Catholic Caucus: [Voice of Faithful] Group backs [Rebel] Priests' stand on Braxton

Belleville News Democrat ^ | March 18, 2008 | BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK

[topher]

BELLEVILLE -- Voice of the Faithful, a national Catholic lay organization, has issued a statement supporting 46 Belleville Diocese priests who have asked Bishop Edward K. Braxton to resign.

A list of the 39 active and seven retired priests was made public Monday. Their letter calling for Braxton to step down because of misuse of donated funds and failure to communicate with priests was made public Friday.

[topher]

Full title of article is:

Group [Voice of the Faithful] backs [rebel] priests' stand on [Bishop] Braxton; names of those calling for resignation are released

Some of the priests are retired priests that are calling for the resignation.

Additionally, one priest, Father Jerry Wirth is head of the Diocese's Prebyteral Council. He is the pastor of Saint James Parish in Olney [Illinois].

The full list of REBEL Priests are found in the article on the Belleville News Democrat:

Priests who asked Braxton to resign are identified -- http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/283792.html

Of course, the news that is dominating this newspaper today are the flooding rains that is devastating this part of the country. Belleville is this part of Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas that have seen horrible flooding and some loss of life from the heavy rains.

Maybe God has His own opinion of these REBEL priests... And there may have been a few tears raining down on the Diocese of Belleville as a result...

[topher]

Meant to say that there are a few tears [of sorrow] raining down on Belleville. It is a sad situation for heaven to see
the actions of these priests...

[marshmallow]

This is where the laity need to step up to the plate and support their bishop.

People need to inform their priests of their outrage at this rebellion and take serious steps to counteract it. The one which is most likely to get a priest's attention is withholding financial contributions.

[Salvation]

Voice of the Faithful is a dissenting point of view and is not Catholic!

Voice of the Faithful (VOTF)

From their mission statement, they are attempting to "3. Shape structural change within Church." This is intended to make a "democratic" Church which clearly violates the hierarchical structure which has always existed and is reemphasized in Vatican II Lumen Gentium. The chairman James Muller states in a National Catholic Reporter article on April 26, 2002, ìWe have donation without representation, and we have to change that.î Also on a CNN interview dated April 29, 2002, the chairman desires cafeteria Catholicism: "... our goal is to provide a democracy for the laity, so that the laity can decide what they want and then counterbalance the absolute power, which we have now of the hierarchy." See more details below.

[topher]

I guess they should be considered to be a group of heretics who think they are Catholics but are actually allied with Satan against the Roman Catholic Church.

A similar group is CFFC (Catholics for Free Choice). That group (CFFC) is funded by the Rockefellar Foundation and the Ford Foundation -- not exactly pillars of Christian belief...

[topher]

I agree. We have a list of dissenting/rebellious priests from the newspaper. We can always try to contact them (get the Knights of Columbus and other groups to contact them — en masse)...

[VidMihi]

Instead of attacking the priests, many of whom have been in pastoral ministry much longer than this bishop, and all together have given many, many, longer years of service to the church than this bishop, why not deal with and attack, if necessary, the arguments the priests are making seeking the resignation of this bishop. The comments here reflect and contribute to the discouragement and poor morale, I suspect, felt by many priests who have dedicated their lives to the service of the church, not to the service of a bishop they believe autocratic and uncaring about the needs of his flock.
These priests were not ordained to be obedient little boys, but to be adult men sharing in the pastoral work of the bishop. That I am sure they remain committed to - they are adults - find out why they object to the actions of the bishop before you condemn them. Be fair.

[jobim]

Be fair? Why, of course.

Now that VOTF has weighed in, removing any doubt whatsoever about the orthodoxy and faithfulness of the complaining/protesting priests, we can all positively identify who is on which side:

THE BISHOP IS ON THE SIDE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!!

[topher]

Let us assume you are correct.

Then what happens to the faithful? Do they get disgusted with the Church and leave the Roman Catholic Church for another denomination?

At ordination, priests pledge obedience to their bishop.

There will be souls that will head to hell because of the actions of these priests. That will be responsibility of these priests.

The Bishop does bear the responsibility for his actions. But he has pledged to return the money and has made a public apology.

The priests are setting up an US VERSUS THEM situation that will split the Diocese. They are basically inviting HERETICAL GROUPS such as Voice of the Faithful and Call to Action to get involved.

So how do we discern right from wrong?

Jesus made it very clear when he spoke of the how to discern. He said one will know a tree by its fruit: a good tree only produces good fruit; a bad tree will only produce bad fruit.

What is the fruit of the REBEL priests? People leaving the church in disgust. Groups such as Call to Action and Voice of the Faithful siding with them.

Who will likely side with the Bishop? Other Bishops, priests and religious. Groups such as Knights of Columbus and Regnum Christi will support the Bishop.

Now the priests has made it into an US VERSUS THEM situation. Who are you going to side with?

[topher]

The Bishop has released a statement. Here is an article about the statement:

Belleville bishop won't step down; says local priests threatened him in 2005 -- http://www.bnd.com/homepage/story/286842.html"

First Paragrach of the article:

BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK News-Democrat BELLEVILLE -- Days before Bishop Edward K. Braxton was installed in 2005, diocese priests called him to St. Peter Cathedral rectory and threatened to reveal incriminating information about him if he didn't refuse the appointment, Braxton said Thursday in a letter to parishioners.

Note that this story is literally being DROWNED OUT BY THE FLOODING IN THAT PART OF THE COUNTRY...

[narses]

+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

[Cicero]

If Voice of the Faithful is critical of this bishop, then I’m all for him. I don’t know the rights and wrongs of all this, but from what is given here, it looks as if the bishop has his hands full with a bunch of aging hippie dissenter priests.

[topher]

See Post #10.

These priests tried to tell Bishop-elect Braxton he could not become Bishop of Belleville.

What a bunch of lunatics...

The rain is literally DROWNING OUT THIS STORY IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY. FLOODING IS TAKING OVER THE HEADLINES AND PEOPLE HAVE MORE CONCEERNED ABOUT BEING WASHED AWAY.

Maybe God has decided to drown out this story His own way...

[topher]

A List of Articles about this story [including ones in this thread and another thread].

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/01_02/2008_01_17_Suhr_IllBishop.htm

http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=8018633&nav=1sW7

http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/v-print/story/280578.html

http://www.bnd.com/473/story/283814.html

http://www.bnd.com/homepage/story/286842.html

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=142253

[The KSDK article appears to be a rehash of the WQAD article]

This one is from CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS:

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=57290

However, one article -- very recent -- is about Bishop Braxton blocked a LIBERAL THEOLOGIAN FROM SPEAKING in the Diocese. The theologian often speaks in support ORDINATION OF WOMEN and HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGES.

This article is:

Speaker blocked by Belleville Diocese bishop -- http://media.www.siude.com/media/storage/paper1096/news/2008/03/04/City/Speaker.Blocked.By.Belleville.Diocese.Bishop-3248540.shtml

[topher]

In terms of a timeline, the incident blocking the HERETICAL SPEAKER AT THE CATHOLIC Neumann Center might have been the reason these priests rebelled. They could not have a LIBERAL, HERETICAL Speaker to corrupt Catholics at SIU.

Here is the first part of the Article:

Speaker blocked by Belleville Diocese bishop -- http://media.www.siude.com/media/storage/paper1096/news/2008/03/04/City/Speaker.Blocked.By.Belleville.Diocese.Bishop-3248540.shtml

By Madeleine Leroux Email: mleroux@siu.edu

Bishop halts theologian's presentation

A lecture scheduled to take place at the Newman Catholic Student Center in April has been canceled after it was deemed inappropriate by the Belleville Diocese bishop.

Luke Timothy Johnson, professor of theology at Emory University in Atlanta, was scheduled to give a lecture at the center on April 20, but Belleville Diocese Bishop Edward K. Braxton blocked the presentation, citing a need to protect the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.

Perhaps the most important section of the article is about the FALSE THEOLOGY of Timothy Johnson:

Johnson has spoken and written in the past in support of the ordination of women and homosexual marriage..

I guess this was too much for the LIBERAL/REBELLING PRIESTS OF THE DIOCESE -- to have a Bishop that actually protects his flock...

[topher]

See Post #15. It seems around the start of March, 2008, this Bishop blocked a HERETICAL/LIBERAL speaker at the Newmann Center at SIU [university -- Southern Illinois University].

Having their bishop block a speaker who advocated HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE and the ORDINATION OF WOMEN might have been too much for these priests...

This might be the real issue... A Bishop protecting his flock and a bunch of REBEL priests who want to corrupt his block...

[BlackElk]

ping for later.

[topher]

The line:

This might be the real issue... A Bishop protecting his flock and a bunch of REBEL priests who want to corrupt his block...

Should read:

This might be the real issue... A Bishop protecting his flock and a bunch of REBEL priests who want to corrupt his FLOCK...

I think the Bishop was very much right in preventing Prof. Johnson from speaking in a Catholic Forum -- given he advocates HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE and ORDINATION OF WOMEN.

I believe these priests must be WAY OUT IN LEFT FIELD to think that it is okay for have preaching that HOMOSEXUALITY IS OKAY in the Catholic Church.

Maybe this DIOCESE should be looking to Nigeria, Philipines, and Latin America for replacement priests.

These REBEL priests can go to places where they are needed -- NORTHERN ALASKA, the NORTHWEST TERRITORY of CANADA or perhaps SIBERIA...