Four priests... what do they have in common?
All are Bishops: 2 are Cardinals, 1 is an Archbishop, and 1 is a Bishop. All went to the same seminary! All live in California! All Novus Ordo! I know! A couple have been accused of being, let's just say, not so great... A couple are retiring together, and moving in together! (Can 2 men do that?) Oh! My! Gosh!
Story here:
(RNS) Whether by accident, serendipity or divine design, four future heavyweights of American Catholicism found themselves in the Class of 1962 at St. John’s Seminary.
Momentous societal changes were surfacing all around the young men, but seminary life for George Niederauer, Roger Mahony, William Levada and Tod Brown continued much the same as it had for centuries. The four friends — a pair of cardinals-to-be, a future archbishop and bishop — were assigned alphabetically to desks and dorms. They arose at 5:30 a.m. and, within a half hour headed to the chapel for prayers and Mass. Silence was required during meals and after 7:30 p.m. Moral theology and philosophy classes were taught in Latin.
Released from their Catholic cocoon in 1962, the young priests faced a church on the brink of volcanic reform with the opening of the Second Vatican Council, pushing the ancient institution into a new age. No more Latin Mass. Priests now faced the people, not the altar. Other Christians were embraced, and social work became gospel.
After being schooled in a Vatican I church, the foursome would step down, five decades later, as quintessential Vatican II men. “There was no instruction manual with a chapter (to cover) every conceivable crisis for the next 50 years,” says Mahony, now the retired archbishop of Los Angeles. - Read the rest here.
*Disclaimer: My reference to Bella Dodd is based on the conspiracy theories Dr. Alice von Hildebrand frequently references: "It is a matter of public record, for instance, that Bella Dodd, the ex-Communist who reconverted to the Church, openly spoke of the Communist Party’s deliberate infiltration of agents into the seminaries. [...] The two books I mentioned were published in 1998 and 2000 by an Italian priest, Don Luigi Villa of the diocese of Brescia, who at the request of Padre Pio has devoted many years of his life to the investigation of the possible infiltration of both Freemasons and Communists into the Church. My husband and I met Don Villa in the sixties." - Source
Please note: I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I am not even suggesting these four bishops were involved in any such conspiracies - but over the years, not a few Catholics have claimed otherwise, and implied worse. Hence the satircal inclusion to my editorial comments.
Because it's Los Angeles and environs, I wrote this in my TMZ voice.
Waddya mean Mother Angelica
is unavailable for comment?
Terry, I'm more interested in how to keep my crock pot from melting my plastic tablecloth at work then I am of what these four old goats are doing.
ReplyDeleteI know. I'm just busy pushing buttons here.
ReplyDeleteHey, Terry, you knew that it was Venerable Fulton Sheen who brought Bella Dodd into the Church and that he believed and preached about her "conspiracy theory," right? (When does a conspiracy stop being a theory and become fact?)
ReplyDeleteCath in Brooklyn - I did know that. I think it is probably true - we now know there were spies in JPII's Vatican, and elsewhere in chanceries in Communist countries during the cold war. I've not delved into the subject so much, but neither have I read any corroboration to the Dodd stories save by the people she told the stories to. My thing is that since the time of the Apostles the Church has been infiltrated - Judas being the first bishop to do so. Likewise, in the Book of Revelation Christ refers to the Nicolatians, the Synagogue of Satan, and so on - and he told us how to handle it - repent.
ReplyDeleteConspiracy theorists take this stuff and stir up panic and paranoia - very much like the witch hunts did during the Inquisition and beyond - the pious start seeing demons and heretics around every church pillar. There is an unhealthy obsession which develops as a result.
How often after reading such things do we begin to dissect a homily as Father is preaching, or question a misstep in the celebration of Mass, or worse - start believing this or that bishop is some sort of infiltrator intent upon destroying the faith?
That is the best way for the evil one to operate, to undermine confidence and trust, and ultimately faith.
So that is why I don't get too serious about what may have happened in the first part of the 20th century - we have to deal with the reality of our time. I hope you are not scandalized by my taking it lightly. I'm convinced the devil prefers people to be scared and suspicious instead.
To be sure, I could be wrong - so always be careful when reading me. i'm no authority, just a man with an opinion.
Hey Terry, what did you think of the Italian priest, Don Luigi Villa and his endless attack of Pope Paul and the accusations of Freemasonry? I got a headache reading hi objection to Pau;'s beatification. Any thought? Thank you.
ReplyDelete