Posted on 06/30/2002 10:49:00 AM PDT by Polycarp
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| Angered by information leaks, Bishop Joseph Adamec abruptly canceled planned transfers of priests this week, The Tribune-Democrat has learned. The cancellation affects a Centre County priest who has publicly disagreed with the bishop’s stance on homosexuality in the priesthood, and whose brother is a conservative Catholic activist and harsh critic of the bishop. Both brothers declined to comment, and Adamec was tight-lipped about his orders, issuing only terse written responses to a reporter’s questions. The cancellations appear to be the latest tear in the widening fissure between Adamac’s administration of the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese and his conservative critics. Events leading up to the cancellations began June 18, when Altoona businessman George Foster’s laity group sponsored a visit by conservative author Michael Rose, whose book “Goodbye, Good Men” is critical of the Altoona-Johnstown diocese. Several priests attended a reception for Rose, and there were conversations of pending transfers and moving arrangements. On June 19, the Centre Daily Times newspaper carried a front-page story about Foster’s brother James, a Bellefonte priest, being reassigned next month to another parish, and diocese officials denying political motivations. On June 21, Adamec wrote to all parishes, telling priests that “a number of transfers scheduled to take effect on July 10, 2002, have been put on hold. There are several reasons for that, including breaches of confidentiality.” A new list of transfers was developed last week, but dated for release on June 28. Foster’s transfer was not included in the new list. In his letter, Adamec apologized to “those not contributing to the situation. “I am sorry that this places an unexpected inconvenience on those who were prepared for a move on July 10,” he wrote. When a reporter asked what motivated the letter, Adamec replied with a short, written answer: “It’s in the letter.” When asked if a copy of the transfer list obtained by The Tribune-Democrat early last week, but dated June 28, was a complete list, Adamec replied, “I don’t know.” Reassignments announced by the diocese on Friday were: Sister Mary Parks, spokeswoman for the diocese, declined to comment on Foster’s situation. But Adamec and Parks have clashed with the priest in the past over the issue of homosexuality. Some dioceses, such as Philadelphia, will not accept homosexuals as priests, and the Vatican bans homosexual priests. The homosexual lifestyle has been the subject of an ongoing debate at Penn State University in State College. Foster voiced his conservative views and was chastised by the diocese. That debate began in October 2000, with a Penn State ceremony titled, “A Service of Affirmation of the Human Dignity of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People.” Hlublik then wrote an essay saying: “Fortunately, with a few positive thought-provoking images of gays portrayed on television and movies and maybe even encounters with gays in our own lives, it is becoming common enough to be a topic of discussion.” Conservative Catholics, including priests like Foster, were outraged. Foster wrote a response calling Hlubik’s statements “false teaching.” Then Parks wrote back, rebuking Foster: “It is highly inappropriate for a Catholic priest to criticize publicly one of his brothers. [but its OK for a feminist nun to publicly criticize a priest--Polycarp] It is canonically inappropriate for a priest to suggest publicly that the diocese (ergo his Bishop) is somehow colluding to lead souls astray.” Foster’s brother, George, who is president of the Lay Stewardship Foundation, since has been engaged in a public war of words over the way the diocese has handled sex scandals. Both Parks and Adamec declined to discuss James Foster’s future as a priest, or any other transfers that might be made. |
Um, I think you'll have to direct your question to the Rev. Hlubik. (If you get an answer, let us know!)
:^)
And these are to be found exactly where? On TV?
We are tempering the Bible with Pop Culture now? Oh come on.
LOL.
FREE!!!
The "George Foster" mentioned in this article is regional manager for Lamar Advertising, the biggest billboard company in the good ole USA.
Locally, strangely enough, Lamar Advertising "donates" a lot of free billboard space to "Lay Stewardship," George's non-profit organization (of which I am a board member.)
Coincidentally, strangely enough, the local Lamar Advertising office dontated multiple billboard spaces locally for this billboard:
Imagine that!
Unfortunately, Lamar did not have any billboard space near the bishop's office...
...fortunately, Lamar built a new billboard sign from scratch near the bishop's office, about 2 weeks prior to Michael Rose's talk here, and ran the billboard image above.
Will strange coincidences ever cease here?
Sometimes, as I've said before on this forum, Catholic activism is downright fun.
By the way, the owner of Lamar Advertising Corp is a strong conservative, and simply smiles at all these "coincidences."
I can't think of one. The bible even uses comparatively delicate language in describing it. In the OT they were to be stoned (if active and with two witnesses) and in the new they were to be excommunicated or avoided.
I don't know anywhere the bible speaks of homosexuals who aren't practicing.
What is it with these bishops protecting homosexuals? If they favor their homosexual priests over their straight ones, something is terribly wrong.
They are not going to get rid of homosexuals in the priesthood. If homosexuals have a consensual relationship with an adult, they will continue to protect them and hide the scandal because it isn't against the law.
That is the future of the church in America. Celibate on the outside, a pass on sexual behavior from the inside . . . unless somebody has grounds for a lawsuit.
I am not against compassion for homosexuals but I loathe persecution of heterosexual priests for telling the truth.
LOL! There's nothing like a woman with a strong sense of duty!
Sometimes I wonder if there's more here than homosexual "inclination." I recall (but fuzzily) reading something years ago about Oscar Wilde that suggested he had no actual homosexual inclination by nature but was just into decadence. I'm awfully afraid that's what much of this is.
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