Father Thomas Berg
Posted on 05/07/2009 10:33:40 AM PDT by NYer
.- Fr. Thomas Berg, Executive Director of the New York-based Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, announced today that he will be leaving the Legion of Christ to join the Archdiocese of New York and will continue his ministry as the head of the institute.
Fr. Berg released a brief statement explaining his decision and his motivations for the change:
“After nearly 23 years of life as a Legionary of Christ, I have discerned that it is time for me to continue following Christ in the diocesan priesthood. Although the recent revelations about the Legion’s founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, were profoundly disturbing, my decision has actually been in the making for nearly three years.
Like so many, I have personally experienced again and again the vast amount of good which God has accomplished through Legionary priests and the congregation’s works of apostolate over the past six decades of its existence. I leave with a heart grateful to Christ who I know accepted and blessed the oblation of my years of religious consecration in the Legion.
In my opinion, the serious issues within the congregation will require its thorough reformation if not a complete re-foundation. I am hopeful that the upcoming Apostolic Visitation of the Legion will be a first step toward a new beginning for the Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi. I trust that God in his providence will lead them to holiness and enable them to do great things for Christ and his Church. For my part, I remain their friend and brother in the Lord.
My work as executive director of the Westchester Institute will continue under the direction of a new Board and no longer under the Legion’s sponsorship. By this means and through a very active ministry in the Archdiocese of New York, under our new Archbishop Timothy Dolan, I look forward to continuing to live my total consecration to Christ in his priesthood.
My hope is that this brief statement would preclude unnecessary and unwarranted speculation about the reasons for my decision. Having released it to the press, I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.”
Ping!
Good for him.
I'm not sure Christ knows what an "oblation" is. I have read his words and I don't recall him ever mentioning an "oblation" or anything ever getting "oblated" or "oblatified"...
The word from the Latin “oblatio”. Check a Bible in Latin and you’ll find the word there.
I'm pretty sure He does.
http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?new=1&word=oblation§ion=0&version=rhe&language=en
I'm curious as to which translation of His Words you've read ... some English language Bibles use the word quite liberally, some do not use it at all.
I wonder if other Legionaries will be leaving. They have some great people.
I would have left long ago. Very sad state of affairs.
Same can be said for the Bible.......didn’t even exist when Jesus walked the earth.
I have a friend whose son went to their seminary - but very briefly. The family is very conservative, but the seminary was completely weird and their son lasted about 2 years, only with heavy encouragement from his family. The thing that nobody liked was that odd vow (which I think BXVI made them drop) that was essentially a religious confidentiality agreement.
I suspect that there are a lot of very good people in the Legionaries who are wondering what to do now. Somebody may emerge and restore the order to the vision of its founder - before the Devil seized him in his grasp and bore him away - or maybe not.
Fortunately, I think there are more options than in the past: they can find a good bishop and become diocesan priests, or they can seek entry into one of the many orthodox religious orders that have blossomed since that time.
I stand thoroughly corrected!
KJV and NIV, usually. (And mine was a seriously uninformed comment!)
Thanks ... your KJV uses the word liberally, I suspect that NIV doesn’t.
LOL! I do that all the time...but don't usually have the good grace to admit it!
They seem very interesting. I am printing out their information for an older friend of mine who is the member of a dying religious order of women.
What a wonderfully refreshing comment. :)
The offering of the bread and wine for consecration at Mass, expressed by the offertory procession of the faithful and the offertory prayers of the priest. Also applied to any other gifts presented by the people at Mass, either symbolically on special occasions or actually when the gifts are offered for the use of the clergy, the Church, or the poor. (Etym. Latin oblatio, offering.)
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