Father Frechette Once More


I have by no means narrated the full story of the sacrilegious antics of Father Frechette of Baltimore. On another Sunday he arranged for fire drill to take place during Mass, and the fire department attended! What has this got to do with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for which the Martyrs of my country died? Would St. Edmund Campion, St. Nicholas Owen, St. Richard Gwynn or St. Margaret Clitherow have taken part in a Mass during which a fire drill was staged? They would have died first! I tell you, they would have died, they would have been torn to pieces rather than be present in a church where it was done. But Father Frechette's people don't feel that way: could anyone say that his congregation has the same faith as the Martyrs of England and Wales? I hope not, I very much hope not.

But we haven't got to the really horrifying part of the story yet. There is worse to come. The appalling saga of Father Frechette appeared in the official Catholic newspaper of his diocese. It is therefore legitimate to presume that the editors considered it the sort of news that would be read with interest and approval by their average reader-----and I believe that their judgment is correct. Furthermore, they must have concluded that it was the sort of news that would be read with approval of the bishop of the diocese----- and again I believe that their judgment was correct. Are people who would approve of such antics Catholic-----how can they be? Is a bishop who would approve of such antics truly a Catholic Bishop? Of course he isn't!

The above sepia image is that of St. John Fisher, the only faithful bishop during the time of the persecution of Catholics under Henry VIII.

St. John Fisher was chancellor of Cambridge University and bishop of Rochester. In 1529, he opposed Henry VIII's divorce, but it was for his refusal to take the Oath of Supremacy-----by which Henry VIII placed himself at the head of the Church-----that he was beheaded, in 1535. With his friend Sir Thomas More, he was canonized four centuries later. For the Litany for the Church in Our Time, click HERE.