Posted on 01/07/2005 7:50:58 AM PST by NYer
Diocesan officials are cautioning clergy and the faithful that a magazine that has been distributed in some area churches is published by a group that is not an official ecclesiastical organization and is associated with a former priest who has been declared “dismissed from the clerical state” by the pope.
“In a number of our parishes, we have found that there has been the distribution of a quarterly magazine entitled ‘Thorns and Roses,’” said Father Lawrence DiNardo, diocesan vicar for canonical services and director of the Department for Canon and Civil Law Services. “This magazine is published by the Padre Pio Spiritual Refuge Inc. They are based in Pittsburgh. They are not an official ecclesiastical organization.
“The primary organization that honors St. Padre Pio is operated by the Capuchin Franciscan fathers in (Pittsburgh’s) Lawrenceville (neighborhood). The Padre Pio Spiritual Refuge Inc. is headed by a person known as Anthony Cipolla, a priest who has been declared ‘dismissed from the clerical state’ by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.”
Cipolla was banned from ministry in 1988 by Bishop Donald Wuerl following allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Cipolla was laicized by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
St. Padre Pio was a Capuchin priest who was canonized in June 2002. St. Padre Pio of Pietralcina, Italy, who died in 1968 at the age of 81, bore the stigmata — the bleeding wounds of Christ — for a half-century. He also was well-known as a dedicated confessor.
Contributions in memory of the late Capuchin priest should be made to the friars’ Province of St. Augustine in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood. The number of the province development office is 412-682-1300.
Thorns and Roses contains material that is “certainly objectionable,” Father DiNardo said.
“Such as attacks on the hierarchy of the church and an article authored by ‘Father Anthony Cipolla,’” he said.
People should be aware of several things regarding the magazine, Father DiNardo said.
“Once again, reiterating that Anthony Cipolla has been dismissed from the clerical state by order of the Holy Father,” he said. “Secondly, that the Padre Pio Spiritual Refuge Inc. does not have ecclesiastical approbation.
“Thirdly, that Thorns and Roses does not have any imprimatur ffrom the church. And fourthly, if people have a devotion to St. Padre Pio and wish to make some sort of charitable contribution, they should not do so to the Spiritual Refuge Inc., but to the Capuchin Franciscan fathers.”
FYI!
Thank you! This is good to know!
Is this the same guy about whom notice was posted in (print version of) the Arlington Catholic Herald? Look on page 2.
I got my copy of the AC Herald Thursday, but I haven't looked at it yet. Thanks for the heads-up, I will check when I get home later this afternoon. Knowing the pastor and priests at my parish, I doubt it will be in the vestibule. From what I've seen stocked at St. James, they are extremely careful about what they permit.
ping to read later
They won't permit copies of the Diocesan Newspaper????
That's
....
....
wierd.
No, they would not have something like "Thorns and Roses" stocked.
I must say the Parish website looks thoroughly orthodox, and I like the Pastor's Corner articles.
Oh.
Refusing to stock that is not wierd.
Yep, that's the one. Some friends of mine that used to go to St. Timothy's in Chantilly when Fr. O'Brien was pastor there recommended him to me. They told me he was at St. James in Falls Church, which is 4 miles from where I live in Arlington. Very solid and orthodox parish. Fr. O'Brien is a great pastor, and the other priests are also excellent. No flim-flam, shuck and jive, or silliness at all. I started going there in September 2003 right after I left the Episcopal church, and I haven't looked back.
You think the Pastor's Corner articles are good...you haven't seen anything, you should hear Fr. O'Brien in person! When he preaches (or any of the other priests at St. James for that matter), it not only grabs you way down in your mind, it grabs you way down in your heart. I have to control the streak left over from my Evangelical Protestant days to start doing the Amen Corner thing! That is now for-real and genuine he and the other priests are in the doctrine they teach.
Even the 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass that I usually attend is full.
Believe me, I know such is rare in the US Church these days, and I'm very thankful.
Haven't checked ours yet. I saw on another thread that you are in a new parish - is that Father Peffley's? Steve went to Christendom with him.
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