Jul 3, 2010

Greatest danger to Church is internal pollution

During his address on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Holy Father asserted that the “greatest danger” to the Church is not external persecution, but the “negative attitudes” of the world that can pollute and “infect the Christian community” from within...Now, the Bryan Hehir connection. Back in December of 2005, Fr. Bryan Hehir and Catholic Charities of Boston under his leadership honored Boston Mayor Tom Menino (who backs gay marriage and abortion) at Catholic Charities’ holiday fundraiser dinner...A massive outcry by Boston-area Catholics immediately followed, and Cardinal Sean O’Malley pulled out, however Catholic Charities proceeded with honoring Menino at the event. Here’s the kicker. At the December 1, 2005 meeting of the Archdiocesan Presbyteral Council, then-Archbishop Sean O’Malley commented on why this situation occurred in the first place: "the Catholic Charities Dinner: Honoring a special public figure can be advantageous to the fund-raising event. He met with Bryan Hehir, The people at Catholic Charities were not away [sic, aware] of the statements against Church policy from the mayor. Generally, the USCCB guideline is to not honor politicians as a prudent move. The Archbishop decided to respect the office of the Mayor and not cancel the event, but he [the Archbishop] wouldn’t go." Fr. Hehir’s claim that he and his staff were unaware of Menino’s history is troubling and not believable. [Jay's Note: I believe the word is BS] Read whole story here

Side note, Can Layoffs actually be a good thing?

5 comments :

JayG said...

From "Paul"

What Boston Catholic Insider is doing is a good start, but you guys have barely scratched the surface on the corruption in the Pastoral Center. Talk to some more chancery workers and pastors.

One of the laid-off staff members has been at the Archdiocese for 30 years; she is the main source of family income as her husband is ailing and they rely on her insurance...all that will be gone in 4 months...Not that the Archdiocese should employ everyone if there is simply no job. But, hey, J. Bryan Hehir: What about social justice for the little people, not just more big "ideas" to solve the "complex" multi-dimensional problems in our complex pluralistic society? Meanwhile, there are at least 20-25 people earning 6-figure salaries, not including benefits. Not one was laid-off.

The Clergy Retirement Fund has been mismanaged. Based on what was promised when it was created, it needs more like $200 million to be funded as promised, but what's a promise anyway? That is not alot of money when you're flushing millions down the toilet elsewhere, like for PR, law firm fees, Catholic school superintendent and associate superintendent salaries and at schools to educate mostly non-Catholics (like Pope John Paul II Academy in Dorchester) or hospitals and charities that are mostly not Catholic any more and will disappear in a few years anyway. How exactly they will close even a $100 million gap is all smoke and mirrors.

The annual report for the year ending June 2009 came out in June of 2010. The Chancellor is paid $250,000/year and has a $100K/year administrator and it takes them a year to issue a financial report? FY 2010 just ended. People should ask when they will see the 2010 report and all of the supplemental reports missing from 2009 still. Because he controls the money, everyone kow-tows to him.

Meanwhile, older priests still in active service have been pushed off private medical plans onto Medicare at a considerable extra out-of-pocket cost to the priests for office visits and prescription medications.

If 1/3 of the pastors stood firm and said they would NOT participate in the new mandatory parish payment program and ended the money-flow, that would immediately stop the insanity. I am suggesting this to pastors I know. If Boston Catholic Insider has a way to communicate with more priests and pastors, you guys will get an earful, and you should definitely publish what you hear.

JayG said...

Hehir’s public statements that directly contradicted Church teachings and confuses the faithful, and we offer our attempt at fraternal correction.

LifeSiteNews just highlighted June comments by Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, who said that those who refuse to take Catholic pro-abort politicians to task for their words and actions not only fail the standards of fraternal charity, but embolden such individuals to commit even greater acts of evil against human life and dignity. We hate to rehash ancient history, but readers keep asking us to address Fr. Hehir and the Kennedys, and we thought this was a good starting point, as we think there's something people may have missed where we can give new perspective. It seems clear that Hehir’s comments from last fall left the door open for other Catholic politicians to feel emboldened to commit acts of evil against human life, and Bryan Hehir's statement also suggest that he would benefit from a basic catechism refresher course--or stronger actions to prevent him from misrepresenting Church teachings to the faithful in the future. Sorry for the length of the post folks—to cover this thoroughly takes time. Grab a cup of iced tea or ice-water and read on.

First, we share details of Bishop Olmsted’s remarks, because they are broadly applicable beyond the example we choose to highlight here. They appeared in a short piece about the nature of scandal in a column for the Catholic Sun of Phoenix last month. In the article Olmsted explained the need to correct public figures who profess to reconcile their Catholic faith and pro-abortion agenda, as well as other individuals who give public scandal. Here are a few highlights:

A failure to call evil by its name inevitably leads to more evil acts in the future. Evil acts, in themselves, are the greatest source of scandal. When the perpetrators are not called to account, then they are emboldened to do even worse deeds."

The bishop pointed out the greater impact of scandal from public figures, who "fulfill an office of greater authority, enjoy more popularity or prestige, or [are] in a position to exercise political, economic or spiritual power or to make decisions that impact a large number of people." "The greater their influence the greater their ability to inspire what is right and good but also the greater their ability to give scandal.”

Thus when public officials "claim to be Catholic" but fail to promote the dignity of the human person, true marriage, and religious freedom, they give "grave scandal…Their words and actions allow such fundamental evils as abortion and embryonic stem cell research to continue to kill thousands of the littlest and most innocent members of the human family.”

"Since some scandals are more grievous than others, remaining silent about the scandal given by those with greater influence in the Church or society has far more toxic effects than silence about other scandals...To remain silent about scandalous activity is not an act of charity; for charity is inauthentic if it is not linked with truth."

JayG said...

Now onto the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and his funeral. Fr. Hehir was one of many people who danced around the scandalous anti-Catholic positions of the late Sen. Kennedy in his public comments, but it’s his obfuscating of the nature of sin and scandal and confusing hundreds of thousands or millions of faithful Catohlics that set us off.

JayG said...

Where's Fr. Hehir now that MAssachusetts budget increases monies to indoctrinate school children with the homosexual agenda?

JayG said...

Injustice or inconsistency