Posted on 09/03/2018 8:01:39 PM PDT by ebb tide
The reaction to this sermon was swift. Father Gavancho was told to get his things and vacate the rectory. His name was taken off the parish website.
Padre Gavancho is now living in a hotel, and doesn’t know what is going to happen to him next. He was serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but his home base is the Archdiocese of Chicago. If he can’t find another clergy assignment, he tells me that he will likely be compelled to return to Peru.
Ping
Sure there are decent bishops who would love to have this young man serve in their diocese. Suspect that given the publicity regarding his situation, he will receive multiple offers.
Maybe.
It’s easier to live honest than dance to the liar’s tune
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Gavancho,
May God bless Father Juan Carlos Gavancho!
I’m wondering which bishop told him to take a hike?
Update from Rod Dreher:
I’ve just heard from a friend I trust who has direct personal knowledge of the situation. He suggested that I change the headline back, saying that Father Gavancho was definitely kicked out because of this homily. I also got Father Gavancho’s phone number, and called him tonight. Here is Gavancho’s version of what happened:
The pastor of his parish, Our Lady of Sorrows in Santa Barbara, asked him to meet privately at 6pm on Tuesday, two days after delivering the homily. The pastor told him that he had to get out of the rectory that evening. The parish will pay to store your things for one week, Gavancho said he was told, but after that, you’re on your own. Gavancho spent that night in a hotel, with as many of his belonging as he could stuff into his car stored there. Gavancho had been resident in the parish for only six weeks.
The next day he reported to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles vicar for clergy office. He was told that his right to say mass in Los Angeles was being removed. Gavancho asked why. The official meeting with him was surprised that he didn’t know, and presented a piece of paper with ten complaints by the pastor of his parish against him.
The above homily was on the list. The other complaints are, in Gavancho’s view, either things that happened, but were twisted by the pastor to make them sound bad, or did not happen at all. The priest gave me a couple of examples. I won’t get into the details here, because they are extraordinarily petty.
Gavancho said at no point was he allowed to defend himself. The decision to oust him was made without his input. This is the second time he has been asked to leave a California diocese. He came to Los Angeles from Santa Rosa, where he had gone after friction in the Archdiocese of Chicago, his home diocese.
“I have to recognize that yes, trouble has followed me, not because I’m a troublemaker, but because the situation in the Church is so difficult that priests like me don’t fit in well,” Gavancho told me.
I asked him to explain. He said that he is orthodox in his Catholicism, and outspoken.
“I’m not a priest who always preaches about hell, abortion, or homosexuality,” he said. “I preach on whatever the Gospel reading was that day. If it talks about the poor, I preach on the poor. I defended immigrants in a homily not long ago. Sometimes they try to portray me as someone who is mean, but that’s not true.”
Gavancho said at his Santa Barbara assignment, he tried to be on his best behavior. “I didn’t wear my cassock precisely because I knew [the pastor] wouldn’t like it,” he said. “I didn’t go to other places and say the Latin mass because I knew he would get mad.”
But here he is, with nowhere to go. In our conversation, Gavancho expressed concern that people would think that he reached out to me. (He didn’t; I called him.) He seemed hesitant about talking to me, but said after delivering that homily, he didn’t want to be a hypocrite.
“The time in the Church has come for people to speak out,” he said. “I can’t tell people not to say anything now because I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Gavancho told me that he’s praying now that some other bishop will take him. Failing that, he’s hoping to find a place to stay for the next six weeks, and a place to store his books and personal belongings, or the funds to pay for a hotel, until he can get back home to Peru to see his mother. He has planned to fly back on October 15. He thought it would be a normal visit back home, but now the flight back may be a one-way trip.
“I had to speak the truth,” he said, about his homily. “But the consequences have been terrible.”
See my post #9 for the details.
This is where we start taking back our Church. Much like America had to suffer through Obama to get Trump, we must suffer now for the true holy father to lead us.
Church hierarchy is sicko. Needs Swamp Draining. Meanwhile, a very practical inquiry——-Is there a fund for this priest? That we may donate to? Or what?
“Tell us the truth!”
No doubt this is the part of the homily that was so objectionable. Poor fellow.
Praying for him.
Despite the corruptions of the Diocese, I have grown up in the faith and been taught in the ways of the faith here in Los Angeles...Received my sacraments etc...and have not yet experienced a situation where a priest was forced to take such a bold stand like this. God is faithful. May this brave and righteous man be vindicated and victorious soon!
And that individuals like him be appointed and promoted by God unto places of prominence and authority.
I believe this trial the Church is undergoing will only make us stronger.
God Bless that young priest. There are conservative dioceses in this country.
Wow. Would that the church had so affirmitive a response to the gay molesters among them.
Thank-you for the update!
If he was asked to leave the Diocese of Santa Rosa, there’s going to be more to this story than meets the eye.
I know of no one who objects to the orthodoxy of Bishop Vasa. If he asked this priest to leave, there are other problems.
Anybody who hears anything should let us all know.
Dear Our Lady Of Sorrows Parish Community:
Father Juan Carlos Gavancho, a priest originally from the Archdiocese of Chicago who had been serving at Our Lady of Sorrows parish in Santa Barbara since early July, was asked to leave that assignment on August 29 and will no longer be serving in our parish or in the Archdiocese. Contrary to rumors and reports, Father Gavancho was asked to leave not due to the content of his homily on Sunday August 26, but rather because of issues with his interpersonal relationships with parish staff and parishioners. The Archdiocese is providing financial assistance during his transition back to the Archdiocese of Chicago, his home diocese.
Apparently orthodox sermons that mention sin are an offense against interpersonal relationships.
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