On September 22, the National Catholic Reporter published an article, ‘Priest sanctioned after appearing at women’s ordination gathering’, by the news source’s publisher Thomas Fox.
The article began, “Two days after appearing at a women’s ordination conference in Philadelphia, Precious Blood Father Jack McClure said today he has been told he can no longer celebrate Mass at Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco where he has been pastor and parochial vicar for the past 15 months.
“According to McClure, he was informed by Precious Blood Father and Most Holy Redeemer pastor Matthew Link that the secretary for San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said McClure can no longer celebrate Mass beyond the end of this month. McClure said his last Mass will be Sunday, Sept. 27.”
McClure, one of two Precious Blood Ministry priests at Most Holy Redeemer, was the renegade church’s pastor until earlier this year, when he and parochial vicar Matthew Link swapped positions.
The two arrived at Most Holy Redeemer in June of 2014. When they were named, CalCatholic quoted from the National Catholic Reporter article covering the appointments: “the Precious Blood Fathers have had an outreach to the LGBT community since 2007. They say the ministry was developed to foster dialogue, reconciliation and justice with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.”
By August, less than three months after the appointments, the pastor’s message in the parish bulletin was claiming that a boy could have “two dads.” On August 25, 2014 CalCatholic quoted from Most Holy Redeemer’s August 24 bulletin: “Next Sunday our little brother, (name redacted) will make his First Holy Communion. In this wonderfully good moment for all of us, we gather around the table with (name redacted) and his Dads, Kevin and Brian, and his big brother (name redacted).”
On January 8, 2015, we reported (‘To confuse and deceive the children of God’) that McClure’s parish was hosting “Equality California,” the state’s largest homosexual political action committee. When the Archdiocese allowed the event to go forward, it was discovered that over 90% of the event was used as a platform to promote Equality California’s anti-Catholic legislative agenda, rather than to discuss healthcare for LGBT immigrants, the events putative purpose.
National Catholic Reporter’s publisher Thomas Fox—the same author who wrote the article covering McClure’s ouster– authored a 5-part puff-piece series on Most Holy Redeemer. The entire series was such an obvious whitewash that the Reporter was forced to close its comments function lest the whitewash be exposed.
On July 18, 2015, another puff-piece on the parish was published, this time in Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
On July 23, 2015 we followed up with more documentation of the anti-Catholic history of Most Holy Redeemer when Catholic San Francisco inexplicably ran the same puff-piece for the second week straight.
Our article included an excerpt from a blog post by Joseph Sciambria, an ex-gay porn actor who wrote about his experiences in the gay lifestyle in San Francisco: “When Father McClure first arrived at Most Holy Redeemer, I contacted both him and Father Link; I had a proposal: a short presentation about my experiences and about Courage; I assured them, I was not there to judge or to tell anyone that their lifestyle was wrong or evil; that’s their decision to make – not mine. I simply wanted to present an alternative; that they did not have to live this way. I was turned down.”
On August 28, 2015, we reported that the parish had hosted an open lesbian, pro same-sex ‘marriage’ “lavender life coach.’ The ‘coach,’ Peggy Green, had also spoken at an event hosted by the pro-suicide Hemlock Society.
The removal of McClure is valid, but the question remains: what took so long?
Praise be to God.
Thank you, Archbishop Cordileone for your strength and courage in suffering through a disgusting and distressing situation like this and ultimately concluding it was not going to be redeemable, and that firm action had to be taken to stop the insanity. Few would have willingly accepted this assignment, knowing what you would be up against, and few could have taken the necessary steps to lead the way back into the light. More is needed, of course, and more caterwauling will be heard, but God bless you for your courage and hard work, and thank you again for your dedication to serving God and humankind.
Kudos to Abp.Cordileone for beginning the cleansing of the Augean stable that is MHR parish. That has been an embarrassment to the Catholic Church for far too long. I think that an exsorcism and a re-consecration would be of benefit too.
FATHER JACK MC CLURE is a kind man but a bit of a nut.
Many of us at Most Holy Redeemer are very happy with our new pastor, Father Matt, who is more down to earth and less peculiar.
As for those of you out there who always attack us and our parish, please consider: if you are a priest at St. Peter’s in the Mission District, you don’t preach against illegal immigration and denigrate the Latino parishioners just because you can.
If you are a priest in a Filipino parish, you don’t scream at your parishioners for being civilly married, rather than married in the Church (it’s their custom to get civilly married, and then many years down the road, to have a Church wedding).
If you are a priest in the Castro District, you don’t castigate…
Anonmymous, I do not think most Catholics would object to a raffle in a church to help AIDS victims as long as the Items being raffled off were such decent and useful things as clothing, blankets and other items that a victim of the disease could use — even coupons or vouchers for doctor’s visits — but what was being raffled off in the past, according to many news reports, were just plain immoral: such things as condoms and sex toys have no place in a church raffle. If people want to sin, they should not expect others to pay for it.
So a priest tones the message to the audience?? Sounds like a politician, not a prophet. I thought the message was universal.
Perhaps as a practical matter, a certain degree of ‘spin’ is necessary lest the audience tune out totally.