FReeper CTrent1564
I hold my fellow Catholic FReepers in high enough regard to accept a character reference, such as the one above, at face value.
markomally:
He was a priest that worked at the Newman center at SE. LA University in Hammond, LA, the town where my parents lived. I use to go to Mass there when I was in town as I live in Baton Rouge, LA, which is 45 miles West of Hammond. He also taught a class that Took that was offered through St. Benedict’s Abby and St. Joseph Seminary, Benedectine Monastary in Covington, LA [part of the Archdiocse of New Orleans] and is an excellent teacher [the course was Church History]. This program, a 3 year college level program consisting of 22 college credit hours, is required for Diaconate candiates for my diocese of Baton Rouge.
Fr. Sean did not care for Bishops to much, and told everyone he worked for here, he has never met one he liked. About 4 years ago he decided to retire from Baton Rouge and return home to Kerry Ireland, which is where he was from, and go back and as he stated, help with catecheses in his beloved Ireland.
Again, Fr. Sean is a solid priest, very orthodox, but also one who saw many Bishops as worried about their own careers and public image too much than what is going on at the parish level. Based on the story or the facts presented, I don’t think Fr. Sean was wrong in his support for the accused and I am not saying he was correct, although perhaps given the recent report in Ireland, his actions were seen as being “politically incorrect”.
But again, I have known Fr. Sean since the early 1990’s and can say he is a very loyal and orthodox Catholic Priest but also one who was known to but heads with Bishops over how they ran the Diocese.