Pavone is like many progressive social justice warriors, singleminded and determined and very, very independent. Think James Martin, the Barrigan Brothers, Bruce Ritter, the Boston Street priest, Paul Shanely and other independent agent warriors….
I just saw an interview of Frank Pavone, in full collar, with Laura Ingram on her Fox News Show. While she had a couple of good snarky comments, she did say to him, you made a promise of obedience and many priests have to suffer through transfers or new ministries that they really don’t want, but they do it. Good for her.
Pavone is very articulate and he doesn’t leave much room for others to disagree with him. He would be quite difficult for most bishops.
He wants to be in charge of his life, run his show and have no interference with his bishop. I think he would simply like to be a priest in private practice. He wants to be fully in charge.
One can see how difficult he would be for a bishop.
But, like Pope Francis and Pope Francis’ bishops and priests, Pavone is a social justice warrior and kind of like Cardinal Krejeski who helped poor people squatting in an apartment building by breaking civil law to restore electricity to that apartment which was cut off by the authorities to get them out.
Pavone is not a traditionalists in terms of the liturgy and what neo-conservative traditionalists want.
He also seems to have a persecution complex when it comes to his two dioceses. But he might have a point, but he did make a promise of obedience to his bishop and that always entails a bit, no a lot, of humility which seems to be lacking in Pavone.
He clarified the blasphemy charge and I do think that the charge of blasphemy is a bit much and undermines the decision made against Pavone. A simple excommunication would have been better.
This is what Pavone says about the blasphemy charge:
“I went off into some tantrum, and I said ‘G.D. loser Biden supporter.’ I shouldn’t have done that, and I don’t usually do that. It was an unusual moment of anger,” he said, accusing Zurek of blowing the issue out of proportion and making “a theological thing out of it,” saying, “God does not damn these people, Fr. Frank is declaring theologically that God is damning Biden and the Democrats.”
7 comments:
I must admit that priests owe their bishops obedience, even when their assignments are unjust and our current Church has no shortage of priests AND laity who have suffered unjustly at the hands of their bishops--perhaps the weakest and most embarrassing crop of failed prelates since the Renaissance. I would even say that, if he disobeyed an assignment, Fr. Pavone should have instead cooperated. But this whole "he brought it on himself" tone is just a bit much for me.
It is no secret that our pope despises pro-life Catholics. His opposition to abortion has been lip-service at best. While Pavone made no secret of his political leanings, he was no Father Drinan.
After the Arizona "election" was called, Kari Lake famously said, "Arizonans know B.S. when they see it." I would add that Catholics know a sucker-punch when they see it.
This happened because of Pope Francis. This is the pope who complained that a very moderate Archbishop Chaput was too much of an "ideologue", while firing the members of the Pontifical Academy for Life and replacing them with pro-aborts (rather like appointing Nazis to the board of B'nai B'rith). This is the pope, who when he got his photo taken with the most pro-life president (in his actions--not mere words) in U.S. history, stood pouting at the camera to signal his disapproval, because this pope only loves socialists and Marxists. This is the pope who let a known-pervert who had been quietly retired by his predecessor take over the negotiations with China and let them sell out the faithful who suffered for their faith.
There are a lot of us here who look at the doddering imbecile playing president right now (the one who can't keep his hands off the little girls), Nancy Pelosi and other prominent politicians who insist they are "good Catholics" while they continue to persecute the unborn, support sexual perversion and play marriages between the same sexes as a "civil right" and all we get from the Vatican are crickets. He's publicly told the German bishops to slow down on their auto-destruction of the faith (but he hasn't done a darned thing to really stop them) and he openly supports Father James Martin who is an embarrassment to any ordained man. And who does he shoot down?
This pope is very, very selective in his enforcement of canon law. VERY selective.
Yes, Catholics know a sucker-punch when we see it.
If Fr Pavone had not have been fervently opposed to abortion and been pro Obama and pro Biden instead of being pro Trump he could now be a bishop.
Among the interesting aspects in regard to Father Pavone's current situation is that he insisted yesterday that he has enjoyed for years a wonderful relationship with Pope Francis.
Father Pavone has declared repeatedly that Pope Francis is a tremendous pro-life, pro-family Pontiff.
Father Pavone stated yesterday:
"First, to the Holy Father, Pope Francis:
"You have encouraged me personally in my work, in the several conversations we have had over the years."
"In particular you have encouraged me to move forward with the work of healing, through Rachel’s Vineyard, and you have written to my pastoral associate Dr. Theresa Burke to offer the same encouragement."
During the past couple of days I have researched Father Pavone's declarations/relationship with Pope Francis. I have found that Pope Francis, and Father Pavone, have enjoyed several positive encounters throughout Pope Francis' reign.
Time and again, Father Pavone has praised Pope Francis to the hilt as having served as a powerful pro-life, pro-family force within and without the Church.
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On the Priests For Life web site, I found 254 press releases/declarations in which Pope Francis had been praised for his tremendous promotion of pro-family, pro-life, teachings.
https://www.priestsforlife.org/google-search-results.aspx?q=POPE%20FRANCIS
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In light of all of the above, it is a shame that, even if deserved, Father Pavone has befallen into such a negative situation.
Father Pavone has been a tremendous promoter of Pope Francis' powerful and unrelenting holy teachings in regard to the family, as well as Culture of Life.
I pray for Father Pavone.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
MT,
Give it a rest. Jerome Merwick destroyed your “argument.”
“God does not damn these people, Fr. Frank is declaring theologically that God is damning Biden and the Democrats.” There is every possibility that Biden will be damned, or that Trump will be damned; the opportunity for damnation lies open to each of us. The criticism of Frank Pavone should not (and does not) require adopting the heresy of univeralism. The problem with his statement is that it expresses, at face value, a WISH for others to be damned, rather than a FEAR that they will be damned.
Howard I agree with you. God does damn people and his judgements for salvation or damnation are perfect. He doesn’t make mistakes. We do, Pavone does. Only God is perfect in His salvation and in his judgments, be it for heaven, purgatory or hell. God does send people to hell or is the arbiter of that. Is there any human person in hell? The Church has no authority to declare that anyone is in hell, except of course for the fallen angels and Lucifer. There is no “canonization-like process to declare someone is definitively in hell.
A priest of course should not pray that God damn anyone one but rather God alone by his grace will save them. The mission of the Church is to save people not damn them.
Fr McDonald,
Well said. In the last 50 years I have never heard that stated in a sermon at an Novus Ordo Mass because we have evolved into the Church of Nice
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