The following comes from a Sept. 23 item on Te-Deum blogspot.com.
Cardinal Pell recently said Pope Francis’ popularity with the press was, “too good to last.” That may come sooner than we all thought. This may send shock waves through the secular media and the dissenting wing of the Church who still don’t understand Pope Francis, or that mercy and charity often involve discipline.
Pope Francis just excommunicated a priest in Melbourne. Veil-tip to Andrew Rabel.
From The Age in Australia: (Edit – this is quoted text and I’m sure part of it is in error, in particular, when it suggests he was as disciplined for support for ‘gays.'” One doesn’t get disciplined for supporting people with SSA but that support does not include affirming people in engaging in any sexual activity outside the context of Sacramental Marriage. Google the Courage Apostolate to see how the Catholic Church supports people with SSA. I hope we will see a statement out of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, which I will share)
“Dissident priest Greg Reynolds has been both defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and gays – the first person ever excommunicated in Melbourne, he believes.
“The order comes direct from the Vatican, not at the request of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, and apparently follows a secret denunciation in the best traditions of the inquisition, according to Father Reynolds.
“The excommunication document – written in Latin and giving no reason – was dated May 31, meaning it comes under the authority of Pope Francis who made headlines on Thursday calling for a less rule-obsessed church.
“Father Reynolds, who resigned as a parish priest in 2011 and last year founded Inclusive Catholics, said he had expected to be laicised (defrocked), but not excommunicated. But it would make no difference to his ministry.”
Read more of The Age story here.
One of the purposes of excommunication is medicinal. It’s a way for the Church to say that someone has strayed too far and is endangering their souls and the souls of others. Some do reconcile with the Church after the sting of excommunication, when they humble themselves.
The Church does not have the authority to change Scripture or Tradition. What he is pushing is out of harmony with both.
Don’t just gawk at this situation, pray for him.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary and the guardian angel of Mr. Reynolds, enlighten his mind and soften his heart so that he will reconcile with the Catholic Church.
To read original Te Deum posting, click here.
WOW! I thought only Traditional Catholics were excommunicated!
VIVA RUSSIA Ron!
“Traditional Catholics”? Is that a Protestant sect?
No we are Faithful Catholics… even though you hate us,
Oh, so you mean those who do not attend the Extraordinary Form Mass are NOT “Faithful Catholics”?
The Protestants who changed and the Novus Ordo Catholics who changed are accusing the Traditional Catholics who refuse to change of being outside the one true Church that does not change.
Novus Ordo Catholics acccept the Mass as a eucharistic “meal” and reject its Sacrificial essence as properly understood for centuries. Like formalized protestantants, they resist the Cross.
False! The Mass is the Sacrifice of Calvary made present. It was instituted at the Last Supper by Jesus Christ the night before He died on the Cross. There are only Catholics who are members of the Mystical Body of Christ. With Him, we carry our Cross, which includes bearing patiently with those who speak falsely of the Holy Church.
Rodda I thought you were a protestant…you keep protesting against some in the church, especially the traditional. Christ is love, and the traditional element of the faith know this…have you forgotten your brothers and sisters?
You thought WRONG.
Many “liberal” Catholics (if you like that term) get excommunicated:
— Fr. Roberto Francisco Daniel, known by local community as “Father Beto”, by Bishop Caetano Ferrari, from Bauru, Brazil. Daniel was excommunicated because he refused a direct order from his bishop to apologize for or retract his statement that love was possible between people of the same sex. The priest also said a married person who chose to have an affair, heterosexual or otherwise, would not be unfaithful as long as that person’s spouse allowed it.
— Fr. Roy Bourgeois (also laicized and dismissed from the Maryknoll Fathers) for participating in the ordination of a woman.
— All the Catholics and legislators who promoted the abortion law in Uruguay.
— Sr. Margaret McBride, a nun, for allowing an abortion. McBride later reconciled with the church and is no longer living in a state of excommunication.
— Members of multiple organizations in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska were excommunicated by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in March 1996 for promoting positions he deemed “totally incompatible with the Catholic faith”. The organizations include Call to Action, Catholics for a Free Choice, Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society, the Freemasons, and the Society of St. Pius X. The Vatican later confirmed the excommunication of Call to Action members in November 2006.
Bishop Bruskewitz went overboard in excommuncating the Society of St.Pius X. I believe he threw then in the mix just to prove that he -was even-handed. To equate these pious traditinalists with abortion providers blew his credibility with me. I think Bishop Bruskewitz proved only that he is a grand-stander. Sorry! We must keep things in balamce.
I do not believe he has the power to excommunicate St. Pius X. At the time JP II had already excommunicated them, so his action was mute.
Meanwhile, St. Pius X are not still excommunicated. That was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI
Chinua Okwonkwo: I do not know the latest status of the St Pius X Society. Pope Benedict lifted the excommunication, but there still remain some peripheral issues, such as the bishops ordained while the excommunication was still in force. I hope Pope Francis will follow through, but my hopes are diminishing. Pope Francis will never endorse the Latin Mass with the same love and devotion as his predecessor. I fear the church will simply wait for all the traditionalists to die off.
Suzanne grouped the Society of St Pius X in with “excommicated liberal groups.” Ahhh. That is interesting.
Steve, dear, I simply did a search for who has been excommunicated by the Catholic Church over the centuries, and copied and pasted. I’m glad you found it “interesting,” but I can’t take any credit for the list, really.
You’d have to thank Wikipedia or wherever I got it from!
From the Liturgy of the Hours today, Wed. Sept. 25, 2012, from a sermon On Pastors by St. Augustine, bishop: “Shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. But what are the shepherds to hear? Thus say the Lord God: Behold I myself am over the shepherds, and I will claim my sheep from your hands.
Hear and learn, you sheep of God. God calls for an accounting of his sheep from the wicked shepherds and inquires into the death of his sheep at their hands. For in another passage he speaks through the same prophet: Son of Man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. You shall hear the word from my mouth and you shall point out the way to them in my name. When I say to the sinner: You shall die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man from his wicked ways. because of his wickedness he shall die, but you shall be held responsible for his death. If, however, you warn the wicked man to turn away from his wickedness, and he fails to do so, he shall die in his iniquity, but you shall have saved your soul.”
I suggest everyone who has a Breviary read the rest of St. Augustine’s sermon. It applies to all of us — Shepherds and Sheep,.
And if you do not have a Breviary, you can get some of his same sermons on line by just putting in “On Pastors”, sermon by St. Augustine.
If you do not have the Breviary, you can go to divineoffice.org.
Good Idea. You can also log on to the website http://www.divineoffice.org. Click on Yesterday (near the top right of the page). Click on Office of Readings, and scroll down to Second Reading. You will find it there. Better still, pray the entire office. You will get more spiritual nourishment from the readings that way, and it won’t cost you a penny.
Sorry ‘Yesterday’ link is near the top LEFT of the page, not top RIGHT.
I read my divine office daily Anne…most edifying…I don’t read the entire 4 volumes, that priests are supposed to pray daily, rather just the four week psalter and scripture readings readings with the magnificat…monk’s, who are not priest’s would pray this version…many lay persons also pray this daily…my breviary was purchased in Rome and the readings are from the Jerusalem Bible…although I have the shorter Christian Prayer office, published by Catholic Book Publishing…it is leather bound, the Morning and Evening Prayer Book, I purchased in Rome, is published by Collins Liturgical Publication’s London. The Gregorian Calendar is in the front and it has regional calendars’s for saint feast days for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
The same for me Stephen. When I was working and my children gone, and when I did not take care of grandchildren, I read every office most every day from the complete Breviary, but I do not have the time for it all now. It is amazing what one learns from the sermons of the early Church Fathers. Mine does not use the Jerusalem Bible although I do have the New Jerusalem Bible. I find all the “Yahwehs” in the New Jerusalem distracting, though, instead of the use of “Lord”. The Jewish people do not like to use or for us to use the name of God as they consider it too sacred, and “Yahweh” is not the actual spelling and pronunciation as that has been lost in time. I put the present volume in my car yesterday, and read St. Augustine’s sermon by chance while doing the Evening Office in my car.
Finally an unequivocal position taken by the Holy Father! A most welcome surprise after months of tergiversation and enigmatic pronouncements. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst those who thought a new day was about to dawn: A brave new world of gender equality at all levels.
Yes, let’s have NO MORE of that pesky tergiversation! :)
Praise God, our prayers are being answered.
Nicely done article. It’s not always easy to anticipate (and correct in advance) the erroneous take (spin) the secular press will put on things to embarrass the Catholic Church. We must expect the Church to be treated in much the same way Jesus was treated. [CCC 675ff]
Too easy. Reynolds left the priesthood several years ago already. How about doing something regarding the Rainbow lobby within the Vatican?
I wish the Pope would take a look at Nancy Pelosi’s strange “Catholic” beliefs regarding abortion.
Aaaaaah!….Pope Francis…you are AWESOME SENOR!…Keep up the outstanding work…Father Palacios and a number of other ignominious clerics need to be excommunicated as well…the sooner the better, while the Pope is at it…he can excommunicate some modernist bishop’s as well…send them packing…they can join the episcopal church, as they get all our riff-raff and heretical clergy anyways…viva Pappa Francis!
NCR reported yesterday that there was a report in Australia that he gave Communion to a dog, but that that situation was not the reason for his excommunication. We must all pray that situations like this will have a happy outcome, but by setting up a new organization that held views of change inside the Church was the sole reason. Some folks here int eh US also disagree but there have been no excommunications, nor should there be. There must be more ot the story.
We need to make reparations to Our Lord for offenses we all commit.
I believe the report was that a communicant gave part of his communion to a dog, not that this priest administered the communion to the dog. But we may never know why this priest was excommunicated, since they did not communicate the reasons for it. Maybe he was excommunicated because he resigned the priesthood but continued celebrating mass. Who knows?
He gave Holy Communion to a dog???
Oh, dear. This sounds like those unfortunate Episcopalians who did this very thing, to get more people to come to their church.
They started a “pet Communion service” back in Connecticut, I believe, and the story wound up on the New York Times — or was it the Wall Street Journal?
Most peculiar.
Henry VIII must be turning over in his grave.
Ah, here’s part of the old story…The article was titled “Purr Box Goes to Communion at St. Francis Episcopal.” The story says: “What drew [Mary] Wilkinson [the owner of Purr Box, a tiger cat] back into the fold [at St. Francis Episcopal] was a new monthly program the church introduced: Holy Communion for pets.”
I can think of many lay people and a few ordained who claim to be Catholic but seem to disagree with many of the teachings of the Catholic Church or at least fail to follow them in their lives. When I was young, I thought thousands of people would be excommunicated by the time I grew up, based on the wide gap between what we were learning and what we were observing among Catholic adults, both single and married, both lay people and clerics. I now realize that the Church is incredibly tolerant. If someone is excommunicated, I trust it will be for good reason. I am more concerned about what Our Lord will be saying on Judgment Day, but I don’t think excommunication is exercised here on earth to excess.
Maryanne: The “Communion of Saints” has always contained more sinners than saints! But at least we all knew where the limits were. Today, no-one is sure anymore. When all else fails, many fall back on “Infinite Mercy” as their loophole. The goal posts keep shifting for lack of leadership. A society that tolerates anything will get everything, in spades. Excommuniucating those who lead others into sin and perdition is most appropriate. An occasional “example” is not enough. Why Nancy Pelosi and not Joe Biden?
One can excommunicate themselves very easily from the Church…Rome doesn’t have to send you a certificate in the mail…a woman who get’s an abortion has just incurred “ipso facto excommunication”…
Stephen,
Get your facts! The term is “Latae Sententae” not the secular “ipso facto”!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Kenneth, with all those exclamation marks, one does start to worry about your high blood pressure.
Go for a nice walk and calm down.
In 2005, the diocese of San Jose, CA hosted the 12th annual conference of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries. The bishop was the opening session speaker at the event where x-rated gay pornography was sold at exhibits during the conference. The Metro published an article “Gay Catholics Come Out”. https://www.metroactive.com/metro/11.18.09/cover-0946.html “Secretly, San Jose is the most gay-friendly diocese in the nation.” The bishop is in good standings to this day! Why?
It does not sound like a Secret to me.
It was a secret to my ears — but not after reading this.
Bishop McGrath is invulnerable. He obviously enjoys the protection of the powers that be who inhabit the corridors of the Vatican. His diocese is a disgrace. One needs only to read his monthly Valley Catholic. And yet, I hear no-one complain. You put a frog in cold water and raise the temperature slowly. I believe my fellow Catholics in San Jose don’t even know they have been boiled.
The following is the statement of San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath on today’s Supreme Court decisions regarding DOMA and Proposition 8:
The Supreme Court’s decisions related to the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 are disappointing to us, in that neither affirmed the Church’s definition of Marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
I echo a statement issued today by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: “When Jesus taught about the meaning of marriage – the lifelong, exclusive union of husband and wife – he pointed back to “the beginning” of God’s creation of the human person as male and female (see Matthew 19). In the face of the customs and laws of his time, Jesus taught an unpopular truth that everyone could understand. The truth of marriage endures, and we will continue to boldly proclaim it with confidence and charity.”
As we continue to disagree with the decisions announced today by the Supreme Court, our disagreements must remain civil. Beyond the legal, ethical and moral matters related to these issues are real human beings, each created in the image and likeness of God. In our pluralistic and democratic society, people of good will espouse different points of view and must work, especially in the face of the challenges as great as these, to find common ground in our shared humanity.
This explains much better what the issues were. He was not an active priest of the diocese of Melbourne when he was excommunicated. He had resigned and bean stripped of faculties by the bishop there. He is suspended and is not supposed to present himself as a priest. He had formed his own community which declares the church wrong on homosexuality and women’s ordination. Masses are held which are illicit. https://ncronline.org/news/global/australian-priest-advocate-womens-ordination-excommunicated