Many are no doubt familiar with the controversial video by Father James Altman that has been making the rounds, wherein he says among other things that you can’t be Catholic and be a Democrat. The video was publicly endorsed on social media by Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler.
My comments:
When I watched Fr. Altman’s controversial video, I thought to myself initially that he was acting in the role of a prophet. Yet as a diocesan priest, he isn’t in private practice but promised at his ordination two promises, that of celibacy (once at his diaconate) and twice (once at diaconate and second at priestly ordinations) “respect and obedience” to his bishop (and successors).
Given the fact that Fr. Altman stated no Catholic can be a democrat, he was making a dogmatic moral statement that does not have the support of his bishop or of the pope since neither have pontificated on this particular point. Should they? I think so. If they don’t subsequent generations may described them as appeasing grave evil instead of confronting it.
The statement by Fr. Altman’s bishop tells us a bit of why the Church, once a bulwark of moral clarity has had the disease of cataracts and moral malaise inflict such damage on the Church. This happened even prior to Vatican II. Think about the Nazis and the Fascists and Communism, often bishops appeased these parties out of a fear of condemning. Yet a condemning Church was needed no matter what that meant for the Church under Hitler, Mussolini and the current leader of the Philippines and Venezuela. Sometimes the threat of the fires of hell is needed not just for the leader but their supporters.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if the cornerstone of the Democrat Party’s platform is abortion on demand and killing children after birth due to a botched abortion or some other mitigating circumstance as well as euthanasia of the vulnerable and elderly, how can a Catholic be a party of such an organization? Is it okay to be a member of the KKK? Of the Masons? Of other organizations that harm others and hate them?
Correct Fr. Altman’s divisive rhetoric and anything he said that is not keeping with the Faith. However, when it comes to abortion, the Church needs to be unequivocal about condemning and calling anathema organizations that support the killing of children prior to birth and afterward and warning Catholics about belonging to such groups. Can a Catholic be a member of the KKK? Can a Catholic use his Catholicism to justify belonging to the KKK? If a Catholic does this, shouldn’t the bishop dialogue with him in private to cease belonging and justifying belonging to the KKK by claiming he/she is a good Catholic? And shouldn’t excommunication be used not only to call the KKK member to repentance but also to warn other Catholics who support the KKK?
Just wondering.
Now, Father Altman’s own bishop has weighed in.
CNA offers an update:
After a Wisconsin priest said in a viral video that no Catholic can be a Democrat, the priest’s bishop will attempt fraternal correction, and said Wednesday the priest has inflicted a “wound” upon the Church. A Texas bishop, however, has doubled down on his support for the priest.“I am applying Gospel principles to the correction of Fr. Altman. ‘If your brother does something wrong to you, go to him. Talk alone to him and tell him what he has done. If he listens to you, you have kept your brother as a friend. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others with you to talk to him.’ (Mt 18:15-16).”“I have begun this process, not in the bright light of the public arena, but as the Gospel dictates, in private,” Bishop William Callahan of La Crosse said in a Sept. 9 statement.
Bishop Strickland, responding to this, issued a statement to CNA in which he continued to defend Father Altman. You can read that here.
The bishop took the unusual step of posting a full statement on the matter on the diocesan website:
Fr. James Altman has become a social media phenomenon and is now a mainstream media story. The amount of calls and emails we are receiving at the Diocesan offices show how divisive he is. I am being pressured by both sides for a comment; one side holds him up as a hero or a prophet, the other side condemns him and vilifies him and demands I silence him.As I review Fr. Altman’s latest video statement of 30 August 2020, I understand the undeniable truth that motivates his message. When we approach issues that are contradictory to the Faith and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, particularly on abortion and other life issues, we should invite dialogue and heart-felt conversion to the truth. Our approach must never seek to divide, isolate and condemn.
That being said it is not only the underlying truth that needs to be evaluated but also the manner of delivery and the tone of his message. Unfortunately, the tone Fr. Altman offers comes off as angry and judgmental, lacking any charity and in a way that causes scandal both in the Church and in society. His generalization and condemnation of entire groups of people is completely inappropriate and not in keeping with our values or the life of virtue.I am applying Gospel principles to the correction of Fr. Altman. “If your brother does something wrong to you, go to him. Talk alone to him and tell him what he has done. If he listens to you, you have kept your brother as a friend. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others with you to talk to him.” (Mt 18:15-16). I have begun this process, not in the bright light of the public arena, but as the Gospel dictates, in private. Canon law indicates that before penalties are imposed, we need to ensure that fraternal correction, rebuke or other means of pastoral solicitude will not be sufficient to repair the scandal (can. 1341).Most people expect a decisive move from me, one way or another. Many suggest immediate penalties that will utterly silence him; others call for complete and unwavering support of his views. Canonical penalties are not far away if my attempts at fraternal correction do not work. I pray that Fr. Altman’s heart and eyes might be open to the error of his ways and that he might take steps to correct his behavior and heal the wound he has inflicted on the Body of Christ. Pray for me as I address this issue, and pray for Fr. Altman that he might hear and respond to my fraternal correction. Finally, please pray for the Church that we might seek the truth in charity and apply it in our daily actions.
When I watched Fr. Altman’s controversial video, I thought to myself initially that he was acting in the role of a prophet. Yet as a diocesan priest, he isn’t in private practice but promised at his ordination two promises, that of celibacy (once at his diaconate) and twice (once at diaconate and second at priestly ordinations) “respect and obedience” to his bishop (and successors).
Given the fact that Fr. Altman stated no Catholic can be a democrat, he was making a dogmatic moral statement that does not have the support of his bishop or of the pope since neither have pontificated on this particular point. Should they? I think so. If they don’t subsequent generations may described them as appeasing grave evil instead of confronting it.
The statement by Fr. Altman’s bishop tells us a bit of why the Church, once a bulwark of moral clarity has had the disease of cataracts and moral malaise inflict such damage on the Church. This happened even prior to Vatican II. Think about the Nazis and the Fascists and Communism, often bishops appeased these parties out of a fear of condemning. Yet a condemning Church was needed no matter what that meant for the Church under Hitler, Mussolini and the current leader of the Philippines and Venezuela. Sometimes the threat of the fires of hell is needed not just for the leader but their supporters.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if the cornerstone of the Democrat Party’s platform is abortion on demand and killing children after birth due to a botched abortion or some other mitigating circumstance as well as euthanasia of the vulnerable and elderly, how can a Catholic be a party of such an organization? Is it okay to be a member of the KKK? Of the Masons? Of other organizations that harm others and hate them?
Correct Fr. Altman’s divisive rhetoric and anything he said that is not keeping with the Faith. However, when it comes to abortion, the Church needs to be unequivocal about condemning and calling anathema organizations that support the killing of children prior to birth and afterward and warning Catholics about belonging to such groups. Can a Catholic be a member of the KKK? Can a Catholic use his Catholicism to justify belonging to the KKK? If a Catholic does this, shouldn’t the bishop dialogue with him in private to cease belonging and justifying belonging to the KKK by claiming he/she is a good Catholic? And shouldn’t excommunication be used not only to call the KKK member to repentance but also to warn other Catholics who support the KKK?
Just wondering.
21 comments:
"Given the fact that Fr. Altman stated no Catholic can be a democrat, he was making a dogmatic moral statement that does not have the support of his bishop or of the pope since neither have pontificated on this particular point."
The problem is that he was NOT making a "dogmatic" statement, but presuming to make an absolute statement binding on HIS OWN authority. There's the rub.
Fr. Altman's reasoning might go something like this: "This is how I see the circumstances, therefore, own my own authority - since the Church has not done so using its divine authority - I say you can't be Catholic and vote for a Democrat."
Can a Catholic own stock in a company that makes money in objectively immoral ways? Can a Catholic belong to the YMCA which has origins in anti-Catholic Protestant Christianity? Can a Catholic belong to a social club that excludes some people based on race, gender, and/or religion? Levels of cooperation aren't always easy to determine.
The virtue-signalling bishop just HAD to TELL everyone that he was personally "correcting" his priest. Sorry, I don't believe that is the laity's business. Had the priest personally offended one person, I could see telling that person, but it seems that this bishop is just increasing the entire scope of this being a public spectacle.
This priest was pushing his own personal opinions on the laity, abusing his position as priest and pastor to advance his ideology and his false claims. This priest made it a public spectacle, and multiplied that fault by recording and broadcasting the event world-wide.
Therefore, it was the laity's business from the get-go. That the bishop informed the laity, who were already involved, that he was responding to their requests was entirely appropriate.
This priest evidently had a history of divisive videos/homilies and available on the internet. I never heard of him until the current controversy. It seems that much of what he says is rather incendiary. I had a priest friend email some of the things he has seen or heard from Fr. Altman's videos:
I’ve seen a few clips of other homilies he has broadcast and am surprised he has not been in bigger trouble.
He has very troubling ideas:
Lynching of 3000+ blacks and 1000+ whites was the result of murders and rapes they committed, so it was capital punishment being carried out by a mob.
He denies the existence of systemic racism, comparing it to Hitler’s propaganda.
Racism exists because we took God out of the public schools
He attacks black looters because they don’t use proper grammar and syntax.
There’s a lot going in in Fr. Altman’s head….
Me: If this is true, one wonders why his bishop didn't meet with him and raise concerns way before now? Maybe he did, but it doesn't appear that he did given what the bishop is now saying about sanctions against this priest of his diocese.
"After a Wisconsin priest said in a viral video that no Catholic can be a Democrat, the priest’s bishop will attempt fraternal correction, and said Wednesday the priest has inflicted a “wound” upon the Church. A Texas bishop, however, has doubled down on his support for the priest."
Wow. What to say? This sounds so arrogant when so many within the hierarchy seem not to have the fortitude to say what is right relative to our beliefs. What possible "wound" was inflicted by speaking up about the short comings of a secular organization? How possibly was the Church herself "wounded"? Is his grace afraid that some source of revenue might be jeopardized? The Church goes on and on about abortion and rightly so; so, why is it all of a sudden damning to say that one cannot be Catholic and a member of the Democratic party?
Fr. Altman said "You can't be a Catholic and a Democrat". He did not say you MAY not be a democrat as well as a Catholic. Catholicism and the Democratic Party have become incompatible with each other. Abortion is barbaric, particularly abortion for purposes of organ harvesting and late-term executions.
Fr. Altman is outspoken, perhaps more so than most within the Church are accustomed. I would have just picked up the phone and encouraged him to continue fighting his fight just be careful about how it is done. Probably the Nuncio, made a call breathlessly instructing the bishop to deal with his renegade. To me, it is difficult to take some of these leaders seriously anymore particularly when the likes of McCarrick, Mahoney, Law, Bransfield, among others, did and condoned by silence, repulsive actions.
God help us.
Fr. Allan J. McDonald, 10:34
I had the time yesterday to listen to 1.5 of Fr. Altman's homilies in addition the the talk that was the subject of your posting. The content seemed reasonable and the clarity of its delivery was honestly refreshing. Anything that I have said regarding this particular posting is specific to the topic being considered. I have not had the time and won't likely find it to fully understand Fr. Altman's ministry, claims, tone....the things that would contribute to him being a good and humble priest as opposed to a renegade with a questionable grasp of facts and history. To the extent that what you related is the reality of his ministry, then a correction would seem appropriate. Again, if what you related paints an accurate and holistic picture, I echo your question as to why has it taken so long to address (though perhaps his bishop tried to be private and "fatherly" and we just do not know it).
The Catholic Church prohibits abortion and objectively states it is an unwarranted act of killing. That is not the priest's "opinion"--that is the Church's opinion.
People are complicit with the act of abortion by cooperating or enabling abortions. This is a mortal sin so serious that it carries the penalty of excommunication (rarely mentioned from the pulpit). Anyone with enough rationality to connect the dots can surely see that voting for a pro-abortion politician or party with a pro-abortion platform is cooperating with and enabling abortions, regardless of their purported "intent". That is not one priest's "ideology" nor is it a "false claim". That is and always has been the position of the Church, even though we currently lack many bishops with the testosterone to enforce it.
There are indeed deep wound upon the Body of Christ, but it's doubtful that Fr. Altman inflicted any of them. These wounds have been inflicted by tolerant bishops who looked the other way at priest's misbehavior. They have been inflicted by hireling clergy with little love for their flock or for God. They have been inflicted by the leaders of a Church that suddenlty stopped having any backbone somewhere around 1970. The wound is most evident when good priests call our attention to how perverse we have become as a nation and all of the spoiled brats who have grown used to the indulgence of our permissive heirarchy cry out in rage that someone dares to name sin for what it is.
No matter how much we flatter ourselves that we are devout Catholics, we certainly aren't devout Cathoics when we leave our faith behind in the voting booth and start embracing the unspeakable with our votes.
Bee here:
I find it interesting that we have been subjected to liberal, Marxist rhetoric spun together with Catholic words and ideas to make it seem Catholic for the last 40 or 50 years, coming out of our pulpits and Catholic magazines and publications, not to mention our universities, with only some minor "correction" of the most extreme voices.
Back in 1967, we saw Catholic university heads and even two bishops sign the "Land O Lakes Agreement," publicly saying they would no long be exclusively teaching Catholic revealed truths and those non-religious ideas that conformed with Catholic truth, claiming "academic freedom." No one disciplined them. No one denounced them. But worst of all, no one warned Catholic families that their children would not be educated in the way they expected at these universities.
Then in 1968, we saw a whole page of priests and religious, led by these "academically free" Catholic university "educators" publish a rejection of Humanae Vitae. No one countered them citing their oath of obedience and loyalty to their bishop and the Church. Maybe they didn't because the hierarchy privately agreed with them. Only Cardinal O'Boyle in Washington, D.C. disciplined priests in his jurisdiction, and his action was met with the sound of crickets from other U.S. bishops and cardinals. The Vatican took action, but news of that was often published as if the dissenters were being persecuted, or it was buried on page 36 of the newspaper.
I won't even mention the kinds of ideas Fr. James Martin currently is pushing on the Church with the tacit approval of many cardinals and bishops who let him speak in their diocese.
My point is that we saw and still see huge errors in Church teaching corresponding with Leftist ideals coming out of priests and in "Catholic" literature, being tolerated, never publicly denounced by the hierarchy, but we see immediate and punitive shut down of priests who uphold the teachings of the Church which contradict that same Left-leaning narrative so many clergy and religious have incorporated into their faith life.
The current Church is more political than holy.
(continued in next post...)
(continued from previous post)
I decided a long time ago I am going to hold fast to the Faith of the Fathers. I don't care if every priest, religious or even the Pope himself declares a child can be aborted without sin; that elderly parents can be put permanently to sleep when they become too burdensome to care for, or even if they ask you to kill them; that gay men and women can engage in their perverse relationships without moral culpability; that divorce and remarriage isn't a problem; that owning private property is selfish and evil; or that God is not really present in the Holy Eucharist...
The purpose of the Church is to tell us the truth. The purpose of knowing the truth is so that we can live the kind of life on earth that brings about goodness, happiness, and God's plan for mankind to fruition, and leads us to the ultimate happiness, God Himself.
I am lucky. I was able to discover the truth and convert. I am sorry for, and pray for the many, even within our own Church, who are claiming the name Catholic but living far from the truth revealed to us by God, who never found it, and the bad example they represent. I am sorry for the young who will never find the truth within the teachings of this altered theology, and who will never even know it is not the truth. And when their lives spin out of control because of it, they will reject God and religion as evil.
But it is the bishops and cardinals, and to some degree the priests and religious, who have been converted to evil posing as good, and who pass that on while wearing the mantle of teaching authority of the Church, who will be held accountable for the millions of souls they deceived and who never found Jesus Christ. And they will be held accountable for persecution of those clergy and religious who still proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to the apostles and passed down to us without alteration or corruption.
God bless.
Bee
Father,
This entire "given" that systemic racism continues to plague our country is open for debate. There are many solid arguments that turn that assumption on its ear. It is troubling to see clergy and bishops taking this PC stance and it is ESPECIALLY troubling because so much of wht we see coming out of the chanceries now seems to suggest that "all of us white people are racists and we need to apologize and do penance and grovel..."
Father, I have been hearing this stuff since I was a kid and I'm an old man now. Sure there WAS systemic racism in America and there might still be a few small pockets of it here and there, but overall, the landscape has completely changed since we were kids. I have spent most of my life almost apologizing to black people because of the sins of white people who came before me and I am finished with that. The line has been crossed. No one has the right to dismiss an entire race of people as "bigots" and "racists" and treat us with the assumption that we are entirely to blame for the social ills the black community continues to struggle with. I never made anyone take drugs. I never made any woman get pregnant out of wedlock. I never told anyone he was less of a human because he was black. I never made anyone drop out of school. Somewhere personal responsiblity has to be a factor. And public policies that decimate families by encouraging illegitimacy don't help.
Racism is wrong, including racism against white people and that's what much of this is turning into. Condescendingly leading the masses into a "woke" litany of our purported racial sins isn't going to be any more persuasive than a bunch of people yelling at me in a restaurant. I'm "woke" all right. I've awakened to the fact that enough is enough. The Church is supposed to be the instrument of our salvation, not a guilt-therapy collective for spineless eunuchs.
The Democrat Party today has embraced the violent, Marxist, racist (black supremacist and demonization of white people based on the color of their skin), domestic terrorist groups Antifa and BLM, and want to eliminate the police and cancel anyone who expresses disagreement with them. Setting aside their most sacred sacraments of abortion and same sex marriage, I don't see how any believing Catholic can support that party. I don't like the Church involving itself in partisan politics, but Father Altman is objectively right, IMHO.
I remain baffled as to why more clarity and "fraternal correction", public or private, is not coming from priests, Pastors or Bishops with respect to "Catholic" Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Evan Shanley and the like. I don't get it!
Systemic racism is rampant in the Democratic Party which is the reason Democratic controlled cities are experiencing riots and looting which harms a lot acks the most. The Party’s standard bearer, Joe Biden, reinforced the Party’s racism when he stated if you don’t vote for me you aren’t Black!
I have to emphatically agree with Bee Here, especially on his point about "which" Catholics face discipline and sanctions.
If you teach anything from the leftist perspective, whether it be tolerance of homosexual sins, promoting feminism, promoting abortion rights or de-sacralizng the sacraments, the folks at the top consistently look the other way.
Let a priest or prominent layman take a stand against the Democratic Party or question errors being taught by Fr. Liberal, and the Church will come down on you like a hammer.
The stench of this hypocrisy is palpable.
"Let a priest or prominent layman take a stand against the Democratic Party or question errors being taught by Fr. Liberal, and the Church will come down on you like a hammer."
But that's NOT what Fr. Altman did.
Had he spoken about the evil of abortion, the pain and suffering it can bring in later life, the terrible guilt that parents can feel later of, the need for prayers for the end of abortion and the healing needed, then he would have been on completely safe ground.
He turned it into a non-doctrinal rant that represented his own personal opinions regarding abortion, voting, climate change, DACA, BLM, etc.
When you add that to his highly offensive comments about lynching, systemic racism, grammar and syntax in the Black community - all of which are his PERSONAL issues - then his Voting video is another example of a person bordering on the edge of responsibility.
Tom Makin:
Why more fraternal correction is not coming toward those who claim to be good Catholics despite being "personally opposed to but...." comes down to the classic serving mammon as master of which Jesus spoke in last Sunday's gospel (EF calendar): there are many wealthy hypocrites in the Catholic parishes who would withdraw their financial support for being offended by Her Magisterium.
Anonymous at 1:46,
My “liberal” pastor frequently gave us his views on things like global warming (the “science” is settled) and thank God for President Obama! The bishop did nothing about our complaints about the pastor (probably because the bishop is a big-time lefty) so please excuse us from not joining in on your opinions about Father Altmann. Maybe by now, judging from the comments here, you can see that we are fed up with lefty priests and bishops who have ruined Catholicism
I would like to know how far you would get in a secular job with your boss if you acted like this priest who answers to his boss the bishop. And since you are more than thrilled with any defiance of his ordination promise of respect and obedience to his bishop, I suppose too you are happy for him to defy his celibacy promise. So, you must be a closeted lefty.
“ I have spent most of my life almost apologizing to black people because of the sins of white people who came before me and I am finished with that. The line has been crossed.”
Yep, me too...I’m done with placating. I am now into just responding positively to positive people of all colors. Plenty of them out there, thank God. One held a door open for me yesterday coming in and going out of a local gas station store, then wished me a “great day”. He made my day...
Father McDonald,
Unfortunately we have corrupt, lefty bishops who are not Catholic. Think about it
Father McDonald,
PS: in the secular world, many of these bishops would be removed for incompetence.
Post a Comment