Fr. Scahill, Pope basher

You all know about the contumacious antics of Fr. James Scahill, a priest of St. Michael’s Parish in East Longmeadow, MA in the Diocese of Springfield. 

Father Scahill says, "The church will not have myopic obedience from me like the myopic obedience of the soldiers of Hitler."
 
He accused Pope Benedict of lying and has called for the pope to resign. Fr. Scahill states the pope is lying about his own involvement in covering sex abuse of children. The comments were made as a part of Fr. Scahill’ sermon.
 
A past story about Fr. Scahill.

A statement was released by Springfield Bishop McDonnell. 

    “There is a sad irony in that Father Scahill’s remarks were delivered on Divine Mercy Sunday,” said McDonnell, adding the church has expressed “tremendous sorrow, sadness and shame” about clergy abuse cases.
    “The church leadership knows how difficult it is for those who have suffered abuse at the hands of clergy who should have been signs of God’s love rather than inflictors of pain,” the bishop said.”Here in the Diocese of Springfield, as in trouble throughout the United States and beyond, we are vigilant in the efforts undertaken to ensure such tragedies can never happen again.”

 

So… is Fr. Scahill still in his parish?

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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34 Comments

  1. TJerome says:

    I guess he would have only been removed for restoring the TLM to the principle Sunday Mass. If the bishop himself has to take over the parish, this guy should go, now.

  2. TJerome says:

    I went to the parish’s website and it says” A welcoming Roman Catholic Christian Community..” I guess it might be, except for the Pope. If this priest isn’t removed, then the Bishop is a huge weenie. And his weakness will only invite more of this sort of thing.

  3. lofstrr says:

    It seems that with Fr. Scahill’s talents and particular pastoral focus, that he is long over do for a promotion to a dark closet in the chancery offices.

  4. Massachusetts Catholic says:

    This priest is a longtime favorite of Voice of the Faithful. He won one of their “Priests of Integrity” awards in November 2004. In those heady days, he called for the jailing of a number of bishops (by name) to thunderous applause. It’s not surprising he’s being courted by the networks and newspapers. Here is a link to a story from the Boston Globe on him, at an iffy website: http://themcglynn.com/?p=26608

  5. Jaybirdnbham says:

    You mention that Fr. Scahill made these comments against the Holy Father during his sermon.
    This says a LOT (and nothing very good) about his parishioners, if they actually sat there and listened to this, and didn’t get up and walk out in the middle of his homily.

  6. robkphd says:

    Non Serviam, eh? Reminds me of a few other quotes.

    How about Jeremiah 2:20 “For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds;and you said, ‘I will not serve.’”

    Perhaps Othelo “You are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you.”

    Or maybe Paradise Lost” Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”

  7. SGCOLC says:

    I live in this diocese, and I must say, the Bishop is known more for being a “nice guy,” than for firmness of discipline. I’m surprised he made as strong a statement as he did. He’s close to retirement…

  8. TNCath says:

    Not only is Father Scahill still in his parish, but does he still have faculties?

    Stories like this one convince me more and more that every diocese should open a diocesan jail for people like Father Scahill.

  9. Theodorus says:

    Why hasn’t the bishop remove this wolf in shepherd’s clothing? A priest who goes to hell surely won’t go there alone.

  10. William says:

    Whenever you come upon a member of the Catholic clergy who liberally sprinkles his speech and writings with the word “tremendous,” you know you’re dealing with a dinosaur. When all this madness took off in the early 60’s, everything was either “tremendous” or “dynamic.” These words always produce an involuntary eye-roll.

  11. steve jones says:

    I don’t get the past story concerning Scahill. What does it prove?

    We certainly need a Tea Party culture in the Church but I have fears that Scahill and his supporters are missing something. The TPM wish to return America to the constitution and the vision of the Founding Fathers. The Catholic equivalent of such a dynamic would surely be a fundamentalist return to the Magisterium and unstinting loyalty to the Holy Father by its members. Scahill wants the opposite though: an extension of the very liberal model where abuse (in all its forms) and incompetent bishops thrived.

    What concerns me about the present generation of hierarchy (I live in England), is that nothing seems to have been learnt from the post-conciliar mess. It’s as if we are now in Act IV of Shakespeare’s King Lear as the post-conciliar chaos (established in the first few Acts) runs its course until it destroys itself during the play’s denouement.

    Scahill seems to be a one trick pony and incapable of “making connections”. I

  12. JosephMary says:

    So… is Fr. Scahill still in his parish?

    Sure he is and Fr. Pfleger is still in his. You will not find the likes of either of them in the diocese of Lincoln, for example, where the bishop has a backbone.

    You can be nice all you want but if you tolerate evil and you tolerate dissent when it is your responsibility to be on guard, it may not be enough for heaven, at least not right away.

  13. SGCOLC says:

    What I want to know about Fr. Scahill is: he’s been a priest for 36 years. In all that time, he has heard nothing through the “priestly grapevine” that he could speak out about, except regarding the fund for the support of abusive priests? I hadn’t heard anything about him until he started the stink about that fund. I know other priests much younger than him who HAVE heard things, so why is it only money that motivates him to speak out? Maybe he has spoken out, and I haven’t heard. I’m just asking…

  14. deborah-anne says:

    Response to past story about Fr. Scahill–Certainly a priest has every right to disagree with his bishop, however, there is no excuse for doing it in public as it can do more harm than good. A wise holy man should know this. He got what he deserved!

    As for his recent antics, I read the statement yesterday and felt disgust. How the heck does he know the Holy Father is lying? Where’s the evidence? Total absurdity. This is so scandalous. Each day it gets harder to get out of bed and face the headlines about my beloved Catholic Church and my country.

  15. Emilio III says:

    This is another example of why we must pray for our priests and bishops. When Our Lord picked the first twelve, He chose eleven cowards and one traitor. I’m afraid the ratios have not changed THAT much…

  16. TJerome says:

    So he’s been a priest for 36 years, which means he was ordained in 1974. Nuff said.

  17. Cath says:

    deborah-anne, when I get overwhelmed by all this I read this quote from John Senior in the “Death of Christian Culture”.

    “There is little comfort in the visible Church now. The liturgy, set upon by thieves, is lying in the ditch: contemplatives are mouthing political slogans in the streets; nuns have lost their habits along with their virtues, virgins their virginity, confessors their consciences, theologians their minds. And, if this is true, it is a “happy chance!”- because there is absolutely no reason left to be Catholic now except the only one there ever really was-that in the invisible life of the Church you will find the love of Christ.”

    been reading it a lot lately :)

  18. Oneros says:

    Fr Scahill is a hero. He with-held money from the diocese until an abuser was defrocked! And jailing bishops? I can get behind that.

    It’s no heresy to call for the resignation of the Pope. THAT sort of authoritarian culture (wherein people would be removed for something like that) is exactly what CAUSED this crisis.

    He’s not going to be removed. It would look absolutely ridiculous if they started removing people for things they say in response to the crisis (even, unfortunately, heretical things like Fr Phleger)…when they didn’t even remove child molesters for years on end. They simply lack the moral authority to pull something like that, it would reveal their totally out-of-order priorities. You can’t remove a guy for this if you don’t remove child molesters. That’s how the media would spin it, not totally unjustifiably.

    I wonder how you Neocon/trads would have treated Dante for putting the Pope in hell…

  19. Oneros says:

    “This priest is a longtime favorite of Voice of the Faithful.”

    A group which, by the way, does not call for any changes to church doctrine (at least not part of their official platform).

    They are often confused with other groups like “We Are Church” and “Call to Action” but they very deliberately chose the word “faithful” and it is made up largely of people who want structural institutional reform, but without changing any doctrines. You can hold that position!

  20. eulogos says:

    Here is an article which points out that Fr. Scahill himself was aware of accusations of abuse, but chose to ignore them.

    http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/massachusetts/what-did-rev.-scahill-know-about-abuse

    When asked why he didn’t report this or investigate further he said something to the effect that
    “The atmosphere in the parish was relaxed, so I went with that.”

    Susan Peterson

  21. TJerome says:

    Oneros, after reading what Susan Peterson posted, is Scahill still your hero?

  22. Massachusetts Catholic says:

    Steve Jones, The past article shows that Fr. Scahill has been beating the same drum for a long time.

    Oneros, If Voice of the Faithful is confused with Call to Action, it’s for good reason. I don’t have much time, but I remembered this event, sponsored by VOTF, which brought an Aussie bishop, Bishop Robinson, to Massachusetts to accept an award after Cardinal O’Malley joined a public statement with other bishops asking him not to tour the US. Here is one URL: http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/nct/001_nct_300508.php

  23. Magpie says:

    Oneros:

    VOTF say they are faithful, but are they really?

    Let’s see: http://www.seattlecatholic.com/article_20020820_Keep_the_Faith_Change_the_Church.html

  24. torch621 says:

    Newsflash Oneros, that “authoritarian culture” you rant and rave about is the Church that Jesus Christ established. God doesn’t make mistakes.

    But fortunately, there is a church for you that already has the kind of system you want. It’s called the Episcopal Church, and they could always use a few new members (or a few million).

  25. William Tighe says:

    “Authoritarian culture?” If only — then Frs Scahill and Pfleger would be suspended a divinis before you could whistler up your dog, and the latter out on his ear before the “May flowers.”

  26. catholicmidwest says:

    Probably, because the Church puts up with way too much crap. And he’s in Massachusetts where idiocy is the norm.

  27. yatzer says:

    AS for 60’s buzzwords, don’t forget “vibrant”.

  28. A group which, by the way, does not call for any changes to church doctrine (at least not part of their official platform).

    Nonsense. Aside from posting recommendations to the their website for works by well-known dissidents, VOTF calls for a radical undermining of episcopal authority. Only if one takes an eraser to the fourth mark of the Church does the claim above make sense.

  29. DetJohn says:

    To Jaybirdnbham

    According to sister Betty Broghan, the congregation stood up. They didn’t walk out. “They couldn’t help but to rise to their feet and applaud him for his bravery.”

    I saw nothing in the Bishop’s statement that defended the pope.

    The whole incident is a shame.

  30. Justin from Ohio says:

    “So he’s been a priest for 36 years, which means he was ordained in 1974. Nuff said.”

    Comment by TJerome — 14 April 2010 @ 3:20 pm

    I agree TJerome. The good news for us (especially those of us in the younger generation) is that the Fr. Scahill and Fr. Pleger brand of Catholic priest is slowly, but surely, dying out. Priests that have been ordained in the last ten years or so are, by and large, much more orthodox, obedient, and traditional than the generation of priests born from the “spirit of Vatican II.”

    Those priests became priests primarily because they thought it was a way to “change the world” through protests, rupture, a take-over of the Church by the laity, a destruction of the “old ways” of doing things (old architecture, old and silly devotions and prayers, old liturgy, etc. needed to be destroyed).

    The new priests are being ordained because, first and foremost, they love Christ and His Church, they love the successor of Peter, and they love saying Mass. They also tend to love traditional art, architecture, liturgy, sacred music and traditional devotions.

    In another 15-20 years, there will be very, very few of the “spirit of Vatican II” priests left and very many of the new generation of faithful priests. Thanks be to God for that!

  31. robtbrown says:

    Fr Scahill is a hero. He with-held money from the diocese until an abuser was defrocked! And jailing bishops? I can get behind that.

    Laicization (defrocking) comes from Rome, not the diocese. The bishop, however, can immediately remove a priest from any pastoral contact. In fact, there was a time when problem priests were moved to isolated retreat houses and forbidden contact with any people.

    It’s no heresy to call for the resignation of the Pope. THAT sort of authoritarian culture (wherein people would be removed for something like that) is exactly what CAUSED this crisis.

    He’s not going to be removed. It would look absolutely ridiculous if they started removing people for things they say in response to the crisis (even, unfortunately, heretical things like Fr Phleger)…when they didn’t even remove child molesters for years on end. They simply lack the moral authority to pull something like that, it would reveal their totally out-of-order priorities. You can’t remove a guy for this if you don’t remove child molesters. That’s how the media would spin it, not totally unjustifiably.

    It might not be heresy, but it is dumb. I would hope the priest realized that it’s not the pope who removes a priest from ministry, but the ordinary. Further, Cardinal Ratzinger was the one man in Rome who wanted to confront these issues.

    Although I wouldn’t call it authoritarian, I tend to agree with you about the overemphasis on obedience. My impression has been that there is the Ecclesial notion that obedience to a directive that will all but destroy the Church is better than disobedience that will strengthen her. The authoritarian suppression of Latin liturgy and the treatment of Lefebvre are prime examples.

    I wonder how you Neocon/trads would have treated Dante for putting the Pope in hell…
    Comment by Oneros

    See above: The diocesan bishop or head of a religious institute are the ones responsible for removing a priest from pastoral contact.

  32. ipadre says:

    When I read about this the other day, I was sickened. He should be made to apologize publicly and resign from his pastorate. Not only has he betrayed the Church, he has betrayed the pulpit. The pulpit is for proclaiming the Word of God and the teachings of Holy Mother Church, not for bullying. Why is it these wackos get to pull this nonsense off without a hitch and in some corners a priest is punished for proclaiming the truth, or for being “too conservative”!

  33. dwrobles says:

    Please pray for my sister and her family – that is her parish and she has no idea anything is wrong. Thank you.

  34. PostCatholic says:

    Her parish, dwrobles, deserves a lot of credit for withholding their cathedraticum until the slow-acting Bishop McDonnell ended the stipend that child rapist and liar Bishop Dupre was paying to a laicized former priest who was a child rapist and murderer.

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