Heard of this guy ? Too bad he wasn’t more interested in saving souls instead of ultraleft political activism (antithetical to Christianity). Prayers for a misguided soul.
This guy was replaced/”retired” by the Vatican before reaching retirement age; his supporters said it was for his health - and he went on to live 30 more years.
Time magazine did a piece in 1984 (”Purifying Heat From Rome”) describing how then-Cardinal Ratzinger forced Gerety to remove his imprimatur from a heretical textbook; the behind-the-scenes dialogue had failed so it was formal & public.
From the Newark diocese’s own website: “Under his leadership, the Cathedral has, as Bishop McQuaid predicted, opened its doors to the world. This statement can best be exemplified in a precedent-shattering ceremony in which John Shelby Spong was consecrated in the Cathedral sanctuary Coadjutor Bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. This historic event took place, at Archbishop Gerety’s invitation, on June 12, 1976. The Cathedral was filled to capacity, and thunderous applause echoed through the great nave as Archbishop Gerety embraced the consecrating prelate, the Right Reverend John Maury Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America.”
Now he knows whether he was right or wrong, and there is nothing he can do to change any of it...
Dixwell Avenue is a major thoroughfare running northwest from downtown. Gerrity persuaded a bunch of parishioners (and probably non-parishioner black militants) that they were being persecuted by city, state and national government and he led them in stringing folding chairs across Dixwell Avenue, and two other major thoroughfares (Goffe Street ad Whalley Avenue) to totally disrupt late afternoon rush hour traffic in a shameless attempt at attention grabbing.
Nonetheless, the Vatican promoted him to be consecrated as Bishop of Portland, Maine, and then to be Archbishop of Newark. His authority as archbishop was challenged by a long-time traditionally Catholic pastor, Fr. Peter Wickens, who refused Gerrity's orders to install a very objectionable Planned Barrenhood or SIECUS sex education curriculum in the parish school. Fr. Wickens, after reviewing the currculum, refused to obey on the basis that the curriculum would harm the parish children for whom he was responsible and that even his archbishop lacked the authority to require him to sin. It took Gerrity years to use court process to evict Fr. Wickens from his rectory.
Fr. Wickens thereafter practiced his priesthood as an independent priest, travelling the Northeast to say Tridentine Masses at motel function rooms and established a chapel of his own in Nrthern New Jersey where he said only Tridentine Masses. He left the chapel to one of the Tridentine orders of priests (FSSP?) in communion with Rome. Fr. Wickens died some years ago of cancer. I attended two of his Masses in Connecticut. He was a hero and a saint.
Pray also for the repose of he soul of Fr. Wickens. If those prayers are not necessary because he is already in heaven, God will apply those prayers to others in need of them.
God bless you and yours.