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He only shuts up when he is writing!

A Mother's Point of View

8/26/2018

 


From the Pastor’s Mother:  A Mother's Point of View


Today I let my mother tell a story about priests, a bishop and a Cardinal the family encountered when my brother, sisters and I were young and new to Florida.


      Our family consisted of Mom, Dad, and 4 children. In 1974 we moved to Florida to follow our dream of getting out of the cold Michigan weather. We rented a home, enrolled the kids in school, and found the nearest Catholic Church. I volunteered for CCD and was asked to teach the Confirmation class. Within 3 weeks after starting the pastor asked me to lie to the parents and students about how and why the requirements and costs of the program suddenly changed. I was shocked. A priest had never asked me to lie. I told him that he could have his books back and find someone who was willing to lie for him. We continued going to Mass there and were encouraged to attend the parish New Year’s dance. At the party, the pastor came with his girlfriend. It was very obvious there was more going on than friendship. I was very upset and ready to cry so we left the party completely devastated. We soon purchased a home in a neighboring county about 60 miles away. I felt relieved that I would not have to tell my kids that I quit being a CCD teacher and changed parishes because the priest was immoral. How do you explain that to young children? My oldest at the time was 12.
      Our new home in the country was in Baptist country. We had to pass through 3 small towns to get to the closest Catholic Church. This pastor had a strange personality but at that time we did not think much of it. A couple of years later, however, an alcoholic priest was sent to us. He would get so drunk that he could hardly walk and the high school boys who he was supposed to teach had to carry him home during or after class. Our pastor would not listen when the boys and their parents complained. No one could get through. I had knots in my stomach much of the time worrying about my children seeing this behavior. However, that was the least of my worries.
      Soon we were sent a known pedophile priest, Fr. English, from the northeast. He was not supposed to have contact with children. However, he was given the children's Mass. Each week he had the young kids come up around a small, portable, coffee table-type altar to give them a homily. Horror of horrors he seated the youngest near him and the older kids sat behind. He had roving hands. He did not even try to be discrete. They were placed inappropriately under skirts and on boys’ legs. I told our children to never go anywhere or be alone with Fr. English and never let their friends, either. Many of us told our pastor who would do nothing about it. In fact, he joked about us being over protective. Next we wrote letters to the Bishop who ignored them. Our Bishop was in Orlando and we eventually got an appointment with him. Because I was working I was unable to attend that meeting. The parents who did were dismissed as imagining things. Anger and frustration is not strong enough to explain how I, as a mother, felt. There were many nights I cried thinking about how to protect the children.
      One of our parishioners was the retired Headmistress of an exclusive all-girls school and a personal friend of Cardinal Cooke. One evening she called me and told me to pray for her she was flying to New York in the morning to see the Cardinal and would fly home that evening. This woman was fighting cancer but took the time and effort to fly both ways the same day to, as she said, “make things right”. Late the next evening I got a call from her that the Cardinal would “take care of it.” He sure did (insert eye roll). Within a week Fr. English was transferred to another parish in Orlando. There were many tears that day. This well-respected cardinal was throwing other children under the bus rather than do the right thing. Sounds familiar to what we are hearing now. Pennsylvania anyone?
      It has been many years since the 70's and I do not remember our pastor’s full name, the name of the alcoholic priest, or that of our Bishop. However, I will never forget Fr. English, the pedophile priest. I will never forget how it feels to tell my children that they must always avoid a particular priest and never trust him. Fortunately, my children were never molested. They listened to what I said and never were alone with him. When I think about it, it still turns my stomach and makes me angry. I still cry about it. But what must it be like for a mother whose child or children were molested? If it affects me what must it do to them? How could a Priest, a Bishop and a Cardinal let a priest harm little children and not have him arrested? They were all told but nothing was done to prevent it.
      Pray people. Pray. PRAY!!! I'm crying as I write this. Cry with me. Pray with our Spiritual Mothers for Priests during Adoration on Wednesdays. Save our little ones as we offer our tears to Mary in reparation for the times we were too busy to pray.  Support the good priests and Bishops. Encourage them to continue the good fight. St. Michael defend us.


Carole Palka


Zita
8/25/2018 04:11:56 pm

Thank you for your witness, continuously, to Christ, His Church, and protecting your children, and other children. Yes, "Rachel weeps for her children."

We are privileged to be the children of the Queen of Heaven and Earth and we will march in her army to defeat the evil and satan and all who are in cahoots with him.

God bless you and thank you for giving your son to the Catholic Church, broken though it is. The Holy Spirit is guiding it. He will see that "all is well."

+
Peace and all good,
Zita

Martha
8/25/2018 05:51:26 pm

Mrs. Palka,
Thank you for your faith and witnessing of the Truth. You are the most dignified mother of your son, Fr. Palka, who is a true defender of our Lord teachings.

I foun this information, which may be related to the abuser priest you mentioned, Fr. Thomas English.
Information on him is at the end of this webpage:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2010/01_02/2010_02_07_Tribune_FollowingThe.htm

In hope
8/25/2018 07:16:36 pm

Thank you too , as well as to all the others who too weep ..even unpredictably and with some embarassement , for the pain and trials in our midst ..and may be those tears do help to restore the saltiness all around, including in those who have lost it , help us to even share in their deep pain of being separated from God , to help bring them back, before it is too late .

Thank you for being a good St.Monica, for countless souls ,esp. of priests , along with the good battle that your own beloved son is blessed to be engaged in .

And hope that some of those you meet in joy , in
eternity ,would be the very ones that caused you those tears ;
true, just as in the case of the Gerasene demoniacs, there is need for caution and prudence , till the demons have been sent away and let us hope and pray that The Church , the Bishops are all well equipped this time around , have been set free from the ill advice of the wisdom of the world , instead have enough Godly wisdom and weapons of warfare , as to how to deal with the affliction , thus to help the world at large as well .

Thank God that we have good books such as the Diary of Divine Mercy , by St.Faustina , with episodes of how so very generous our Lord has been to her requests , how she dealt with the trials and sorrows in her life too .

Good books such as above, now a days in plenty to enrich the laity as well the priests .

Thank you and God bless .

Denise
8/27/2018 05:27:38 pm

'Ye shall know them by their fruits". Matthew 7:16

A similar story with another bishop in FL caused me to leave the Catholic Church 25 years ago!

Father Palka
8/27/2018 08:57:38 pm

Denise,
I hope and pray that you have returned to the Church, for She is our only means of Salvation. Here is a bit of advice which I have been giving to people quite a bit lately. I hope it helps. During the Great Flood, the only place in the world where people didn't die was on the ark. Even if Noah had purposefully steered the ark into a hurricane, jumping overboard would not have saved those onboard, it would have killed them. Same today. The only safe place is the Church, which was often of old called the Barque (old sailing ship) of Peter. Jumping ship just because the man claiming to be Peter has purposefully steered the ship into a hurricane only leads to death. If the captain wants to go to hell and surrounds himself with others who want to go to hell, that doesn't mean that you have to go to hell with him. But there is no safety off the ship.

Denise
8/28/2018 12:10:30 pm

Being of an ecumenical mindset, I have found peace in a nondenominational environment where we have raised faithful Christian children. It is my view that the only way the Catholic Church can resolve this deep seated problem is to ordain married priests like the Orthodox churches (with celibacy optional). This will root out the problem naturally or at least limit its effects greatly. The New Testament, after all, specifically recommends Church elders be married with faithful children to demonstrate exemplary character and that they can effectively lead a household before they are granted authority over a church community.

Martha
8/29/2018 03:06:29 am

Fr Palka, This is about Denise's response to you.
I'd like to say to Denise that it does not seem to me that the Church's problems that we've seen on the Pennsylvania and other reports, are about to be resolved if priests can get married.
Those reportfs talk about ugly depravity, not about priests running around looking for girlfriends and mistresses.

Those reports talk about priests asking a male teenager to simulate Christ's position on the cross in order to take pornographic pictures.
I don't think that type of sick, evil sacrilege was a consequence of this priest lacking a wife.
Neither did the cardinal who, by using his power, used fear and perversion to abuse and control seminarians.

I think we are talking about a totally different thing here, we are talking about evil, we are talking about satan, and profound hatred for Christ and his Church.

We are not talking about priests and Cardinals just committing sin by getting girlfriends and mistresses.

Vlad
8/29/2018 05:25:23 am

Hello from overseas, dear Father Palka and dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

While being a Romanian orthodox, I have profound respect and affinity for the Catholic Church and (unfortunately for my church, I could say) I find much deeper spiritual peace and fulfillment at a catholic mass. I am also aware of how insignificant are the differences between our churches and I consider the mutual lifting of the anathemas on December 7, 1965 one of the most important dates in living history.

I am just as shocked and saddened by the latest news as you are, but I am also somehow uplifted because no disease can be cured unless it is diagnosed first. So maybe this upheaval will allow a return to the sanctity of the Church and to her role as moral compass for the whole world. I am deeply moved by the story of Archbishop Viganò (his personal story, not just his revelations) and, while it might seem strange, I hope he is truthful in his account.

Regarding the reason for the evil we see, I have to agree with Martha above that allowing these fallen priests to marry would not have prevented their abominable acts. However, they haven't just appeared out of thin air, they seem to be a product of “selection” over many decades, if not longer.

As you probably know, in the orthodox churches, not only are the priests allowed to marry, but (except for special cases like the hieromonks) they are required to, in order to be assigned a parish. This doesn’t mean they cannot be sinful or corrupt (I know more than enough cases from personal experience) – we even have a very old saying: “Do what the priest says, not what the priest does”. But at least this type of sin is extremely rare – we only occasionally hear of such cases, and most of them from monasteries, where the celibacy is enforced.

Also, you might know that even inside the Catholic Church, more precisely in the Romanian Greek Catholic Church (and possibly other Greek churches united with Rome), married men can become priests, even if an unmarried man that becomes priest cannot marry afterwards. This sounds to me like a possible solution to this particular problem. I would love to hear your opinions on this.

P.S. Father Palka, I have discovered your blog by chance (not that I really believe in chance) and I am hooked. God bless you and keep up the Good work!

Father Palka
8/31/2018 05:40:38 pm

Vlad,
I am glad you stumbled upon this site! Thanks for your insights from the other lung of the Church, as Pope JPII once wrote. As for the solution, I don't think allowing married priests would have changed this one iota. It is a matter of unfaithful men with a particular sexual perversion bringing in only others with the same perversion, promoting only others with the same perversion, making converts into that same perversion, which caused and stills is causing the problem. If we allowed married priests without getting rid of the root cause, we would just have one more group being bullied into submission by the AH/HA crowd.

Denise
9/2/2018 02:51:17 pm

If the Catholic church had never required celibacy in the first place it is very doubtful that this problem would have become as epidemic as it has in the first place. Hence why this problem does not exist within the Orthodox traditions or Protestant denominations.

My second point is that returning to a New Testament blessed approach to priesthood ... that is ordaining primarily married men who have proven themselves worthy within an exemplary and faithful household would gradually root out the problem over time. Of course it doesn't address the current epidemic. Allowing married priests is part of a long-term solution. Continuing to require celibacy I believe will never root out the problem no matter what the church does. Requiring celibacy will always disproportionately attract homosexual men to priestly life compared with the general population. Homosexual men living within thethe overwhelmin male environment of priesthood is going to be problematic no matter what rules or procedures are put in place by the church.

In hope
8/29/2018 08:52:11 am

A very blessed Feast of martyrdom of St.John The Baptist ; may his prayers help all , to discern the truth and act on same in wisdom
( unsure if it was Bl.Emmercih who mentions how his head was thrown to where the kitchen garbage was thrown , until his disciples retrieved same later - used to grieve over why our Lord would have allowed same ; guess he was invited to pray from there for conversion of those afflicted by the lusts of unholy appetites, including for Mary Magdalene - she is said to have been the dance teacher for Salome .)

Read the letter of the journalist ( Valli ) who describes well the sad sad Arch Bishop Vigano incident - seems he had come under the spirit of ? excess fears ,? focusing on news sites related to same, including the Pennsylavania false reports ; too bad he did not read the Bill Donohue clarifications .

Being 78 y.o , unsure if he also came under health issues related to low Magnesium and low B 12 - not uncommon in many elderly , making them more susceptible to anxiety and fears ; thus hope many in such categories would look into same ; the B12 has to be the chewable kind , since it may no be absorbed from the gut .

Seems ABp . Vigano went to a journalist's house ( Valli ) in fear, and started sharing everything that he thought he knew , in front of the whole family, even a 3 y.o grandson - seems that alone shows how his discretion was impaired .

Our Holy Father , inspired by the Holy Spirit , handled it well - 'not saying a word' , trusting the truth would come out .

One aspect of this whole drama also could be that between China and India , there is reported to be about 70 million men who would not be able to find wives , because of the one child policy etc .

The Holy Father has to weigh in all these aspects of his responsibility - enough compassion and hope for the far away prodigals so that they could find hope in The Church , may be one day becoming good and holy brothers , like St.Francis , spending time in plentiful enough Adoration chapels around .

Excess focus on worldly news , in the ? lust to know and for human connections at the cost of depriving our Lord of time to be spent with Him , in Adoration - the fault line in this whole thing might be as simple as that .

Thus , hope this issue does not become like the O.J Simpson murder case where in the news opened every day for a year with that , for whaterever other motives .

The Church has the remedy pretty much, just has to find means and ways to expect it to be used .

Hope that those with good charism would help the Holy Father , to find and bring back ABp Vigano , to be a good warrior help clear up this whole mess .

The media had tried to spread the lie that The Church is condoning evil , now God is using the same media , to let the world know that it is not so , by the sharing of the expectation of time to be spent in hiddenness and prayer , for those who were afflicted with the lust for human connections alone, even in an evil manner .

May His Truth be marching on ..in glory !

In hope
8/29/2018 09:43:06 am

Thank you for letting me share the views even if not in full concordance with yours and apologies for any errors too .

Just this too, unsure if Italian diet , high in pasta, dairy etc is more prone to be low in Magnesium , thus could have contributed to what is reported as the sudden,mysterious death of the predecessor of Arch Bp. Vigano in Washington .
Good bit of unintentional negligence in medical community too ,
esp. when it comes to this mineral; being in the salt family , not surprising either, since our low saltiness in purity can blind us in other areas as well .

Hope many would use this as an occasion to read up on same ,to discern to sue same .

The enemy possibly also senses that Adoration is coming to The Church at higher and wider levels , thus , some of the distortions in the news may to be to thwart that as well .

May His mercy protect and defend us all .

In hope
9/1/2018 08:39:55 pm

Apologies - one line above on Magnesium was meant to say that persons can read up on same , to discern to USE same -
did not mean to say to 'sue ' .

phil long
8/29/2018 10:21:49 pm

fr. palka, i just stumbled across your blog today. i am a born-again christian, but i am not a catholic, and just as i cried when my catholic brothers in Christ suffered because of the sins of their leaders in the past, i cried again. this time, however, it was after reading about it from your perspective, that of a lover of Christ, from inside the church, and it was horrifying and soul-crushing.

the evil one will always tempt effective workers in the field of harvest, since he wants to maximize the number of souls that die in hell. we are all human, and when we become leaders in the church, the evil one puts his crosshairs on us. corrupting a leader is one of his most effective tactics, and twisted, broken lives are always the result.

had i not been a christian, my reading today would have been crushing. i have read of evil in government at all levels, evil in church leadership (and BTW, non-catholic christians are just as affected as catholic christians), and a depraved, corrupt culture infecting the nation. instead of being crushed, however, your call, and your mother's call, to be on our knees before the Lord is comforting, uplifting, and full of hope for the future. the conflict is of course impossible for us to win, but we are so fortunate; He has already won the battle! thank U - and your mother - for easing the pain, and for reminding us to go to Him with our cares.

Father Palka
8/31/2018 05:45:23 pm

Phil,
Thank you for the words of encouragement. Yes, we all need to be strengthened by prayer and we often see how much we need His strength when we see all too clearly our own weakness and powerlessness. Let me know when you are ready to enter fully into the Church and I will help you see not only the gross stuff coming out now, but also the great glory of following our Lord's every command and accepting His every revelation!

In hope
8/31/2018 08:56:48 am

' She is in distress but the Lord has hidden it from me ..' - Elisha , about the Shunamite woman's visit ..

Many in The Church too , like Peter , like the above woman too may be , desiring that our Bishops and all ought to have been what the woman desired that Elisha should have been for her - keeping us always from bad news /events , through their holiness ..

not recognizing may be , how the lie through the pervasive
'contra ' mentality of saying no intentionally to the blessing of life itself , the grace of strength needed to wash out evil also gets damaged ..

Thus , on those occasions when it seems the Holy Father
' should have known better ' , which can be an aspect in families and relationships as well, God allowing such may be , to help us to recognize the extent of the hold of the spirit of lie , through and through ...to be awaken from the death spirits of broken
relationships , into newness of a deeper healed holy relationship .

May our Lady of Mount Carmel and all the Carmelite saints and
our Lady of Knock , intercede for all our families , that the holy angels in all our lives be given power and authority to help us all in all needy areas .

Thank you and God bless .

In hope
8/31/2018 03:11:38 pm

Sharing this too , may be a needed balm of good news for our times -
it is about this miracle of oil , a mysterious oil in the nature of myrrh, gallons of same , from a bible -
( news, thanks to Spirit daily.com site )
https://spiritdaily.org/blog/miracles/bible-exuding-oil

It is in Georgia , in a Prot. family ; the video is worth watching ..

reference to Psalm 39 - the # of stripes taken by our Lord , to free us from all unholy ties , through the lies of the enemy that makes persons deny the truth of the gaze of The Father at us , instead falling for the 'look at me ' race in the culture , through even lying , destructive relationships .

Seems God in His humility is trying to free us from such , to tell us -
' Look at Me ..' at what it cost Him ..to help us to know whose we are .... that the Triune Holy God is ours , in His Spirit ..

True , we can deny same , by choosing to be under the father of
lies .

'O MY Jesus ' - my Jesus - the prayer in Fatima,

that also wanted us to focus on Adoration .

The Church might serve the cause of truth , even in a speedy enough matter to be seen as a lesson , the negligence in this area by those implicated in these scandals .

There in might be the easy answers as well as the right remedy and penance.

The laity to in need of such and being there with the bishops and priests - even 3- 4 hours a day in Adoration ..to be thus a family that helps to heal and be healed .

Steps to ensure same may not be that difficult ..
and more focus and emphasis given to may be more reading and focus on the Scriptures .

The Protestants do not have the Eucharist ..thus , God might be allowing this miracle , to enliven their faith in the supernatural that could speak to us as well .

The good oils from looking at our Lord , if adopted in our churches might help to empty out the rancid oils that have spread around ..

to be filled instead with the holy oils of trust in Him and all that comes with same , not in any hasty despair on any side either .

Come O Holy Spirit , come in the most powerful way , through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary , Your well beloved spouse , come and fill us and the whole world .

Thank you and God bless !


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    ​Fr. Palka

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