First, I want to correct a "typo" in the previous post. I erroneously stated the monastery address to be "14 Quincy Street NE". The street number is really "1400". I apologize for any inconvenience caused by my error.
Many of you have written to the Franciscan Monastery and to the Catholic Networkof Volunteer Service, as have I. Some have sent to me copies of what a Friar named Brother John Sebastian sent to them. Since they are similar in nature, they cannot be held to be exclusive communications.
An early reply was, "Hmm, Ive not heard all this however I know that he has spoken at many a Catholic organization this year with Bishops & Cardinals Present. " Sadly, it's true that Matthews has spoken with bishops and cardinals in his audience; I don't know whether or not such has happened since his tirade against Bishop Tobin. However, I find it incredible that Brother Sebastian did not know of this June 24th event. I trust it merely means that the right hand and left hand don't communicate at the Monastery, but even so, such lack of knowledge boggles the mind. Most people who read the Catholic Standard saw the announcement in the June 10th issue - and yet Brother Sebastian was ignorant? Moreover, many of us emailed the link to the announcement that was on the "Volunteer" website.
Later on, Brother Sebastian advised another concerned Catholic of a problem. It seems that so many Catholics are alert and concerned, that they have emailed the Monastery en masse! Brother asked to advise this blog that the volume of emails may cause a server crash, and to ask that the emails be discontinued.
While I have no intention (or ability!) to cause inconvenience to the Monastery, I regret that I cannot suggest cessation of petition at this time. We all can think of things far worse than overloaded servers: scandal to the faithful, giving false comfort and accolades to the errant, dilution of the teaching of the Magisterium, all resulting in damnation of souls. It is the prevention of these calamites that is the top priority; it should certainly be the top priority of professed religious. Once a PUBLIC announcement has been made that Chris Matthews (or any other pro-abortion personage) will not be given any sort of honor on the monastery grounds, I'll be more than happy to suggest that email petitions are no longer necessary.
These email servers are being flooded because good Catholic people are tired of seeing their God mocked, their Faith besmirched and their loved ones confused by the mixed messages they get from clergy and religious who wine and dine with those in flagrant disobedience to the teaching of the Church. Such hurt and outrage is even more pronounced when the perpetrator is one who openly mocks them for trying to be faithful, as is the case with Chris Matthews. We simply refused to be silenced any longer. It's way past the time when those wrongly ensconced in high positons should have learned that. We will be heard.
I do want to thank Brother Sebastian for at least replying. To date, I have received no such courtesy from the Catholic Network of Volunteer Service, nor have I received word of a response received by anyone else.
Regarding communication with the monastery, I have been told that a Father Jeremy Harrington is the custodian of the monastery. I believe that is equivalent to "superior". It may be wise to direct communications directly to him.
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I think it is not surprising that the monks may not be aware of the event in the hall. It is rented out for weddings and catered events and I suspect they have someone in charge of booking who keeps track of what is going on there. Perhaps what they need is a policy and a statement in their contract that the hall may not be used by those who publicly repudiate Church teaching or otherwise cause scandal. It would be interesting to see what their standard contract for renting the hall is.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I were a monk trying to lead a holy life, I probably wouldn't read the Catholic Standard either.
They might not have known it initially, although I do think that lack of knowledge itself shows way too much passivity and lack of responsibility for what transpires under one's own nose. I know that the Apostles created the order of deacons to address the temporal affairs of the Church, but I've got to imagine that they knew the buck stopped with them, and that there was accountability, supervision, regular reviews, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure that I can believe that ignorance is the case any longer in this situation. Remember that they whined about voluminous emails on their server. If I were them, I'd take that as a clear indicator that something is amiss and bears closer examination; where there's smoke, there is often fire. Our emails presented much evidence of what is slated to transpire on their grounds in less than two weeks. No longer can they claim ignorance with a straight face. The friars need to sully their hands just a tad and straighten out this mess, and the problems in their internal structure that allowed this to get so far in the first place.
I hope they do learn from this fiasco and develop a policy to the effect that Mary Ann suggested. That being said, there needs to be hands-on, top-down supervision to make sure that adherence to that policy is scrupulously religious (pun partially intended). I suspect part of the USCCB disaster is due to the bishops adopting a "hands-off, let the experts run thingss" policy that has let the loons cripple the Church.