7th Annual Gala Dinner Video Presentation 2019

Below is a video of the 7th Annual Gala Dinner Presentation in Miami, Florida. You can see Father Edivaldo and some of the former RMS seminarians from Guam.  You can see James, Juan Pedro and Martin.  Excellent presentation!   

The NCW in St. Barnabas Parish

In places where the Neocatechumenal Way is encouraged, we see a growth or increase in Church attendance despite the changes in the neighborhood.  Below is a story about St. Barnabas parish, which you can find here.
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St. Barnabas Parish in Southwest Philadelphia, where Archbishop Charles Chaput celebrated a 100th anniversary Mass on June 16, has a rich history, as written by parishioner Frank Adolph and supplied by Parish Secretary Cathy O’Rourke.

When it was founded in 1919, the parish was located in a thriving neighborhood, composed of the families of workers in nearby industries. Former World War I chaplain Father James Dougherty was the founding pastor and the first Masses were celebrated in an existing house on Buist Avenue.

The congregation quickly outgrew this, and Father Dougherty was offered the free use of the nearby Benn Theater, which he gratefully accepted.  The first permanent building, typical of new parishes at the time, was to be a combination church/school. The ground floor chapel was ready for use by June 1921.

The school portion did not open until 1927. It was conducted by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with Mother M. Nazareth as principal. The school opened only with grades one and two, with boys and girls in separate classrooms. The upper grades quickly followed and in its hey-day it grew to over 1,100 students.

Although Father John Daly, the second pastor, paid the debt incurred by the parish during the Great Depression, it was the task of the third pastor, Father Joseph LaRue, to build the huge 188 feet by 79 feet permanent church of today.

Designed in a somewhat austere style called “American Perpendicular,” the exterior was softened by the impressive six-ton bas relief of St. Barnabas on the facade.

Father LaRue was definitely a man who had his quirks. For one thing, during his time there was no transverse aisle at the rear of the church; the seats went all the way to the wall because he didn’t want anyone standing during Mass. Should anyone have the temerity of arriving too late to find a seat, he might call them up that very long center aisle to a seat in the sanctuary.

One never quite knew what he would say during the weekly announcements at the end of Mass, for example: “Sisters’ card party this afternoon. If you can’t come just send in your week’s wages.” Or: “The older girls of the parish are giving an entertainment and dance for the older fellows of the parish who have a buck in the school hall on St. Patrick’s night at 8 p.m. Don’t forget the buck and be sure to be over 21.”

Sue Kreczkevich grew up in the parish she loves and she well remembers when she was preparing for marriage to her husband, John, who was from Upstate. Back then the banns of marriage were read out at Mass. When Father La Rue read her banns, he could not resist joking how far she went for her husband.

John Kreczkevich not only joined his wife’s parish, but since 2002 he has been a permanent deacon assigned to St. Barnabas.

Of course there were many other vocations over the years including 16 young men who entered seminaries and were ordained priests for Philadelphia, other dioceses and religious congregations, and also many girls who entered religious life.

As with so many parishes in the City of Philadelphia, during the second half of the 20th century St. Barnabas witnessed industries drying up and the flight of many of the founding families to the suburbs. Yet in very recent years the population has stabilized, partly because of a growing influx of Hispanic Catholics in the region and a surprising number of the former residents returning for Mass, according to Deacon John and Sue Kreczkevich.

St. Barnabas School is also still there under the direction of the Immaculate Heart Sisters, but it is now an Independence Mission School.

Since 2013 St. Barnabas has been conducted by priests of the Neocatechumenal Way, with Father Carlos Benitez as parochial administrator.

But while some things may change, St. Barnabas is still St. Barnabas as it enters its second century.

Celebrating Mass June 16 at St. Barnabas Church are, from left, Deacon John Kreczkevich, Father Gerald Carey (son of the parish), Father Mariano N. Dellagiovanna (vice rector of Mater Redemptoris Seminary), Archbishop Charles Chaput, Father Christopher Moriconi (kneeling), Father Miguel Angel Bravo Alvarez and Father Javier Santaballa.

Issue 2: Abortion On Guam

Dr. William Freeman and Dr. Edmund Griley were the only two physicians who practiced abortion in Guam.  Both are now retired and none of our local doctors are willing to take up the practice of abortion after them. Kudos to our local doctors, who did not leave their faith at the door of the church building.  Christianity is a lifestyle.  It is not to be left only at the doorsteps or inside the church building.  It is supposed to be with you in your home, work, school and daily life.  Christianity is not a religion.  It is a way of life.  

This is an era where Guam has seen a woman governor for the first time in history.  There were also more women elected to the Guam Legislature.  Unfortunately, I am very disappointed with our leaders.  So far, they have revived gambling in the Liberation Carnival.....an event that is supposed to be enjoyed by children and families.  So far, they have legalized "recreational" marijuana in the hopes to increase government revenue.  In short, the government is depending on the marijuana addiction of the people to increase its revenue. After all, just look at the tobacco industry.  They made millions of dollars from people addicted to tobacco.  And now, the government is looking for a doctor to provide abortion.  

In the past 40 years or so, our people have had to travel to either the Philippines or the U.S. to obtain medical assistance which our hospitals are unable to provide.  Those who needed open heart surgery had to travel thousands of miles off-island.  Those who needed cancer treatment had to travel thousands of miles off-island, and so on.  And our government was never concern about this.  We would see people fundraising for off-island medical treatment, and our government was never concern about this.     

After Dr. Freeman retired, abortions were no longer provided.  Suddenly, the government was very concern about this. Today, women who want abortion had to travel thousands of miles......in the same way as those who needed open heart surgery and other medical treatment that were not available on island.  Suddenly, the government was very concern.  BUT their concern were not for those who needed open heart surgery, cancer treatment, or other medical assistance needed to save a person's life.  

The Public Health Data showed that there were 289 abortions in Guam in 2016. Only 6 of them were teens ages 13-17.  Rape, incest, and medical problems were not the main reason for abortion.  Those numbers are very small.  Now, that there are no abortion providers in Guam, what we are seeing are a very small number of women from Guam going to Hawaii to obtain an abortion.  According to Time.com (the bold is mine): 

While Hawaii, a nearly eight-hour flight from Guam, is the closest U.S. state for a legal abortion, there have only been a handful of Guam women treated since last year, and none for an elective procedure, said Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro, an obstetrician-gynecologist and University of Hawaii professor........ 

She said, to her knowledge, all those who have come from Guam are "women with desired pregnancies where there are severe anomalies that have prompted their decision to terminate their pregnancies." 

"It's really quite a small number," she said. "I would say over the course of the past six months, we have seen two or three patients."   

In short, when abortion was provided in Guam, we saw over 200 abortions and most of them are elective abortions.  After Dr. Freeman retired in 2018 and abortion was no longer provided, we saw only 2 or 3 Guam women travel to Hawaii to obtain an abortion.  And these women wanted their babies, but needed an abortion due to severe anomalies.  Our government say that abortion is needed to save a woman's life, but these cases are very rare.  Rather, our government wants to provide abortion for all those other women whose lives are NOT at risk.  Pro-Choice is the belief that only the mother's life is sacred.  Pro-life is the belief that ALL human life is sacred including the life of the mother.   

Some people criticize the members of the Neocatechumenal Way.  They call us "crazy."  Why?  Because the families in the Way have many children and are happy with their many children.  They see their children as "gifts from God" rather than an economic or financial burden.  Below is a photo of the Palonis family.  This is a family with 12 children, and you can read their story here.

Some people call the members of the Neocatechumenal Way "crazy".  Why?  Because the parents are willing to leave their home, jobs, friends, and relatives to preach the Gospel in foreign lands.  Below is a photo of a mission family of seven children (the Cialdinis family from Italy), who chose to leave everything behind and travel as missionaries to Japan (a country with 2% Christians).  You can read their story here.

                                        

Some people say that the members of the Neocatechumenal Way are "crazy".  Why?  Because we teach single or unmarried people the virtue of chastity and abstinence rather than contraceptives. Abstinence is the only method guaranteed that one will not get pregnant and get a sexually transmitted disease.  Of course, the world says that our way of teaching this to our youth goes against what the world teaches about lust. The world teaches that lust is normal and not a sin.  But what did God say about who we are as Christians? 

John 15:19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you. 

We are no better than the people of this world, but we are indeed DIFFERENT from the people of this world.  We are Christians.  We are Catholics.  Our faith does not stop at the doorsteps of the church building.  We did not leave our faith inside the building.  Christianity is a lifestyle to be lived daily in our lives at home, at work, in school, and everywhere we go.  Christianity is how we live, and it can be seen even in our working lives.  Kudos to the local doctors who lived out their Christian faith.   

VOTE NO ON ABORTION

To all Neocatechumenal Way members, please vote "NO" on abortion.  The poll closes at 3:00 p.m.  Below is the link to the poll.  

https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2019/06/11/what-you-need-know-wednesday-june-12-2019/1416707001/

Issue 1: More Sexual Allegations

The first issue I want to address is the sexual allegations.  August 15, 2019 is the deadline for all sex abuse victims to file their lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana.  As that deadline comes closer, we will see more and more sex abuse allegations being filed.  In fact, July and August will be the time most of them will come forward.  In June, we are already starting to see that.  

On June 7th, two people whose initials were F.A.D. and S.P. filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese accusing Father Louse Brouillard of sexual abuse and rape.  In that same day, June 7th another person filed a lawsuit naming Monsignor Louis Antonelli, who passed away in Rota at the age of 100. Monsignor Antonelli served as a priest for 70 years, with 46 of those spent on Rota.  He served as a priest on Guam for 10 years, and it is a person in Guam who filed the sex abuse lawsuit, not a person in Rota where he spent most of his life serving as a priest.  So, that is three lawsuits filed in one day.  

On June 10th (just 3 days later) another lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese accusing Father Andrew Mannetta of child abuse.  Father Mannetta already have current child abuse allegations against him.  

Today, June 12th, a woman came forward accusing another dead priest (Monsignor Jose Ada Leon Guerrero) of raping her.  According to the Guam Daily Post:

M.J.R., who used initials to protect her identity, alleges the incident happened on the second floor of the Niño Perdido y Sagrada Familia Catholic Church in Asan, where Monsignor Jose Ada Leon Guerrero, the parish priest, resided. 

The girl was 13 and attended study club at the parish on Monday afternoons. 

The lawsuit states Leon Guerrero asked M.J.R. to help him sort out the limosna, or church offerings, collected from the previous Sunday.M.J.R. agreed and assisted the priest several consecutive Mondays and said Leon Guerrero would often hug her while counting the money. She assumed it was OK since "he was a good and holy man to be trusted," court documents state.

He also rewarded her with $10 or $20 for helping him. 

On the sixth Monday, Leon Guerrero allegedly coaxed her into drinking wine, despite her reservations because it made her dizzy and sleepy. 

"Monsignor gently berated and convinced her to continue drinking, since it was the blood of Christ," the lawsuit states. 

The girl said she fell asleep and remembers seeing Leon Guerrero come out of the bathroom wearing only a shirt and shorts, forcing her into his bed, and forcefully undressing her. 

There are many odd things about this woman's story.  1) Since when is the Sunday collection supposed to be kept in the priest's place of residence? Should it not be kept in a safe?  2) Since when did the Church allowed children to count the Sunday collection?  Is it not the responsibility of adults to count the money from Sunday's collections? 3) why is the priest and a child the only ones counting the Sunday collection?  Isn't the parish finance officer supposed to be involved in the counting of the monies? Should there not be at least three adults in counting the money from Sunday's collection? 4) where did the reward of $10 and $20 come from.....the Sunday collection?  and 5) after the money was counted, who deposited it into the bank and recorded it into the books?  Where is the parish finance officer in all this?   
       
As the August 15th deadline looms forward, we will see more and more lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese.  Most of these lawsuits will be against dead priests.  A few will file against those who already have a sexual allegation against them.  And there will be no investigations into these sexual allegations because the Archdiocese of Agana have decided to take all allegations as the Gospel truth.  

Priestly Vocations

The Neocatechumenal Way had always fostered vocations. We inspire our youth to discern God's calling for them.  God can call them to a married life, a religious life, or an itinerant life.  Due to the fact that the NCW have inspired vocations among its members, it is not surprising that a seminary was also established so that these seminarians would be formed following the pattern of the Neocatechumenal Way......a pattern that encourages missionary work, a pattern in which one can develop a close relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.  The question is.....what is our Archdiocese of Agana doing to inspire priestly vocations among Guam's faithful, especially our youth? After all, since Archbishop Byrnes has rejected the kind of priests formed by RMS, then surely he must have a plan to inspire priestly vocations among the faithful in Guam?  Otherwise, we simply borrow more priests from other countries.   

Below are stories of men who were called into the priesthood through the charism of the NCW:

The first story is of Deacon John Benson who had plans to go into filmmaking.  However, he heard God calling him to the priesthood. His story is quite remarkable.  You can find his story here.

Deacon John Benson

The second story is of a young man from Poland, who was also a member of the NCW.  It is not surprising that members of the NCW would travel to different parts of the world. Deacon Jan Pietryga's journey to the priesthood started in his native country of Poland, took shape in Italy, was confirmed in Australia and will be serving in Washington D.C. Deacon Jan Pietryga came from a family of 10 siblings.  The Way is known to have large numbers of children.  Nevertheless, it is not surprising that from those ten children, one was inspired to enter the priesthood.  You can find his story here. 

Deacon Jan Pietryga

Mistaken Gender?

I was reading the Guam Daily Post today.  Two persons accused Father Brouillard of sexually abuse and rape.  To protect their identities, they were only identified as F.A.D and S.P.  Both filed for five million dollars in their lawsuit.  

The Guam Daily Post identified S.P. as a female rather than a male.  Was that an error done by the Guam Daily Post?  According to the Guam Daily Post (the bold is mine): 

S.P., now 46, alleges she was sexually abused and raped by Brouillard between the ages of 7 and 9. 

The complaint alleges Brouilard sexually abused her while teaching her how to float during a Boy Scouts outing. She alleges the rape occurred in a back room at the church and she cried, but Brouillard told her to be quiet and that it was OK for him to do this to her because "it was God's will." 

S.P. alleges she was sexually abused approximately four times a month over two to three years. 

She was sexually abused during a Boy Scouts outing?  Correct me if I am wrong, but did the Boy Scouts of America allowed girls to join their organization?  Was she also an altar server in Mass?  It was not until approximately 1994 when girls were allowed to become altar servers.  If S.P. is indeed a female, was she an altar server at 7-9 years old?    

The Guam Daily Post did not reveal the age of F.A.D., but it stated that S.P. is currently 46 years old, and that she was sexually abused and raped by Father Brouillard between the ages of 7 and 9.  She alleges that she was sexually abused four times a month over two to three years.    

Father Brouillard worked in Guam from 1949-1981.  He left Guam in 1981.  If S.P. is currently 46 years old as stated in the news report, this means that she was born in 1973.  At 7-9 years old, the years would be 1980-1982.  Was S.P.'s gender an error printed in the Guam Daily Post?  Only boys are accepted into the Boys Scouts of America and girls did not become altar servers until around 1994.  

In another lawsuit, the Guam Daily Post reported that a non-Catholic also claimed to be abused by Father Brouillard when he was an altar server in the Tumon Church (See the story here).  This non-Catholic is suing for ten million dollars. 

One of the requirements of being an altar server is that they should have already received Holy Communion.  Of course, a non-Catholic cannot receive Holy Communion.  Another requirement is that altar servers should participate in receiving the Eucharist whenever they serve at the altar.  If, for some reason, an altar server cannot receive the Eucharist on that Sunday, he/she must first go to confession or do not serve that Sunday. These guidelines were in place because it would look controversial (and even hypocritical) that a person serving at the altar with the priest is not in communion for all the parishioners to see. Every priest knows the guidelines of being an altar server.  It is even in the USCCB website.  Did Father Brouillard violate these guidelines by allowing a non-Catholic to serve as an altar server during Mass?  

Congratulations to Mateusz Ratajczak

Some of the brothers may have remembered Mateusz Ratajczak.  He was an itinerant in Guam who did many wonderful works.  On May 25th, he was ordained into the priesthood in Denver. Congratulations Father Mateusz!  The following article can be found here.
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Archbishop Aquila ordains five men to the priesthood

Recalling the phrase Jesus told his disciples: “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Mt 10:16), Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila urged the new priests to shine amid a society where darkness and hostility against God abounds.

The prelate presided the priestly ordination at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver May 25. The new priests are Julio Cesar Amezcua, from Spain; Adam Bradshaw, born in Texas; Witold Kaczmarzyk and Mateusz Ratajczak, from Poland; and Thomas Scherer from Colorado.

The new priests were accompanied by their families, who came from Spain, Poland and around the United States. Dozens of people from the parishes where they served as deacons throughout the year were also present. The environment of the sunny spring morning was a joyful, prayerful one. The Mass readings were read in English, Spanish and Polish, honoring the diversity of nationalities of the new priests.

Called to bring the light

A young priest can only bring the light of Christ to a confused society through faith and hope in Jesus: “Open your heart to him, for it is he, and he alone, who gives life,” Archbishop Aquila said during his homily. “You are going into a world that has abandoned God and wants nothing to do with God.”

He then reminded them that this is not the first time the Church has experienced turbulent times. He recalled how the People of Israel adored false gods, even to the point of offering their children in sacrifice to them. He mentioned the dark times of the Middle Ages and the two World Wars of the 20th century and spoke of the challenges they will have to face in their ministry: “The world that loves false gods and believes in relativism, that lies about the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God, made male and female…”

He encouraged them to always proclaim the truth in charity: “Do not yell at people, do not scream, [due to] the lack of stability that we see so often today (…) Always proclaim the truth with charity and never let fear prevent you from proclaiming the truth.”

Thereafter, he invited all of those present to pray for the five new priests: “That they may be faithful, virtuous, holy men, whose hearts are formed by Christ.”

The archbishop asked parents to “be willing to offer your sons to Christ if He calls them. Never ever discourage a young man from the priesthood.” He also insisted: “Pray that the Lord may plant in the heart of young men the seed of the vocation of the priesthood, and he will provide them the grace and the fortitude to say ‘yes’ to that vocation no matter the cost.”

Intimacy with Jesus

Archbishop Aquila also gave them some recommendations to help them grow in fidelity to their priestly vocation. He assured them that the most important point is an “intimacy with Jesus,” which would make them “men of virtue and holiness.”

He also invited them to be “men of prayer,” which does not mean that “you hide away in the chapel for hours a day or you spend your life in prayer,” since that is a different calling, and added: “[In your ministry] you will see as a priority to serve others for the love of Christ,” always trusting in the power and grace of God, “because it is God’s power working for you, and you must open your hearts and souls to receive that grace from God and to radically depend on him and not on yourselves.”

The archbishop reminded them of their mission “to bring people to encounter Jesus Christ” — and he highlighted Pope Francis’ constant invitation “to go out into the peripheries, go out to the lost sheep.”

“These men… have heard the call to the priesthood of Jesus Christ and opened their hearts to the call,” Archbishop Aquila said. “They have received that call from the Lord. Even in these times in which we live, the Lord continues to call men to the priesthood, he continues to call them to follow in his footsteps.”

Father Mateusz Ratajczak

Mateusz Ratajczak grew up in a forgiving, Catholic family, and, surrounded by the examples of many holy priests, entertained the thought of being a priest as a boy growing up in Poland.

However, as a teenager, Ratajczak rebelled and stopped seeing the Church as a place for him. It was through the Neocatechumenal Way that God called him back and “showed me strongly his mercy for me.

“I discovered the Church as a hospital for the weak, where [I experienced] the continuous discovery of the love of God in the context of the postbaptismal community,” Ratajczak said.

He entered Redemptoris Mater Seminary in October 2009. His time there has been “the best time of my life,” he said, especially the three years of missionary training he spent in different islands of the Pacific.

Upon his ordination, Father Ratajczak is grateful to God, Archbishop Aquila and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Denver for making it possible for him to be a priest.

“In becoming a priest, I am really hoping for being ever more conformed to Christ the Good Shepherd,” Father Ratajcazak said, “who lays down his life for the sheep, and who came to serve and not to be served.”

Our Battle-Weary Priesthood.

In the article below, Father Stuart MacDonald demonstrates why the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church works best when those with authority are virtuous men seeking the Kingdom of God. The following article can be found here.
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INTRODUCTION BY FR. GORDON MACRAE

During a recent telephone call from prison, I asked my Canadian friend, Father Stuart MacDonald, to write a guest post for These Stone Walls. I mark thirty-seven years of priesthood on June 5 this year, much of it in dark times, and I wanted him to lend some perspective to that. I then learned that the day I made this request was Father Stuart’s twenty-second anniversary of ordination.

So I asked him to write something candid, something as much from the heart as from the head. In the harsh glare of spotlights borne of moral panic, these are not easy days for priests. And I happen to know that these are especially not easy days for Father Stuart MacDonald. He is a stellar priest and a highly trained canon lawyer for whom fidelity to the Church and priesthood is his greatest charism.

Father Stuart was ordained in 1997 for the Diocese of St. Catharines in Ontario. After earning a licentiate in canon law, he served in ministry for two years in 2003 and 2004 processing abuse cases in the disciplinary section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See. He left that post to preserve his own integrity as a priest.

In 2012, Father Stuart faced an accusation of his own. He was deeply wounded by it. The innocent always are. And though there was no legal impediment or charge of immorality in it, he nonetheless was subjected to a three year exile before being exonerated of any crime and restored to ministry by the Vatican. Throughout his ordeal, Father Stuart remained, and remains still, a faithful and courageous priest. His guest post follows:

OUR BATTLE WEARY PRIESTHOOD

A priestly vocation has become so foreign to the Catholic mindset that people want to hear every priest’s “vocation story.” It’s as if a priestly vocation is some sort of mystical experience or lightning bolt from Heaven event. That’s not a good commentary on the modern Catholic mindset. Gone are the days when parents, and Catholics in general, knew that vocations are fostered in families, faithful families, faithful practicing families. Good Catholic families hoped and prayed that one of its sons would become a priest. Most vocation stories are nothing more than a slow, organic process that began early in life.

I can only ever remember wanting to be a priest. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. Before I made my first Holy Communion, after which point I could become an altar boy, I used to go up to the very front pew of the Church by myself. (My parents were good Catholics and sat somewhere near the back with everyone else.) I wanted to see everything that was going on. I stared at the life-size crucifix wondering how much it hurt to have nails go through hands and feet. I knew that Jesus was in the box. Nothing spectacular. Just a normal geeky kid who had been taught to say his prayers and who knew that Sunday morning meant Mass and an ice cream cone afterward. So started my vocation story.

There were no miraculous moments of grace; in fact, far more moments of rejecting God’s grace. So it continued through school and university. I remember well trudging down Mount Royal in Montreal on frigid Sunday mornings, with Saturday pub night still ringing in my head, to attend Mass at St. Patrick’s Basilica – what I thought was the most beautiful church I had ever seen. I started serving Mass again – something I had stopped doing years earlier when the too-cool priest became pastor of my home parish. In Montreal, there was incense, beautiful music, and dignified liturgy. No Newman Centre gather-around-the-altar stuff for me.

No one knew about what I wanted to be. It was my secret until I told my best friend in high school and my sister when in university. A perspicacious priest confronted me once and asked if I had thought about being a priest. I was embarrassed beyond belief and grateful beyond words for his gesture. That man is my spiritual director to this day. How crazy is it that priests don’t ask young men about vocations? It wasn’t until I was finishing my final year in university that it dawned on me that I had to do something about being a priest. Time was up! There was no wavering; but, now I had to tell people. The reaction was a mix of “that’s so cool!” to “I knew it!” Okay, my mother cried and my father said it was all right even if it meant he wasn’t going to have any more grandchildren.

The process of becoming a priest after that is the usual story of its ups and downs, periods of doubt and times of wanting to be the best priest in the world. Since ordination, my priesthood has given me experiences I never expected. How many priests get the opportunity to study in Rome, let alone work at the Vatican under a future pope? How many are assigned as pastor for the first time to the parish that, secretly, they think is the dream parish of a lifetime? Those are the good times. But it has had its dark times as well. More than anything, the dark times have taught me the most about being a priest, about being another Christ and about what the cost of discipleship is. I had forgotten that when Christ said, “Come follow me,” that He was going to the cross. I had just been blissfully walking along the beach for too long. Many priests in the last couple of decades are learning this lesson as well.

RESIST THE TRIUMPH OF THE THERAPEUTIC

In September last year, a sometime co-worker of mine at the Holy See was accused of solicitation in the confessional. He resigned his post in January because of the bad publicity. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Holy See announced that, after the preliminary investigation required by Church law, the penal process against him would not continue because no crime was committed. I am happy for the priest with whom I used to work – he is an intelligent, devout, respectable man. Not everyone is as lucky as he, if you can call him lucky after all the negative publicity and his resignation from an important office in the Church. At least his innocence was published; at least the decision in his case took only a matter of months.

Such is priestly life today. No one is safe from accusation – true or otherwise. Reputations are tarnished; truth is unimportant. I know because I was placed on so-called administrative leave for reports of conduct which my superior admitted were not criminal, which were not immoral, and about which I was never asked my side of the story. After recourse to the Holy See, and over $15,000 of personal money spent on canon lawyers, more than three years later, the Holy See decided in my favour, restoring all of my priestly faculties. The Holy See gave me the option of having the decision published locally; however, any future priestly assignments remained with the bishop who had illegitimately relegated me to private masses for three years. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know when to leave well enough alone.

Those three years were, perhaps, the most devastating (I hope!) and never-imagined, trial of my life. I was sustained by my belief in truth and the fact that God is faithful. At my first public Mass after the restoration of my faculties, I preached on Mark 5:19: [Jesus] “said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ “ There was and is no rancor in me, but only the firm belief that God is good. The Lord saved me from becoming something Fr. Gordon MacRae wrote about in his post “Notre Dame Burned but the Smoke of Satan Is More Subtle.” The Lord saved me from becoming another…:

managerial clergy who address us in therapeutic tones [… whose] greatest ambition, it seems, is to broker a concordat with the sexual revolution so that Catholics need never feel the least tension with the world’s ethos. (R.R. Reno, First Things)

I have learned that priestly ministry today involves a complete dedication to Christ and His Church, regardless of how humanly weak or corrupt she may be.

Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, SJ, one of the great canonists in Rome taught me that:

A bishop must respect the rights of his priests and must ensure that those rights are respected by the other faithful. […] This requires, in so far as possible, that the bishop know his priests personally, knows their weaknesses, capacities, inclinations, spiritual lives, their zeal, desires, physical and spiritual health, their economic situation and that of their families. (La Civiltà Cattolica, 18 May 2002, p. 349 [my translation])

Unfortunately, instead of being co-workers of the bishops, of being sons gathering the harvest, priests have become a potential liability for managerial clergy who are more interested in the here and now rather than in truth and the proclamation of the Gospel. Instead of knowing their priests, managerial clergy want only plausible deniability. Priests have become chattel who depend on their owners for their work, for permission to exercise their right to exercise priestly ministry, for their sustenance and living arrangements, for their reputations, for everything and anything that purports to give them human dignity. The sad truth is that priests are expendable when push comes to shove simply because they can be, because superiors have so much authority that they mistake for power.

HELP WANTED: VIRTUOUS MEN SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Nowhere is this clearer than in the recent letter issued by Pope Francis which gives new laws to the Church so that bishops and superiors are made to recognize that they, too, are accountable to God and to the law. Such legislation was unthinkable only 20 years ago. The hierarchical and legal structure of the Church works only when those with authority are virtuous men seeking the Kingdom of Heaven. It falls apart, as it so evidently has in the last 20 years, when the hierarchy is concerned about its reputation in this world and the goods it has amassed.

And so, it has come to pass that superiors can completely flout the law and get away with it unless a priest has the wherewithal to challenge them. Make no mistake about it. Challenging the abuse of authority comes at great cost. During the period of my “time out” as I call it – because I refuse to recognize the legitimacy of “administrative leave” for a priest – I was shunned by the presbyterate; people whom I considered close friends stopped speaking to me; and I had to live with the reality that, even if I won a battle, there was still a larger war looming. Now that I am restored, the friends don’t call because they assume that the corrupt Church must be covering something up for me; priests are polite but the newly ordained clergy have all heard ‘about me’. Christ gives me ample opportunity to practice humility and forgiveness, tasks at which I don’t always easily succeed. As for the war, it is more of a détente and that is a blessing. But then I was reminded of the reality of being chattel when, after losing more than 30 pounds in three months because of the stress of an untenable pastoral assignment, I was told that there are benefits to stress. Such is priestly life today.

Some, including my mother, have asked why I continue? There is only one answer: because I love Jesus Christ Who has called me to serve Him. Sure, there are still periods of doubt and wonderment. In the wake of the McCarrick scandal, Fr. MacRae quoted me in “The Once and Future Catholic Church”:

I have been so shaken by all this that a few weeks ago, I informed my small congregation that henceforth all weekday masses would be ad orientem because the time has come to focus on Christ and not the cult of the priest and his performance. I pray the canon in Latin sotto voce now and we pray the Prayer to St. Michael at the end of every mass. Call me foolish if you want, but it is the only way I am going to survive.

But mostly there is a quiet joy and peace in the knowledge that there is nothing new under the sun. There is the reassurance of the example of people like Fr. MacRae whose priestly ministry frightens me. Frightens me because God’s grace is evidently alive and kicking in a hellish situation. I am encouraged when Fr. MacRae can make me laugh out loud with one of his jokes when I imagine that he is in a place where tears and despair are the order of the day. He has followed Christ to the Cross: he inspires me. So, too, does his blog, the pulpit from which he preaches much needed wisdom to the world. Week after week his writing inspires me more than any other human resource (and gives me a lot of my homilies!) I think he said it best when he wrote in his blog:

[B]ishops and society expect a priest’s heart and soul to be so magnanimous that he is willing to die for the very ones who are killing him. Who has a right to such an expectation? The bishop who throws his priest-son beneath the bus? The laity who are often too stunned to do anything or speak out? May I suggest that such an expectation belongs to God alone who empowers the priest to love unconditionally without any assurance of human reciprocity. (“On the Fatherhood of Bishops with Disposable Priests”)

There’s the priest’s work: to be Christ, that is, to love unconditionally without any assurance of human reciprocity. Such is priestly life today. If a priest thinks otherwise, he is doomed. It is God alone who empowers so many of us to go on. The Church is not always, nor everywhere, a pretty bride. That should discourage no one. Speaking to a young man who is thinking of being a priest, who is weighing the cost of discipleship, I told him that it is evident to many that Christ is gazing on him with love, inviting him to come and follow. Only the young man can decide to accept His offer or not. But I told him, “It’s a marvelous offer.” I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything, except Heaven. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory, for the sake of thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness!” (Ps 115:1)

Just For The Record

An anonymous poster gave a list of names of those ordained in Guam RMS and another list of those who were borrowed from the Philippines.  It is a matter of fact that before the Neocatechumenal Way came to Guam, Guam have been borrowing priests from other countries, mainly the Philippines.  Below is a list of the Filipino priests who were borrowed from the Philippines.  As the anonymous poster pointed out, many of the Filipino priests love Guam and are well-liked by the parishioners.  Below is a list of the Filipino priests who were borrowed from the Philippines.  These priests remain obedient to their bishops back in the Philippines.  If they are called back by their bishops, they cannot be retained in Guam.  

Abad, Fr. Jose Antonio (Blessed Diego Luis De San Vitores Church)
Alvarez, Fr. Jonathan (Nino Perdido y Sagrada Familia Church)
Bien, Fr. Danilo (Santa Barbara Church)
Camina, Fr. Melchor (Our Lady of Guadulupe Church)
Convocar, Fr. Romeo (Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica)
De Los Reyes, Fr. Joel (San Vicente and San Roke Church)
Ferrandiz, Fr. Danilo (Our Lady of Lourdes Church)
Trajano, Fr. Danilo (Assumption of Our Lady Church)
Trenchera, Fr. Manuel (Nuestra Senora De Las Aguas Church)Vila, Fr. Carlos (Nuestra Senora De La Paz Y Buen Viaje Church) 

Archbishop Apuron was looking for the good of the island.  He was not seeking anything to benefit himself. The calling to the priesthood was few in Guam, and our Guam seminarians had to be sent off to a seminary in the United States.  With the introduction of the Neocatechumenal Way, the communities were growing, and a Redemptoris Mater Seminary was founded by Archbishop Apuron.  As a result, Guam had 17 new seminarians ordained as priests.  These 17 men are: 

Acampora, Fr. Vincenzo (San Vicente Church)
Akinyemi, Fr. Julius (San Dimas Church)
Asproni, Fr. Francesco (Hospital Chaplain)
Bushu, Fr. Edwin (Hospital Chaplain)
Camacho, Fr. Luis (on mission)
Caminiti, Fr. Antonino (San Juan Bautista Church)
Cervantes, Fr. Miguel Angel (on mission)
Colorado, Fr. Harold (Saint Anthony Church)
Durango, Fr. Pedro (on mission)
Faiola, Fr. Fabio (Italy)
Granado, Fr. Jason (on mission in Saipan)
Jucutan, Fr. Michael Vincent (Santa Barbara Church)
Oliveira, Fr. Edivaldo (on mission)
Rodriguez, Fr. Jose Alberto (Mount Carmel Church)
Sanchez Malagon, Fr. Julio Cesar (on mission)
Stoia, Fr. Aurelius (on mission)
Szafarski, Fr. Krzysztof (Santa Bernadita Church)  

Clearly, Archbishop Apuron was looking out for Guam's future. By establishing RMS in Yona, he not only ensured that there would be enough priests for Guam, but Archbishop Apuron was also looking ahead in evangelizing the Pacific region.  Since the founding of the seminary in Yona, Guam didn't send any seminarians off-island, and the Archdiocese was able to save a lot of money.  According to EWTN:

More than three hundred years after the first efforts, we are witnessing the fruition of history in the mystery of the "new" identity of the Church in this region, more and more comprised of its own human faces. The first priestly ordination in the seminary took place in 2005, and with the last 2 ordinations celebrated on 19 November 2011, the number of priests from the Redemptoris Mater of Guam is now ten. The Church can now say that she is nurturing the faith of the islands as she watches 45 men prepare themselves for the presbyterate, four of whom were born in Guam, all of them, once ordained, to be incardinated in the Archdiocese of Agana, Guam. Furthermore, the Redemptoris Mater of Guam is presently welcoming several seminarians from the Samoa islands who were sent to Guam by their bishops to take advantage of the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Institute for Oceania, affiliated to the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, for their seminary formation. 

Yes, even the bishops of the Samoa islands were sending their seminarians to Guam and was also paying for their education in RMS Guam.  However, the seminary has been shut down.  As a result, Guam has sent only four seminarians to California, and the Archdiocese is fundraising for their education. Nevertheless, the NCW continues to foster different vocations.  In fact, I know of one young Chamorro male in my community who stood up to the calling of the priesthood.  Will he be a priest for Guam?  Probably not.  

The NCW also continues to evangelize outside of Guam.  The first community in Palau was already formed, and they attended the 50th anniversary of the Neocatechumenal Way in Rome last year.  More communities are being formed in Palau.  The Bishop of Chuuk is also interested in the Way and will be participating in the retreat in Jerusalem.