Posted on 12/16/2004 1:14:47 PM PST by marshmallow
The above link takes you to a PDF document of Flynn's letters to the Legion.
The site is having bandwidth problems so access may not be immediate.
At the time the founder of HLI,Father Paul Marx,was the co-leader of the group. HLI sent out the most informative newsletter,reporting what was happening around the world,the newsletter was very orthodox and I looked forward to receiving it regularly. It seemed like things were looking up for the pro-life movement. and orthodox Catholics.
Several days before the conference a sad and weird incident ocurred. Abp Flynn accused Father Marx of being an anti-semite. This calumnious charge was based on a line in Father Marx autobiography wherein he stated that he was at a loss to explain how secular Jews could deviate so far from "good". He said they were very involved in abortion and porn and other endeavors that were very destructive to family and society. It was something that certainly had been noted and commented on by many viewers of the passing scene. Abp Flynn refused to offer the Mass and I believe may have said they couldn't use the Cathedral but I am not sure. Whatever,it was a real dampener to the conference and attendees. Very shocking and disgusting.
It was noted by some reporters that the morning of the announcement Flynn had met with some important personages who told him how the cow ate the cabbage,evidently. Flynn has been a "weak sister" bishop ever since.
Colleen,he made my list of bad bishops after at least threemore inexplicable actions that were not Catholic.!! I would really like to know who these important people were. For all I know it could have been the St.Paul/Minneapolis Water Department,telling him the Church hadn't paid the water bill and the water was going to be turned off.
I wonder if anyone has more information on this incident which seems to have triggered Flynn's descent. The article on the Legionary confirms that he was, at one time,a Catholic Bishop.
Found this from HLI as well as this one where Flynn tells his priests to boycott the HLI Mass - both detailing the event you speak of - something smells bad and it seems like there are quite a few people in Archbishop Flynn's chancery who are suspect - but Archbishop Flynn is a much smarter man than I am and so there is no excuse for his actions, now with the Legionaries and then with HLI.
Looks like the culprit was once again, a nun. This story is amazing, especially since Father Richard John Neuhaus and Father John Hardon literally begged Archbishop Flynn to reconsider his stance:
By James Cline
Special to the HERALDMINNEAPOLIS — Human Life International (HLI) featured a broad array of pro-life leaders and moral philosophers at its 16th annual world conference in Minneapolis last weekend. Over 2,000 delegates from 30 countries converged on the Twin Cities to forge new strategies for instilling in their families, parishes, and schools a greater reverence for all human life.
"A dark night has already begun to descend on our planet," proclaimed Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., "and unless there is a moral reinvigoration and rebirth... I’m afraid this dark night will be unlit by even a star of hope."
Echoing the bishop’s call to action were philosopher Alice von Hildebrand, authors Mary Ann Kuharski and Ann Sheridan, and former abortionist Bernard Nathanson. Former Falls Church abortionist Joan Appleton also addressed the delegates, describing how a sidewalk counselor had befriended her during her directorship of the Commonwealth Women’s Clinic on Broad Street in the late 1980s.
Appleton, raised in a "strict Irish-Catholic family," said the counselor’s compassion and persistence eventually led her out of the industry and back to confession for the first time in 25 years.
"I will work for the pro-life movement until the day I die," Appleton emotionally vowed, "so that the 10,000 babies I killed haven’t died in vain."
To heal from her past, Appleton recounted how she draws a picture of a baby every morning, names it, and offers it to God in honor of one of her victims.
"This is peace," she said.
Appleton admonished everyone to pray regularly at an abortion facility and accept that the effects of such a presence may not immediately become apparent.
Jim Sedlak, head of Planned Parenthood opponent STOPP, reported that the nation’s largest abortion provider is returning to its core businesses of sex education, birth control and abortion after an unsuccessful foray into mainstream health care.
Sedlak stated that Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report reveals that its profits and its number of clinics and volunteers hit a downturn in 1996 after an attempt to diversify its services. In response, the organization is gearing up to offer the abortion pill RU-486 and redoubling efforts to promote the book It’s Perfectly Normal as part of a sex education campaign.
"This book is pornography," claimed Sedlak.
The STOPP director stated that Planned Parenthood’s 1997 Plan of Action includes getting abortion to be "recognized as a fundamental moral value" by Americans. One of the best ways to counteract Planned Parenthood’s activities, according to Sedlak, is to organize legal action, such as zoning restrictions, at the local level.
While fighting abortion is the primary work of HLI, most of the conference speakers addressed themes surrounding the moral decline in America as the root cause of the advancing "culture of death."
Alice von Hildebrand, noted author and longtime philosophy professor at Hunter College, identified the gradual rejection of the Christian ideal of suffering as a main culprit in America’s cultural transformation. "To accept to suffer that a child may be born," von Hildebrand passionately exhorted, "is to imitate in a modest way the debt that Christ paid on the cross."
Von Hildebrand added that "This world of ours is dying because we are killing maternity." The secularization of Catholic education was cited by Georgetown Ignatian Society president Ann Sheridan as another ingredient in the cultural malaise. Sheridan recounted how "the corporation known as ‘Georgetown,’" once a leading teacher of moral values, has come to the point of "institutionalizing formal dissent."
Georgetown recently became the first Jesuit school in the world to fund a pro-abortion student group, according to Sheridan, while allowing experimentation on aborted human infants and requiring "safe sex" instruction for its incoming students.
The university had previously banished all crucifixes from classrooms, said Sheridan. To alleviate situations such as these, Sheridan advocated notifying bishops and the Vatican, if necessary, of any canon laws violated by the transgressions.
An ongoing controversy surrounding the conference underscored the many references made there about a culture hostile to the pro-life message. Just weeks after Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis-St. Paul had agreed to celebrate the conference’s opening Mass, a Sister of Zion nun in his chancery orchestrated a nationwide lobbying of the archbishop to denounce HLI as anti-Semitic.
It was widely reported that Sister Marge Boyle had based her charge on the fact that HLI founder Father Paul Marx had once described the abortion industry as a "holocaust" led by many self-proclaimed Jews.
Former Jew Bernard Nathanson and several pro-life Jewish leaders corroborated Marx’s 1987 statement and personally vouched for his character.
"I can smell anti-Semitism," Nathanson said, describing incidents from his childhood, "and Father Marx is not anti-Semitic."
HLI spokesman Anne DeLong explained to the HERALD how Archbishop Flynn, without consulting Father Marx, retracted his offer to celebrate Mass and planned instead to lead a prayer service at a synagogue with members of the American Jewish Congress — a group reportedly in favor of abortion rights.
Despite last-minute pleading by Catholic leaders such as Father Richard John Neuhaus and Father John Hardon, the archbishop went forward with his decision.
After the prayer service, Archbishop Flynn inflamed the controversy by telling reporters that Father Marx’s rhetoric was reminiscent of "Nazi Germany."
Encouraged by the impasse, a teenage group called "Fight the Right" demonstrated outside HLI’s opening Mass at the St. Paul Cathedral and also at its conference site, shouting obscenities and anti-Catholic epithets.
According to the Wanderer newspaper, Archbishop Flynn was previously knowledgeable of HLI. When the archbishop was rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, he reportedly had twice invited Father Marx to address the seminarians.
The archbishop’s spokesman told the HERALD that he did not anticipate any positive developments in the near future in his relationship with Father Marx.
Copyright ©1997 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
And if the Archbishop believes this he is either a fool or a heretic. Do the Rainbow Sashers accept the call to chastity for those outside of holy matrimony and the sinfulness of all homosexual activity? Do they reject that mortal sins should be confessed and absolved prior to partaking of holy communion? It is quite clear that they do not, or there would be no point to their disruption of religious services and their attempt to deny the freedom to worship peacefully to faithful Catholics.
I believe you are right on this but it still doesn't explain the abrupt betrayal by Archbishop Flynn. Although, it seems betraying Catholic orthodoxy is a pattern in his diocese. It appears he caves to the progressives and sells out the orthodox. I sometimes wonder if the orthodox can be abused because they will still be faithful and the progressives are petted to keep them in the fold. Whatever, this sort of unexplained behaviour undermines the faith and causes confusion.
It would be instructive to see what would happen if a bunch of Opus Dei or Legionaries came to Mass wearing attire that identified them with those groups. Bet there would be a lot of men in the ordained group who would be more uncomfortable with the above than they are with the rainbow sash wearers.
Gee,
Since the MOVEMENT Regnum Christi (Lay apostolate for the Legion) is no longer allowed on diocesan property (along with the Legion priests and brothers) I wonder if the movements like Cursillo, Teens Encounter Christ, and Communion & Liberation will be ordered off diocesan property as well (don't know if they have CL).
Let's face it folks, "liberal" so-called Catholics loathe anything which bespeaks of loyalty to the Eucharist, the Pope, the Magisterium, and the Blessed Mother. This IS the crux of the problem with the un-named "pastors". I have dealt with this personally with a former pastor who was quite known for reading the National Catholic Reporter in the confessional (if you could ever find him there).
The Reporter ALWAYS bashed the Legion. My former pastor vehemently disliked the Legion.
If there is a significant number of priests in the good archbishop's diocese who "lean left", it is no wonder that this has happened. You can bet the Legion was probably doing well with vocations in Flynn's diocese.
Look for other so-called "moderate" bishops to follow suit here.
"He also recently refused to grant permission to any of the Indult attendees from having their children confirmed in Wausau Wisconsin in the traditional rite."
I thought this was the guy who respects diversity.
I would NEVER allow my children to be confirmed in the modernist ceremonies performed in recent years in my parish.
The late, great Father John Hardon once responded to a friend of mine when she asked him if he thought the Church in the U.S. would move into a schism: "Oh my dear, Rome already feels the U.S. Church is in schism. She just will not declare it formally so."
Wow.
Back to topic. This is from Carol McKinley's blog-site:
'Mea Culpa, mea Culpa, mea maxima culpa
I sure hope Barbara Kralis wasn't discouraged from pursuing gathering up the elstinkeroo with the abdication of duty by Bishop Flynn.
He kicked the Legionaries of Christ out of his diocese.
Not Voice of the Faithful. Not Call to Action. Not Future Church. Not Dignity.
At the same time he defended giving people wearing Rainbow Sashes, protesting the teachings of the Church the Blessed Sacrament...he threw OUT the Legionaires of Christ!
"...the activities of Regnum Christi are to be kept completely separate from all activities of the parishes and the Archdiocese".
Yes kiddos...they are not to be promoted or held on diocesecan property.
According to the enclosure in this latest snafu....it seems to me that his beef is....he simply can't figure out what their gig is about. All the people who are loyal to the teachings of the Magisterium and the lectures that promote and foster such loyalty....are confounding him. He's perplexed.
His pastors are experiencing a different mission than the one they are on...where their speakers and homilists promote severing the conscience of the flock from the Catechism and Humanae Vitae.
"This is simply unacceptable."
It will not be tolerated!! He's looked into Regnum Christi and their mission is inconsistent with unity......while he ran over to the Vatican to defend Rainbow Sash.
"As a result, I have decided that the Legionary of Christ are not to be active in any way in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis"
"In addition, although members of the faithful have a canonical right to join associations of the faithful, such as Regnum Christi, not all such affiliations are officially approved or supported."
He says because they operate outside of the normal structures, there is "no opportunity for him to exercise appropriate vigilance in that regard".
Laughable.'
I wish all the trads from the area would attend one of his masses and when approaching Communion fall to one knee's to receive our Lord. I wonder what his reaction would be to such an act of reverence......
Dear Sir or Madam,
As a former member of Regnum Christi for nearly 7 years (and my wife headed up the women's section, as one part of the Atlanta group), I concur the Legionaries are orthodox and for the most part, great guys.
However, do NOT let the apparent concern with the children's spiritual formation fool you. Their entire and total and complete methodology is based on gaining more RC member and especially, more young men to their seminary. EVERYTHING is directed toward that cause and they often cross the line (in my opinion as well as dozens of other orthodox Catholics I have spoken with who ceased all association with them) using psychological manipulation and coercing many into "vocations" who find out, many times too late, that they never really had a vocation to the Legionaries or the priesthood, and that it certainly was NOT from God.
We have a 40-something man in our parish who was a Legion priest for several years AND NEVER HAD A VOCATION. He was mild-mannered and just went along with their program. If you question your vocation, as everyone does NOT have one, you become the subject of harassment and bitterness on the part of the Legionaries. Finally, he was sent to Benedict Groeschel for spiritual direction, and concluded he never had a vocation. His story is one of many.
If I were you, I would be extremely cautious in giving them access to my children. I am being as serious as I possibly can be.
Seven years assisting them in "capturing vocations" in our diocese outside of Atlanta, under cover, and not with our Bishops or parish priests permission (as they NEVER seek this in dioceses they believe to be "unorthodox" or un-Legionary friendly). There are many dioceses and orthodox priests who are not fans of the Legionaries; it is NOT just because it is Archbishop Flynn. Anyone is welcome to e-mail me privately if they have additional questions.
The Legion of Christ is NOT traditional, nor are they fans nor advocates of the Traditional Latin Mass. I have firsthand experience with this one, with them as my spiritual directors for years. They are NOT traditional regarding the liturgy and sacraments.
"The thing that drives some bonkers is their air of secrecy and total loyalty to the Pope and to the Magisterium. I suggest you look no further than this. The LC's are the good guys."
This is exactly what they want everyone to think. Yes, their retreats are good, but they are not as squeaky clean as they appear. They use coercive and manipulative mind games with boys and young men--and women. They violate parent rights. Do NOT ever send your children on their retreats as they will give you very little access to talk to them on the phone, for DAYS at a time. Satan often comes disguised as an angel in white. Don't be fooled.
I imagine their secretive techniques and uncanonical invasion process finally pissed him off. Like him, I once was a BIG Legionary supporter. You should have heard my spiritual director when I started telling him we had a Fraternity of St. Peter priest visit our house and that I was recommending some young men to consider their order. Even an unorthodox bishop gets it right eventually.
I am personally responsible for many of the Regnum Christi men that are still part of their group in our diocese, without the consent of our bishop. Trust me, there is more here than meets the eye.
Just because Flynn is a big Rainbow Sash fan (apparently), does not mean he is wrong on the Legionaries.
"It would be instructive to see what would happen if a bunch of Opus Dei or Legionaries came to Mass wearing attire that identified them with those groups. Bet there would be a lot of men in the ordained group who would be more uncomfortable with the above than they are with the rainbow sash wearers."
This would never happen. They operate beneath the radar screen intentionally. All of their apostolates have cute little names that NEVER mention anything about where they originate--neither Legion of Christ nor Regnum Christi.
Thanks for this message and the other clarification re: if these folks are traditionalists: which apparently they are NOT.
I bet the Water Department visited Archbishop O'Malley at the behest of the feminazi nuns and poofter priests working in the chancery as well as prominent parishes around your town. Ugh!! Ultimately,the Triune God wins but meanwhile the devil has a pretty good hold on many.
Not unlike some of the methods of Opus Dei in its "recruitment".
I know Father Bannon personally. When I lived in Connecticut, he was our dinner guest. I have known several Legionaries priests since they were Connecticut teenagers---fine guys then and fine priests now. No organization, Catholic or otherwise, is without sinners or without people of poor judgment. If perfection must be proven before we act, we will never act.
Legionaries appear to have been gravely libeled by a few disgruntled ex-seminarians ably lending their names and their claims to the usual gang of press and media suspects in attacks on Father Maciel. St. Ignatuius Loyola also ahd to deal with such snakes in the early days of the Society of Jesus.
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.