Archbishop Rembert Weakland
Posted on 05/11/2009 7:27:29 PM PDT by traumer
We are blessed with a wonderful bishop, Salvatore Matano. He confirmed son #2 last night. Once again I was blown away by how he connects with people, even the young people getting confirmed just seem drawn to him.
I lived in Connecticut from birth to March, 2000. Since then, I have lived in the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois. It typically has 40 to 50 seminarians at any given time and does not even have a diocesan seminary. Our diocese sends its seminarians to Mount St. Mary's in Maryland, to Bishop Bruskewitz's quite orthodox seminary in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a number of other quite orthodox seminaries. My family and I have been here for nine years. Priests are ordained here every year, sometimes as many as eleven or twelve of them. This Saturday, there will be a small class of two ordained but there are about 40 in the pipeline. There has been one heterosexual scandal involving a George Clooney lookalike priest and a couple of older high school girls involving improper touching and one questionable and unproven homosexual scandal involving a long-retired priest. The young men in this diocese's priesthood are generally exemplars of the Faith and doing a terrific job.
The lesson this diocese would offer is that a thoroughly orthodox bishop can recruit plenty of good and celibate priests who understand that they have a vocation which does not include the distractions of marriage and family so that they may be available full-time to serve their parishioners.
Now there's a surprise. /sarcasm off/
Something about the name Rembert Weakland always just screamed "rear admiral" to me -- if you know what I mean.
Is it necessary that people agree with you to have a discussion with you? You and not A. A. Cunningham are WAY out of line here. Humility has nothing whatever to do with it.
Nope...not all.Many...and perhaps most...but not all.
or homosexual pederasty.
Nope...not all.Some...perhaps even many....but not all.
Today's homosexuals,unlike those of the past,have no need for the "refuge" of the priesthood.Anyone who's seen Boston's Homosexual "Pride" Parade (I happened upon it once by accident) understands that.And I assume that today's child abusers (boys *or* girls) don't feel the need for a "refuge",either, thanks to the Internet,etc.
I put it to you that *that's* why we're seeing major seminaries that are graduating two or three priests a year.That,and the fact that most priests aren't allowed to marry.
The simple fact is....in twenty years,with deaths and retirements,if homosexuals are,in fact,barred from seminaries and priests aren't allowed to be married in this country major seminaries will be ordaining *one* priest a year and there won't be a priest for for every *30* parishes...let alone one for *each* parish.And most of the ones who *are* left will be 70+ years old.
Fortunately our rector just tanks right over them (and rolls his eyes when they're not around).
Catholics are, in fact, allowed to divorce. They are simply not free to re-marry unless and until the Church determines prior marriages to have been void ab initio via an annulment. Wait and see the result of Fr. Feelgood getting his third annulment to marry a trophy wife. BTW, getting a Church annulment requires a divorce in civil court BEFORE applying.
I categorically reject your planted axiom that the mandatory celibacy reduces the numbers of good priests in any way that is not more than outweighed by the resulting quality of the priests we have. Fr. Cozzens is a clerical leftist and a highly suspect source. Again, he is heavily discredited in Goodbye, Good Men. He is part of the problem (as a sometime seminary official not to my knowledge for personal sexual misconduct) and certainly not a part of the solution. Time is no more credible on ANYTHING Catholic than Newsweek, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, ABCSeeBSNBCCNN et al.
As to the numbers, again, the Rockford Diocese has virtually no problem with sex scandals but typically has 40 or more seminarians. Bishop Doran is outspokenly Catholic and never liberal. He calls for Notre Dame to be called Northwest Indiana Humanist University and has publicly called out Fr. Jenkins as being in major sin.
The pope might well step in and it would be good if he did but the RCC followed subsidiarity long before Lincoln's parents were moved to conceive him. I would note that even John XXIII (noted liberal) banned homosexuals from the priesthood but was ignored.
Come out here and I will personally introduce you to quite a few outstanding young priests who came to this diocese because of this bishop and some who converted to Catholicism to become his priests. If one of them became your next bishop, you would be utterly amazed at the change that would occur. 10-20 years later (after seminary officials are purged and order restored in Dodge City or wherever you may live and orthodox Catholicism is restored) you will see plenty of young priests of unquestioned basic morality practicing celibacy and having earned the right to be trusted with your teenagers or with your husband or wife.
Our new bishop came to us from the USCCB, which gave me pause, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything to change the good things here. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Good one!
>>You are accusing each and every seminarian of sexual perversion in the form of homosexuality...
Nope...not all.Many...and perhaps most...but not all.
or homosexual pederasty.
Nope...not all.Some...perhaps even many....but not all.<<
Pretty slanderous. When did YOU stop beating your wife?
Honestly, maybe in MA you have tons of homosexual priests, but we don’t. Travel around, look around, you will see.
To sum up,*very* briefly,my basic belief.
It is normal for a man to want....to very strongly want...to have emotional and physical intimacy with a woman and to have children.These are gifts from God Himself! Not all males have such desires but,perhaps,98-99% do.Any "profession" that denies a man the opportunity to do that *for his entire life* will surely attract,to a substantial degree,abnormal men...or no men at all.I think the current plight of the Church in this country,particularly when seen through the prism of the "homosexual pride" movement of recent times,clearly proves this.If the Church refuses to allow priests to marry *and* excludes homosexuals from seminaries we'll be able to count the number of priests in this country on the fingers of one hand in 20 years.The Church,today,is allowing some priests...some *Roman* Catholic priests to be married.That says to me that Christ had no desire that his vicars be unmarried.If some priests are allowed to be married then *all* of them should be allowed the option.
That's all I have to say on the matter.I'm done.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland
You have checked with the WIVES of those men?
Priests in Milwaukee are relatively high-paid--average is $36K plus living quarters and some expenses.
Not exactly overwhelming money with which to support a family.
And of course, they aren't home much during the evenings with the kiddies.
All irrelevant; celibacy will remain the rule. The model is Christ, not man.
BS. I know of one VERY flaming faggot now studying for the priesthood in Poland—Dominican order, by the way.
There. Fixed it for you.
You have been given first-hand facts, which you haven't refuted. Your only citation -- of a way-out liberal priest in an anti-Catholic mainstream publication -- reinforces the facts in play, which are that homosexual misconduct, heterodoxy, and loss of vocations go hand in hand. The rule of celibacy has no correlation with loss of vocations -- the evidence demonstrates the opposite.
You give no facts of your own, but simply repeat your unfounded belief that vocations are going to wither away because of celibacy, even in the face of evidence that vocations are increasing where bishops are faithful and orthodox, despite the celibacy rule being enforced (along with all the other rules, like refusing seminary for those with strong homosexual inclinations).
More importantly, you haven't addressed the issue of willing sacrifice of family and children which priests prayerfully accept both as a discipline and as an imitation of the life of Christ, in whose place they stand when they celebrate the Eucharist.
This emphasizes the importance, holiness and set-aside nature of the priesthood, which itself encourages vocations in the devout. That which is bought at a price is valuable and honored.
Whatever.Believe what you need to.
Finis.
Except he's not nearly as smart as Droopy Dog.
That's fine, but don't come on here and pretend to debate when you won't consider anything but your own gut feeling.
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Okay, there is your problem. The priesthood is a sacred vocation, not a "profession". Since the founding of His Church, Christ has always called some of the members of His mystical body, both male and female, to lives of celibacy or virginity respectively, to show forth His supernatural glory more clearly in a world of fallen nature.
That the Church in both the East and West have always prized Her Priests in the celibate state of life in imitation of Her Lord, being a stronger and more absolute canon law for the West, is a sign of the Holy Spirit's guidance over the past millennia. Only God can call a man to this state of life through His Church, and despite Satan's best attempts at destroying Her, "the gates of hell will not prevail" over Her.
Don't worry, we'll have Priests for the future. While the nature of this world is Her playing field during Her time of probation and the laws of nature cannot be denied, the Church is completely dependent on the supernatural Grace of God to perfect and surpass merely "natural" considerations and obstacles.
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