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Letter of Rev. Fr. Charles Murr to Parish and Parents
April 5, 2004 | Rev. Fr. Charles Murr

Posted on 04/06/2004 7:57:38 AM PDT by CatherineSiena

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES CHURCH
135 EAST 96TH STREET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10128

April 5, 2004

To the Parish of St. Francis de Sales and the Children and Parents of the St. Francis de Sales School/St. Lucy Academy:

On Friday, April 2, 2004, I resigned as pastor of the Parish of St. Francis de Sales. I am writing to you now to explain the circumstances that led me to make this decision.

Our parish school, the St. Francis de Sales School/St. Lucy Academy, currently faces some grave problems. One concerns financial management. Contrary to the policies of the Archdiocese, no financial statements for the school have been prepared for any period after August 31, 2001, and thus no one knows what the financial condition of the school actually is. It is clear, however, that for several years the school has not been making required payments for insurance and pension benefits, and the Archdiocese calculates that the school owes the Archdiocese over $638,000. Although I attempted to work with the administration of the school to prepare the needed financial statements, the school’s administration consistently failed to cooperate with me, and, on the advice of the Parish Council, I notified the Archdiocese in January that I intended to replace the principal and vice principal of the school. The Archdiocese accepted this decision and last week resolved to send officials from the chancery to begin preparing and auditing financial statements for the school.

The second problem at the school concerns religious instruction. On the most recent administration of the Archdiocese’s standardized religion test last June, approximately 66% of our students failed. The major reason for this was that several of our teachers were not committed to teaching the Catholic faith. One teacher, for example, was taking her students to non-Catholic religious services on Sunday mornings. Another refuses to teach her students to make the Sign of the Cross. Others do not teach those doctrines of the Catholic faith with which they disagree. To rectify these problems, I appointed a new Director of Religious Education for the school this year, but the teachers who were hostile to Catholic doctrine disrupted his classes, belittled him in front of his students, instructed his students to ignore him, and even spread slanderous reports about him. I thus determined that the employment contracts of these teachers would not be renewed for the coming academic year, and on April 1, I informed these teachers accordingly.

It has been reported to me that, on April 1, at least some of these teachers held their students after school, read to them my letter declining to renew their employment contracts, and provided their own comments on the matter. Predictably, they reduced many children to tearful hysteria. The behavior of these teachers was reprehensible; they intentionally inflicted harm on innocent children in order to advance their own private interests. On behalf of the school, I apologize to these students and their parents for the grossly unprofessional conduct of these teachers.

On Friday afternoon, Msgr. Thomas Gilleece, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese, informed me without further explanation that, by order of the Cardinal, I was to renew the employment contracts of the principal, the vice principal, and all the affected teachers. Since I could not in good conscience, as a pastor charged with the care of souls, comply with this order, I resigned as pastor of the Parish of St. Francis de Sales and as administrator of the Parish of St. Lucy. On Saturday, April 3, the members of the Parish Council wrote Cardinal Egan informing him that they shared my views regarding the need to reform the school and had concluded that they could not in good conscience as faithful Catholics be associated with his order to reinstate the principal, the vice principal, and the affected teachers. The members of the Parish Council thus resigned their positions. The Parish Trustees likewise resigned. As of the date of this letter, none of us has received any reply from the Cardinal.

It has been a great honor to serve as your pastor. You will all remain in my prayers.

Servus, in Christo Jesu,

Fr. Chas. Theo. Murr


TOPICS: Catholic
KEYWORDS: catholiclist
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1 posted on 04/06/2004 7:57:38 AM PDT by CatherineSiena
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To: CAtholic Family Association; Pyro7480; Canticle_of_Deborah; Maximilian; NYer; Unam Sanctam; ...
ping
2 posted on 04/06/2004 7:58:08 AM PDT by CatherineSiena
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To: CatherineSiena
I would think that Egan, who's more of a CEO than a spiritual shepherd, would be sending the sheriff to arrest the school administration, given that they are over $600,000 in arrears to the archdiocese!

They are clearly bad fiscal managers, as well as horrible overseers of Catholic religious education.

But, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Egan can't stand in O'Connor's shadow.

3 posted on 04/06/2004 8:04:15 AM PDT by sinkspur (Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)
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To: Akron Al; Alberta's Child; Andrew65; AniGrrl; Antoninus; apologia_pro_vita_sua; attagirl; ...
Ping
4 posted on 04/06/2004 8:05:21 AM PDT by Land of the Irish
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To: All


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5 posted on 04/06/2004 8:05:27 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (I'd rather be sleeping. Let's get this over with so I can go back to sleep!)
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To: CatherineSiena
I have heard nothing good about Egan. I though all the new Vatican appointments were more Catholic than the Pope? I guess this one slipped through?
6 posted on 04/06/2004 8:13:00 AM PDT by johnb2004
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To: CatherineSiena
Finally a priest who tries to fix the tremendous problem of faulty catechesis, and look at what they do to the good pastor (a true shepherd indeed!).
7 posted on 04/06/2004 8:13:32 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: CatherineSiena
Interesting find. Are you a member of this parish?
8 posted on 04/06/2004 8:23:12 AM PDT by ELS
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To: johnb2004
Never trust anyone who came to power via Boston. Ever. For anything.
9 posted on 04/06/2004 8:27:40 AM PDT by dangus
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To: dangus
Interesting. I guess that would explain O'Malley? He was touted as "conservative". Looks like he is not much different from the rest of 'em.
10 posted on 04/06/2004 8:29:55 AM PDT by johnb2004
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To: johnb2004
They called Egan a "conservative" when he was appointed archbishop of NY. AFAIK, a Cardinal who closes a beautiful church (St. Ann's Cathedral) and sells it to the USPS to be torn down is not conservative.
11 posted on 04/06/2004 8:34:04 AM PDT by ELS
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To: CatherineSiena
Very interesting. That was my wife's parish in NYC. She lived at 227 E. 96th St. - one block down.
12 posted on 04/06/2004 8:43:49 AM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: johnb2004
In the media, "conservative" means he won't pay for the taxi to the abortion clinic. From what I can tell, he's another radical-kook lefty who knows only of the corporal acts of mercy. Some rather conservative types here on FR hold out hope for him, but I have none. I am starting to believe that the Pope will allow Boston, Los Angeles, and other liberal areas be literally God-forsaken, so that they may fruitfully be compared to the more orthodox areas.
13 posted on 04/06/2004 8:44:42 AM PDT by dangus
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To: CatherineSiena
Thanks, Kate... By the way, could you ping your list to this topic: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1111824/posts?page=50#50

It's a vanity post asking about marital vocations and Christian sexuality.
14 posted on 04/06/2004 8:47:29 AM PDT by dangus
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To: CatherineSiena
On Friday afternoon, Msgr. Thomas Gilleece, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese, informed me without further explanation that, by order of the Cardinal, I was to renew the employment contracts of the principal, the vice principal, and all the affected teachers.

Nobody held accountable, nobody punished (except the whisteblower) with the creeps allowed to continue as before. Discouraging and hurtful, but not surprising.

The message from the corruptors is "we'll destroy all you hold dear, rot the church with scandal, corrupt your children, remodel your altars, change your prayers, mock God and the flock and drain your funds to further our agenda... and there's not a damn thing you or anyone else can or will do about it."

And they're right, most don't do anything about it. Except pay lip service, pretend there isn't a problem or aid these foul creeps in their quest to turn our respective sanctuaries of worship into maggot's nests.

They're busy filling our clergy, education structure and lay-leadership with leftists, apostates and homosexuals, attracting more leftists, apostates and homosexuals, and recruiting our chilren to be leftists, apostates and homosexuals.

Doing something about this nonsense (as this pastor and some others in the laity are) is what we call works. God's work to be precise.

15 posted on 04/06/2004 9:09:04 AM PDT by AAABEST (<a href="http://www.angelqueen.org">Traditional Catholicism is Back and Growing</a>)
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To: CatherineSiena; Askel5; Romulus; ventana; tiki; eastsider; Coleus; ELS; frogandtoad; ...
Everybody and their brother read this! And call Cardinal Egan's phone till it melts.

Ping your list if you have one, please....

So, Siobhan, what do you think of Cardinal Egan?
When he stops smoking with Satan I'll tell you.

16 posted on 04/06/2004 9:11:39 AM PDT by Siobhan (+Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet+)
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To: Siobhan
Time to start investigating Egan.
17 posted on 04/06/2004 9:21:57 AM PDT by Desdemona (Proverbs 18:2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.)
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To: dangus
[I am starting to believe that the Pope will allow Boston, Los Angeles, and other liberal areas be literally God-forsaken, so that they may fruitfully be compared to the more orthodox areas.]

It is not within His Holiness' discretion to do so. It is his duty before God to appoint only holy, orthodox, and courageous men to the episcopate. If men of bad faith and character "slip through", then it is his duty before God to remove them and replace them with men who meet the above description. And if His Holiness finds that he is getting bad recommendations, then it is his responsibility to find new advisors.

This is basic common sense, not to mention stock Catholic Tradition.

Excusing the failure of the Roman Pontiff to select good bishops and to remove bad ones, through reference to a kind of hidden scheme in which he "punishes" the Church by purposely afflicting them with false shepherds, is not only perverse, it turns Catholic moral theology and the Church's perennial Tradition on its head.
18 posted on 04/06/2004 9:32:16 AM PDT by DPalm
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To: Siobhan; AAABEST; Desdemona; johnb2004; dangus; Hermann the Cherusker; Unam Sanctam; ELS; ...
Didn't Egan first show his true colors to the world when he tried to remove Frank Pavone from his Priests for Life ministry? I believe Egan caved in from all the pressure.

I put Egan in the same boat with McCarrick. They are to me political animals who care little about their own souls or the souls of their flocks.

19 posted on 04/06/2004 9:34:19 AM PDT by old and tired (Go Toomey! Send Specter back to the Highlands!)
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To: DPalm
Well said. Too often, words like yours are misread as disloyal.
20 posted on 04/06/2004 9:38:16 AM PDT by johnb2004
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