Posted on 03/05/2006 5:02:28 AM PST by Diago
Archbishop Harry J. Flynn has silenced Fr. Altier, a well-known and loved priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Fr. Altier is the assistant pastor of the Church of St. Agnes in St. Paul, Minnesota, a parish famous the world over for it’s sacred music programs, fidelity to the Christian Faith, sublime liturgical sense and architectural splendor. Fr. Altier has many credentials but the most important of them are his fidelity, humility, and holiness - an exceedingly rare combination in the Church today.
The homepage of Fr. Altier’s web site, DesertVoice.org, states the following:
In obedient compliance with the expressed written request of
Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn
Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Father Altier’s homilies and spiritual presentations can no longer be published on www.desertvoice.org or broadcast on Relevant Radio.
We regret any inconvenience and humbly ask for your prayers.
All concerns should be directed in a spirit of charity to:
Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn
226 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55102
(651) 291-4400
The order to be silent is presumably in response to Fr. Altier’s outspoken criticism of the VIRTUS® program ‘Protecting God’s Children’ and the archdiocesan program ‘Talking About Touching.’ As this is very likely the cause of this grave action and since there are profound problems with these programs, we would like to provide links to several resources (including Fr. Altier’s sermon) which illuminate the issues:
Please contact the archbishop and communicate your concern for Fr. Altier. Please and share this information with your friends and family so this information about VIRTUS may gain wider distribution than was previously possible.
Archives of Fr. Altier’s sermons are still available at webarchive.org.
Interest in this has exploded across the Catholic blogosphere (list will be updated occasionally):
An archive of Fr. Altier’s sermons is available at Excerpts of INRI.
The pastor of St. Agnes, the Rev. George Welzbacher, has made a statement about the situation. The bulk of his statement pertains to the obedience of priests, the relevant sections of the Code of Canon Law, and Father Altier’s immediate obedience to the archbishop’s command. Additionally, he revealed that he was not contacted in advance by the archbishop nor does he know the reason for this grave action.
Incientally, any links to desertvoice.org may be going away once they find out you are linking directly in, so I encourage you if you want to keep the information available, copy it somewhere else to be displayed.
Thomas, that’s already been done. Other people are doing the same. Here’s a great tip from a comment in another blog:
If you have FrontPage, the MS web tool (probaby any web publishing tool will work), you can import his homilies onto your computer by pointing to the following directory,
Also worth checking out: http://www.desertvoice.org/audio/
Thank you all for the info….I pray for his comeback
Here’s an article from the Pioneer Press: Archdiocesan spokesman confirms Father Altier innocent of any impropriety
This is so predictable. It was probably certainly accelerated , but not originated, by the homosexual abbot of St. Johns (one of three homosexuals) who himself died of AIDS, and who gave us all the homosexualized version of the novus ordo — table instead of altar, hootenany music, and celebration of self instead of God. Forget not that several years ago when HLI held their annual conference in Bloomington, and when the very holy Fr. Marx was accused of being anti-semitic, he (Flynn) refused to celebrate (actually “preside” at) the opening Mass at the Cathedral as promised and stood publicly with a bunch of “reformed Jews”, some of the most adamant and lying abortion and divorce on demand ilk on the planet, to protest a charge of anti-semitism, a charge never proved. What a jerk, or should I say whitened sepulchre. I grew up there but I don’t live there anymore. If I did live there, I would be attending a Byzantine Catholic Church, since I believe it almost impossible to pray in one of Flynn’s churches. The only jewel in the St. Paul archdiocese is St. Agnes.
“The devil can imitate humility but he cannot imitate obedience.” St. Faustina.
God bless Father Altier for his faithful obedience to Church authority. Whether the authority was exercised justly or unjustly, it is the means to his sanctification.
Name
Mail (will not be published)
Website
Bishop Robert Vasa
10/06/2005
Bend,Oregon — "...The next topic is one that I bring up only with great reluctance for I do not want to give any appearance whatsoever of being soft on my desire to assure the complete safety and protection of children. The Charter for the Protection of Children has been interpreted to include mandatory “safe-environment training” for all children of or connected with the Church. In the diocese, we have indicated that such training must be made available to all children under our supervision in our Catholic schools but have not taken on the nearly impossible task of assuming responsibility for every child in the diocese.
"As a result of this discrepancy between a new interpretation of the charter and our diocesan policy, the annual charter audit will undoubtedly find the Diocese of Baker, and me as bishop, “Not in Compliance” and will issue a “Required Action,” which I am prepared, at this point, to ignore. I say this not because I resist efforts to protect children, but rather precisely the opposite. There are a series of questions that I believe need to be answered before I could mandate such a diocesan-wide program of “safe-environment training.”
"A few such questions follow: Are such programs effective? Do such programs impose an unduly burdensome responsibility on very young children to protect themselves rather than insisting that parents take such training and take on the primary responsibility for protecting their children? Where do these programs come from? Is it true that Planned Parenthood has a hand or at least huge influence on many of them? Is it true that other groups, actively promoting early sexual activity for children, promote these programs in association with their own perverse agendas? Do such programs involve, even tangentially, the sexualization of children, which is precisely a part of the societal evil we are striving to combat? Does such a program invade the Church-guaranteed-right of parents over the education of their children in sexual matters? Do I have the right to mandate such programs and demand that parents sign a document proving that they choose to exercise their right not to have their child involved? Do such programs introduce children to sex-related issues at age-inappropriate times? Would such programs generate a fruitful spiritual harvest? Would unsatisfactory answers to any of the questions above give sufficient reason to resist such programs?
"There are many concerned parents who have indicated to me that the answers to all of these questions are unsatisfactory. If this is true, do these multiple problematic answers provide sufficient reason to resist the charter interpretation? At very least, even the possible unsatisfactory answers to any of the questions above leaves me unwilling and possibly even unable to expose the children of the diocese to harm under the guise of trying to protect them from harm. I pray that, in this, I am neither wrong-headed nor wrong.
"For holding to this conviction I and the diocese may be declared negligent, weighed and found wanting."
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Pray for A Voice in the Desert
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 About Father Altier and the Desert Voice Website |
A Statement from the Webmaster at Desert Voice Is this the reason Father Altier was silenced? Archdiocesan spokesman confirms Father Altier innocent of any impropriety|
Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA This action of the Archbishop is not related to any scandal We regret any inconvenience and humbly ask for your prayers. Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn |
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