Dealing with the Devil:
Diocese of Maine for Sale
Filed by Pauly Fongemie
May 18, 2013
Feast of St. Venantius, Martyr
ABOUT THE BANNER IMAGE:
The montage consists of art from various parishes in Maine, the central stained glass panel is from St. Patrick's in Portland, one of the churches sold recently; this one went to the Westgate Shopping Mall, of all places. Another church, St. Francis de Sales, Waterville, was spared this indecency, it is being demolished. That is right, you are reading correctly, demolished. This beautiful church was built by the French mill workers who went without so that Our Lord's sacraments might have a dignified place. When I was working in middle age, my position necessitated frequent travel; St. Francis de Sales was one of the few churches where I could find a safe haven as a traditionalist. I have never been inside St. Patrick's and I would never have wanted to as you can surmise why by viewing the modern stained glass window, that of President John Kennedy, complete with the US Presidential Seal, one of the many bargains the devil drove and triumphed over the poor hagglers in the diocese. No Catholic Church, worthy of the name ought to erect a stained glass window, a permanent image, of a less than stellar Catholic of such high office. When this was effected it marked the beginning of the end, for God will not be mocked.
Catholics in southern Maine awoke this morning to find the front page of their local paper trumpeting the demise of the diocese of Portland with the large headline, "Catholic Church making deals".
While this unfortunate turn of events was expected by this Catholic, it must have taken many I know by complete surprise. And therein is quite a tale, the story of the death of a diocese which long ago through its apostate Bishops and a couple of weak ones began dealing with the devil, not merely "making financial deals". A friend and I realized that as early as 1988 the diocese was already on life support; he and I used to refer to the local Church as RIP, [Requiescat in pace ] although he would later add the word, non or not to the phrase. We wrote a continuing series about the state of the local Church in THE GUARDIAN, a Traditional Maine Catholic newsletter in the early 90s. I also wrote a separate series on the pending death, which I now republish here. Click NEXT below for the first part, TESTAMENT.
The article in the Kennebec Journal was indeed as if the diocese was publishing its Last Will and Testament.
The KJ reported the declining attendance and membership, which was "forcing Catholic parishes to make tough decisions." The irony is that less than ten years ago most of the parishes being sold now were paired or tripled or quadrupled with other parishes, which the powers to be called part of the "new evangelization." Today these combines are decaying further. Presently there are 30 diocesan properties for sale or scheduled for wrack and ruin, most of them churches. This tells us a lot: the diocesan hierarchy does not expect things to get better, they are planning for death, not new life. Either this is diabolical, and they know more than they admit up front, or they have simply surrendered. The irony grows, our bishop, now administrator-overseer from Buffalo, NY, consulted "other dioceses" to see what they were doing to stay afloat - the advice was all financial, not sacred. Apparently Bishop Malone failed to consult bishops in whose dioceses there is growth, not decline, and so much so that not only are the churches there not being sold off to shopping malls, but some parishes have to purchase Protestant churches no longer in use and Catholicize the interior, suitable for proper worship.
It is interesting to note that when I learned that Bishop Malone who served under the now disgraced Archbishop of Boston - the pederast scandals - was assigned to Maine, I did some research. He was known for such statements as "the Church is not about salvation, but the social Gospel." This is a direct quote from one of the Boston papers. Well, he was true to his word. Under his watch, as with previous bishops, of course, not one word about the Catholic Church being the sole ark of salvation. Week after week, the social Gospel as explained by the left wing of the Democratic party, more or less, with emphasis on more continues to be the mainstay of sermons. When Malone first came he was "neutral", an impossibility, about the "gay rights" bill at the time. The sodomites won. The next time, with the people's plebiscite, he came out forcefully to defend marriage and Tradition and the natural law regained its rightful place. But he took heat from so many of the squishy clergy, both non-homosexual and the other - those with the affliction of same-sex attraction - that he backed down to a puny reading of letters, which, although clear and totally Catholic, did not bear the same strength as his previous actions; the letters were mere missives from Buffalo and once again sodom ran riot and sassy in Maine. Malone has taken a page out of the repertoire of the skittish poltroon, the lamented Cardinal Dolan, so favored by the intelligentsia wing of the press for Pope, the one and same who had no discomfort laughing it up with Obama at the Al Smith dinner in New York, and who when under siege by the sodomites in Albany, as his protégé did, settled for a paltry phone call, in lieu of a letter; expectedly, the natural law and marriage went down for the count.
The KJ report centered on diocesan finances, the health of the bank account, not the spiritual health of souls in dire need of saving. The irony continued, for not only did our Bishop sell a parish to a commercial mall, the diocese imitated the deal and invested in another shopping mecca. In fact, the very week the Bishop launches his annual appeal, the paper regaled its readers with a quote about the success of the financial restructuring - selling off churches - that "more money was coming in than was going out." No kidding! What was that about an urgent appeal for funds - with each remaining parish given a quota to raise - could you explain, your Excellency? I mean, explain convincingly, as our meager incomes dwindle with increasing taxes to pay for mandated health care, which you supported along with sanctuary cities by all accounts. Meanwhile our diocese is almost a year without a new Bishop to shepherd us, I ponder why? Does the Holy See know something and is there another plan for Maine? as if we have not had enough disruptive changes in the last decade.
How has all this happened within one generation essentially?
The loss of the sense of the sacred, confusion as to what Catholics must believe and do to be saved, confusion on the meaning of the priesthood and the Mass, and absolute apathy on the part of the clergy to preach on moral doctrine unless it squares with the Democratic party core principles, except for a yearly sermon or two on abortion, never backed up because too many of the priests are known as Obamarites, to coin a word.
I will present just three examples:
The diocese encourages vocations to the priesthood, one method of which is a glossy poster at the back of churches still open, that has as its banner, Ad altare Dei, I will go into the altar of God. This is the same diocese that is stingy on behalf of the motu proprio and the Traditional Mass, going so far as to refuse the FSSP priests who were willing at the time to come here and minister to us poor needy souls, crying out for bread to be given stones. Over one half of the diocese has no access to the Traditional Mass. That poster is a mass confusion - a profusion of illusion in full color, for no diocesan-trained priest is formed to say the Immemorial Mass, but the Novus Ordo exclusively. The Bishop knows what the genuine appeal is, Tradition, as expressed in I will go into the altar of God ... but no will or desire to see it through. Bishop Malone told one Traditionalist that he expects the Traditionalist movement to die out with the current generation of Traditionalists as they pass into eternity. But it is the diocese that is dying, while Traditionalists persist and endure. Tradition is the heart of the Church, it is the measure by which policy and "teaching" are weighed. No Tradition, no Catholic Church essentially, and we know that the Church is indefectible by Christ's design and will.
At the Novus Ordo Mass, where the Chancery admits the laity have the right to kneel for Holy Communion, no kneelers are provided; the elderly, arthritic and walking with difficulty, cannot kneel without falling and causing a scene so to speak, so they stand and apologize to Jesus for the affront they do not intend. They know He already knows but they cannot help apologizing anyway, the agony, the longing, so deep and searing. Women in pants, running all over the altar mostly, so that the laity predominate at a "feminized" Mass. The priesthood of the faithful is viewed on an equal footing as the sacerdotal priesthood. Visuals are powerful teaching tools, sometimes more effective than the written word or command. This is why advertising is mass produced as it is. It is the optics, Virginia.
Let me provide an example from Sunday, May 12. At one of the NO Masses a new priest was introduced; he and the resident priest, the pastor, concelebrated as is the norm in these cases. The deacon, who is a member of the ordained delivered the sermon; at Holy Communion the new priest, who is young and healthy sat down and in his rightful, irreplaceable place - Pope John Paul II in a letter to the US Bishops - a lay person administered Communion. Imagine this now: a cluster of parishes with a definite shortage of priests, two priests to say one Mass, two priests, neither of one who preached; although the deacon may deliver the sermon, why was he not elsewhere to assist one of the retired, older priests, where there was a Mass being said at the same time, and that parish location a larger one at that? Nothing makes much sense any longer. And it hasn't in quite some time, truth be told.
If that Mass had been a Mass of Resurrection - what we used to call a Requiem Mass for the Dead, instead of a Sunday Mass, the priest most likely - depending on the popularity of the person - would have announced in some fashion on the one hand that the dead person was in Heaven, and then on the other, a few minutes later ask for prayers for his soul, which is confusing to say the very least, because if he is in Heaven, we pray to him, not for him. Then there is the confusing matter of just Who Christ is. On at least three occasions that I recall in the recent period, the homilist has referred to Our Lord and Savior as a "human being" a "human person" or "a human". Christ is a Divine Person Who became Man, not a man. He has two natures in a hypostatic union, but one personality, that of the Divine. And so forth and on and on it goes, confusion from the top of the rotting fish all the way to the tip of the tail. This is example #1, several connected so as to be one in unison in chorus: "We no longer are sure what to believe."
Example #2 is the cessation of the teaching of the dogma of the faith, no salvation outside of the Church; instead, the laity are told, year after year, that one can go to Heaven in any faith as long one is "good" without really defining what goodness in the supernatural form consists of, that is, the difference between natural goodness and the one that is meritorious of Heaven because of co-operation with the gift of true faith; without teaching that the Pontiffs who were faithful to Tradition expounded on this dogma repeatedly and that we "ought not have good hope" for those who knowingly die outside of the Catholic Faith. If the Faith is not necessary for salvation well, then just how necessary are the Sacraments? And to wit, Baptism, all too often is an initiation into the Church, the most prominent aspect of the Sacrament. Confession? The loss of a sense of sin prevails since Vatican II. Couples living together in sin before marriage with the wedding but a blessing on the previous lifestyle, in so many words, de facto, if not actually stated in such wise. Communion in the hand and in both species, a Protestant notion, which has divested the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, into a communal gathering, so that if one wants to chew gum as one approaches the altar, why so be it. If one wants to stop and have a chat with a neighbor on the way back to one's pew, so who should care? Then there are the lay "chaplains" with pins saying Chaplain, in violation of Church law, etc. Confusion and diminution reign. So what is a little missing of Mass here and there and then more there than here until one drops out all together but for Christmas and maybe Easter? Human nature unfortified by grace denied and or cheapened. The prima facie case was a Sunday in April when local Catholics were told to follow the example of the faith of the Jews, not pray for their conversion. You cannot make this stuff up, folks. One year we were told to pray for the Jews' requests at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, whatever those prayers were seeking.
The dogma of the Faith is now optional at best, superseded by the new dogma, salvation wherever one wills, just so long as you are moral in some vague way. To make sure we do not fail in internalizing this tenet we have Protestant songs in place of Catholic hymns, and even a song or two written by a practicing Buddhist who was a former Catholic.
Example #3 is what sealed the deal with the devil and his death cycle: contraception. The Catholics in Maine are contracepting themselves unto annihilation. When we refuse the children God wills to bless us with, He then refuses us the priests we need, instead, giving us the priests we deserve. Not to mention - objectively speaking - all the mortal sins unrepented of while receiving Holy Communion. I have lost count of the number of times I have pleaded with priests to preach on the mortal sin of contraception to no avail, it is like addressing a brick wall. Actually I would stand a better chance of success with one of the red brick walls of St. Francis de Sales being razed. Thus, while the population dwindles in general, Catholics are quick to match the average [and the mean] two children per household; less children to fill a parish, and less adults in church because they are dropping out and with little wonder at all.
It would be more fitting if St. Patrick's in Portland was destroyed, not St. Francis de Sales.
To add to the muddle and deformation, the Bishop decries forced taxes for contraception, but with nary a caveat about the practice itself among his sheep. Why, then is it wrong to pay for something that is de facto licit by deliberate neglect? People are not stupid, so they draw their own conclusions in keeping with concupiscence and convenience, they take the path well paved. Over half of Maine Catholics are not opposed to the forced mandate, if letters to the editors are any indication. The same number who continue to support Obama. The diocese courts death at every turn while the devil does his jig.
The creme de la creme of irony is topped off by the eleventh commandment preached by neglect, "Thou ought to shop on Sunday, pagan of the heart." So why not a little investment in a shopping mall by the diocese? Perfect symmetry all in all.
Womb to womb, tomb to tomb ... First the Sacred Womb of the sanctuary reviled, then the womb of mothers defiled, spiritual decay begetting physical decomposition, spiritual death begetting physical death and loss in a macabre dance of sloth and pride, paired with willful nihilism for there are none so blind as they who refuse to see. When you make deals with the devil he always gains the upper hand, the price more costly than the bargain ... which is what happens when one now shrinks from the heroic courage, the martyrdom it takes to become a Saint ...
I cannot stop crying.
Tomorrow is a big parish celebration complete with cake. I have not the fortitude to attend as I would feel like a hypocrite at best. While the rallying cry is "let us eat cake", how
Can I keep from crying ...
Feast of St. Venantius, Martyr
St. Venantius was born at Camerino in Italy; at the age of fifteen he was seized because he was Christian and taken before a judge. As it was found impossible to shake his constancy either by threats or promises, he was condemned to be scourged, but was miraculously saved by an Angel. Then they tried burning him with torches suspended over a low fire so he would suffocated from the smoke. The judge's clerk, admired the resolve of the Saint, and seeing an Angel robed in white, who trampled out the fire and again set free the youthful Martyr, proclaimed his faith in Christ, was Baptized with his whole family, and shortly after won the Martyr's crown himself. Venantius was then dragged before the governor, who, unable to make him renounce his faith, cast him into prison with an apostate, who vainly strove to tempt him. Then this governor ordered his teeth and jaws to be broken, and had him thrown into a furnace, from which the Angel once more rescued him. The Saint was again led before the judge, who at sight of him fell headlong from his seat and died, crying, "The God of Venantius is the true God; let us destroy our idols." When the governor was told of this, he ordered Venantius to be thrown to the lions; but these brutes, forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched at the feet of the Saint. Then, by order of the despot, the young Martyr was dragged through a heap of brambles and thorns, but again God manifested the glory of His servant; the soldiers suffering from thirst, the Saint knelt on a rock and signed it with a cross, when immediately a jet of clear, cool water spurted up from the spot. This miracle converted many of those who beheld it, whereupon the governor had Venantius and his converts beheaded together in the year 250.
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