Posted on 09/23/2009 8:31:52 AM PDT by Pyro7480
SAUK CITY -- At a recent Mass at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, the Rev. John Blewett urged parishioners to emulate their savior and stand firm on matters of church doctrine.
...Blewett and his fellow members of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest, a religious group based in Spain. Beginning in 2006, Bishop Robert Morlino invited priests from the society to serve in the Madison Catholic Diocese, and in the ensuing years, they have thrilled some and dismayed others with their staunch Catholicism and tough-love approach....
The priests no longer let girls be altar servers, and they have dispensed with the common Catholic practice of using trained lay people to assist with Communion. They have greatly increased opportunities for confession - some complain they nose around too much - and added many Masses celebrated only in Latin, which some parishioners find divine and others alienating....
"You get the impression they only want to be a shepherd for the people who agree with them," said Troy Jacobson, who left St. Barnabas Parish in Mazomanie last year over his disappointment with the priests. "It's almost like they've restricted access to God."
Dropping lay people as Communion assistants - called Eucharistic ministers - also irked some Catholics. The priests have said that having only their hands handle the wine and wafers, which Catholics believe become the blood and body of Christ when consecrated, brings greater reverence to the practice. Others say the change is an example of a rigidity that erects barriers.
"The people are not considered the church, only the priests are," said Sister Mary Francis Heimann of Madison, a Catholic nun who has been critical of Morlino and has been attending Masses by society priests to check them out. She says the Masses lack joy and are "regressive and depressing."
(Excerpt) Read more at wiscnews.com ...
Catholic ping!
Awesome ... we need more of this, and less of “Sister Mary Francis Heimann”.
How weak one’s faith and understanding of scripture must be if they honestly believe ... “It’s almost like they’ve restricted access to God”.
But that's New York.
Madison is getting serious as a diocese by bringing in these orthodox orders:
Society of Jesus Christ the Priest official addresses rumors, questions about group
Posted: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:15 pm | 5 Comments
Some actions — or supposed actions — by priests from the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest have triggered much discussion and rumors in the Sauk City area. The Rev. Jared Hood, administrator of the five-parish cluster served by the priests, agreed to address some of them:
• Regardless of age, men and women who have had tubal ligations or vasectomies are told they must reverse the procedures. Hood said such procedures are contrary to church teachings and that Catholics who are truly repentant would want to reverse them. However, “at a certain age, there is no sense in having it reversed,” he said.
• Brides are told they can’t wear sleeveless wedding gowns. Hood said modesty is required in church, yet many wedding dresses “hardly uphold the bare minimum of modesty.” The issue is dealt with individually by the pastor for each wedding. For instance, if a bride-to-be has purchased a strapless gown, she may be asked to wear a shawl, Hood said. “We have a set of standards to be followed.”
• Women are told that even medically necessary birth control is a sin. Hood said chemical birth control is against God’s design and is never to be used. If, however, for a reason unrelated to reproduction, a woman is prescribed medication that has the side effect of preventing conception, she may use it.
• Parishioners are told not to approach the altar to receive Communion if they have not gone to confession. Hood said the church has always taught that no one should approach the altar to receive communion if he or she has committed a mortal sin, defined by the Catholic Church as an act that is intrinsically evil and immoral, such as perjury or adultery, and undertaken with full knowledge of its evilness. Confession is the path for forgiveness of mortal sins, he said.
• Boys as young as 8 are asked in confession whether they masturbate, a sexual activity the Catholic Church considers a sin. Hood said he can’t attest to what goes on in the confessional, but that asking such a question is not a policy or the norm. Stories of a sexual nature “become sensationalistic and are exaggerated beyond common sense” when spread in a community, he said.
And:
Madison diocese to host 13 female members of Spanish religious group
The Madison Catholic Diocese’s relationship with the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest began three years ago but has quickened of late. Five female members of the society, called consecrated women, arrived in Sauk City this summer, and eight more are expected within weeks.
Once all eight society priests and 13 consecrated women are here, the diocese will have the single largest concentration of members from the society of anywhere in the world — even more than in Spain, where the society is based, said the Rev. Jared Hood, a society priest.
The consecrated women are not nuns, though they are similar in some ways. Both groups live lives of poverty, obedience and chastity. Nuns commit to the lifestyle through official vows to the Catholic Church. Consecrated women make promises to their society, a somewhat looser arrangement, said Yolanda Piedra, 45, an Ecudorean who committed to the society at age 16.
“We remain in the society as long as we want to be here,” she said. “We can leave and marry at any time. It’s a free open door.”
Unlike nuns, the consecrated women live in the secular world, not in a convent.
While the priests from the society are employed by the Madison diocese and paid the same as other priests — about $20,000 annually — the women’s labor comes free to the diocese. The priests give their paychecks to the society, which then uses the money to pay the living expenses for all members.
“We are a family — a little spiritual family — and we share what we have,” Piedra said.
The women reside in a rented house in Merrimac and in the rectory at St. Norbert Parish in Roxbury.
At one point this summer, the society was planning to move its middle and high school from Murcia, Spain, to Sauk City, where it would have reopened as a co-ed middle school this fall, staffed by consecrated women. But in mid-August, Madison Bishop Robert Morlino put the school on hold for a year for planning reasons.
The school is intended to give students a “non-compromising” education in Catholic values and teaching, according to its Web site.
The school will not operate this year in Murcia, either, said Hood, who cited an increasingly hostile political environment in Spain as leading to a decline in enrollment. The consecrated women will spend the next year in Sauk City helping out wherever needed in the diocese, Hood said, including doing secretarial work at parishes and assisting at St. Aloysius School, a Catholic grade school.
Sounds like my parish. Soon they will be overun by toddlers and 15 seater vans. They’re per capita income will be the lowest of any parish, and they will give the most.
Chances are these days if a nun don’t like it, it must be good. Thanks be to God for these priests.
Ergo, they are not in any sense heretics...like the so-called Catholics that participate in heretical social movement organizations who believe they are more reasonable and more enlightened than the authority they claim to accept and believe in. Jesus Christ was not some kind of Woodstock hippie, as the religious Liberals like to delude themselves into believing.
“Regardless of age, men and women who have had tubal ligations or vasectomies are told they must reverse the procedures. Hood said such procedures are contrary to church teachings and that Catholics who are truly repentant would want to reverse them. However, “at a certain age, there is no sense in having it reversed,” he said.”
Actually that is only his own take on the matter. Church doctrine does not compel reversals because of the medical/health issues involved.
Oops it would have been better if the original italics denoting the rumor from the actual answer had appeared in the post.
****************
That makes much more sense, imho.
Sounds like my parish, too! We’re looking into the 12-15 passenger van. We’re about to burst out of the conversion van. LOL!
You wrote:
“Actually that is only his own take on the matter. Church doctrine does not compel reversals because of the medical/health issues involved.”
Actually he is expressing Church teaching. Notice, he did not say you MUST reverse it. He said, “Catholics who are truly repentant would want to reverse them.” And he’s right. If there is a Catholic who is of child bearing years, able to reverse the procedure without any undue stress to the body or his or her welfare, he should reverse it. Otherwise, he cannot be said to be truly repentant if he does not want to undo the evil that was done. He may not be able to do so, however.
The Church even picks up the tab for the reversal in places like India: http://www.speroforum.com/a/20020/India-Catholic-hospitals-reversesterilize-women
Just guessing that the nun is PRO-ABORTION!
I never thought an unbloody sacrifice was to give joy?
I was confused because the post did not show the italics which made clear which part was the rumor and which part was the priest’s answer.
You are right.
Depends on what one means by joy, though.
Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. The only Eucharistic Minister at Mass is the Priest, Dougie.
I’m with you.
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