Posted on 09/06/2005 8:15:28 AM PDT by NYer
There are also rumors of a twenty year closeness with a Franciscan professed brother but who knows? Innocent until proven guilty also applies even to Bishop Loverde but he has given ample reason for being removed as Bishop of Arlington.
He is quite hostile to such minimal expressions of actual traditionalism as kneeling for receipt of the Holy Eucharist which is NEVER a good sign.
What myself and a lot of Catholic friends of mine in the Arlington, VA diocese are thankful for, is that we have a large number of good solid priests. In addition, despite Loverde, vocations in our diocese keep growing each year. We could have gotten Mahoney, Weakland (or someone like them), which would have been even worse, IMO. Still, if we only had someone like Olmstead over in Phoenix, AZ.......
Only with Loverde's permission. He's stuck.
The SSPX is always waiting in the wings though.
It may well be that the really Catholic young priests resulted from the efforts of the priest (forget his name) who served Keating as Vocations Director. He was fired by Loverde shortly after Loverde was installed. He was a relatively young (mid-40s?) Fr. John Wayne type who often served as a commentator on EWTN when the USCCB would meet. He was the commentator as to the Dallas meeting that focused on the sexual scandals.
If you know, what has happened to Fr. Haney (Heaney?) whom I described in my previous post???? I know that he had an ecclesiastical trial over which my bishop, Thomas Doran, presided. The trial was held at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia at Bishop Doran's insistence. I believe that the trial was in early 2004. Bishop Doran also serves as one of the seven judges who sit on the Signatura which is the Church's supreme court and he will be able to sit as one of seven on any appeal of whatever ruling he makes or made.
Find out all you can about whomever Loverde appointed as Vocations Director.
Olmstead is unquestionably a star. There will be many more like him. Hopefully, your next bishop will be one of them.
One great strategic thing about the way Catholicism does business (as opposed to the Episcopalian Church) is that bishops are centrally appointed in Rome. When Rome decides to move (it has taken forever) it can move swiftly. I am partial to a theory that the vatican is taking the American sector of the Roman Catholic Church back, contiguous diocese by contiguous diocese as vacancies arise. There are several developing strings of dioceses. The biggest of these runs from the Canadian border to the Mexican border through Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. It has made great progress but is not yet perfect. Green Bay, LaCrosse, Madison, Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, St. Louis, eastern Oklahoma, Houston-Galveston, Fort Worth, and several other Texas dioceses have been reclaimed. In Illinois, we need Joliet, Springfield and Belleville and, depending on newly appointed Bishop Braxton (formerly of Lafayette, Louisiana but an auxiliary under, gulp, Bernardin previous to that but who is apparently despised by the rebellious leftist priests in his diocese of Belleville, formerly held by Wilton Gregory. Another decent area developing is that which runs from New York Archdiocese through Brooklyn, Newark, Camden and Phialadelphia. That is the string of dioceses which may reach yours through new appointments to replace McCarrick in DC and Keeler in Baltimore, followed by Virginia diocese. Another is in Northern California and San Diego. I suspect that another will emanate from Olmstead's Phoenix.
Fortunately, there are NO ELECTED bishops in the RCC other than the pope himself. Thanks be to God!
BlackElk,
I haven't heard much about what happened to Fr. Haney (Heaney?) that you mentioned in your previous post or the ecclesiastical trial. I honestly don't know much about who is serving as Loverde's vocations director - I'm still breaking my old ECUSA habit if ignoring as much of the hierarchy as possible with the exception of the few that are solid and right-on (like my pastor and priests at my parish, for example) as being totally irrelevant to my life and faith.
ArrogantBustard,
Since you're in the Arlington, VA diocese as well as me, and since you've been in it longer than I have, can you shed some light on Black Elk's questions on Fr. Haney (Heaney?), his ecclesiastical trial, as well as Loverde's vocations director? Thanks for whatever information you can provide - are there other FR folks in the Catholic forum who've been around the Arlington, VA diocese for a while?
I read most of the story on FR and Les Femmes....click here to read more - only if you have a strong stomach Whistleblower priest on trial; critics say bishop exacting revenge
We continue to pray for faithful priests and religious.
Sorry to disappoint, but I have no first hand knowledge of Fr. Haley's situation.
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