|
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 From the Pastor: One Proposed Solution
Finally. I am done. At least for now! I am tired of writing about active homosexual and homosexual activist (AH/HA - aha! Now you get it!) priests and bishops. I thought it was important for people to have their eyes opened to this sick reality but exposing this “hidden in plain sight” evil is not the goal. Eradicating it is. The current state of the Church can be depressing, even capable of bringing about spiritual despair. But it need not be. There is always hope. A well founded hope, in fact. The Light of Christ will conquer the darkness. The Immaculate Heart will triumph. We know that. But what can we do? First and foremost, we must pray and fast. “Oh, no, Father, not that old line!” Yes. We are battling demonic Antichrists when facing men delighting in homosexual desires and actions and all that emanates from them. Some kinds of demons can only be cast out by prayer and fasting according to Our Lord’s explanation in Mt. 17:21 in every Bible except our bishops’ own New American Bible. Interestingly, in the next verse He once again tells his apostles that He will be betrayed (by Bishop Judas Iscariot). If you have any doubts as to the demonic activity of the AH/HAs, for the love of God read Richard Sipe’s (+RIP) works (awrsipe.com) and the PA grand jury report. READ THEM. They do not detail “icky” stuff; they detail demonic activity. Only once you know the enemy will you see the necessity of fortifying yourself with prayer and fasting. Then you can put your faith into action. But understand this: There is not a single thing—or even a dozen things—we can do which will solve this problem. We must, must, must have Divine Intervention. After all, if every guilty bishop and priest is not removed and charged, those remaining will simply keep doing business as usual. Moreover, even if every AH/HA bishop were removed today, the bishop of Rome (not unlike his predecessors who named them in the first place) would simply replace them with clones. He has, after all, openly surrounded himself with, praised, and promoted those who are openly championing and living the AH/HA life. Mull that over and then pray and fast some more. That said, Faith without works is dead. Many good actions have been proposed by others already. I will propose one I have not yet seen put forth: help renew manhood—true Fatherhood—among the “good” clergy. Here’s why and how. People from my parish shared my bulletin article, “Why Don’t the Priests Blow the Whistle?” with others near and far. Clergy abuse victims, “neutered” priest whistleblowers, and others soon inundated me with calls, texts, messages, and emails as my article struck a chord and spread via big name websites. I read and heard stories of ungodly horror and degrading actions and reactions. They ripped my heart out. They challenged me. Oddly enough, they also strengthened me. I spent hours a day getting an earful and responding and reaching out to those contacting me. Somehow I fit it in my schedule and even found more time than normal to pray. How could I not? They needed it. I needed it. I think my fellow priests and the bishops need to hear and read such stories as well, and hear them directly, not just from blogs and Catholic news sites, for I am convinced that few are actually reading the morbid details exposed there. So, following and in union with the prayer and fasting, I am proposing and praying that all victims of clergy abuse, all who witnessed or intimately know of such abuse, all who have been raked over the coals trying to expose such abuse, including priests, seminarians, and ex’s of both groups, send their stories, certified mail for proof of receipt, to their parish priest(s) and bishop(s), the papal nuncio, and the Bishop of Rome. I know full well that this is extremely difficult but including your name with contact information will make a huge difference in how it will be received. The bad clergy won’t care, though they might brazenly lie about how concerned they are. The good ones may have their Fatherhood restored and revitalized as they grieve for and with their hurting children. You may not be able to tell the difference. No matter. It will touch those who still have a mustard seed of faith. How can it not? No real Father will do nothing when his son has been molested. No real Father will settle for more guidelines on proper and improper behavior. No real Father will remain silent, ignore the victim, excuse the perpetrator, blame clerical celibacy or “rigidity” or the male-only priesthood, or dodge the truth that our current major scandals (though there are others) are the direct and inevitable result of ordaining and retaining AH/HAs. A real Father will address the real problem head on. He will kick butt, not kiss it. It is also danged sure time for you, whether you have children or not, to change parishes and schools/CCD if your priest is AH/HA, heretical, or a “don’t make waves”-er. Now is not the time to whimper, “But I don’t have proof...” for that may only come 20 or 50 years from now. Homeschool. Drive hours on Sunday if need be to attend Mass. Quit making excuses. Faithless priests will molest and/or cover for others. If you read the reports mentioned above, you know it’s the truth. These “men” have sold their souls to the devil. RUN! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: An Apocalyptic Pandemic
I hope you can handle one more article about the sorry state of affairs in the Church hierarchy today. I promise you that I will not be continuing down this road as it really takes a toll on both the author and his readers to constantly be bringing to the surface the rotting bottom layer of garbage in the compost heap, even though we all know that this arduous task is necessary to produce the fertilizer which the crops need if they are to bear good fruit. So if you can stand the smell today, I promise that next week I will propose a solution to the mess we are in. But first I think it is important to understand how we ever got to the point where so many priests and bishops are either oblivious to, accepting of, promoting, or living the AH/HA life. Going back to the beginning of the “College of Cardinals” or “Conference of Bishops” in the Church, we note well that there was one immoral, non-believing traitor among the twelve Apostles, namely, Judas Iscariot. He is the only one specifically accused by Our Lord of not believing in the Eucharist (Jn 6:65,71-72) and it was at the Last Supper that, committing the mortal sin of receiving “the bread dipped” without “discerning the body”, satan entered into him (Jn 13:26-27 and I Cor. 11:29). Because Judas then despaired and killed himself he did not “reproduce”, that is, he did not live to ordain any like-minded unfaithful priests or bishops. Instead, Peter, in the midst of the holy brethren, explained the scriptures being fulfilled as they chose a worthy successor to take the place of the traitor (Acts 1:15-26). But in future times up until today occasionally Judases have been found among the Successors to the Apostles and now they sometimes reproduce, making unholy clones of themselves. Let me explain. In this diocese, and I assume there is something similar in most dioceses of the USA, about every five years or so the bishop sends a form to every priest asking who among their fellow priests they believe is cut out to be a bishop and why they believe that. Holiness, capability, friendliness, education, hygiene, etc., should all be weighed properly. Supposedly the bishop then reads with great care the results and, when the Papal Nuncio sends him a similar form, he has on hand a ready response and sends in the names of his very best priests. Then, when an opening arises due to a bishop dying or being transferred or whatnot, the Nuncio has at his disposal a list of the best priests of every diocese and he presents to the Pope a short list of three exceptional priests who seem best qualified for the particular diocese needing to be filled. Then the Pope prayerfully chooses one and, voila, the best priests become bishops. Unless... What happens if there is an AH/HA bishop, nuncio or Pope (or any combination thereof)? An AH/HA will never endorse someone who is not either AH/HA or extremely timid. Period. He can never promote someone who will fight against his personally chosen sin of damnation (though, not believing in sin or damnation he would never use such words). So if a “good” priest writes down any names, the form goes in the trash, perhaps after calling to the bishop’s attention a priest or two whom he needs to squash or continue to terrorize. He will only send to the Nuncio AH/HA priests. If the Nuncio is AH/HA he likewise screens out the priests suggested by “good” bishops. Finally, if the Pope would be AH/HA, you can guess what type of priests he would insist on ordaining as bishops and which bishops he would make Cardinals so as to solidify his power and stack the deck for the next AH/HA conclave. This reproduction process starts slowly but builds steam with every new appointment every step of the way. The more AH/HA’s involved, the faster the transformation of the diocese, the Bishops’ Conference, and the worldwide Church. I assume you all have seen pandemic and apocalyptic movies where a highly contagious disease is at first undetected or ignored until all of a sudden it becomes known and feared by everyone when it starts infecting huge numbers of people. Scientists race to control it knowing that if they cannot find a cure or at least isolate it, a time will soon come when it is so widespread and has caused so much death and destruction that it will become impossible to eradicate or even partially control. I believe we are seeing the second round of panic in this AH/HA contagion among Church clergy. The first time, the scientists (bishops) put on a public display of cleaning it up by getting rid of any really bad priests who were reported to be infected. And thanks be to God they did! Unfortunately, they were even willing to accept collateral damage and destroy some innocent priests, too, as part of their panicked reaction. They helped bring about a general calm as concrete results brought relief but they never revealed the essential information that they had “carriers” among themselves. With new allegations worldwide about favored bishops being diseased and others knowing and covering for them, we now get to the part of the movie that keeps us on the edge of our seat. Will the evil scientists be outed? Will the contagion be controlled? Or is it too late? With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: How Bad Could the Blackmail Be?
If you didn’t read my article in last week’s bulletin, you really should before reading this one as it will help put some things into proper perspective. That said, I promised to continue explaining just what an AH/HA bishop (see last week’s article for an explanation) always threatens to do—and actually does—as often as necessary to keep the “peace” through a reign of fear and intimidation. His own power and “pleasure” (sick though these may be) are his main goals. Not Heaven. Not salvation. Not true love of God or true love of man. Remember that my premise is that an AH/HA priest or bishop has no true Catholic faith. Last week I showed you some of what is in a priest’s file. The bishop has constant control of said file. He alone determines what does or does not go into the file, what might be clandestinely removed from it (see the parable of the unjust steward), and what might be “leaked” from it. The bishop also has complete control over a priest’s assignments, faculties, housing, health insurance, and paycheck, and, to a large degree, his reputation. A priest who gets on the bad side of a bishop (and that can happen even with a good priest who has a good bishop but I am referring here to an AH/HA bishop) will get the worst assignment the bishop can conjure up. But how bad could it really be? A young priest who insists on preaching Catholic faith and morals will almost assuredly be sent to an AH/HA pastor to “straighten him out” (a very bad use of words). His AH/HA pastor will berate him both privately and publicly and tear him apart behind his back at every moment with slander, calumny, innuendo, and lies. The young priest will be intimidated and bullied as few have ever witnessed or imagined. The AH/HA pastor has filled his staff with AH/HA lay people and deacons and the young priest has nobody to whom to turn. There is nobody to reassure him that he is not the “bad guy” with the exception of a handful of good, faithful Catholic parishioners whom the pastor and staff have not yet been able to run off. He will not be respected by anyone else except God. The pastor will not allow him to teach. Most of the time he will have the AH/HA deacon assigned to preach for him and he will be forced to listen silently to heretical sermons. He will be assigned all of the “dirty work” and he will be always at everyone’s beck and call for non-priestly duties and always under scrutiny. Word will go out to all pastors that he is a pathetic loser and that they should refuse him as an associate during personnel changes. He will be called down to the AH/HA bishop’s office on a regular basis to be accused of being heartless and a sorry excuse for a priest. He will be threatened to be relieved of his faculties or, at best, assigned as a chaplain at a hospital or nursing home. His file will grow as the bishop waves in his face every anonymous, outrageous, deceptive, unCatholic letter from those following the AH/HA crowd as “proof” of his lack of fitness to be a priest. Everything will be done to encourage him to either engage in immorality, quit preaching against immorality, or just get the heck out. He constantly faces the reality that, after having endured eight or nine years of Pink Palace Seminary, he might be forced out after fewer years of priesthood. He will watch as his friends, those good men ordained with him, “flee the wolves” one after another and he will see his AH/HA seminary associates promoted and rewarded. It’s no wonder so many leave. But why would he remain silent after he leaves the priesthood? He knows AH/HA pastors who have boyfriends, who perform same-sex “marriages”, who cook the books, etc. He knows at least some of the immoral activity of his former AH/HA bishop. How can blackmail extend even into his lay life? Remember the file. The AH/HA bishop will do anything to retain control of this man’s life in order to protect and amuse himself. One example is sufficient: A “good” bishop might annually invite all ex-priests and their wives to a dinner. He will show them that he cares about them, wants to be sure their families are doing well, and even, in a roundabout way, let them know he is sorry they felt forced to leave in order to keep their masculinity and morality. An AH/HA bishop, on the other hand, invites them to dinner for sinister motives. He holds out the rotten carrot that maybe soon the Pope might allow them to return to ministry and, as long as they have been “good”, they can return to where they know they belong. He buys their silence. Even worse, the AH/HA bishop is not so subtly telling them, “I know your contact information. I know your family. I know your place of employment. Mess with me or one of mine and I will destroy you. I will pull something from your file (or place something in your file) and release it to the public, to your employer, to your children’s school. You will be an unemployable ex-priest and maybe also an ex-husband and ex-father.” Yes, they are that evil. Starting to understand the silence? More to come next week. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka |
Author:
|
RSS Feed