Father Pavone is publicly fighting with his bishop over money.
Father Rodriguez is publicly fighting an entire town over sodomy.
But when his bishop punishes Fr. Rodriguez by removing the good priest to the farthest reaches of the diocese, when the parish Fr. Rodriguez administers is essentially shut down for three days (no Masses, no confessions, no substantive responses from the chancery office when parishioners call), when that parish - whose coffers have become full through his orthodoxy, his preaching, his administration of the Extraordinary Form Mass - when all of that is stripped away and he is required to move everything he owns with roughly 24 hours notice, Father Rodriguez responds by saying,
"I was ordained to the Catholic priesthood to offer sacrifice and teach the only truth which brings salvation and happiness. The priesthood is my greatest joy. In the present circumstances, I intend to try even harder to be a good, holy priest. Obedience to my bishop is essential to the priesthood."Anyone who can look at Fr. Pavone, compare what he's said publicly to Fr. Rodriguez' public statements, and call Fr. Pavone's performance anything other than a disgusting travesty by a showboating, money-grubbing narcissist has me completely at a loss.
Fr. Rodriguez fought over doctrine, not money.
He did not fight his bishop - if he did, we have no public evidence of it.
He stuck to the fight that mattered - the dissemination of bad theology.
Father Rodriguez is a good and holy priest.
Father Pavone is not.
It saddens me to say that the Bishop of El Paso is morally in the wrong on this one.
The bishop has the legal and canonical right to move his priests wherever he wants for any reason he wants, but what he's doing - backing away from a fight through fear of the IRS - is simply wrong.
UPDATE:
Fr. Pavone NEVER disappoints.
He begs for money again today:
September 22, 2011
Dear Steve and Veronica,
Below you’ll find some updates about some of our recent Priests for Life activity. Thank you for being involved.
We are working out all the misunderstandings with my bishop here in Amarillo. As we do so, I’m amazed at how many people think they know more about the situation than I do, and pontificate on blogs and websites all over the place. If anything that anyone says raises questions in your mind, please know that you can get the updates and accurate information at www.priestsforlife.org/update.
I encourage you to get to know the presidential candidates by watching tonight's debate on Fox News at 9 p.m. ET. We are to be smart, attentive, and informed, and we need to get to know the candidates as far in advance as possible.
We are happy to bring your attention to the fact that next month, our friend and colleague Teresa Tomeo releases her newest book, “Extreme Makeover,” which talks about women transformed by Christ, not conformed to the culture. Our own Executive Director, Janet Morana, is featured in the book. Janet and Teresa co-host the new EWTN series “The Catholic View for Women,” along with Astrid Bennett-Gutierrez, of Hispanics for Life.....
I aslo encourage you to do two things:
a) Keep focused on the work and the projects, such as the developments I mention below and will continue to update you about, and
b) Please increase your donations to Priests for Life so that despite the efforts of our detractors to slow us down, we can speed up instead!
One final word. One commentator was silly enough to state that Priests for Life, as my “baby,” had to be given for adoption or would die. I have news for that person: Priests for Life isn’t a baby anymore; it is an adult, and a highly respected one. People like Alveda King, our fulltime priests, Janet Morana, Marie Smith, Bryan Kemper and others are fully engaged in the leadership of this family of ministries, and are fully accountable to and cooperative with Church authority, not only in individual dioceses but at the level of the Vatican. Moreover, as we recently announced (but some bloggers apparently missed), we have formed an International Private Association of the Faithful in full accordance with Church law.
So thanks for your support. Forward we go, to victory for the unborn!
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director
10 comments:
I fear that 'fighting the IRS' and/or its sister Gummint agencies will become far more prevalent for Churchmen and members in the next 10 years.
As Traditional Catholics ourselves, we recognize the fact that in the fight for truth which we wage, we have to pick our battles. This is wisdom. In our opinion, Fr. Pavone has also picked his battle, and his instruments of warfare. Even if people don't agree with him on his approach to many current problems in the Catholic Church, the unmistakable fact remains that he has saved lives of babies, and has saved guilty mothers who had abortions from self-destruction. Regarding financial appeals, please remember that Bishop Zurek's secret letter to the USCCB requested that all donations from Catholics to PFL be stopped. That means the work of PFL would be killed in the womb, in other words. Is that what you really want to promote? Please think about what you are doing, and why.
But Fr. Pavone very much disagrees with your analysis, Steve and Cheryl.
"One commentator was silly enough to state that Priests for Life, as my “baby,” had to be given for adoption or would die. I have news for that person: Priests for Life isn’t a baby anymore; it is an adult, and a highly respected one."
So both Fr. Pavone and I would disagree with you on that one.
Fr. Pavone is neither necessary nor vital to the pro-life fight. Frankly, neither is PFL.
None of us are.
The fact that anyone would think otherwise just demonstrates the hubris that PFL promotes concerning itself.
Here's the thing - as a former pro-life atheist, I think I know a thing or two about how discipleship works.
Women have abortions because they don't want to obey the natural law. Catholics, especially priests, are supposed to image the divine law by obeying it.
If Fr. Pavone insists on doing his own thing, if he insists on being disobedient, then he mirrors the attitude of the pro-abort woman.
That makes him a rotten model.
It makes PFL a rotten model.
These things are good enough reason to shut the whole PFL organization down.
The terrible part of this mess is that so many seem to think that it is Fr Frank alone that has brought victory to the prolife cause. That is such a sad comment on the hundreds of steadfast people at every level of society who have labored for years in defense of the unborn innocents and their mothers.
What I find troubling is how often Fr frank says he has done what noboday else ever has, devoting his life to stopping abortion. Again it seems an awful slap in the face of all the dedicatd volunteers at Mother Helping Centers and Pro-life lobbing groups, like NRLC and their volunteer chapter members, that have sacrificed so much for so long to provide help to mothers in crisis and to successfully pass solid pro-life laws!
Not to mention the many humble, yet valiant pro-life priests who have quietly used their lives in the holy priesthood to teach and preach consistently about the life issues. I personally know many of these priests and none of them are members of priests for life. I think I know why. Humility just does what is right with out fanfare.
I am praying that pro-life people will remember that this is a true cause for everyone to do their part. Our successes have been because of steady, truthful, voices raised together to use our talents and social systems to bring about change. Strorming heaven while we do!
I am sure that Pavone would agree that there is Unity in the pro-life movement and that as a whole all of those working to END abortion make up the body of it. The true matter here is that there is a Bs called Zurek who has it in for a priest with a voice. Who knows maybe this so called "Sheperd" is in the pocket of some politicians who want to silence Pavone and shut down PFL. The massacre of the innocent continues. If you all read the facts PFL is one of the biggest orgs making a dent in this massacre. "Non sunt facienda mala ut eveniant bona" (We must not do evil, even in order that some good may come).
I am sure that Pavone would agree that there is Unity in the pro-life movement and that as a whole all of those working to END abortion make up the body of it. The true matter here is that there is a Bs called Zurek who has it in for a priest with a voice. Who knows maybe this so called "Sheperd" is in the pocket of some politicians who want to silence Pavone and shut down PFL. The massacre of the innocent continues. If you all read the facts PFL is one of the biggest orgs making a dent in this massacre. "Non sunt facienda mala ut eveniant bona" (We must not do evil, even in order that some good may come).
From the Sept 23, 2011, Washington Post, "A leading Catholic anti-abortion group whose leader is under scrutiny for failing to disclose financial details reported a $1.4 million deficit in 2010 despite collecting tens of millions of dollars in donations during recent years."
From what I can see, Bishop wants to know how you can be $1.4 million short when you're collecting tens of millions each year.
That reeks of financial mismanagement.
I think it's a fair question.
So taking on a town on sodomy somehow equates to higher on the sin challening monitor than taking on the universal culture of death - that is .... murdering of the most vulnerable and killing souls/spirits along with the massacre - just because the neighborhoods are different: the smaller somehow seeming more manageable for local type journalism or something?
Ridiculous argument and choices for comparison.
kris,
Try to pay attention.
We are not comparing mortal sins, we are comparing the humility and obedience of two priests, each of whom simply happen to be fighting a mortal sin.
Priest #1 tries (and fails) to found a religious order that was so badly managed Rome herself had to shut it down (Missionaries of the Gospel of Life).
Priest #1 raised donor cash by promising to build a seminary dedicated to training priests in his cause. But, not only did he completely ignore the seminarians who mistakenly thought he was serious, he LIED to the donors, and actually used the money for other things.
Priest #1 has raised tens of millions of dollars by putting his face on every billboard and his name on every funding letter, but is still over $1.4 MILLION short in his accounts.
Priest #1 actually let the 501c(3) designation of one of his own major organizations lapse. The IRS will undoubtedly investigate. That organization will undoubtedly get slapped with fines at the very least.
“If it still is collecting tax-deductible donations, it’s collecting under false pretenses,” said Vaughn James, a Texas Tech University Law School tax law expert. “I know the IRS won’t take it lying down.”
When he's called by a concerned Bishop #1 to explain these things, Priest #1 immediately yells "persecution!" His cult of followers roundly attack Bishop #1 for DARING to show concern about Priest #1's constant irresponsibility and occasional outright lies.
They impute all kinds of political motivations to Bishop #1, even though the Priest #1 has a clear history as an irresponsible liar. There is zero evidence that Bishop #1 has any political motivation at all.
What about Priest #2 ?
Priest #2, who speaks out about another aspect of mortal sin in the culture of death:
did not mis-manage anyone's funds,
did not lie to anyone,
did not ignore, harm or destroy anyone's sacramental vocation.
He simply taught what the Church teaches.
Unlike Bishop #1, Bishop #2 actively denounced Priest #2's orthodox teachings as "his personal opinion and not the teaching of the Church."
Bishop #2 explicitly insists that the government requires him to remove Priest #2 from his parish (Bishop #2 is worried about the IRS).
Priest #2 responds by publicly doubling down on his vocation to be a good, holy and obedient priest.
Now, which of these priests did what his Father asked of him?
Bravo, Steve!
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