Posted on 03/09/2019 1:44:24 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
The Coalition of Concerned Catholics, a group of lay faithful primarily concerned with the dissent, heterodoxy and apostasy present in the Church, recently published an open letter to Bp. Felipe Estévez of the diocese of St. Augustine, Florida. They have given Church Militant permission to republish it in full.
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His Excellency, Felipe Estevez, MA, STL, STD Bishop, Diocese of St. Augustine 11625 Old St. Augustine Road Jacksonville, FL 32258
Friday, March 1, 2019
Dear Bishop Estevez:
As committed Catholics, we are concerned that not enough is being done globally about the abuse crisis in our Church. Presently, the issue is the abuse of seminarians, priests, brothers, deacons, religious and other adults — both male and female — by those in the presbyterate, diaconate, episcopate and other religious.
Homosexuality has infiltrated the Church, and the majority of the abuse comes from clergy and religious with same-sex attraction disorder perpetrated upon post-pubescent boys and men.
Additionally, the corresponding cover-up of these abuses by those in authority — your brother bishops, archbishops and cardinals — is even more reprehensible. With the conclusion of the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, known colloquially as the Vatican abuse summit, we see essentially that nothing new was accomplished and we were only offered platitudes, bromides and politically correct cleric-speak by those in the hierarchy, including our Holy Father, Pope Francis — the servant of the servants of God.
Thus, members of this faithful coalition will not be donating to your annual stewardship appeal. Instead, the hard-earned dollars of the laity will go to organizations that are helping to uncover and report on these abuses in the hopes of real reform. They are:
BetterChurchGovernance.com
We will continue to do this, and encourage others nationally and internationally to do the same, until we see clear evidence that you and your brother bishops in the USCCB are confronting, in both word and deed, the corruption and evil present among your ranks. We can no longer tolerate malevolence at the expense of those trusting the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.
Your sheep are hurting, Excellency. We have been marginalized. Victims are still on the periphery and have not been accompanied on their journeys of healing. You have been called to "listen radically," so please do not let the voices of your flock fall on deaf ears. Ubi est tenebrae fiat lux! Where there is darkness, let there be light!
As faithful laity, we seek clarity, not confusion; orthodoxy, not obfuscation; courage, not cover-ups; and salvation, not sophistry. We want solid apologetics, not apologies for our Church's rich teaching.
So, we are praying, fasting and doing penance every day so that each of you will be lionhearted leaders, who are truly holy and fearless shepherds of our souls.
Sincerely,
Christopher M. Shea Chief Executive Officer Coalition of Concerned Catholics
cc: His Eminence Daniel N. DiNardo, STD, President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 3211 Fourth Street N.E. Washington DC, 20017 and Cardinal Archbishop of Galveston-Houston 1700 San Jacinto Houston, TX 77002-8291
His Excellency Christophe Pierre, JCD, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America 3339 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20008 and Titular Archbishop of Gunela
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And the response was?
Yep. Its necessary to scrutinize the comments, actions and behavior of your local Bishop. There ought to be a body that rates them on how they deal with predatory, criminal homosexual clergy and their comments on homosexuality. Not only is there the power of the purse but if they say or do things that are contrary to Catholic doctrine, they should be loudly criticized and complaints made routinely to Rome. Imagine the absurdity of having a conference on predatory , criminal clerical behavior and refusing to mention the word homosexual.
“Comments?
It seems that as long as Rome knowingly allows gays in ministry - from the Vatican down - anything they do is dealing with a symptom and not the root cause (which is knowingly allowing sin in violation of Scripture).
Can Rome handle gutting 25-45% of its priests/bishops/Cardinals?
It appears not, so far. Time will tell. I hope they find the courage to do so.
#WalkAwayRome
#NoGays
I heartily approve!
This is the only thing that will get their attention. Well, the only thing short of the laity conducting auto-de-fe on the offending clerics.
Better 25-45% now than 75% later
Won’t matter. What matters is the existing endowment. For example, a $10M endowment for a diocese of 10,000 stays at $10M and continues to grow as an investment. As pissed off parishioners leave or quit giving, the more per capita for the good ol boys.
They didn’t list what action they want.
That would probably help.
I think it is a terrific idea. Organize nation-wide. It is a way to make our voices heard. Individually - can be ignored, and our $ is not much. A coalition of those who are concerned and will do something about it will speak loudly. Thanks for posting.
+1
Haven’t donated to any bishops’ appeals for years, since Catholic churches started supporting illegal immigration.
We’ve made sure the bishops are told of our decision and the reasons.
For years I have put a note on the appeal envelope to the effect not a cent until orthodoxy taught and only institutions doing orthodox services funded. To no avail. But numbers and in every diocese would make a difference.
All good and worthwhile organizations. I’m glad Cardinal DiNardo was cc’d.
It’s about time. I just may become a practicing Catholic again. I wanted this to happen 30 years ago when I and my family left the church. No one was interested in our complaints as priests and bishops were shuffled around after allegations of sexual abuse.
If a man wants a boy, he goes where the boys are. He becomes a priest.
He’s my bishop, and he’s a very kind and devout man, and travels great distances to visit remote communities in our underpopulated but geographically large diocese. But he’s very timid and easily pushed around by some of his clerrical bureaucrats, and he’s obviously overwhelmed by what’s going on in the Church right now. I think he’s also nervous because he held various positions at the seminary and in the Miami archdiocesan structure when the flaming and corrupt Favalore was in charge.
So he’s buried himself in some sort of ill-advised grand plan to take a small local devotion and turn the site into a big shrine, and of course has been using and appealing for a lot of money for it. My theory is that he wants to get all this done before the money disappears in lawsuit settlements...and because he’s very devoted to Our Lady and I believe he thinks this might help the Church. However, it’s only caused resentment because it makes it look as if he doesn’t care and is pretending that all is well in the Church.
So while the letter is certainly accurate in some ways, just say a prayer for him because I honestly think he means well but he doesn’t know what to do. And he’s probably not the only bishop in such a situation.
Might be ok but why would any one want to be lead by some one that will not do right until you threaten to cut off their funds, if this was what the gospel we’re about what real believer would want any of it?
In the New Testament church, Elders were husbands of one wife and were picked by the lay people. Elders = Bishops
From a Catholic-approved bible:
Titus 1:5-9 (Elders to be picked from new disciples in local churches)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+1&version=NRSVCE
Acts 14:20-23 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+14&version=NRSVCE)
This whole connection of bishops/elders with churches is completely gone and replaced with the Deep State reporting to the Deep State, with ZERO accountability to parishioners/disciples.
That why this wonderful letter means absolutely nothing.
When white European people stopped have 7 or 8 kids each there were simply fewer men for the priesthood, which is why the Catholic church expanded in South America and Africa where they are having many kids and thus, many boys.
So, in the US and Europe, they had to scrap the bottom of the barrel for men to become priests and let in known gays to be priests. Not surprising what happened next.
JoMa
Then, as now, bihops (episkopoi or overseers/supervisors) and priests (presbyteroi or elders) were appointe, not elected. The NT does not leave us with instructions or examples of how people could depose those appointed for them.
We are indeed in a heck of a mess --- on a level of what St. Athanasius faced in the 4th century, or St. Damian in the 11th. They re facing a majority of clergy who were heretics (Arians), sots and thralls of lust (cf. St. Damian's "Book of Gomorrah") or outright apostates (the Donatist crisis).<> It's extremely bad and extremely destructive of the Faith.
We need to hold fast and see how God is going to (again) rescue His Church, as He has so many times before. The demons? This sort is not driven out except by prayer and fasting.
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