Posted on 05/15/2003 2:02:36 PM PDT by Polycarp
[bold emphasis in original document]
Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord:
Whereas the rights and dignity of priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown are threatened by forces both external to the community of believers and internally by our bishop and his staff.
Whereas, in response to this threat, the Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown was secretly formed by 26 clrgy of this Diocese to demand the rights and dignity of all priests be respected and protected by our bishop.
Therefore, we, the Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown, joined with our fellow clergy, ask the following from our bishop:
Whereas our bishop insists on publicly defending lawsuits against this diocese and thus increasing the threat that more names of our priests be exposed in the media, we demand that our bishop cease and desist his public defense of any and all lawsuits concerning alleged priestly misconduct and instead settle these cases out of court so as to protect the reputation and well being of those priests so named and others that may be revealed in the course of any trial.
Whereas our bishop threatens and harasses homosexual priests into fearing for their office, we demand that our bishop cease and desist any and all harassment of homosexual clergy and instead work to protect the reputation and well being of clergy of all sexual orientations.
Whereas our bishop placates those who attack our diocese and its priests, we demand that our bishop turn the attention of his legal representation towards stopping the hateful and homophobic actions of George Foster, Brian Barcaro, Dr. Brian Kopp [FReeper "Polycarp"], et. al., who are set upon destroying the reputations of homosexuals priests and this diocese.
Whereas our bishop ignores the actions of certain priests who consistently act against the unity of this diocese, we demand our bishop suspend Fr. James Foster and Fr. John Nesbella immediately, for repeated and constant acts which threaten the unity of our community of faith.
Whereas our bishop removed Dr. David Brown [of "GoodBye, Good Men" book fame] from his position as intake psychologist and from candidacy for the permanent diaconate program due to the incessant demands of several Talibanic conservative clergy and laity, we demand our bishop reinstate Dr. Brown both to his position as intake psychologist and to the permanent dioconate program.
Whereas our bishop has ordained several men to the priesthood over the last several year who are unfit to serve the modern, post-concilular (sic) church, we demand our bishop conduct a complete review and overhaul of the priestly recruitment program:
I. Review the psychological reports of the men ordained since 1995 and order to counseling all those who are deemed to have serious mental deficiencies or proven inability to serve in the church of Vatican II.
II. Cease and desist sending seminarians to the present rigid seminaries used by our diocese and begin to use more pastoral seminaries for formation.
III. Deny orders to the present candidate for ordination to the priesthood because of a very negative psychological report and his inability to serve the present day church.
IV. Examine all present and future seminarians in greater psychological depth to determine their fitness and desire to serve the modern church.
We believe that it is better to have fewer clergy and more lay involvement than to have many rigid and juridical priests who drive women and men away from the community of believers.
Whereas the present staff our (sic) diocesan finance office (Larry Sutton, et. al.) shows no respect for our clergy and little if any knowledge of the day to day life of our clergy and our parishes, we demand that our bishop retrain or replace the staff of the finance office so as to respect the dignity of our clergy and their office.
Whereas our chancery shows little care or concern for our retired priests at Dimitri Manor or elsewhere, we demand that our bishop review and overhaul the priests retirement program so as to provide them with the comfortable retirement due to them after many years of thankless service:
I. Immediately increase the present monthly retirement benefit payment to $1,500.00.
II. Fully fund all future retirement needs 20 years into the future in a pension trust fund so as to guarantee monthly payments regardless of the future financial state of the diocese.
III. Separate all retirement monies from diocesan funds so as to protect them from being taken in lawsuits.
IV. Immediately form a committee to examine the deplorable living conditions at the Dimitri Manor priests retirement home.
Whereas the compensation of our priests under the present formula is inherently unjust as priests whose workload is heavy due to parish size are paid the same as priests in small parishes, we demand that our bishop install a new payscale to reflect a more appropriate and just salary based on workload and parish size.
We believe this list of demands is the same list Jesus himself would ask for if he were a priest of this diocese.
If our requests are not met, we ask our fellow clergy to prayerfully consider ways of peaceful protest. Ech should follow his or her conscience in discerning ways to show civil disobedience to our hierarchy until our voice of change is heard.
Sincerely in Christ,
Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown
N.B.: The PFAJ is a group of priests of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown united in a pursuit of justice and sworn to complete secrecy to avert the very real threat of retaliation by our diocesan bishop.
CC:
Brother Priests & Deacons
Concerned Laity
National Catholic Reporter
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Johnstown Tribune-Democrat
Altoona Mirror
Centre Daily Times
WTAJ TV
WJAC TV
WWCP TV
WRTA Radio
WNTJ Radio
WRSC Radio
Sort of like Hamas and Black September.
I say hunt them wherever they hide and shoot on sight.
According to this document, it looks like they want these benefits to go to molester priests as well as non-molesters. They want the bishop to settle these cases quietly, out of court, "to protect the reputation and well being of those priests so named"--if the bad priests aren't named publicly, why would they lose their benefits?
"They're gonna crap when we pop the lid on their 'secret' group."
From where I sit, this is all too richly pathetic.
Diocesan priests do not take a vow of poverty.
Who is this guy and what did he do?
Are you sure you want to have this semi-public here on FR yet? Maybe you better ask the moderator to pull this thread till you get to the bottom of this.
Is burning these buggering bastards at the stake still an option? If so, go for it.
There was a few months back, an article in the NY Times. The Times interviewed priests re homosexuality and pedophilia.. the reasons WHY they didn't think that this was a mortal sin was very interesting. (Rather Clintonesque..) The article was rather lengthy but shed a lot of light on the priest's attitudes.
Can you believe the audacity of these perverts?!?
Also mentioned in this NEWSMAX report:
Anti-Catholic 'Experts' Fuel Church's ScandalsPhil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Veteran investigative reporter Michael S. Rose has written a frightening account of the corruption of the Roman Catholic seminary system in the United States. In "Goodbye! Good Men: How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations from the Priesthood" (Acquinas Publishing), Rose exposes the abuses that have driven honorable men faithful to the tenets of Roman Catholicism out of the seminaries and given preferential treatment to homosexuals and others wedded to unorthodox doctrines.
Thursday, April 4, 2002
In his book, written before the latest abuse scandals erupted, Rose insists that the alleged shortage of priests is "artificial and contrived," the result of policies adopted by scores of dioceses for many years - policies that turned the seminary system on its head - and have now driven a stake through the heart of the Catholic Church in America.
In her foreword to the book, Alice Von Hilderbrand, Ph.D., writes: "This book holds the key to the phenomenon which, to many, is also an enigma: Why are so many seminaries empty? Michael S. Rose has the courage - a courage many Church leaders lack - of giving us the fearful but uncontestable answer: because vice has penetrated into many of them, and those who do not condone vice are excluded. True vocations are 'disqualified.'"
Anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, who wants to understand the causes of the current scandals in the church couldn't find a better explanation than that contained within the pages of "Goodbye! Good Men."
In this first of a three-part series, NewsMax.com looks at some of the roadblocks placed in front of "good men" seeking to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Roadblocks to the Priesthood
To anyone's eyes, Rich Birch would have appeared to be the perfect candidate for the priesthood. With a reputation as a conservative teacher of religion at one of his diocese's parochial schools in Covington, Ky., he encountered reluctance on the part of the diocese's vocations director even to allow him to begin the application process - a reluctance Birch believes was the result of his reputation as an orthodox teacher of the Catholic faith.
Birch was sent to the Behavioral Science Center in Cincinnati for a psychological evaluation, a precondition required before his application could be considered.
At the center he was evaluated in a brief meeting by one Dr. Joseph Wicker. Two months later he was informed that Wicker has written that although Birch "is an intelligent person who scored high on the mental ability tests, he is deficient in emotional and personality areas that would not make him a suitable candidate for ordained ministry."
Wicker went on to say Birch was "a man of deep anger, somewhat socially maladjusted and is sexually immature." Birch, he added, "cannot deal with his inner feelings. I suspect he is only using the ordained ministry to keep from dealing with his inner feelings." The conclusion: "He is not sincere in seeking the ordained ministry and I cannot recommend him."
He ended by saying if Birch would undergo about a year of "therapy" he might "consider him at some future time."
Despite having glowing recommendations from those who knew him well, including his own pastor, he was turned down by the admissions committee because of Wicker's negative report.
Wicker stymied Birch's vocation. His negative profile followed Birch when he went to another seminary and applied for admission. Once again Wicker's evaluation was used as the basis of a turndown.
Something Wicker This Way Comes
So who is Dr. Wicker, this man with the power to turn a deeply devout, intelligent candidate for the priesthood?
According to the Wanderer, a nationally distributed lay Catholic newspaper, Wicker was rejecting more candidates for the priesthood than he was approving.
But that's just the beginning. An article by reporter Gregory Flannery, an ex-seminarian himself, revealed: "Men who wish to become Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati are first assessed by the Worshipful Master of Mt. Washington Masonic Lodge 642."
In the May 8, 1991 issue of Mt. Washington Press, a weekly newspaper, Flannery reported that Wicker was a fallen-away Catholic and noted that participation in Masonic sects is condemned by the Catholic Church. Wicker also admitted to being a member of another sect condemned by the church, the Rosicrucians. When area Catholics complained about the idea of a Masonic master passing on candidates for the priesthood, Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk defended him.
In 1988 Birch submitted to a second evaluation by Dr. Frank Miller of Catholic Social Services in Cincinnati. Miller tested Birch over a five-week period. This time, Birch passed muster. He is now teaching at a private Catholic academy in Cincinnati, where Rose reports he is highly regarded by his co-workers.
Homosexual Agenda
Shocking as it is, this is not an isolated case. Rose reports that another clinical psychologist, Dr. David J. Brown, screens candidates for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in Pennsylvania. Dr. Brown, he reveals, "has gone out of his way to make the case that homosexuality is perfectly normal.
"Testifying before a public school board in State College, he argued on spiritual grounds for legitimizing homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle in the public schools there. Brown told the school board that he was 'appalled' that the school district had excluded known homosexual speakers from Penn State University from making presentations to teachers at in-service day workshops."
Rose cites a 1999 position statement on psychological evaluation on candidates for the priesthood issued by the Catholic Medical Association. The paper, drafted by a force of eight physicians - four of whom are psychiatrists - a consulting psychologist and a moral theologian, reported: "There are numerous reports that mental health professionals who do not support the teachings of the Catholic Church on sexuality have been chosen to evaluate candidates for the priesthood and reject candidates who do accept the church's teaching on grounds that they are 'rigid.' There are also reports that some mental health professionals do not report homosexual attractions and conflicts in candidates for priesthood to diocesan officials or religious superiors."
NewsMax.com asked Rose if this nonsense was still going on. "Although many seminaries are 'getting better,' the nonsense is still prolific," he said.
"Orthodox candidates are still being turned away in droves, heterosexual seminarians are still being sent to psychological counseling and booted from school, while liberal-minded and pro-gay seminarians are given deferential treatment, put in charge of others, advanced and ordained."
Next: the gay subculture.
Get "Goodbye! Good Men: How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations from the Priesthood" at a discount.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Some priests and deacons in our diocese follow my threads here at Free Republic so I already know this is not private.
Some of them need to be told, publicly, that we know at least a third of the names of the 26 priests involved. Maybe they will come to their senses and beg the bishop not to can them alongside their comrades when we present our documentation to the bishop.
Also, we would love to be sued. Then we could subpoena all the diocesan personel records and secret archives during the discovery phase.
In other words, this thread was never intended to be "private" ;-)
Doctor, I hope your sword is good and sharp. God Bless you and may the protection of the Archangel Michael always surround you. You are a true Knight.
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