Posted on 04/22/2024 2:25:09 PM PDT by Morgana
CV NEWS FEED // A Catholic Michigan pastor has resigned from his parish following continued backlash over his response to a controversy about a gay author invited to read at a diocesan school.
Fr. Thomas Held of the Diocese of Saginaw faced criticism in March after he apologized for a diocesan preschool’s invitation to local author Dominic Thrasher to read his book, The Adventures of CeCe and The Sheriff, to students.
“The central characters of the book are two dogs, who were inspired by Thrasher’s own dog, as well as his sister’s dog,” CatholicVote reported on March 21. “Although the book contained no allusions to the author’s sexuality, concerned parents messaged (Fr. Held) the pastor associated with the preschool about the author, who is in a ‘civil union’ with another man.”
In a Facebook post that has since been taken down, Fr. Held apologized for the school inviting Thrasher to read the book. Fr. Held’s apology stated that Thrasher “does not represent the values of our Catholic faith read to our Pre-K children as part of March is Reading Month.”
Some members of the St. Joseph the Worker Parish, where Fr. Held has been serving as pastor, criticized the apology as hurtful and unnecessary. Supporters of Thrasher called for Fr. Held’s resignation, and protested outside of the church.
On April 16, Bishop Robert Gruss of Saginaw issued a statement announcing Fr. Held’s departure from the parish.
“Because of the unfortunate situation at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Beal City, Fr. Thomas Held has come to the decision that it would be impossible for him to bring unity to the parish, and therefore, he has tendered his resignation as the pastor, effective immediately,” Bishop Gruss stated.
He added that a visiting priest will celebrate Mass on the weekends until a new pastor is assigned to the parish.
“The division, lack of charity and the wounds caused by the division in the St. Joseph the Worker Parish community has brought deep sadness to the Lord Jesus, especially when we are living in the Light of the Resurrection we celebrated on Easter Sunday,” Bishop Gruss continued:
Jesus weeps when he sees division and disunity in the Body of Christ, his Church. It is not his desire nor his will. The Gospel of Jesus calls all of us to be a healing presence in the community in which we live and worship. “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” Matthew 18:35
He concluded, “My prayers and concern go out to all the members of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic community, that Christ’s peace may be a uniting force for a greater good
Bishop Gruss I hope you read this so here goes.
With the utmost respect due to your office, SHUT UP SIR. Lack of charity? I'm not saying the priest should not be forgiven for what he did but I will say he should have had better sense to begin with. Our church has just been drug through the cleaners over child molesters and what does this man do? He brings in a filthy diseased ridden queer in the class room of our youngest of children?
Sir when it comes to our children, charity goes out the window and the guns come out a blazing. Now teach this priest better sense in the future, and make sure he NEVER DOES THIS AGAIN!
Do you understand what I'm talking about?
I’ve never been so angry like this in a long time.
I would never allow a child to be anywhere near these pedophile priests. And they seem to be getting bolder and bolder about revealing their perverted sexual desires and wanting to groom little children.
“guest who does not represent the values of our Catholic faith”
Does that mean he wouldn’t invite a Protestant or Jewish author, or a Muslim or Buddhist?
What about an author who is divorced, or living with someone before marriage.
Bishop Gruss is sucking up to antichrist. Fr. Held is a hero.
Isaiah 5:20.
The bishop’s attitude is “tell-tale”.
I don’t understand Christians who claim to be faihful Christians but are not faithful to the Bible. If they were intellectually honest they would have started a new religion.
It’s mostly the leadership who are unfaithful. “Mere mortals” and all that.
it’s why i keep my own communion with God...
Problem here is the School staff who green lit this activity.
The Religious Schools will draw from some of the similar resume’s the secular institutions do. If a Bishop wont stand by his Priest when he has to do the necessary house cleaning to fix not only this problem but the personnel problem in the activist staff in the parish, that priest is going to have to resign. Because you can’t work with these people and they will stab you in the back.
“Problem here is the School staff who green lit this activity.”
True but in a Catholic school Father can and should override anything that is against the teachings of the Catholic Church. The buck stops with him so to speak. That is why I say this priest should have had better sense.
“He (The Bishop) concluded, “My prayers and concern go out to all the members of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic community, that Christ’s peace may be a uniting force for a greater good.”
To Hell with the greater good.
What pedophile priest? Did you even read the article. He was forced out by the bishop because he apologized for inviting the author. Please note, he realized it was wrong to have him read his book even though there was no sexual content. He realized even having the author there was wrong because the author’s living situation did not reflect the values the school wanted to present to the children.
I’m gonna say that you aren’t reading. He made a response, he got backlash and the Bishop didn’t stand for him.
Story is really lacking details. I’m guessing he had no idea this person was a controversial figure until after the event happened. So he apologized publically after the event, and got a community backlash. The Bishop removed him.
That was my take on it too.
Do you seriously think these pedophiles didn't know what was going on? They got caught and someone had to pay.
This was not an article about pedophile priests.
It was about a pedophile priest inviting a homosexual groomer into the classroom. I did read the article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.