institute for appropriate psychological and spiritual counseling and appropriate therapy to help him deal with this problem.”

“Fr. Lastiri apologizes for any pain he has caused the community and wishes to seek the appropriate help to overcome his compulsive behavior so that he may return, with God’s grace, to full ministry as a good and faithful priest,” wrote Bishop Steinbock

This is what happens when Cardinals and Bishops depart from the faith and conspire and persecute good and holy men. The Catholic church is infiltrated with corrupt and sinful men that are even at more risk of losing their souls than corrupt politicians that don't practice their faith. Mahony and Steinbock have even more to fear from God than Kerry does.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.