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To: Diva

I just don't follow your post.


23 posted on 06/28/2004 8:09:08 PM PDT by sinkspur (There's no problem on the inside of a kid that the outside of a dog can't cure.)
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To: sinkspur

You're right I need to tell the story but its late and I need sleep. Will try to in the next few days.


24 posted on 06/28/2004 9:06:24 PM PDT by Diva
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To: sinkspur; narses
I just don't follow your post.

Several evenings ago I promised an explanation of the story about the priest in Detroit getting St. John's Provincial Seminary closed. For those who might not know St. John's was notorious as a hothouse of homosexual activity and the theology taught was not only non Catholic, (more Protestant in nature), but very detrimental to Catholic spirituality and toxic to the soul. Rudolf Bultmann and Albert Schweitzer were considered more important than Aquinas.

Well, in 1981 because of the on-going complaints about many seminaries throughout the U.S., (not just St. John's in Michigan), Pope John Paul II ordered an investigation of U.S. seminaries and appointed Bishop John Marshall of Burlington, Vermont to coordinated the project. As you can imagine there were many rectors and seminary faculty who were upset by this turn of events. The team that investigated St. John's in Michigan was headed by Bishop Strecker of Kansas City. A young priest only several years ordained convinced some of his friends who were still at the seminary to dictate to him what they experienced at the seminary and then the priest wrote an expose based on their story. One of the members of the investigating team was Polish and the young priest had the document translated into Polish, a language the current Cardinal Szoka of Detroit also spoke fluently. He signed his name to the document and entered the seminary very early one morning at about 3 A.M. to push the document under Bishop Strecker's door. The next morning Bishop Strecker was in the Cardinal's office. You might think Szoka would be relieved that the truth was discovered but instead he was very upset that the priest had made this intervention.

Why you might wonder would a priest feel the need to go to all of this trouble to get a report to an investigating team that was, after all, on the premises and could easily see and ask questions? Well, the staff of St. John's knew when the investigators were coming and they were prepared, priest professors who hadn't worn their Roman collars in years put them back on. I have been told that the offensive text books were removed and in general a Catholic veneer was put on for he benefit of the investigators. Needless to say homosexual activity came to a halt while the visitors were there. But, even more importantly, those in charge of St. John's made it difficult for the seminarians to talk to the investigators privately and if it hadn't been for this priest's intervention the reality of what went on at this seminary might never have been known by the investigators.

In 1986 St. John's was closed and moved to Sacred Heart Seminary within the city limits of Detroit. The official reason given was economic, but many figured that Sacred Heart was just easier for the Cardinal to control. And, even though the professors that taught at St. John's were moved to Sacred Heart, as these same professors have taken other positions, retired or died their replacements are much more orthodox Catholics. I know that St. Thomas Aquinas has replaced the Protestants and that the student body is much more conservative.

My point in telling this story is to give an example of the subterfuge and mis-leading actions of rectors and seminary professors than can suffocate the truth. Also, I am not so sure that Michael Rose did not interview rectors of seminaries. And, if he didn't perhaps it is because he was refused and not because he was trying to present only one side of the story.

30 posted on 07/01/2004 8:43:20 PM PDT by Diva
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