God bless them both!
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Posted on 07/01/2004 5:14:13 AM PDT by sinkspur
The Church in Scranton and the State Police found nothing to proceed with in his case. So there is no pending bureaucracy in this case.
SD
Make sure to read the comments section after Fr. Hawkins' response. There is a real time back-and-forth going on right now, including several posts by Rod Dreher himself. There is a LOT of new information contained therein.
Try reading post 20.
The Diocese "removed Fr Clay from active ministry" while the matter was investigated. The outcome of this investigation was that no charges of any kind were brought against Fr Clay (though I understand that there are still ongoing processes with regard to the other priests concerned). Furthermore, according to a message dated June 28 to me from Rod Dreher (a journalist for the Dallas Morning News whom many of you will know as a worshiper in our Parish, who appears to have instigated the present interest in the matter) "the Pennsylvania State Police … has no record of an investigation into Father Clay". (It seems that Rod Dreher has had an ongoing journalistic interest in these events in Scranton, having written about them in February 2002 in the National Review Online.)
One might imagine that that would have been the end of the matter. And, indeed, so it appeared to have been. Bishop Timlin (the now-retired Bishop of Scranton) ended Fr Clay's "removal from active ministry" by appointing him parochial vicar at St Thomas More parish in Lake Ariel, PA - and I have Bishop Timlin's letter to this effect, dated February 4, 2003, before me as I write. This could not have happened if Fr Clay had been suspended or had had his faculties removed.
SD
God bless them both!
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
FROTHY INSANO ALERT!
On another thread you railed at Bps. like Bruskewitz, who exerted "control" of their Dioceses.
Perhaps this post of yours is your concession that such "control" is necessary?
Texas, presumably. Did you even read post 20?
SD
Did you follow the link in reply #3, and then read the comments posted in response to it?
SD
Likewise we have competing claims about his notification to the Ft. Worth bishop of his presence.
So it would seem some things need to be sorted out. I will reserve judgment.
SD
I've tried to get to the 'comments' section on the Shea spot with no luck. Do you know the secret?
As a general observation, Dreher's a journalist first, editorialist second. As a journalist, he's learned to be pretty careful about sourcing, I would hope.
Therefore his allegations are likely substantiated. As to "someone's lying..." we have a large number of Bishops in this country who seem to have done that regularly in this sort of affair. Hard to admit it, but with only a couple of exceptions, I'm inclined to believe the press rather than a Bishop, until incontrovertible evidence emerges that the press was wrong.
It's a safer bet these days.
Go to the bottom of the letter.
Please pray for Fr Christopher Clay at this time. He is a devout and fine priest. He is, and will continue to be, a close friend of mine and my family. He is, by adoption and grace, a member of our Parish community; and we will support him. And may Blessed Mary pray for her parish, and for the priests who are her sons.
Fr Allan
And Rod Dreher talks about it all here.
posted by Mark Shea at 10:56 PM
Comments (73)
Click on the "Comments (73)" -- or whatever the number is now -- link. Its a javascript, and opens to a new window. If you have a popup blocker on, it won't open.
Texas, presumably. Did you even read post 20? SD
Yes I did. I went a little further and read the comments. I didn't drink the coolaid as you apparently have.
Do you know where he is?
Did he ever go back to Pennsylvania?
Do you know anything about the truth of the story?
Are you conditioned to accept every word of a Bishop as the gospel truth?
I haven't claimed he is guilty of anything because I simply don't know. You are willing to declare his innocence based on the word of a Bishop.
A clear case of submission of will and intellect.
It was my extremely effective popup blocker. Thanks!!!
If you want one, try Ashampoo WinOptimizer Platinum Suite (Google.) German product, semi-shareware with a 30 day trial.
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