Posted on 06/07/2005 4:57:38 PM PDT by NYer
FATHER LAWRENCE ESTRADA
Sacramental Minister
"Have stole, will transubstantiate"
25 years ago, Father Lawrence Estrada was ordained a priest at St. Vibiana's Performing Arts Center/Hotel/Restaurant complex over on 2nd and Main. He's held several assignments throughout those years, including a stint as Archbishop Roger M. Mahony's priest-secretary, as well as serving as pastor of St. Stephen's Church in Monterey Park from 1996 to 2003.
You can still find him at St. Stephen's, but he doesn't answer to "pastor" anymore. He is now the designated SACRAMENTAL MINISTER. He steps in when you absolutely need something to be done "ex opere operato." For all your other pastoral needs, you must go to Sister Susie. You remember her.
"I love to vision for the future and think about how we're going to get there," said Sister Slater, [Parish Life Director] at St. Stephen Church in Monterey Park. "There's enough work for all of us. It's about doing it together and not being threatened by each other."
As PASTORAL LIFE DIRECTOR at St. Stephen's, Sister Susan Slater baptizes, she witnesses marriages, she officates at funerals and preaches homilies. She probably even dices and slices for all I know. And she does all this right smack in the middle of Los Angeles with Father Estrada just a few steps away. Isn't that somethin'? Looks like the future is already here.
"Sacramental Minister."
"Parish Life Director"
These terms form part of the specialized lexicon for the "new church" which is being "sung" into existence in L.A. by the painfully tone deaf Cardinal Roger Mahony. And about the only one at St. Stephen's who is escatic about this radical retooling of parish life is Sister herself. No doubt she'd love to be the SACRAMENTAL SISTER, but since that's an impossibility, PARISH LIFE DIRECTOR will do. After all, she is doing everything a priest does except transubstantiate. Theoreticaly, she can even hear confessions. That is to say, she can listen to peoples' sins; she just can't absolve them. But very likely Sister doesn't believe in all that hocus pocus anyway.
This is all part of Mahony's "broader" vision (no pun intended) to deal with a future with fewer and fewer priests. The Cardinal wrote about this in his pastoral letter, As I have done for you.
"What is called for is a major reorientation in our thinking about ministry as well as in our ministerial practice."
Wittingly or not, what the Cardinal is promoting in his Archdiocese is nothing short of a kind of Frankensteinish tinkering with the priesthood. SACRAMENTAL MINISTER is really a euphemism for SACRAMENTAL MONSTER. Men are ordained to be priests, not sacramental machines. I do not know Father Estrada or what he thinks about all this, but I do feel very sorry for him. 25 years ago when he lay prostrate on the floor of St. Vibiana's Cathedral, did he or anyone ever think it would come to this?
How long, O Lord?
Anyone know who recommended Roger Mahony's appointment as Cardinal?
Sr. y Sra. Diácono/Mr. and Mrs. Deacon
THE TIDINGS reports ...
"Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will ordain 11 permanent diaconate candidates to the Sacred Order of Deacon on June 11 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Their ordination will bring to nearly 250 the number of permanent deacons serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles."
"Those to be ordained and their wives have undergone a four-year formation period of study, service and prayer in preparation for their new ministry, for which they will be assigned to their home parishes. Following are brief profiles of the new deacon couples."
Women deacons are practically a reality in L.A. What? You still don't believe me? Then go HERE.
I told you what happened to me last Easter Sunday. The homily was delivered by a woman "deacon". And the parish was, of course, in Mahoney's Archdiocese of Los Angeles!
LA is in defacto schism.
When will it become official.
When it sinks into the ocean is my guess.
Avoiding the problem won't make it go away....
You're right, of course. When a certain someone turns 75, the problem will go away.
However, I am all in favor of a more expedited solution. Got any?
How about a papal visit. One that ends with the ultimatum "resign or be excommunicated"
I like it. I like it. What can I do to help?
It's up to Benedict XVI. Maybe we could start some sort of petition to send him, but I doubt it would work.
It seemed to work in getting Cardinal Law removed. I would love to know how many good Catholics are out here in Los Angeles who would join a petition like this.
The Boston Globe got rid of Law. The LA Times loves Mahony (lieberals stick together). Or atleast, that's my cynical perspective.
Run ... do not walk ... back to the open embrace of your ancestral church. There are catholics across this country who wish they were in your shoes.
Byow mo how daq dom ha sho dee leh
ma' bed hy eh
nsa bel lah mo be dow qa dee sho to.
Ou ba rekh
ou qa desh
waq so
ou ya bel tal mee dow kad o mar:
Sab a khool meh neh kul khoon:
Ho no den ee tow faghro deel
day lo fy koun wah lof sagee hey
meh teq seh ou meh tee heb
lhoo so yo dhow beh was ha yeh dal 'o lam
'ol meen.
"However, I am all in favor of a more expedited solution. Got any?"
Rat poison?
Yep. I wrote about it extensively some time back. The Church in question was St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Altadena. I went there for Easter Sunday mass with some friends (none of us had ever attended mass there before), and was stunned to see this woman dressed in full priestly garb stand up to give the homily! I look around, thinking "Oh my Lord, we must have stumbled into an Episcopalian Church!" Then I thought, "wait a minute, this has to be a Catholic Church -- there's the Stations of the Cross, and it says in the Parish bulletin that this is a 'Catholic Community...'"
The woman "deacons" "homily" consisted of explaining to us how we must each find a way to serve God by serving each other; and to illustrate this point, she explained that she serves God by changing her baby daughter's diapers. So there I was sitting in this increasingly weird church thinking, "I can't believe I'm listening to a sermon in which fecal matter is being discussed in lofty tones."
The priest who "celebrated" the mass was this long-haired, wild-eyed guy who looked about as crazy as the rest of them. Whenever during the liturgy, we were called to refer to God in the masculine "and all His Church" etc., the priest kept bellowing out "God" instead of the masculine pronoun. I kept thinking, I bet he's another Fr. Shanley. Soon it'll come out that he's been groping alter boys and then the rest of the Diocese will have to pay for this whack-out unorthodox parish's sins.
Ha. Trick question, right?
Could the answer be Roger Mahony?
Who are you going to report it to? Mahony's boy Levada is now the head of CDF. Do you think he is going to take action against his buddy?
Unbelievable! ...oh, wait...it's California. Yup, I can believe it.
Time for the new Pope to get crackin' and suppress the AmChurch schism NOW.
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