Posted on 11/23/2007 8:56:23 PM PST by Loyalist
. Dale Fushek, the former pastor of Mesa's St. Timothy's Catholic Community who was indicted on sexually related misdemeanor charges in November 2005, was back before a congregation Thursday for the first time in three years.
Although he sent out no invitations, instead letting supporters spread news of his return, more than 550 people attended the first service of the nondenominational Praise and Worship Center at the downtown Mesa Marriott hotel.
Mesa resident Elizabeth Culverson trembled with tears while she lingered in line to hug Fushek after the service. She said she had waited a long time to hear him preach again and felt blessed to be in the audience. "God gave us a great gift today," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Fushek said he started the center not as competition to the church but as a place where people can come to worship between regular services. "This is not a church. It is not intended to draw people away from their denominations," he said.
But it is intended to draw them to praise and worship the glory of Dale Fushek--which, so long as he had some connection to the Church, he was not entirely free to do.
Those Fr. Dale coloring books in the St. Tim’s gift shop used to crack me up!
Lest we forget:
Here we go again! Vatican II is to blame! Never mind that the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy says nothing about tailoring the Mass to the supposed sensibilities of young people. Never mind that it repeatedly restated traditional Church teaching on the liturgy even though it ordered limited reforms to the liturgy. Never mind that priests such as Dale Fushek, who see the liturgy as their own private project are actually violating both the letter and the spirit of the document. No, let's keep blaming Vatican II for everything that has gone wrong in the Church over the last 40 years. That way we will never address the real causes of these problems or ever solve them.
How many priests do you know who were ordained after 1990? The ones I know are mostly pretty solid.
Is there little wonder that solid American heterosexual boys and men cannot survive the seminary's gay culture?
The worst of this, at least, is being fixed. Certain seminaries are disaster areas still. But certain ones which were very bad have been cleaned up. (One in particular on the outskirts of a large midwestern city on a lake comes to mind.)
Keep in mind that, for a seminarian studying to be a diocesan priest, his bishop is usually responsible for picking the seminary he attends. So which bishops send seminarians to the bad seminaries, and why do they do it? As always, the buck stops with the bishop.
Homosexual men don't need the Catholic priesthood for "cover" anymore, so the bishops who send their seminarians to "gay" seminaries mostly don't have any seminarians.
Notice also from that sordid and disgusting article that this pervert’s career took off under the disgraced and discredited Bishop O’Brien, last seen leaving the scene of an accident after hitting a pedestrian.
Let’s make a deal.
Critics of Vatican II stop blaming it for all the Church’s problems, as Catholic educators and lecturers stop promulgating the notion that the Church used to be crappy and Vatican II fixed it.
I’m weary of both arguments.
We know a very good priest who, upon graduating from St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, literally took off his shoes and left them there.
Deal. Agree. No problem - Good Church before and after.
This is such a corker..accepting of what? NAMBLA? Many years ago, Fr. Slimeball apperared on Life on the Rock on EWTN. I sent them so many emails, and called them to complain. Even through the television he exuded slimey scary, not a good guy vibes.
I don’t blame VII for Dale Fushek, but I do blame his “mentor,” Archbishop O’Brien. I’m just hoping this scandal will open the eyes of the people responsible for youth ministry in our Diocese. When I found out they were going to use the LifeTeen program I looked up their website. It was full of homo talk! That, along with gimmicky liturgy, and the program’s demand that parents not be involved (I wonder why?), convinced me not to send my kids to LifeTeen.
It’s interesting that this thread did not generate many comments since it is pretty significant that the priest who founded LifeTeen has not only been accused of sexual misconduct with minors but has also started a new non-denominational “ministry.” I doubt if he has permission from his bishop to do this.
The time has come for bishops to revisit the whole idea of “youth ministry” and youth Masses. Celebrating the Mass in a reverent way according to the rubrics will attract more young people than turning it into an entertainment spectacle will. The whole problem with LifeTeen Masses, guitar Masses, etc. is that they make the assembly, not Christ, the focus of the Mass. There are plenty of other places where teens can socialize and have fun. What kind of message are we really sending teens when we try to “create” liturgies that are fun or that are centered around them? Aren’t we telling them that worshipping God is not as important as being entertained? I hope that Dale Fushek’s fall from grace discredits the whole LifeTeen concept.
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