UPDATE 29 March:
It seems that an option for confessions for the non-jabbed has been added to the schedule.
I note with fascination that, although the priest there seems to be extremely worried about infectious penitents, he will have “face to face” confessions!
Is there some dissonance?
UPDATE 29 March:
Yes, this is a real thing. I saw an email from someone who called the parish and spoke to the priest there. He confirmed: “I asked if I was aware of being in a serious state of sin and asked him to hear my confession, would he do it, even though I wasn’t “vaccinated” and he said no.”
Published on: Mar 28, 2021
All. GO TO CONFESSION… while you still can.
I picked this up from Ann Barnhardt.
What think you of this?
I went to the parish website. HERE
Yes, it really does say that.
Confessions Are Now Available
for Those Who Are Vaccinated
Only those vaccinated may come to the Sacrament of Penance in order to protect yourself, and more importantly, to protect others in case you are asymptomatic and contagious.
“Only those vaccinated…”.
I am wondering if there could be a justifiable reason for this, for example, an almost exclusively elderly demographic of high risk parishioners… maybe the priests themselves are frail… perhaps the Bishop of Trenton ordered this… maybe…. maybe… maybe.
Surely this parish has provisions also for those who are not vaccinated. After all, Catholic morals should allow for those who choose not to receive any of the troubling vaccines to have a sacramental life.
But there is nothing on their website suggesting that.
I’ve heard of the “principle of the double effect”.
Is there now a “principle of the double jab?”
Does this pastor now wield the power to excommunicate? After all, the excommunicated can’t receive the sacraments until the censure is lifted, absolution is imparted.
In Monmouth Beach, absolution is injected.
An exercise of the power of the syringes.
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This is one of those things where the faithful of that parish are clearly justified to pull out all the stops and simply demand their rights until they are satisfied. They need to find out who ordered this and not cease applying all moral and ethical pressure until it is reversed. A letter to the papal nuncio is in order too. And if it were my parish or diocese, neither would get a nickel from me until this abomination were ended and an apology issued.
Finally, we still need to pray for a vaccine for insanity, far more of a threat today than anything else that may be going around.
Andrew Saucci got it so right, I can only second it. The only word for this is outrageous. What on God’s green earth has happened to Western man, to make him so quickly turn to fascism and abandon all concepts of liberty.
This demands action. Catholics in that area need to make themselves heard and in no uncertain terms. Numbers, friends, numbers.
On a related note, a pregnant mother in Dallas was recently arrested by 3 officers DURING Mass. She was not wearing a mask, and the priest, from the altar, called the police on her and had her arrested. She is not allowed to ever return to that church. She was with her family, her children. The woman’s name is Deidre, I cannot recall the parish. What manner of priests are these!!
Amazing. You can pick up just about any book about the lives of the saints and come across more than a few that lived during Black Death – you know, that plague that killed half of the population of Europe, rather that 0.1% of the population, half of which are in nursing homes – and you find these saints ministering to the sick and dying (with no masks or shots). Many of these saints subsequently succumbed. Today, we see nothing of the sort from our priests and bishops. They are more scared than anyone, all for the sake of Safety Theater.
Deliver us Dear Lord, from the crazies.
reason #123456 I have almost lost faith in the Church leadership, the Pastor for implementing this, his superiors for not stopping it in it’s tracks and the Bishops for tacitly approving such idiocy. And I’m afraid Francis is approving.
Not to mention face masks and hand sanitizer as a liturgy, sanitize hands adjust mask and glasses say mass adjust glasses and mask over and over again. Just who does he think he is going to infect up there at the altar anyway? Communion distributors going pew to pew with the host, (every other row is empty) but heaven forbid a communion rail, handling the backs of the pews as they go
Seems the ones that claim moral authority have gone bat crap stupid !
It’s to the point I just don’t even want to go anymore, all I get is upset at stupid
If the priest is at high risk, he could have directed the congregation to a neighboring parish for confession, but since he didn’t it’s reasonable to assume he intends to coerce you to vaxx.
Speaking of syringes, a brief switcheroo of GK Chesterton’s “Lepanto” to “Syringe.”:
Covid needles in the courts of the Son,
And the Princes of Build Back Better laughing at the shunned;
There is silence in the church and Wuhan Virus feared,
The Confessional is boarded up, the sign reading, “I’m skirred.”
Apparently, as this decade progresses we faithful Catholics will have numerous opportunities to excel in the vineyards of the Lord.
Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
So, that church is in the Diocese of Trenton, eh? It seems the parish barque could use some motivation:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11417
And in this brief video note the narrator’s first sentence, “He knew where the fighting was thickest is where a chaplain might be needed the most.”
https://youtu.be/lLR-rJYPlQo&t=26
Lemme’ get one more in. I’m not sure what happened in France back in the 1980s that got the Faithful riled up, but a crowd in front of a church is singing “Christus Vincit” while a group of men use a battering ram against the sealed church doors. That’s the spirit, God bless ’em.
https://youtu.be/gIUrJp-IyUU&t=24m45s
Part of this leads me to ask a question – has this parish been denied the sacrament the entire last year and does this place only do face-to-face? I know some priests have refused to do confessions until this thing blew over, in which case this might be a loosening if he was one of those, but there is no way to square this with the penitent’s right to anonymity.
If confessions have been going on, then this falls into the evil and stupid category – imposing stricter conditions even though the risk has decreased if one buys into the efficacy of whatever is in those syringes.
Fathers – not to take needless risks, but remember the passage that those who try to save their life end up losing it. If perchance delivering the sacraments to the faithful happens to bring illness death, that passage is also pretty hopeful that you’ll be rewarded for that.
The one church is named after the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, and these other Christs won’t hear somebody’s confession unless he or she is vaccinated?! (And the other is named for a martyr, willing to give her life for love of God.) God have mercy on us!
“If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand.”
I’m just saying.
This is so unnecessary. Even during the worst of the China virus panic, a parish we frequent here in our diocese set up drive by and/or walk up confessionals where you could go, so we never lost access to the sacrament. Where there is a will there is a way.
People forget that these vaccines are experimental, were rushed into production without the usual longer term testing. They also use a totally new approach to providing immunity that has never been done before. We have no idea what the long term effects are going to be.
For those of us who have had the virus by ‘tradition’, are we relagated to the fringe? …sigh..Some things never change.
It only takes a little imagination to figure out how to offer confession safely while still taking the virus seriously. Set up a screen that the priest can sit behind. On the side of the screen to which the faithful come, do not put a chair or anything else the faithful have to touch or handle. In order to minimize the time at the confession screen, the faithful can be encouraged to keep their confession short and to confess only grave sins. The faithful walk up to the screen, while other faithful remain at a distance, and confess their sins simply and concisely. Father then gives absolution. Done – and risks associated with the virus have been appropriately managed. It’s neither complicated nor difficult. In fact, it’s less complicated than verifying that people have been vaccinated, which, come to think of it can’t be really be done while respecting the penitents anonymity.
If I were a parishioner at this parish, I would be tempted to move on and find another parish as the importance of the sacraments is clearly not recognized or respected at this one.
I actually went to this website and sent them an e-mail that said, “You’re going to risk someone’s immortal soul over a stupid vaccine?” I also brought up the matter of people being barred from church simply because a medical condition makes it dangerous for them to WEAR a mask. Let’s see what they have to say…if they even bother to answer, since I’m not a member of that parish.
My parish is in the general area. My pastor has still retained the use of his cerebral cortex and logic, so sanity prevails. All is well.
Carry on.
I’m going to confession on Holy Saturday. When the covid panic was at its height, I was still able to go to confession since the priest set up a pretty ingenious method that kept the priest and penitent safe. Things are pretty well back to normal. The number of cases are dropping and I see people going around without masks. I think we are all sick and tired of this constant ginning up of covid panic.
Who wants to bet that this parish doesn’t really have anyone showing-up for confession anyway?
This is a punative act against people who are making the best medical decisions for themselves and their families, and for not walking in lock step with what some controlling and abusive personality is attempting to force upon them.
No one has a right to compel another to vaccinate or not vaccinate. Even during the Small Pox pandemic of the early 1900s Pastor Henning Jacobson, who refused to vaccinate, was not compelled to do so. Rather he paid a fee of $5 and went about his life. The Supreme court in Jacobson v Massachusetts did not deem forced vaccination constitutional. This has been settled law in these US of A for over a century. Neither the Church, nor any of it’s representatives has the civil or cannonical authority to justify such extreme and punative actions which countermand the very mission of Christ’s Church on Earth: the Salvation of Souls.
First of all, the pandemic is over.
Secondly, the disease only had a fraction of a percent mortality rate. What was it .04%? .004%? Either way, it was negligible. There are far more deadly diseases endemic in the populations at our churches that have never been regulated in such a maner, nor should they be.
My understanding is that the vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 do not prevent the vaccinated person from contracting nor from spreading the virus that causes the CoVID-19 disease. It’s only reported advantage is to reduce the symptoms of CoVID-19, once the person has contracted it. People die from the symptoms of the disease CoVID-19, not from contracting the virus SARS-CoV-2 which it is caused by. Just like with HIV and AIDS, one may live a long life after having contracted the HIV virus. It is the symptoms of the AIDS disease caused by HIV that causes illness and death. In reality, if we want to be particular, the vaccinated person is less likely to be symptomatic and therefore more likely to unwittingly pass the virus on to others. One could argue that it is the vaccinated that pose a greater threat of transmission.
But as mentioned before, with such a low mortality rate, the point is moot.
This then begs the question of motive.
Because there is no medical purpose for the rule, there must me another motivating factor. I believe these rules are be politically motivated.
Perception of vaccines and masks tend to correlate with political views.
If a person is NOT wearing a mask, they are politically conservative. Some conservatives may wear masks and all liberals absolutely do. Vaccines follow a similar pattern.
As with the parish who had law enforcement remove a pregnant mother who was faint and did not wear a mask while holding her one year old child and kneeling in a pew moments after having received Communion, it is an obvious over reach and abuse of the Church’s authority in the life of the faithful. Recent studies as well as all data prior to the advent of CoVID-19 have shown that the masks being promoted do not protect the wearer from contracting airborne disease, nor do they reduce transmission. This is not the intent of these surgical masks. They are intended to prevent bodily fluids from entering the mouth and nose during a surgical procedure. This fact was originally attested to by Dr. Fucci. The CDC website did not recommend mask wearing when I thoughroughly searched it a couple months ago during the peak of reported cases of CoVID.
During the aforementioned Small Pox pandemic,incidentally, mask wearers had the highest mortality rate.
We are now seeing in places such as Florida and was it Norway (?), where no measures were mandated, CoVID-19 had less of an impact.
These parish rules are attacks on the politically conservative faithful.
What is obviously at the root of these attacks on conservative Catholics is a desire on the part of liberal Catholics and by that I mean those who are aligned with the Democrat Party in terms of being pro abortion, pro gay marriage and anti family, is to expel from the Church politically Conservative parishioners, that is to say those who are are pro life, pro traditional marriage and pro family….your basic Catholic values.
There is no medical reason to turn away a non vaccinated person, therefore the policy is a direct attack on a person’s political views.
But here’s the silver lining….
It goes both ways.
We know that the Lavender Mafia and their allies are liberal in their political leanings, especially those who viciously attack Conservative Catholics. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI determined that those responsible for child predation in our Church were part of this faction that has infiltrated all levels of the Magisterium, as per the witness of Pope Paul VI
Actions speak louder than words. If they know us by our cheeks full of color and smiling faces, we most assuredly know them by their actions. Here these serpents have shown themselves for who they really are…they are no longer cloying and hidden. May Our Lady smash their heads with her heel!
Now you know. Take note of who they are and move on. Oblige them by getting your families clear of them and their parishes and diocese. Your soul cannot be nourished in such a parish or diocese run by wicked men and the threat to children in those parishes and dioceses is real and documented and verifiable.
You asked for our views. Them’s mine.
Liberal= pro birth control
Liberal= pro abortion
Liberal= pro gay
Liberal= small and/or anti family
Liberal= mask
Liberal= vaccinated
Pedophile= liberal
I’m not saying all liberals are pedophiles, but their politics align more closely and then there are the cliches of birds of a feather, water rising to it’s own level, you can’t smell the stink when you live in a septic tank.
I’ll stick with a conservative flock, thank you very much.
I think many of these priests and bishops have been embolden, just like the political liberals. They are afraid of conservatives. If we will be so staunch about a mask or a shot, they know we will be even more adamant about protecting children. This is the true crux of the issue. They want to live and act as per their deviant predilictions and they can’t do it with a gal in a veil standing up and saying “Not on my watch!”
One wonders how (and what) that particular priest would do if he were an army or navy Chaplain rather than a parish priest ?
My dear late dad saw a larger picture behind the dumb (and erroneous) idea of forced exclusive reception of Holy Communion in the hand. He said, “It’s the focus on fear of getting sick – rather than on Who is really coming to us in Holy Communion.”
. . . Focus on fear of getting sick. . . With which in the current context, we seem to have some (largely untested, unproven in neither short nor long-term, and yet without any accurate risk profile) vaccines presently vying for the title of “savior.”
Did you guys know that last year in the government-run long-term care centers (nursing homes) here, because of COVID-19 protocol most priests were prevented from physically going in to administer the Anointing of the Sick to the patients ? Instead, they would skype with them on a tablet or laptop. . . fear of getting sick.
May we defer to Fr. Damien of Molokai ?
We’re afraid to get sick; we’re afraid to die; and we’re even afraid to live. . . Fear, fear, fear. . . let’s all have a fear party ! – Bring as much fear as you can and let’s all get drunk on it .
(In the meantime, I’m going to take Father Z’s advice and try to make it to Confession today “while I can” . . . not a whole lot of fear left once we come out of the confessional from making a valid Confession. It’s a sacrament of “healing” .)
:)
This is not a case of an immune compromised priest trying to maintain health. If he had the true spirit of Christ in him he would find a way to tend to his sheep.
One can use a voice and hearing amplification device as long as you can see eachother. A plate of plexiglass and a phone on either side would also do the trick. There are solutions where there is a willingness.
Kathleen the priest was Pastor Milton Ryan, C.M. at Holy Trinity in Dallas, Texas….you know, the diocese where Bishop Edward J. Burns, is preparing for another attack, er em, Synod on the Family. (It’s time for us to being attentive to their names).
There are good people in that parish and diocese.
Pray God deliver these good people from obtuse and abusive shepherds. Or better… for the conversion of these shepherds to Catholic Christianity and the dutiful fulfillment of their calling.
It looks like the website has now been updated with an option for non-vaccinated people.
Stories like this make me so grateful for the example of our fine priests here, who have been offering Confessions twice daily throughout the pandemic! Please, Lord, send worthy men to minister to Your flock!
Too many ‘shepherds’ seem to be hirelings that care more for the health of the body than the health of the souls in their care. My parish has been open, we do not wear the mask of enslavement, there is no registering or limiting and no one is turned away. Come to one our two daily Masses with confessions offered as well. And no one–repeat, no one–has been sick all this past year. I have never work a ‘mask’ to speak of. I do not watch the news which helps to not live in fear of a 99% survivable ‘virus’. Will not take the experimental gene therapy jab.
I am tempted to say: where is the bishop with this foolish priest. But I guess I know better – that is, I know worse – too many of the bishops are old women afraid of their own shadow, and too many of them have only enough backbone to be harsh toward tradition, nobody else.
But the truly horrific thing about this priest’s actions is that he is being stupid about it even granting what he thinks are legitimate fears. There are perfectly good ways of dealing with the risks OTHER than just denying sacraments to those who haven’t gotten the vaccine. For goodness sake, in much of the country the vaccine STILL ISN’T AVAILABLE even if you want it and intend to get it. ( For a while, in some locales even the aged and most at risk were unable to sign up and get it because of mismanaged supplies and scheduling.) This priest’s approach is jarringly uncharitable to those who cannot GET the vaccine, either from limited availability or from having a condition that makes the vaccine itself too risky for them. And the bishop should be intervening and getting such priests back to rational (and charitable) behavior, instead of hunkering down and pulling the covers over his eyes.
“Kathleen the priest was Pastor Milton Ryan, C.M. at Holy Trinity in Dallas, Texas….” The bishop of Dallas is His Excellency Edward J. Burns.
We must NAME THEM. Every time. Silence is where they hide.
I am glad that an option for the non-vaccinated now exists, but I had to laugh* that it will be face-to-face…in some of the parishes where I’ve been privileged to receive this Sacrament over the last 12 months, the face-to-face option was abolished precisely because of a COVID precaution…the Confessional screen, reinforced with an extra layer of muslin or something similar, being a natural barrier…
*NB: I realize it’s no joking matter that the non-vaccinated are having their canonical rights to an anonymous confession (Can. 964.2) stripped of them… The blog Canon Law Made Easy has a post on this subject, from 2009!: https://canonlawmadeeasy.com/2009/10/29/confession-by-appointment-and-face-to-face/
“I asked if I was aware of being in a serious state of sin and asked him to hear my confession, would he do it, even though I wasn’t ‘vaccinated’ and he said no.”
Padre Jose in The Power and the Glory could have said the same thing. Unfortunately, it seems as though all too many like Padre Jose are out there these days.
I wonder why confessions for the non-vaccinated need to be face-to-face. Is that to out the non-vaccinated? If so, isn’t that a violation of the sacramental seal? Aren’t priests forbidden to use any information they learn by way of the Sacrament, for any purpose whatsoever?
If that were my parish, all donations would cease and I would never darken its doors again.
I wrote to both the pastor and the bishop yesterday,when I first saw this post, expressing my concern. Here is the letter to the pastor. My email to the bishop underscored these concerns.
Dear Fr. Sullivan,
I read in your bulletin that vaccinations are required before one can receive the sacrament of confession. Is this requirement in effect to receive other sacraments such as the sacrament of the sick? Baptism? The Eucharist? Confirmation? Marriage?
If you are wondering why both Mass attendance and donations are down, look no further than this policy forcing an untested vaccine derived from the cells of aborted infants under horrific circumstances or tested on the cells so derived to understand the diminishing of the faith, the faithful, and the money that supports the Church.
May God forgive you and all prelates who are leaving so many of your flock bereft of the sacraments and the grace that comes with them. You are all in my prayers.
Here is a video of that young pregnant woman mentioned by Kathleen10 above, Deidre, who was evicted from Mass for not wearing a mask. She is being interviewed by Taylor Marshal in the video and it contains a clip of the police threatening to arrest her if she doesn’t leave. As she naturally protests at this injustice, a policewoman tells her that the Mass is “a business”!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOfFd_BBAn4&t=1471s
In this a sign of what is in store for us if we don’t comply with the NWO Great Reset? I fear that this is just a sign of the beginning of a coming persecution for faithful Catholics, and especially for our good orthodox priests (like Father Z).
KateD: Outstanding. Well done. And an excellent point also here:
“There are good people in that parish and diocese.
Pray God deliver these good people from obtuse and abusive shepherds. Or better… for the conversion of these shepherds to Catholic Christianity and the dutiful fulfillment of their calling.”
There are good people and good news. In Amsterdam recently Wuhan Virus Lockdown protesters have been protected by medical personnel and veterans against riot police. In Florida Gov. DeSantis told the Death Party Regime in Washington demanding more masks and lockdowns to pound sand. In Israel passengers on a plane resisted when the flight crew attempted to kick a family off the plane because a young child was not wearing a mask. In Tennessee the state legislature passed a permitless handgun carry bill and sent it to the Governor. In Arkansas the Save Adolescents from Experimentation bill would prohibit puberty blockers.
That’s good news. Now if you want great news get a good night’s sleep with a MyPillow and promo code “Poso.”
p.s. Recently in the pages of the Spectator a budding scribbler mocked Mike Lindell in a so-called “charming” article. Well, Mike Lindell pulled his life together, founded a company, and employs hundreds of people, he also supports President Trump. The scribbler is frustrated with moving back to her parent’s house, thus her mood and mockery targeted Mike Lindell.
May God bless and assist that woman as she examines her conscience and considers her future.
It seems pretty clear that the (NJ) priest chose wrongly – and on top of that, executed badly.
That having been said, however…
Reading comments here and elsewhere in social media, I’m dismayed at the general level of vitriol and lack of charity directed at the priest (and the bishop)!
–
I know some things about the area, though I don’t know the priest.
–
The bishop
Reading multiple comments finding fault with him as allowing this or directing this, as blogs and social media cross-pollinate their outrage, reminds me of a Facebook discussion page for my hometown. So many get on to curse town hall and DPW for not patching the pothole on their street or missing bulk pickup, but none of them called or emailed town hall or the DPW to report it.
Nobody has made the case that the bishop knew about it (or somehow should have known about it, as if he’s reading 200 surveillance dossiers at breakfast each day). It’s far more likely he heard about it the same way we all did and simply made a phone call – the situation changed in a couple of hours, remember?
I’m not saying Bishop McConnell is perfect (I’ve got a grievance or two with him myself), but he was appointed specifically by Benedict and is pretty solid and not inclined to flighty stuff.
–
The Priest
I’ve seen maybe one person allude to the possibility of Father’s experience the past year.
None of us has walked even 50 feet in his shoes and has no idea of what he might have gone through the last 13 months to prompt that wrong decision.
He’s a pastor, of two parishes (as if one wasn’t enough), in a moderately-hit area of a heavily-hit state, in a pandemic which is NOT over yet, located near three hospitals, located near a lot of nursing homes (I think one of his parishes did the visiting ministry at one of the rehab/LTC my late father was in at one point). We on the outside have no idea how badly his parishes were hit by the pandemic so far as illnesses and deaths. The regional economy – his parishioners – has taken a big hit. One of his parishes is a summer area that lost its peak season last year and his other borders a closed Army base where redevelopment proceeds at a glacial pace – so he’s got a lot to deal with in the temporal survival realities of the two.
We on the outside don’t know about what he might have suffered or lost personally these last thirteen months.
So maybe it would be prudent to exercise a little compassion, remember our priests aren’t invulnerable, and restrain ourselves (if we MUST speak) to questions and constructive criticism.
Charivari Rob: A reminder about tactfulness is fair. Note this matter concerns a priest denying a sacrament over a morally problematic vaccination, political ideology is often involved.
“We on the outside don’t know about what he might have suffered or lost personally these last thirteen months.”
There are no plague carts rumbling through the streets for the Wuhan Virus. Furthermore, there were Catholic priests doing the Lord’s work in the Coliseum, evangelizing the barbarians in the Old World, persevering during the Great Plague, evangelizing hostile Indians in the New World, at the guillotine and in the Vendee, in a Hawaiian leper colony, in the Gulag and the Camps, on the battlefield and in rough parishes. You may be getting a little carried away with your indignation and your Caps Lock. Cheers.
@Masked Chicken – Are you still around, or are you man overboard? Curious if your positions have modified any as all of this has progressed.
There is no logic to this. Father is vaccinated. What about people who have had covid? What about people who have had adverse reactions to vaccines? Or people who can’t get the vaccine yet?
On what grounds does a priest make up rules for his parish about a SACRAMENT? A sacrament we are required to get during the Easter season.
Can every priest make up requirements for sacraments? Like, sure, you can have non-Catholic godparents and name your child Chimney. Sure, your 3 year old can receive Communion and your non-Catholic in-laws too. In our parish, those are the rules!
Where could this possibly lead?
On another note I cried at the movie clip of a reverent Mass and a penitent soul (Deanna Durbin) from an old 2020 post. We have lost so much.