How Bad Could the Blackmail Be?

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

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