Updated with NCR addition
PHILIP LAWLER TWEETS THIS TODAY:
Before you spend your time and energy defending Pavone, read this background piece-- explaining the trouble he was in more than a decade ago.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE TITLE OF THE OVER 10 YEAR OLD STORY WITH AN EXCERPT BELOW THE TITLE. PRESS TITLE FOR FULL 10 YEAR OLD ARTICLE BY LAWLOR:
Father Pavone's last stand
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 21, 2011
EXCERPT:
When he brought PFL to Amarillo, Father Pavone had ambitious plans to build a seminary there, and found a new religious order dedicated to pro-life activism. He raised enormous sums of money from donors who were encouraged to support that religious order and help build that seminary. But the seminary was never built, and within a couple of years the religious order had been disbanded.
In a revealing Amarillo television interview, Father Pavone admitted that much of the money raised for the seminary had been spent on “the things we did”—the operating expenses of PFL. Since the $10 million annual budget of PFL dwarfs the budget of the Amarillo diocese, it is eminently understandable that diocesan officials—who were hoping that a new seminary would provide benefits for their own pastoral work—would ask pointed questions about those “things we did.”
MORE INSIGHT INTO MR. PAVONE’S LAICIZATION FROM THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, THE ARCH-NEMESIS OF THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER (EWTN):
11 comments:
It would be nice to get an explanation about why this particular financial irregularity was more serious than others on a larger scale. I think it might have to do with which bishop or cardinal got the money.
It seems to me that Pavone is and has been intransigent in his “private practice” of his priesthood. Apart from financial scandals and irregularities, his political activism is forbidden by Church law and was instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in reaction to priests running for public office. In this country, Democrat and Jesuit Joe Drinan was the biggest offender and makes Pavone’s advocacy look like child play.
Liturgically, placing an aborted baby on an altar, makeshift or not, was just plain wrong and then using this poor child to make a political point was exploitation.
I think he was given many chances to change his ways, but the mortal sin of pride got in the way. It is very sad to say the least.
I think, though, one can make a case that right wingers are singled out more than left wingers.
Perhaps a decree of excommunication would have been better, like the one against Fr. Feeny I think, or was it the radio priest, can’t remember. He repented on his deathbed. Laicization without the possibility of appeal seems a bit harsh but maybe there is more than we are being told. Transparency in these high profile cases which can be so polarizing is needed.
Excommunication is never permanent and is a medicine to help lead the evildoer to repentance and restoration.
Fr. Charles Coughlin was the "Radio Priest."
There have been a number of priests who in a way strike out on their own and end up in difficult circumstances. Those who do not have a permanent attachment to a diocese or religious Superior can tend to get a little off-kilter at times. One thinks of Father Bruce Ritter, and also Fr. Coralie, who went off on their own leaving behind their religious orders or their superiors. They ended up in very hot water both of them. I'm afraid Pavone finds himself in the same mess.
Fr K provides a useful context, I was reminded of those examples, too. This is my concern for the entire hierarchy regardless of how ‘fairly’ the punishments are distributed. Especially Pope Francis. Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.
And least Father Pavone does not vote for the Party of Death
Fr. Corapi
St. Franklin de Roosevelt pressured then Cardinal Pacelli to silence Fr. Coughlin who ended up running a highly successful parish in Royal Oak, Michigan, the Shrine of the Little Flower. Coughlin was over the top in his rhetoric, which today, would seem tame compared to the vicious language of the political left in the US where every opponent is a Hitler
I don't think anyone would be questioning this if the law of the western church were applied consistently. It's as the old saying goes, if one doesn't use the authority they have, it effectively becomes useless when one actually does have to use it.
Coughlin's rhetoric was not simply "over the top." He was an antisemite.
"After the 1936 election, Coughlin expressed overt sympathy for the fascist governments of Hitler and Mussolini as an antidote to Communism. He believed Jewish bankers were behind the Russian Revolution, backing the Jewish Bolshevism conspiracy theory. At this time, Coughlin also began to support a far-right organization called the Christian Front, which claimed that he was an inspiration."
"Coughlin promoted his controversial beliefs by means of his radio broadcasts and his weekly rotogravure magazine Social Justice, which began publication in March 1936. During the last half of 1938, Social Justice reprinted weekly installments of the fraudulent, antisemitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
"On November 20, 1938, two weeks after Kristallnacht (the Nazi attack on German and Austrian Jews, their synagogues, and businesses), Coughlin, referring to the millions of Christians who had been killed by the Communists in Russia, said, "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."[66] After this speech, three radio stations—WMCA in New York City, WIND in Gary, Indiana, and WJJD in Chicago—dropped the program the following week on grounds of inciting racial prejudice, with Coughlin accusing them of being under "Jewish ownership". WMCA made their displeasure immediately known, with their booth announcer saying on-air after his November 20 speech, "Unfortunately, Father Coughlin has uttered many misstatements of fact". Station president Donald Flamm viewed an advance copy of the sermon and pressured Coughlin to edit it twice but did not see the final text, which he said "was calculated to stir up religious and racial hatred and dissension in this country". When WIND and WJJD also requested an advance copy of Coughlin's next sermon for prior review and approval, his refusal prompted them to drop the program. On December 18, 1938, thousands of Coughlin's followers picketed WMCA's studios in protest, with some protesters yelling antisemitic statements, such as "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" The protests continued for several months."
There's nothing tame about open antisemitism.
Father K, Antisemitism can be found in academia and the political left - heard of Al Sharpton and Congressman Imar?
Sophia Here: Excellent expose by Ben Shapiro re anti-Semitism and the lack of coverage by Leftist Media unless it's coming from White Supremacists.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/anti-semitism-left-media-dangerous-game-ben-shapiro
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But it's not a mere lack of focus and time preventing the media from taking anti-Semitism in New York seriously. It's the identity of the attackers. Armin Rosen wrote for Tablet Magazine back in July 2019 about the Jew-hatred in New York and correctly noted "that the victims are most often outwardly identifiable, i.e., religious rather than secularized Jews, and the perpetrators who have been recorded on CCTV cameras are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic."
This throws the media -- and many left-leaning Jewish organizations -- into spasms of confusion, since it cuts directly against the supposed alliance of intersectionality so beloved by the political left. White supremacists attacking left-leaning Jews fits a desired narrative. Black teenagers beating up Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg doesn't.
And so the left ignores the "wrong" type of anti-Semitism.
"The same commentators who will police Republican references to George Soros for hints of anti-Semitism completely excuse open anti-Semitism when it comes from Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn."
This was written in 2020 and the problem along with violence in general has only risen-astronomically-since then.
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