Posted on 10/23/2007 2:45:12 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
SAN FRANCISCO, October 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On October 7, two homosexual men, dressed in costumes meant to mock the traditional habits of Catholic sisters, were filmed receiving Holy Communion from San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer. Reaction to the incident forced Niederauer to apologise publicly for what he called his “mistake.”
Now Father Stephen Meriwether, pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Parish where the Mass was held, has told the Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan newspaper, “This incident has been blown way out of proportion.”
The two men are members of an anti-Catholic homosexual activist group condemned by faithful Catholics, and even by the San Francisco Archdiocese, for its campaign against the Church. The Eucharist is the Catholic Church’s central act of worship and reception of it indicates, among other things, that a person is in full agreement, or “communion”, with the Church.
Meriwether said, “It is most unfortunate this incident has clouded the fact the archbishop came to meet with his people and celebrate a beautiful and reverent Mass together -- and that is what really happened.”
The group, called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, is a militant anti-Catholic homosexual organisation that has as their slogan the injunction to “go and sin some more”. They were banned from using the parish for their fundraising bingo nights when it was revealed to the press that activities involved sexual games and that prizes included porn DVDs and “sex toys.”
Public tax information has shown that Catholic Charities of San Francisco in 2005 received a $1000 donation from the “leading order of queer nuns”, funds raised in part by the sexually explicit games at Most Holy Redeemer. The records show that the “Sisters” netted $3300 per game. Net bingo income, after expenses, was reported as $15,232.
The week after the communion incident, archdiocesan officials were forced to intervene to have the same parish remove from its website a portion of the weekly church bulletin that carried a message from one of the “sisters” thanking Archbishop Niederauer for the Mass. The man calling himself “Sister Delta Goodhand” called the parish “a wonderfully inclusive church.” He wrote, “It was great to be able to participate in the Mass.”
Maurice Healy, spokesman for Archbishop Niederauer, told LifeSiteNews.com that “Its no secret that a contingent of the parish has participated in the [Gay Pride] parade for years." Healy could not say for sure whether such participation was of concern to the Archbishop: "I don't know whether he has focused on that". Healy also told LifeSiteNews.com that the archdiocese is aware that the San Francisco Gay Pride activities include full male nudity and public sex acts.
A report by the Catholic News Service also reveals that one of the other priests celebrating the October 7th Mass with Archbishop Niederauer was Fr. Donal Godfrey, a Jesuit who led a quasi-liturgical event in April this year for active homosexuals. At that event he praised the parish for its work in furthering the homosexual movement’s goals. Godfrey noted that Most Holy Redeemer parish was the place where the rainbow flag "was first invented... for use at San Francisco's Gay Pride in 1978."
The nature of the “Sisters’” bingo, as well as the film showing the Archbishop giving the two men Holy Communion, was widely distributed on the internet through a network of faithful Catholic weblogs and subsequently to a far larger audience by news services such as LifeSiteNews.com. The pressure created by the internet is clearly being felt by the Archbishop who was quoted in the Catholic News Service story complaining about the power of Catholic “bloggers.”
“The blogosphere,” Niederauer said, “is a kind of dangerous endless recess in a global schoolyard, where the bullies with the biggest bullhorns can shout whatever they want.”
Alex,
I’m surprised at you. Don’t you know it’s the Divine right (even though they’re atheists) to mock anything religious or decent? We have to be more tolerant and accept these freaks. We can’t dare say a word about them because of their superior emotional status. We can’t criticize them because of their great intellect (the fact that they can’t back up anything intellectually and are incapable of reasoning is because they’ve “evolved to a higher level” or so they’ve told me).
Your finding fault with those are so supremely enlightened really bothers me and I’m going to do what they’ve taught me to do when I’m upset - I’m telling my mommy on you because you hoort their feelings! So there.
But if we make fun of them.................
Minimize minimize minimize...
For myself, I’m more impressed with the congregents who used a modern video device to provide indisputable proof of what happened that day.
It is comforting to know that not every Catholic in San Francisco is silent about these pathetic actions.
IMO, the people who allow this sort of thing have been able to hide what they are doing for far too long.
That “pastor” should have been removed yesterday. And the bishop should be worrying about getting a pink slip in his own mailbox, too.
SF has been horrible for decades, even prior to VatII. I don’t want to spread scandal, so I won’t even go into the bishops who preceded the latest loser. But nobody in Rome ever does anything about it.
O’Reilly has been all over this story, and apparently the Catholic diocese or whatever has not seemed interested in going after these “nuns”. I think the SF Chronicle finally reported on it last week, but instead of blaming the gays, they went after O’Reilly for his reporting on the manner.
Of course we take comfort in Gal 6:7, “be not deceived, God cannot be mocked”. Who do these people think they’re kidding?
Guess he didn't actually mean what he said in his apology, else his ire would have never been turned around to those who reported the shenanigans.
Then IMMEDIATELY appoint Father John Corapi, SOLT, as Pastor (and allow him to bring a few of the CFR's from New York to the Rectory).
Father John Corapi's order is based in San Francisco, so this would give Father Corapi some good time to be with the head of his order.
And I am sure some of the CFR's of NYC would not mind spending a couple of months in San Francisco this time of year -- especially since the city is named after Saint Francis.
[Note that the CFRs are the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, an offshoot of the Capuchins here in the US.]
Bring in Father John Corapi for a couple of months and send the current pastor on vacation.
When the current pastor comes back after two months, he will have such trouble on his hands that he might beg the Archbishop to let him resign as pastor...
Oh if only the grace of the sacrament would soften the heart of these sinners. I pray it be so that an act of mockery be turned into an act of triumph for His Holy Will.
His spiritual toughness plus his toughness from US Army Special Ops training would be a big plus for this assignment. And he really would have to have some other priests/brothers at the rectory in case things got ugly. That way they could give sworn testimony in court or use wooden staffs to keep intruders out of the rectory/church.
There is no telling what the Perpetual FRUITS of INDULGENCE might do...
Perhaps lastchance, I’ve seen men such as these before, they are quite hardened.
No, no, no, your Grace. Remember Vatican II and its emphasis on lay participation? Well this is it!! The blogosphere is lay people getting involved in Church affairs. This is what AmChurch is always calling for. Enjoy it!!
The blogosphere is actually a bit like a lucky dip; you're not sure what you're going to get. There is some great stuff and there is some garbage. However without it, we'd have been in the dark about this for weeks or possibly months. The great thing about it is that it is totally out of the reach of the diocesan machinery, unlike the local Catholic press.
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