Posted on 03/03/2006 8:40:09 AM PST by NYer
We note that the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, for all practical purposes, has silenced a priest named Father Robert Altier. It is an interesting action, at several levels. We find it noteworthy at the same time that, as always, we urge obedience.
Father Altier is a rare one indeed, at 45 a relatively young priest who unabashedly speaks strong stuff -- including prophetic stuff, and including exposes of alleged wrongdoing -- from the pulpit. As it was, he had been relegated, at the Church of St. Agnes, in the city of St. Paul, to the 6:30 a.m. Mass (although the church's website disseminated his homilies).
On weekdays, it has been the six a.m. shift -- a Mass that regularly attracts between 75 and a hundred despite the early hour. Some of his homilies, including a recent one, have been surprisingly open in their criticism of bishops.
He may be a bit strong, and naturally we're not sure of all his views (we all have different ideas), but so popular and unusual have been his homilies that for a while now they have been disseminated over the internet via a website called "A Voice in the Desert." That website has now announced the bishop's closure.
"In obedient compliance with the expressed written request of Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [left], Father Altier’s homilies and spiritual presentations can no longer be published on www.desertvoice.org or broadcast on Relevant Radio," says the website. "Please be assured that this action of the archbishop is not related to any scandal or sexual misconduct on the part of Father Robert Altier. We regret any inconvenience and humbly ask for your prayers."
Father Altier has expressed a number of views that some in mainstream Catholicism consider strong and controversial. We have contacted the diocese for comment.
"They say you can't preach like that because the collection will go down," said Father Altier, who is a third-order Carmelite and who before becoming a priest, at age 28, had attained a degree in computer programming.
But his "tell-it-like-he-sees-it" approach, he says, has not hurt. "Parishioners seem to be fine with it, but I'm not sure other priests like it," he told Spirit Daily a while ago. "Priests are into materialism and worldliness. And if you want the material, you can't have the spiritual. Priests have gotten into a lot of worldliness."
As a local newspaper notes, Altier is a prominent voice in conservative Catholic circles and has spoken out against a sex-abuse prevention program being taught throughout the archdiocese, including to schoolchildren. He says the program is too explicit. Such programs were mandated in all dioceses by U.S. bishops as part of their response to the clergy abuse crisis.
It is Father Alitier's contention that there is a simple and real truth behind scandal. "I got sick and tired of all the lies. I just laid it out. There are three groups that have infiltrated the Church, the Masons, the Communists, and the homosexuals, who came in 1924," he alleges. "85 percent of all the abuse cases are homosexual. There is rank homosexuality. Homosexuals chose the best and brightest and best looking and put them into the priesthood."
As for our times, Father Altier views it as relating to the Gospel reading on cleaning the temple -- but this time with the Blessed Mother, who will "clean it like a woman, not like Jesus did (when He threw out the merchants); she is being more deliberate and every nook and cranny will be cleansed," he says insightfully. "When it is done, it will "not be pretty but it will be immaculate.
"I have been speaking about this since the early 1980s, but after 9/11, I said, 'Now the birth pangs have begun.'"
They are like labor pains that will get closer together and more intense, contends the priest, who spends hours each day in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Why is he controversial? And why do people -- including many priests -- reject the idea of purification?
"I think because people don't want to deal with sin," he says. "The loss of the sense of sin is one of the great tragedies of our time. They don't want to deal with the idea that God would allow any kind of purification. We focus on His mercy so much that we forget His justice. The devil is resisting the idea of chastisement. If we can explain it scientifically, it denies the spirituality of an event, and what the devil desires most is to remain hidden. Certainly he is going to be involved in some of these things, whether directly or from chaos at spiritual level. He is inspiring chaos at spiritual level.
"And some of it -- wars as well as storms -- we are doing to ourselves. Nature reflects the chaos in the spiritual order. You see that right from the Garden of Eden. There was peace until they sinned, and that continues. The chaos that we see -- the storms and tsunamis -- continue to get more intense and closer together and it is because sin is getting worse. We can't keep killing babies and violating human dignity and think that nothing is going to happen to us. We're doing it to ourselves. It's a natural consequence of what we're doing."
These days, when it comes to Christianity, he says, "we only want the parts we like."
The priest has also harped on the need for deliverance.
"I did an awful lot of deliverance work, and the bishop shut it down," claimed Father Altier. "He said he didn't want any priest in his diocese doing this."
In digging through his cached files, I found this post from Feb. 12. Do you suppose this is the smoking gun?
Some people have reacted harshly to my posting criticizing Fr. Bob Hoatson.
The common claim is that, by criticizing Fr. Hoatson, I am tacking side with corrupt bishops, the abusive priests and a system that pretends to “perpetuate” the abuses and keep the Church in “business as usual” despite the drama of the sex scandal.
I have nothing to say to those who have already an agenda like SNAP, for whom you either support everything they say or you are in favor of abuse, cover up, and so forth… if you are not a child abuser yourself.
But let me set the record straight one more time. There are MANY, not just “good” and “bad” guys in this complex issue. As far as I can see:
Regarding the latest, read what Forbes Magazine said in a long, extremely revealing report on the economic and legal side of the scandal:
“Plaintiff lawyer Roderick MacLeish Jr. and other litigators have parlayed the priest crisis into a billion-dollar money machine, fueled by lethal legal tactics, shrewd use of the media and public outrage so fierce that almost any claim, no matter how bizarre or dated, offers a shot at a windfall.
The lawyers are lobbying states to lift the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases, letting them dredge up complaints that date back decades. Last year California, responding to the outcry over the rash of priest cases, suspended its statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes for one year, opening the way for a deluge of new claims. A dozen other states are being pushed to loosen their laws.
“There is an absolute explosion of sexual abuse litigation, and there will continue to be. This is going to be a huge business,” MacLeish, age 50, says. A Boston-based partner of the Miami law firm of Greenberg Traurig (2002 billings: $465 million), he has won upwards of $30 million in settlements for more than a hundred plaintiffs in lawsuits in the past decade. With a hit man’s style and a gift for TV sound bites, he has played a key role in unearthing (and exploiting) the priest scandals of the past two years, prompting a nationwide cascade of similar reports.
In the resulting wave of lawsuits the majority of cases are legitimate, even officials of the Catholic Church concur. Dioceses will pay dearly for covering up the most abominable crimes and failing to prevent future offenses.
Overdue justice. But it could lead to a legal morass marked by extortion as much as fairness, in which a small cast of liars cashes in on the real suffering of victims. “Just think how this ripples out: day care, babysitters, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, summer camps, study-abroad programs. You start thinking about it, and it boggles the mind,” says Patrick Schiltz, associate dean of the law school at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minn. “There is impact in the tens of billions of dollars.”
Want to know a little bit more about this guy MacLeish and the likes?
Read this, also from Forbes:
“This lawyer relishes juicy cases. In 1995 he successfully defended Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Mack, who was threatened with losing his tenure after he published a book arguing that alien abductions were real. He successfully defended Lars Bildman, disgraced chief executive of drugmaker Astra USA, against sexual harassment complaints. He also defended a Cape Cod high school teacher who got fired for making porno films in his spare time and he generated headlines when he sued the elderly wife of an alleged pedophile, collecting on her homeowner’s policy.”
I think this is quite ilustrative. And this brings to my point:  I don’t think Catholics should seat and take the pounding for something that has become an industry that may cripple our communities. Making justice within the Catholic Church is not the same as lynching the Catholic Church.
"I was appalled. Why are American Catholics so liberal? Besides being inaccurate, it was inappropriate."
American Catholics and American churches is painting with a pretty broad brush, don't you think? That would also include the eastern churches which are about as "liberal" as Margaret Thatcher, not to mention our more traditional bretheren in the western church.
Wouldn't it be interesting if, upon further reflection, this Priest decided to become bi-ritual? Or to simply head east?
The Melkites would love him. And let's just say that we would all be on Irony Alert if he were to find a nice place with the Byzantines.
A wicked thought, I know. But I couldn't resist :-)
NY, those cached links work for me. Are you clicking on "cached" each time?
I never hear sermons condemning abortion or the homosexual lifestyle.
&&
Same here. It's shameful.
Reading the lives of some Saints I discovered that often they obeyed their Bishops or other superiors even when the Bishop was wrong in their views.
They obeyed even though it did cause great spiritual and mental anguish to themselves. Because they knew that their rightness was known to God. This priest is surely speaking the truth and no doubt God will make sure that in good time the priest's message will be heard and embraced. Especially by the Bishop. Meanwhile the priest should bear the duty of obedience he promised with grace and humility.
You are absolutely correct!!
I was referring to the above post. If you click on 'Main' or any of the others, it takes you to a dead end.
It sure was. Thanks NYer.
But at that time the Bishops were not part of Satan's conspiracy.
I don't think the phase " The road to hell is paved with the skull of Bishops" is a contemporary one. Perhaps another reader will know the source and post it.
Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) said "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops".
http://www.chrysostom.org/
Also "But at that time the Bishops were not part of Satan's conspiracy".... well... Unfortunately, we've had that problem since the start. Remember Judas, tares among the wheat, etc.
I defer to those with more knowledge. However, I believe a new and improved Satan's Conspiracy began in the 1960s.
We do well to remind ourselves that the " gates of hell will not prevail". It also can never hurt and always help to recite the St. Michael prayer.
"Coincidentally, this week, Alejandro Bermudez..."
Get ready for the underground?
Ping to #15
Alejandro said that his blogging had turned into a second full-time job. He couldn't afford to do both his job at CNA and Catholic Outsider.
"I did an awful lot of deliverance work, and the bishop shut it down," claimed Father Altier. "He said he didn't want any priest in his diocese doing this."
I'm wondering just what this part means? Was he performing exorcisms of some kind or just advocating the Sacrement of Confession?
bttt
Yes, that is what he said. The same is true for other bloggers like Patrick Madrid and Domenico Bettinelli, to name just two. Some will take a sabatical or limit their blog postings to just one every few days. In the case of Alejandro Bermudez, he made that statement and then totally eradicated his blog. It was all very sudden. Bishops are quite powerful. Upset one and they will rapidly smack you down. Perhaps I am reading more into this than is factual ... it's just a hunch.
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