Jesuit Priest Professor Says Archbishop Was Correct in Giving Communion to Transvestite 'Nuns'

LifeSiteNews ^ | October 17, 2007 | John-Henry Westen

[Alex Murphy]

SAN FRANCISCO, October 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The story of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" receiving Communion from the Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco has been major news since the occurrence on October 7.  However, despite the fact that the story made it to Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, the local San Francisco media refused to cover it until today.    (see the O'Reilly coverage: http://www.foxnews.com/video2/launchPage.html?101207/101207_... )

In a separate segment, O'Reilly railed at the local media for failing to cover the story.  And it seems the verbal spanking had a salutary effect. 

However, the San Francisco Chronicle which published a story entitled "Archbishop apologizes for giving Communion to gays dressed as nuns," also published today a puff piece promoting the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence". (see: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/17/... )

Beyond that, the Chronicle was able to find a Jesuit Catholic Priest Professor willing to come out publicly saying that giving communion to the two transvestite 'sisters' was the right thing to do.  Rev. Jim Bretzke, professor of moral theology at University of San Francisco, a Jesuit Catholic university, told the Chronicle: "While I can see Bill O'Reilly and others might be offended, the sisters do not meet the criteria the church has for denying Communion."

"The general sacramental principle is that you don't deny the sacrament to someone who requests it," said Bretzke in a statement clearly at odds with Catholic teaching on the matter as voiced recently by Pope Benedict XVI just prior to his being elected Pope. 

While Bretzke admits that those who have been excommunicated cannot be given Communion, then Cardinal Ratzinger insisted that beyond excommunicated persons, those persons with "obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin" must be refused communion.  (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/apr/050419a.html )

Trivializing the matter, Bretzke, who for this year is a visiting professor of theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said, "Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense . . . Even if these people were bizarrely dressed, the archbishop was following clear pastoral and canonical principles in giving them Communion. The default is, you give Holy Communion to one who presents himself."

Archbishop Niederauer himself admitted his giving Communion to the sisters was wrong. In an apology letter to Catholics after the event he wrote in reference to the 'sisters': "giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake. I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so." (see: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/17/... )

Explaining, the Archbishop added: "Someone who dresses in a mock religious habit to attend Mass does so to make a point. If people dress in a manner clearly intended to mock what we hold sacred, they place themselves in an objective situation in which it is not appropriate for them to receive Holy Communion, much less for a minister of the Church to give the Sacrament to them." (see: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/oct/07101204.html ; )

See LifeSiteNews.com's original coverage:
San Francisco Archbishop Responds After Caught on Video Giving Communion to Gay Men Dressed as Nuns
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/oct/07101004.html

[AnAmericanMother]

That's got to make the clergy in San Francisco feel under the gun at every Mass.

You said it!

Problem is, the general population in SF is so darned odd, it makes the South look sane! (remember what Florence King said, "Put a fence around the South and you'd have one big madhouse!")

Add to that that the loonies in SF, unlike the loonies in the South, have absolutely nothing invested in "not making a scene" . . . quite contrariwise.

So I can understand how the clergy may either (1) be in some doubt as to whether a particularly bizarre-looking prospective communicant is persisting in grave sin, or is just your garden variety weirdo; or (2) just be so case-hardened by the infinite variety of weirdness in SF, they don't notice a couple of over-made-up guys in habits . . . .

I really think the Abp was on autopilot, with the long lines and everything. Probably already thinking about the closing prayers and coordinating the altar servers and deacons.

re the T-shirts. A judge I know had a defendant show up for a probation revocation with a "BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND" T-shirt on. He made him go home and change. I think he revoked his probation, too.

[Mad Dawg]

A judge I know had a defendant show up for a probation revocation with a "BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND" T-shirt on.

I LOVE it!

[AnAmericanMother]

Judges feel a lot like priests sometimes . . .

"Dear Lord, please help me get through this day without messing up big time!" could be the judge's prayer as well as the priest's.

Sacrament (or what one thinks is the Sacrament) . . .

. . . been there, done that, receiving since around 1966 or so . . . . . kinda annoying in retrospect, but I look on it as an honest mistake.

[hinckley buzzard]

a Jesuit Catholic Priest Professor

The discerning observor will immediately note that "Christian" is not one of this cleric's descriptors. Most Jesuits in the last sixty years or so have abandoned the Christian faith in favor of Gnosticism.

[hinckley buzzard]

That's got to make the clergy in San Francisco feel under the gun at every Mass. "Oh Lord, puhLEEZE don't let somebody do something weird today. I just want to make it to bedtime without messing up, okay?"

I think you over-estimate the clergy of san francisco. When the Mother Church (at least in the form of AmChurch) begins to crumple under the weight of powers and principalities, weird things can be expected to happen.

[Mad Dawg]

I think you over-estimate the clergy of san francisco.

Could be. I don't know any.

Does anybody know any of the Dominicans out there?

[AnAmericanMother]

a Jesuit Catholic Priest Professor . . . .

"Are you a Good Jesuit . . . or the Other Kind?"

There are some good Jesuits left -- there are a couple at the parish my daughter attends at college. We had a long discussion on FR awhile back on How to Tell a Good Jesuit, and the best advice I got was to look at their shoes. Good Jesuits have worn-out, beaten up old shoes. My daughter applied this test, and it works perfectly.

[Alex Murphy]

Well, I have to hope you're mistaken, but I have no way to dispute you.

I hope I'm mistaken, too. I have high expectations re the powers of discernment in an archbishop. If Neiderauer was telling the truth about his ignorance of the "sisters", then his lack of discernment IMO disqualifies him as archbishop material.

[magisterium]

I'm sure there's an exception or two around someplace, but I am not personally aware of the existence of a single Jesuit under 60 years of age who, if Jesus Christ Himself ordered him to do such-and-such, would not remonstrate with Him and say it would be better to do so-and-so, instead. These guys are so full of themselves, with so little discernable evidence that they have any reason to be, that they should simply be suppressed as an order. Now. They should be spared the embarrassment they incur on themselves simply by having an official public platform from which to spout their raving nonsense/heresy/blasphemy.

[maryz]

If Neiderauer was telling the truth about his ignorance of the "sisters", then his lack of discernment IMO disqualifies him as archbishop material.

IMO, it disqualifies him from being allowed to cross the street without an adult!