Posted on 03/17/2006 8:25:04 AM PST by NYer
By Dan Sapir
The Observer has confirmed that former St. Joseph Church Priest, Monsignor Frederick Ryan has been defrocked by direct order from the Vatican. The process, referred to as being "laicized", is the result of either a self-petition or initiated by the church administration responsible for Ryan. It is unclear as to what option resulted in the latest decision from Rome.
Ryan, the highest ranking church official to be accused of sex crimes in 2002 for incidents which occurred 25 years earlier, served as a Vice Chancellor in the Arch Diocese in Brighton. Ryan is now stripped of all priestly powers and can no longer administer the Sacraments. He now reverts back to a lay person. Ryan submitted his resignation to St. Joseph Church Officials in late April of 2002. In his resignation letter to the parish he explained, "I do so that the parish may have the stability of leadership and daily pastoral care that I am unable to give at this time."
St. Joseph Church member Dan May confirmed that the recent news about Ryan is sadly correct. "I received a call from the Arch Diocese today." Of Ryan, May said, He served us well for the five-year period from 1997 to 2002. We may never know what happened, if anything. We have no way to pass judgement on an allegation that occurred over 25 years ago 40 miles away."
It is believed that Frederick Ryan moved to Iowa several years ago where he has family. Local parishioners may recall that he held an "Iowa" vanity plate on his vehicle. The news of the misconduct rocked Kingston's Catholic population back in 2002 as the country struggled to cope with similar stories within the church all across the nation.
Since B-16 was elected pope, the number of defrockings has surged. Over the past year, we've seen several in the US. Has anyone kept count?
He's more hard hitting then the last Pope.:)
&&
For sure. I predict that B-16 will be the saint that we need to clean house. I was never impressed by JP-II and I fail to see what it is he did that merits consideration for sainthood.
>For sure. I predict that B-16 will be the saint that we >need to clean house. I was never impressed by JP-II and I >fail to see what it is he did that merits consideration >for sainthood.
Worked for the reunification of the RCC with the Eastern and Russiian Orthodox churhes.
Visited over 123 countires, spoke 8 languages fluently, Canonized over 462 saints.
Fought against cloning, worked tirelessly for the unborn, and against Euthanasia.
Oh yeah and that whole responsible for the fall of communism thing.
You know couple of little things like that.
Pope John Paul II brought Catholicism into the fore front of the world.
He was not one to hide behind the walls of the Vatican.
He told us,, "Be not Afraid" and showed us how.
It seems to me that he set the stage for Pope Benedict. I am looking forward to seeing the benefits.
God's plans are wonderous.
I'm beginning to consider removing the Massachusetts flag from my "about" page. Oy.
JP II gathered the flock. Now, B XVI has to separate the goats from the sheep. I believe that when all is said and done, both will be recognized as saints. Same goes for Pius XII.
When are these ignorant reporters going to learn that the secular term "defrock" is not found in Canon Law.
B-16 is da man! Purge baby, purge!
What made the Church seem worse than other institutions was not so much the perversion (which is a problem throughout society) but the cover-ups and shifting around of bad priests.
Nicely put!
I deny none of the things that you give JP-II credit for, and they are all great accomplishments. But are they grounds for sainthood?
I guess, for me, the main sticking points are 1)he did not clean up the messes left in the liturgy by Vatican II, and 2) he did not seem willing to do anything about the homosexual priests problem.
I knew this priest somewhat, since his church was my parish from 1992-1998, and I still went there for several more years on Saturdays when I moved a couple of towns over. It was a severe shock when we heard about this, as he had a very "orthodox" and reverent liturgy and parish life, and had built-up quite an active youth group with no reported problems. Many people, to this day, are still in denial about the whole thing.
To his credit, Msgr. Ryan did not deny the charge, and left quietly without trying to defend himself. No one around here is sure, even now, exactly what he was accused of, just that it took place some 25+ years earlier and was, apparently, an isolated incident.
If he did something back then that prompted such an immediate action on the part of the archdiocese as we saw, then it was proper that he was removed, thriving parish or no. I do not argue the point, and, as I said, he didn't even argue the charge, so one supposes that it was true. Nevertheless, it is also true that, at a minimum, every third priest in this archdiocese is gay, and very few of them seem to be struggling to live chastely, so one wonders at the inertia on the AoB's part when it comes to sending these guys packing, especially when their situation is juxtaposed with that of Msgr. Ryan. Many of these priests are doing their thing with young men not much older than boys themselves. They may not be engaging in pedophilia or ephebophilia, but their actions are nearly as spirtually destructive to their victims.
Msgr. Ryan reaped what he sowed. Too bad. May God be merciful to him and his victim. But the Church will never recover from the awful scandal its decades-long silence has produced, until it closes the loop on the logical inconsistency of allowing semi-openly gay priests to continue *their* "ministries." If the ranks of priests are thereby decimated here, so be it! Better to have a smaller number of men exercising their vocations in truth and chastity, than to have the faithful continually scandalized by the lavender crowd plying their trade right under the nose of the archbishop (to be made a cardinal next week). How much different, really, is the ephebophilia that Msgr. Ryan evidently engaged in from the dalliances 50-something priests have all the time around here with college kids?
If I weren't personally convinced that the exercise of self-immolation the Church has been undergoing for the last 40 years is our equivalent of the self-immolation that led to the 40 year wanderings of the Israelites in the Sinai, and that, like the Iraelites, our 40 year wandering may soon be at an end of sorts, I'd have decamped long since! May God have mercy on our Church and allow ultimate good to come of our horrible, scandalous situation by letting us see our errors with a view to correcting them with good and holy candidates for the priestly vocation!
Two very different men with different personalities, both led by the Holy Spirit on different paths, but for the same purpose, the glory of God.
>I deny none of the things that you give JP-II credit for, >and they are all great accomplishments. But are they >grounds for sainthood?
Well they are certainly a good start, but don't forget the Church has already established criteria, including an examinatio9n of his writings and miracles attributed to him and verified.
>I guess, for me, the main sticking points are 1)he did not >clean up the messes left in the liturgy by Vatican II,
Specifics please?
> and 2) he did not seem willing to do anything about the >homosexual priests problem.
Priests have been defrocked and put into ministires in which they will not have contact with children.
And realistically there is only so much he can do. The CEO of a company can issue all the orders that he wants, but unless the VP's and managers under him are able to carry out those orders inertia sets in.
JPII has done a tremendous job of getting rid of many of the liberal bishops, but this is a process that requires time. I think Benedict will follow through on this course, but it will take time.
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