Who is the Prisoner Here?

Father Gordon MacRae/You/Me

A prisoner is defined as:

1.  A person legally committed to prison as a punishment for crimes committed or while awaiting trial.
2.  A person captured and kept confined by an enemy, opponent, or criminal.

Father Gordon MacRae has been legally committed to a prison (though legally is more of a pejorative word in this context) for crimes that don't appear to have ever been committed, though the complainants are more likely to have actually committed crimes.  None the less, he has spent over 17 years in prison of a sentence of 67 years.  At this raste, in 50 years he will once again face freedom from incarceration, since his "Get out of Jail Card" would be to admit that he did in fact commit the crimes for which he was convicted, even though there is no evidence that they were ever committed.  As a man of God, committed to the vows he made with his ordination, something his Bishop might want to live out as well, he cannot lie to gain his physical freedom.

As his blog These Stone Walls attests, the Poem, "To Althea, from Prison" by Richard Lovelace, an English poet, cavalier of the 17th century, who experienced prison himself rings true, especially in its final stanza.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.

While in prison, Father Gordon has been free to speak truth to lies, love to hatred, and kindness to prejudice.  He has taken his imprisonment, as horrid and wrong as it has been to be a blessing, and one that he can share with others.

In prison, he has shared his faith, in the midst of trials with those around him, living it daily, and not faltering.  As a result, some have wanted to share in the peace he lives in prison, and have become lovers of the one Who loved them first.

But, some time back, he embarked on These Stone Walls, and has shared with those of us who have come in contact with this blog, what living a life of faith means in trying times.

He is maintaining a ministry in prison and outside with his written word and witness of faith.  Would he be more free if he was not incarcerated, and would the good he has done for those in prison, and others falsely accused had he not been wrongfully imprisoned?

But, the main question I have to ask is: Are you and I as free as he is, even though we are are on the outside, as it were?

A number of years ago, I had a vision that has come more clear to me with the passage of time.  In the vision, I was in a one room prison.  There were barred windows on all four sides, and I could see beautiful green fields, and hills, with mountains in the background.  A short ways off, I saw my wife, and our parish priest beckoning me to come and join them in the fields.  How could I do that?  I was in a prison.  In a flash, the walls and bars and roof disappeared and I stood where I had been, but now there was nothing between me and them.

I was terrified.  I had only known the prison of my own making that I lived in, and so to have this immense freedom was traumatic to me, at the time.

Over the ensuing years, I have come to embrace to a certain extent the freedom I have, to live life more fully, to reach out to the God who loves me, and to become more authentically who I have been created to be.  But, only to a certain extent.  I find that I am still caught up in prejudices and fears from time to time.

Recently, we spent considerable time with a friend, and observed how this friend operated for several days.  Though lip service was paid to the desires and needs of others, this friend worked hard during our time together to get personal wishes met, through various manipulative techniques.  At the end of the time we spent together, we knew nothing more of our friend than we had on first arrival.  Walls protected our friend from being penetrated, and therefor truly known.

I can observe this not as a judgement of our friend, but because I have my own tricks for doing the same things myself often.  So, it is not a judgement that I make, but an observation that I am very well qualified to make, as one who has and probably will in the future do many of the same things.  It is in fact a grace given us to look not at our friend, but at ourselves.

Again, I ask, who among us is really free?

A RAM IN THE THICKET: The Prisoner-Priest Behind These Stone Walls

Ryan MacDonald on Father Gordon MacRae

For those of you who have not followed any of my previous commentaries on priests who have been bludgeoned by their bishops in the interests of being politically correct on the issue of sexual abuse of minors by priests, you have missed the real scandal that has gone on.  That scandal is the denial of the human rights we all take for granted in our North American Society, one of which is the right to a fair trial, and to justice in our court system.

A not insignificant number of Catholic clergy committed grievous sexual sins against youth.  Surprisingly, the statistics of how much of this went on, and the proportion of priests involved almost mirrors the instance of sexual abuse in the rest of society.  The suprise is two fold.  First, that men who were and who have chosen to take on the mantle of alter christus engaged in such sinful behaviour is more shock than surprise, but surprising none the less, and ample evidence that the devil is active in our society and works hard to corrupt those whose corruption will support his agenda of destruction of God's beloved.  The second surprise is that society has taken to believing, against real evidence, not just media reports, that the sexual abuse scandal was a priest and celibacy problem, and not a broader society one.  Now, as we see reports surfacing, if you dig hard enough, that scout masters and teachers committed more than their fair share of abuse of the young entrusted to their care, it is no longer a driving issue, evidence once again that the devil had his filthy hand in not only the sins perpetrated against youth by Catholic clergy, but in the blowing up of the statistics and reportage that made perceptions overcome the reality.

Even worse, in my personal opinion, is the abandonment of the priests in their care by their Bishops, where such things as the Dallas Charter, which was meant to appease those who had been abused, or at least those who reported on those who had been abused, or litigated on their behalf, came into being, denying priests accused of due process, and a presumption of innocence. 

In the midst of this all stands Father Gordon MacRae, a priest that I have no doubt was railroaded with false accusations first by those who claimed he abused them, and worst of all by his father in the Church, his Bishop, who denied him proper counsel, and abandoned him to a court system that was not interested in his possible innocence, but bent on sending some kind of message to somebody about something, all of which gets lost when justice is denied.

Ryan MacDonald has written much and often about Father Gordon, and his article linked below is worthy of your time reading it and digesting its content.  You will find other links down and to the left of this article on my blog page, about 25 others to be more precise, about Father Gordon.

Father Gordon MacRae is a hero of the Catholic Faith.  Midst persecution and abandonment by those whose duty it is to love him unconditionally, and support him in his need, he has remained a beacon of Christ's teaching to love one another.  His witness from prison is stronger than the witness of any alleged "free man" that I know. 

A RAM IN THE THICKET: The Prisoner-Priest Behind These Stone Walls: By Ryan A. MacDonald A wrongly convicted priest fights back from his prison cell, and teaches a lesson in fidelity and Catholi...

How Can This Be?

Shock and Horror at the continued incarceration of Father Gordon MacRae
Unless you or I have been asleep under a rock for the last decade or two, we have heard about how DNA evidence has exonerated a not insignificant number of prisoners on death row, or in the general prison population of murders, rapes, and other crimes where such evidence was able to be gathered in the days of the investigation of the crimes.

But, we all think that justice, though it may be blind, its blindness is meant not as a problem, but that it is not prejudiced against or for a particular victim or accused perpetrator.  So, we conclude that mistakes happen, and isn't it a good thing that those wrongly incarcerated will one day be freed.  It is of course easy for us, since it isn't us, and besides he/she probably got away with something else anyway.

So, someone proclaims his/her innocence for year after year, when he/she could probably have been paroled simply by saying that he/she had committed the crime, and by showing sincere remorse for having done such a heinous thing, whatever it was.  But, because someone did not know how or desire to fake sincerity and remorse, he/she languished in prison wrongfully, until some group or individual pursued their innocence for years to get them freed.

Justice might be blind, but it appears in not just a few incidences that it is deaf, dumb and stupid as well.  We think that in a criminal court of law that a preponderance of evidence will cause the guilty to be found so, and the innocent to be exonerated.  Most times it works that way.  But not always.

How does one exonerate someone if a crime was never committed?  How does a non crime make its way into the criminal justice system, and how does someone get convicted and sent to prison for 67 years for a non-crime?  Well, it's not easy, but it can be done, and there is at least one example of which I am familiar where the perfect storm conspired for it to be so.

The perfect storm of which I speak is the sexual abuse scandal of Catholic priests.  In the US between 1960 and 2004, 10,667 individuals claimed sexual abuse by 4,392 priests, and 90% of these claims were from prior to 1990.  It seems like a lot, but in fact in the totality of sexual abuse in the US during the time period, it is not even statistically a dot on the radar, not 1%, not even .1%, or even .01%.  Yet, the only sexual abuse we have heard about for 20 years is that by Catholic priests.

There are reasons for this, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York said this in a recent post, which is worthy of a read for its own sake:

“For one,” I continued, “we priests deserve the more intense scrutiny, because people trust us more as we dare claim to represent God, so, when one of us do it – even if only a tiny minority of us ever have — it is more disgusting.”
“Two, I’m afraid there are many out there who have no love for the Church, and are itching to ruin us. This is the issue they love to endlessly scourge us with.”
“And, three, I hate to say it,” as I wrapped it up, “there’s a lot of money to be made in suing the Catholic Church, while it’s hardly worth suing any of the other groups I mentioned before.”

The first one is true.  Priests lives should be able to withstand close scrutiny, since they represent Christ to Catholics around the world.  But, lest we get to intense about this, I assure you that my life breaks down under close scrutiny, and I rely on the grace and mercy of God to survive my own sinfulness.

The second one is about the animosity to the Church that goes on daily in our world.  Good on you, Archbishop for saying this, because although it is the truth, most won't believe it.

But, it is the third one that salts the clouds of the perfect storm, and which has led to the incarceration of at least one priest of my electronic acquaintance, Father Gordon MacRae of These Stone Walls.

In the early 90's as the eyes of the US fell on priests and sexual abuse, many of the cases that had occurred and had been buried either by victims who felt ashamed, as victims of sexual abuse often wrongly do, or worse still buried by Church administrators and bishops, who felt shame as well, and sought to protect the Church, came bubbling up to the surface.  As they percolated in our collective consciousness, opportunity surfaced as well.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but greed and opportunity are the parents of copycats.  As reports surfaced of financial payoffs by the Church, new claims of abuse surfaced, and money changed hands with nary a peep, and no evidence beyond a claim that something had happened.

Many priests were correctly caught in their deceptions, but many others were caught in a web of deceit and lies and hidden agendas, not their own, such as Father Gordon.

Father Gordon has been an inmate of the New Hampshire State prison for about 17 years as of now, for a crime or set of crimes that never could have logistically happened, and which earned those claiming that they did handsome settlements from the local diocese.  You can read the case history of the case against Father Gordon here.

One writer, Ryan A MacDonald, who lives in London England, has taken up Father Gordon's cause, and has done considerable research into it.  Though he has had much of his work published, he has taken it on himself to create a blog for this purpose.  It is called very appropriately "A RAM in the Thicket".

Here is his dedication of the blog:

When God stayed Abraham's hand, sparing Isaac, "Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns, and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son." Genesis 22:13. A Ram in the Thicket is a blog by Ryan A. MacDonald (RAM), a writer, Catholic convert, and advocate for the Church as a mirror of justice in the public square. Too often in the current climate the Church's own sons - our priests - are sacrificed to satisfy the demands of contingency lawyers, insurance companies, and a scandal-hungry news media. This blog is dedicated to those priests who are accused falsely, or with wild exaggeration, and who wait with patience and fidelity for their reflection in the mirror of justice that our Church must be.

In his latest post, Ryan opens up a can of worms that is worthy of reading, To Azazel: Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy .

Ryan presented in this posting about the abandonment of Father Gordon by his brother priests, and by his own Bishop.

In a 2001 confidential memo to Bishop McCormack, diocesan attorney Bradford E. Cook wrote: "There were certainly imperfections in the judge's handling of [MacRae's trial]." In regard to the actual claims against Father MacRae he wrote: "Whether it was all trumped up or totally manufactured is impossible to know .... That it was embellished is clear.” The diocesan attorney cited that a number of other priests where Father MacRae served were also accused - some by the same people who accused MacRae: "It is impossible to discount that one or more of them may have been involved with one or more of [MacRae's accusers]."

In another confidential 2001 memo, diocesan Chancellor Rev. Edward Arsenault noted that errors occurred in MacRae's trial, and cited the unfairness of the diocese's refusal to assist him with an appeal forcing him to rely on a public defender for his only remaining hope for justice. Arsenault recommended that the diocese deal with the matter of funding an appellate defense for MacRae by coming up with a remedy for "the lack of base remuneration" from the diocese as required by Church law. On the very verge of these Church officials finally stepping to the plate to help their priest, the 2002 national scandal implicated Bishop McCormack and cast Father Gordon MacRae back into the abyss.

Two persons, a New Hampshire attorney and a former television news producer, have attested under oath that in 2000 Bishop McCormack told them of his belief that Father MacRae is innocent of the claims for which he is in prison, then demanded secrecy, saying, "None of this can ever leave this room."

So, here we have a situation, where Father Gordon's own superiors in the Roman Catholic Church, are pretty sure that he is not guilty of any crimes, and yet no one has lifted a finger to defend him originally, or to assist him today. 

In the name of Our God of Mercy, how can this be?

If This is the Way You Treat Your Friends

It's no wonder you have so few! ~St. Teresa of Avila (about God)

Father Tim Moyle over at Where the Rubber Hits the Road has highlighted two recent articles focused on anti-Catholic bias, and prejudice, here and here.

As a Roman Catholic lay person, I have a view on this topic.  I have been witnessing a lot of incidents of what I would call bias against the Catholic Church. 

If you take for example the one-sidedness of the sexual abuse scandal, and how it has resulted in reaction from American bishops in particular to accusations against their priests, and then seeking out the facts you see two things at play.  First of all, sexual abuse carries on in our society regrettably, but it does not by and large occur in the Roman Catholic Church anymore.  That boat has sailed, and not largely because the US bishops finally in 2002 created the Dallas Charter to protect young people. 

I have written often about Father Gordon MacRae, a guest of the state of New Hampshire prison system for a crime that was never committed, and if it was, it was not by him.  His case is an example of prejudice run amok.  The detective examining the evidence or lack of it in the first place, had a clear prejudice against Catholic priests, and so was less inclined to look for incontrovertible proof than he was to believe the lies against Father Gordon.  The prosecutor and then the judge were similarly inclined to believe in their prejudice, and so Father Gordon did not get a real chance to prove his innocence.  But, in a case of the Church knuckling under to the prejudice, and in fact supporting it, he was abandoned by his bishop and the successor to his bishop at the time, and left to his own devices.  And so, he sits in prison for a crime that  he did not commit.  If he were not a Catholic priest, would he have ever been tried, and convicted?  I think not.

But, the prejudice is often more subtle and also often comes from sources one would not expect.  In the US, there has only been one Catholic President, and we saw how that ended up.  In Canada, we have had a number of senior politicians of some Catholic persuasion, though from their actions, it appears that their Catholicism is nominal, and therein lies the rub.  Here in Ontario, we have a Premier, Dalton McGuinty, who claims to be a Catholic.  However, he leads a government bent on removing the Catholicism from the Catholic School System, with education policies that are meant to give precedence to homosexualist agendas at our expense.  One of our own is putting the screws to us.

While on that, if the Gay Pride parades and celebrations, rife with overt sexuality, and nudity, are not an affront to all that we Catholics hold reverence for regarding the sanctity of the human body, then I miss my guess.

And there is more.  Much more, but I am preparing to head to the LifeTeen Mass at Holy Family Parish around the corner to celebrate the Sacred Mystery of our Saviour's Passion and Death on the Cross, in the midst of like minded individuals.

Prejudice has been there always, and will be until He returns, and we, as Catholic Christians will bear the brunt of it, along with many of our other Christian brothers and sisters, but we will bear more of it.  God allows it to occur.  He could certainly stop it, if He chose.  But, he does so for our greater good, and for the strengthening of our faith with trials.

As we grow in our individual faith, the existence of prejudices and trials matter very little.  Our vocation is to grow in holiness, and the trials and prejudices help us with that, if we look with our eyes of faith at what is going on in our lives and in the lives of the Church.

Father Gordon, for one, is being tried and is growing daily in his own faith, and love of Our Saviour.  If his life had been peachy keen, it likely would not have happened. 

So, I say bring on the prejudice and the trials, and Lord mold us into Your Image.

Kafka, Heller and Corapi Have Much in Common

Thus Says Father Gordon MacRae of These Stone Walls

If there is someone on the planet whose opinion should matter on the affair of Father John Corapi, and the still to be proven accusations against him, that would be someone who has walked miles in similar shoes.  So, when Father Gordon MacRae published his latest thoughts at These Stone Walls, titled: "Good-Bye, Good Priest! Father John Corapi’s Kafkaesque Catch-22", I took notice and I highly recommend giving it a read and some thought.

I am concerned for Father Corapi's mental health today, as I have been while reading and listening to his own comments on the goings on that have been swirling around him over this whole matter.  It would be very stressful to have been caught in flagrante delicto.  There, pants figuratively at half mast, the sinner has his assets bared for all to see.  That was not the case here.  It must be even more stressful to find oneself pilloried for things beyond the pale, that are far beyond what the individual would ever commit in sane mind.

What is even more stressful, is to fall victim to a draconian process which much like being hauled in front of one of our Canadian or provincial Human Rights kangaroo courts (officially tribunals), where as Calgary lawyer and journalist, Ezra Levant demonstrated, the punishment is the crime. 

Father Corapi, and priests like Father Gordon MacRae, as well as others like Father Mark Gruber, are paying a heavy price for the sins of others. You can look at the left of this page and see labels for Father MacRae and for Father Gruber that will lead you to articles where I have made mention of their situations, and provided links in articles to other sources about them.

Most instances of sexual abuse going on between priests, and young people in particular, approximately 94% of those reported to the Church took place prior to 1990.  But, prior to 1985, priests who were accused of sexual abuse were buried, or were sent for treatment, and if considered rehabilitated were returned to active ministry.

It could be said that the bishops of North America and the world, were asleep at the switch.  In fairness, society was asleep at the switch and though many were abused at the hands of priests, far more were abused at the hands of parents, relatives, teachers, coaches and others.  But that does not make good newspaper copy.

Our bishops, priests, and the religious leaders of the Catholic Church may well be anointed with the Sacrament of Holy Orders, into a life of service to the cause and sharing in the life of Jesus Christ.  However, unlike Jesus Christ, we must always remember that they too are sinners, subject to the same temptations as we are, and probably worse, because they are an affront by Holy Orders to the devil and all that he stands for, which is destruction of you and me and them, and separating us from our eternal home with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Like us they have the Holy Spirit for inspiration, but also like us, they are often hard of hearing, or worse still hard of listening.

The sexual abuse scandal and its remnants, particularly in the United States of America is a case in point.  Here in Canada, our bishops created a committee on Child Sexual Abuse, which drafted a report called "From Pain to Hope" in 1992 which has been the foundation of the Canadian Church's handling of the issue and prevention of such behaviours today.  Even in 1992, this was late to address a serious issue that had brought harm to many young people and their families, while undermining the trust of parishioners in their priests.

But, in America it took the Boston Globe breaking news about the criminal prosecutions of 5 priests, to get what appears to be serious action from the US Bishops. In 2002, the US Bishops produced the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.  Until that time, the basic principles of the Charter were being applied on an ad hoc approach.

The Charter is focused on the following:

Creating a safe environment for children and young people; 
Healing and reconciliation of victims and survivors;
Making prompt and effective response to allegations;
Cooperating with civil authorities;
Disciplining offenders;
Providing for means of accountability for the future to ensure the problem continues to be effectively dealt with through a national Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and a National Review Board.

 But, it seems that the Charter and its concepts has become a one size fits all, for anything that might have the word "sex" in it.

The Dallas Charter has resulted in the official victimization of priests.  An American priest against whom a claim of some form of sexual misconduct is raised, is punished first, and if by some chance, with his hands tied behind his back, and a blindfold on he is able to prove his innocence, he may have some opportunity to try and rebuild his life and heal his hurting soul.

Father Gordon MacRae's conviction in New Hampshire happened several years before the Dallas Charter.  There was no credible evidence against him, but that did not stop the prosecutor, investigating detective and judge from having him sent away basically forever, since he refused to admit any culpability, for the things that didn't happen, but for which he was charged and convicted.  Had he admitted he had done, what logically could never have occurred, he would be a free man, ostracized, mind you, but free in some sense of the word.  Instead, he continues to claim innocence, and gets to be a guest of the state of New Hampshire.  But, the main reason he sits in prison, is because he was abandoned by the Catholic Church, by his bishop at the time, and his successor, and those responsible for believing incredible claims and paying significant sums of money to those making the claims.

There is nothing in the charter or in the actions of bishops around America, that even pretends that priests are innocent until proven guilty, which presumption by law they have a right to.

Father Mark Gruber, a well known retreat leader and teacher has been silenced because someone used a computer in a public area attached to his office to access homosexual pornography.  The person who did the accessing came forward and admitted his sins.  For a time, Father Gruber attempted to commence a lawsuit to recover his good name.  But, in a courageous action on his part, he abandoned the case because of the pain it would have caused to others.  The case of Father Mark, and his silencing has nothing at all to do with sexual abuse, or sex for that matter.  It is about power, and the power to silence a good and holy priest, under the guise of sexual misconduct.

So too, the case of Father John Corapi, .  A woman, who claimed that she would destroy him for personal reasons, has been able to do that, with the complicity of bishops and those in charge of his order, by making claims of sexual impropriety against him. 

The safest place to be a child in North America today is in a Catholic Church.  The most dangerous place to be a priest in North America today is in the same Catholic Church.

We must pray for our bishops and those in positions of authority in the Catholic Church, that they will use right judgement to examine the challenges they face over claims made against priests, both currently and in review from the past, particularly where there are credible claims of injustice.

Most in positions of authority are priests, and so me must include them in our prayers for priests, who face this internal persecution that makes priestly ministry more difficult for them.  I remember as a small child running up to our parish priest and giving him a hug.  I remember when my children were small and one child, not one of my own, commented out loud to her mother as our then pastor passed by in procession to the altar: "There goes God Mommy."  In a sense this child was correct, as our beloved priests represent Christ for us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Kids don't usually hug our priests anymore, and more's the pity.  Some did break the trust tragically, and some small few may still do it.  But, that childhood holding in awe of our priests, and yet the approachability that was there to help them to see that beauty of a priestly vocation has been lost, and there will be a price to be paid for that down the line.

God Bless our priests and particularly those falsely accused.

Something Crappy going on with Corapi

More than Meets the Eye
I have followed the saga of (Father) John Corapi for some time. I confess that I was never particularly a fan of the good father, not because his teaching was not solid and beneficial to those who were blessed with hearing it. Something else seemed to hold me back from becoming interested in his work.

When all hell broke loose for Fr. Corapi, I did not doubt the veracity of his own claims about what transpired, and I have no doubt now that he is innocent of all charges. But, more is in play here than what we see at first blush.

(Father) Corapi is not the first priest to be falsely accused. If we go back a little in history, we find that Padre Pio was falsely and seriously accused of things beyond his capability of doing. Padre, now Saint, Pio was able to submit to his superiors, and eventually by the Grace of God, he was cleared of all wrong doing, and returned to his priestly faculties.

More recently, Father Gordon MacRae was falsely accused, abandoned by his bishop and diocese, and has spent over 16 years in prison as a guest of the state of New Hampshire. Father MacRae is the author of These Stone Walls, and you can read about his case there, and also the many thoughtful things he has to say about the faith and about the Roman Catholic Church, which he so loves.  He has been forced by circumstance to be submissive to a system that has treated him very badly.

There is also Father Mark Gruber, about whom I have written. Father Mark is a well known retreat master, and beloved for his faith and his communication skills. In what amounts to the weirdest set of circumstances, he has been falsely accused of something that is first of all, not illegal, though it would be sinful, if he did it. But, the SODDI (some other dude did it) defense applies here, not by innuendo, but by fact.  Some Other Dude confessed to doing what Father Gruber was accused of.  Father Mark, in his defence, originally commenced legal proceedings to protect his good name. 

I summarised some of where they are at relative to those of us who are free to roam the earth in this posting. 

Father Mark Gruber put into perspective his situation, in one of the most  humble and humbling comments yet on situations such as these, when he said:

“No man is just, except Jesus our Savior, and while I’m certainly not guilty of this crime, we all deserve any sufferings short of the fires of hell, simply for being a sinner on this earth."

But, Father Corapi was only able to take 3 months of being pilloried, by some, though still revered by many, until he cracked. I have no doubt that he is under tremendous emotional strain.  There were reports that Father Gruber was cracking for some time under the strain of false accusation, and I hope that has passed for him, and that he is able to bear his cross with equanimity.  Father MacRae has also born his cross nobly, though he has worked on his defence, and documented it and made it available with the help of supporters.

Father Corapi has handled his situation differently.  He has passively aggressively proclaimed his innocence, and done so with bombast and counter charges, and in reality, as a man falsely accused, he legally has the right to so do.

As one who has been recovering from a brain injury for over 7 years, I have a perspective that I think is somewhat different on this situation.  Father Corapi's behaviour, particularly of late, both in written and spoken form has appeared to be erratic to at least this casual observer, causing at least one commenter to suggest that he is on drugs.  This particular comment, which I believe was way out of line, begat a fiery response from Father C, when it needed none.  What I have discovered is that when one's emotional response to a particular situation is bigger than the situation warrants, then there are likely issues involving brain chemistry and function at play, and help is required.  This is not just from my own experience, but also from the training and experience of one of the foremost psychiatrists in America and probably the world today.

Doctor Daniel Amen, whose clinic I attended a few years back, specialises in brain imaging as a diagnostic tool, and has been particularly successful in situations where behavior has been erratic, even to the extremes of being criminal.  The brain is the center of our thoughts, moods and actions.  In a recent posting Dr. Amen wrote about Brains Acting Badly.  The focus of this article was the sexual misdeeds of some of the recent miscreants highlighted in the MSM, but the conclusions that our brains take the lead in our lives is valid, and must be dealt with if we are to lead lives that are filled with truth and which lead us to holiness.

I believe that Father Corapi is in desperate need of our prayers, and love as fellow travelers on the journey of faith.

It has been my belief for some time now, that we must provide prayer cover for all men who have a vocation to the priesthood.  The mantle of "alter christus" is too heavy for these dear men to carry on their own. They need us to draw alongside them, in prayer and fellowship, where that occasion arises.

Do not abandon Father Corapi, but lift him up.  He is one of us, and if he hurts, we hurt.

Christmas In Prison

From Father Gordon MacRae at These Stone Walls

Father Gordon, as readers of my blog and more particularly of These Stone Walls, know has been falsely imprisonned.

Today he writes about Christmas in prison.  Those of us in the outside world never probably pay a thought to our brothers and sisters who will spend this Christmas season behind bars.  Many of them really deserve to be there, some more so than others.  There are also many there because the system failed them, like Father MacRae.

But, we all live in at least a symbolic prison, the prison of our own disobedience to the God who loves us enough to send His Son to earth to be Our Saviour and Lord.

Today, we here in London, are celebrating the funeral Mass of a friend, Donna Henshaw, who passed away at the age of 54 this week.  Donna raised 6 kids, much of that on her own, and leaves them and in laws, 6 grandchildren, and friends behind, as she goes on to her eternal reward, the one that Jesus died to give to her.

She too was in prison.   She had ovarian cancer for a number of years and thus was a prisoner of her body which was betraying her.  She was told over two years ago that her death was imminent.  She never stopped believing that God would heal her, and she lived each day as fully as she could.  There was no quit in Donna Henshaw.  But, this week, she finally let go, and went home.  She received her miracle.  She lived those extra years in faith and love, doing for others as she could, and loving all who crossed her path.

Donna had this one little quirky thing that my prayer partners and I were reminded of yesterday at Morning Prayer.  If she was approaching you, and you had not noticed her, or she thought you had not, she would wave her arms and call our "Yoo Hoo!"  We all remembered times when Donna had marched down the street in high or low dudgeon, on a mission to somewhere, and would call out to those she was about to meet.   So, it seemed appropriate that she would be laid to rest at the original Catholic Funeral Home in London, Ontario, Donohue's.  Yesterday, we called it "Donna Yoo Hoo's," in memory of our departed friend.

We will all be freed of the prisons of our mind, and/or our bodies on death.  We hope that we will be freed to live in joy and peace with our Saviour.  We pray that those who do not know Him will come to that knowledge, so they can be with us in the paradise that we hope for for ourselves, as well.

But, while we are here, it is our duty to love one another, as Father MacRae does, and as Donna did.  Both give us examples of being prisoners for Christ.

May you rest in peace Donna, and pray for all those you have left behind.

Father Gordon, may you continue in your sacrificial love of your brothers and sisters, and may your personal suffering be used by and joined to Our Saviour for the benefit of those He sees fit to bestow it upon.

God Bless You both.

Addition By Subtraction

Learning from Father Gordon MacRae and Father Mark Gruber

It is late afternoon here in Southern Ontario as I write this.  The sun is streaming through the family room windows of our home that faces a small city park just beyond our backyard.  I have spent time outdoors today enjoying the fall sun resting on my shoulders and warming me.  God willing, My Dear Wife and I will leave our home here to spend the first four months of 2011 in our winter home in Southern Arizona, far from the snow and slush, and the bitter cold of Canadian winters.

We can do this because Our God is a Great God, and He has provided this for us to enjoy, but also to use for His Glory. 

It is not so for Father Gordon MacRae.  Father Gordon languishes in the New Hampshire State Prison, where he can, if he tries, see a few inches of the outside world.  But, he cannot choose to go where he wishes.  He is a prisoner.  So too, Father Mark Gruber in a very real sense.  They are the victims of lies perpetrated by those whose need to be right has exceeded their grasp of the importance of the Truth.

But, languishes is a word that diminishes these two fine men of God, for they are not in fact languishing, but seeking His Face in all they meet, and submitting themselves to His Divine Providence for their daily lives.

They are free in ways that most of us cannot imagine.  They have met the Way, the Truth and the Life personally, and He, Our Dear Saviour has allowed them to share in His Suffering and a Death to their dreams of priestly ministry.  He has made His Sufferings a gift to them, and they have taken up their crosses and are following Him, joined to His Death, and ultimately to His Victory over sin and death.

Add to this something else that happened recently, and how the rest of us respond to what is before our eyes must change.

Last weekend, Gus Lloyd, an Evangelist, and radio announcer on Catholic Radio on the satellite networks, where he hosts the morning show "Seize the Day" was given a prayer ("Drain Me of Me") by God, which he dutifully wrote down, and which he equally dutifully, but with some trepidation, shared on his web site and radio program, and which I reproduced the other day.  It is a prayer that calls for the pouring out of all that is in us that is not of Him, who poured Himself out for us at Calvary.

In one part of the prayer, near its conclusion, it says:

And when I am emptied, unencumbered by
The stuff and nonsense of the world,
No longer weighed down by the heaviness
And burdens put upon me by myself
Or the dark forces of the evil one

Fill me with your Spirit,
For your Spirit has no chains,
Your Spirit recognizes no boundaries,
Your Spirit is lightness and light,
Your Spirit allows me to soar
As on eagle’s wings.

Gus has realised that though he lives with his family in South Florida and travels about the country preaching as the opportunity arrives, he is not in fact completely free.  For reasons of my own personal journey, I know this too.

The Apostle Paul was never more free than when he was imprisoned, and neither have Father's MacRae and Gruber ever been more free than they are at this moment, while imprisoned, ostracized, criticized and ridiculed by those in authority.

True freedom can only come with abandonment to divine providence, to trusting in God so completely that nothing else matters but seeking to do His will every moment of every day.

Father Gordon and Father Mark have and are being drained by God of all that separates them from Him.  When all the clutter of daily life is removed there is only Him.

That their suffering not be in vain, nor that of Our Dear Lord, we too must take up the cross that is before us, and add to our life in Him by subtraction.

Lord God, Creator of the Universe, remove from us all the parts that keep us from being totally submitted to You and Your Plan for our lives.

Giving Thanks

All of Us Have Reason To Be Thankful


Father Gordon MacRae, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, ministers to the inmates of the state prison in New Hampshire.  He will spend Thanksgiving Day 2010 as he has spent the last 16 Thanksgiving Days, in the prison with "Pornchai, and Donald, and Joseph, and Skooter-with-a-K", and the other inmates of that institution, where he is a blessing to them, and in no small measure they to him, as well.  Father Gordon does not have the privilege of entering the prison to minister, and then repairing to his comfortable home elsewhere, as he has been in that prison every single minute, of every single day, of every single year for the last 16 years or so.  Not only was he falsely accused and convicted of molesting youngsters, in what to the most jaded of observers of the facts can be seen to be contrived, and horribly wrong, but he has been abandoned by his Bishop, his fellow priests, and by the Catholic Church, embodied in its members, who have consigned him to an earthly purgatory.

Father Gordon has always claimed his innocence and there are no shortage of those who believe in him, but to date there has been no justice for him.  Or has there?  Is justice just what we see in this world, or is there divine justice that we cannot see.  Father Gordon would tell you that God is just, and that God is merciful, and that no matter what happens on a day to day basis to him in the "hoosegow", the trials that he is enduring are all joy.

Some time ago, I wrote a piece about the verse from Ephesians that talks about considering trials to be joy, but for some reason never got around to completing it and posting it until today here.  In it I spoke about the challenges that my dear friend Deacon George Sebok encountered along the way to being called to be a Roman Catholic Deacon, and a lover of Our Lord and Saviour. I dare say that Father Gordon is a man like George, one who sees the beauty in the trials he encounters, and the grace abounding.

We in Canada, who live near the US or who live part of the year in the US are aware of a second opportunity we have each year to officially give thanks for our blessings.  We had our Thanksgiving day in early October, but now we can join our sisters and brothers in America as they give thanks for their blessings, and we can in turn give thanks once more for ours.  Once again, Father Gordon has eloquently shown us that all of us have things for which we can show gratitude, no matter what turns our lives take.

If you read down to the comments to his posting, you will see how his faith inspires others, from the comment from Pornchai Moontri, his fellow inmate who has been inspired to join the Church by his witness, and who was able to arrange for his own words to be posted, to the others who  have felt the Spirit move them to visit These Stone Walls, or who regularly follow the goings on here, and take the time to comment.

Let Father Gordon's unfailing faith be an inspiration to you and to yours, and then give thanks that godly men take up the vocation to be Roman Catholic priests, and remain faithful to that vocation in even dire circumstances and persecution.

Then pray that God would release Father Gordon from the chains of false imprisonment.

And above all, Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.

Thanksgiving, The Pilgrims and Squanto

A Little of the Rest of the Story

Recently, I received a note from Father Gordon MacRae when I posted links to his latest article in a post I did on the Fate of the Catholic Church in America. 

In his note, he mentioned that when he thinks and writes about America, he means North America, including my most of the year home here, in Canada.  He stated that his links to Canada include deep roots from his parents: "My father was from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and my mother was from St. Johns, Newfoundland.  I wrote of her, and of Newfoundland in a post called, "A Corner of the Veil" last December."  He used this as a small link between us, little knowing that the link was a bit stronger than that, at least in my mind.  My Dear Wife, Christina and I were married in Newfoundland 10 years ago, though on the west side of the Rock, near Corner Brook.

But, in his latest post on the "The True Story of Thanksgiving: Squanto, the Pilgrims, and the Pope", Father MacRae writes about growing up in the Boston area and about things he saw, like Plymouth Rock, and about the history that he has studied.  As he writes about the Mayflower, and the pilgrims who came to settle in North America, he touched on the family history of my 3 daughters.  Through their mother's side, my three young women are directly, linearly descended from one of the indentured servants who traveled on the Mayflower and settled here, George Soule.  Their great, great etc. grandfather was one of the 41 signers of the Mayflower Compact.

Connections, no matter how fuzzy they might be, this is another excellent article by Father Gordon.  Remember that this author is a man of God, who has been falsely imprisoned, for crimes that he could not have committed, and abandoned by his own Bishop and local church administration, as well as all those who because of the Church stand have believed ill of him.  Yet, he still writes about the faith of our Church, with grace and humility.

Like Father Mark Gruber, of whom I have written several times lately, as he struggles with the challenges of being falsely accused, Father Gordon would probably agree with this statement made by Father Mark to a friend: "while I’m certainly not guilty of this crime, we all deserve any sufferings short of the fires of hell, simply for being a sinner on this earth".

In closing, let me return to the article that Father Gordon wrote about the first Thanksgiving and how it came to happen.  He writes about the connections that exist among men, that like those who chose to run away from the Catholic Church and all things remotely Catholic, as the Pilgrims did in coming to America, you can no more run and hide from the Catholic Church that Christ created in His Own Image, than you can run and hide from Him, if you so choose.  And no matter how poorly you prepare yourself for what life sends your way, He, in His mercy is available to provide help and assistance to all those who call on His Name.

Pray for Father Gordon, that he will be exonerated of the crimes for which he was falsely accused. 

I would ask that you pray for him to be set free, but he is, in truth, more free than most of us at this very moment.  I would also pray that he be returned to ministry as a Catholic Priest, but the evidence is that he is carrying on his priestly duties in prison, probably more effectively than most priests in America today.

God Bless You, Father Gordon. We give thanks to God for your faithfulness to him in the midst of your own trials, and the witness that that is to our weak faith.

Father God, we ask you to give those who read these words a double portion of the faith and fidelity that Father Gordon is living where you have him planted at this time.

The Fate of The Catholic Church In America

Holds True For Canada As Well

Father Gordon MacRae is a prisoner of the New Hampshire prison system for crimes he logically and logistically could not have committed, if in fact they occurred at all.  But, as a prisoner, and a Catholic priest, he has refused to lie down and die, and he remains a witness to the faith that motivates him, and to the Saviour he loves.

He has a blog site, These Stone Walls, and there he writes heart felt and incisive articles that awaken in many the hidden depths of their faith.  He recently wrote a three part series on the When Priests are Falsely Accused.  From this third part, you can back track to the first two parts of this excellent series.  I am grateful that a thought I had conveyed in one of my earlier blog posts became a point to ponder in the second part of this series.  I had said in my article called "A Thorn in the Flesh".

“The Catholic Church has become the safest place in the world for children, but the most dangerous place in the world for our priests.”

I highlight this only to lead in to what Father Gordon published the other day in an article titled, "The Twilight's Last Gleaming: The Fate of Religion in America".

In the article Father Gordon postulates what many of us who are members of the Catholic Church have sensed to be a truth, and that is that religion, with particular emphasis on the Catholic religion is under attack from the media, and the American public. (Don't forget the Canadian media and public).  I would further add that the Catholic Church is in particular being persecuted by some Evangelical Christians, who have fallen under the delusion that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon.

It seems that my above quote needs to be modified somewhat.  Maybe it should read: "The Catholic Church has become the safest target for those of little faith, and those who are determined to persecute it.  However, in this culture of confusion in which we find ourselves, it will ultimately stand as the only reliable guide."

For that final part, I rely on Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver Colorado, a voice in the wilderness, whose wisdom shines forth for all to see.

He wrote for today via Catholic News Agency, about the following:

Over the centuries, the Church has often called her people to reflect on the “Four Last Things”—death, judgment, hell and heaven.  She has a good reason for doing so.  Life is brief.  And all of us, whether rich or poor, unknown or famous, will very soon encounter the Four Last Things, directly and personally.

In essence he pointed out that life is both temporary and transitional, a fundamental teaching of Christianity.  It is in effect the hereafter that we are all here after.

So, in the midst of a somewhat gloomy picture of attacks on the Church per Father MacRae, all of which is true, he himself, points us to the wisdom of Father Richard John Neuhaus, who had these three words of advice and encouragement for all Catholic men and women of goodwill, by way of encouragement and education:

Fidelity, Fidelity, and Fidelity.

How do we overcome attacks on our Catholic faith - with Fidelity to the Church and to the teachings of Jesus Christ for which it stands?

How do we prepare for the “Four Last Things”—death, judgment, hell and heaven", of which Archbishop Chaput reminds us - with Fidelity to the Church and to the teachings of Jesus Christ for which it stands?


Pretty simple isn't it?
 
All Catholic Christians are called to know their faith, live it with Fidelity, and proclaim it in word and even more in deed, for these are troubled and troubling times we live in, and many will take their hands off the plow, making them unfit for the Gospel message.
 
So many Catholic Christians have been poorly catechized and we deserve to be criticized for that, but I see evidence everywhere I look, that the Gospel is being preached in the Catholic Church with greater urgency and Fidelity to the faithful.
 
All those who have ears, let them hear.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the Catholic Church are greatly exaggerated.

World Priest Day - October 31, 2010

God Bless You All

As we celebrate World Priest Day, 2010, I offer my prayers and heartfelt gratitude to all the priests who have in one way or another touched my life, those who have celebrated the sacraments with me, those who have written things that have inspired me, those who have prayed and worked to overcome the challenges that have come their way that would crush weaker men.

They have included Father John Pirt, our pastor at St. George Parish here in London, Ontario, who celebrated with My Dear Wife and I and gathered friends and relatives, this past summer, the convalidation of our marriage in the Catholic Church.  Of course, I think also of Father Sam Johnston, the 84 year old retired priest of our diocese, who challenged me (and My Dear Wife indirectly) to get on with it, and Father Tim Moyle, the author of Where the Rubber Hits the Road blog, who on the day of our convalidation said his own mass for us.

Other priests have ministered to me or us over the recent years, our former pastor Father Jim Mockler, and Father Clement Agamba, of Tucson, by way of Ghana. 

One priest has stood out in my mind for many, many years, Father Michael Prieur, of St. Peter's Seminary, a priest faithful to his vocation of teaching young priest aspirants in the ways of our beautiful Church, and who has so often shared his smile, and wisdom with me, even if I was not listening, or if he thought I was not listening with my heart.

Over the years, I have met priests at St. Peter's Seminary who have become bishops,  Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, and Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto.  I also have had the opportunity to meet and speak with the retired Bishop of London, Ontario, John Michael Sherlock, both prior to his retirement and subsequently.  These men do not really know who I am, as my encountering them was brief, but they touched me with their faith and faithfulness, and their humanity.

I have encountered some priests by their faithful writing in defense of Holy Mother the Church on the Internet, including Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington, Father James Farfaglia of Corpus Christi, Texas, and the afore mentioned Father Tim Moyle of the Diocese of Pembroke Ontario.

Some have left the priesthood, Father Chris Beausoleil, who was a close friend, and who taught me much will remain in my heart as a priest, for the priestly way that he loved and encouraged me for many years.

And there are two priests for whom I have an ache in my heart.  They are Father Gordon MacRae, and Father Mark Gruber. 

Those who have read this blog and the These Stone Walls blog Father Gordon writes, will know of the case of this faithful priest, who now ministers in the New Hampshire state prison, where he is an inmate, having been falsely charged and convicted of phantom child molestation, during a money grab by litigants, and failure to protect him by his own diocesan administration over 16 years ago. 

You may also have read the strange and frustrating case of Father Mark Gruber, whose archabbot has removed his priestly faculties, in essence because someone used his computer (and subsequently confessed) to view homosexual pornography.  There, of course, is more to the story than meets the eye, and you can google it and find out more of the truth, or you can use my search box to find what I have written and linked here at Freedom Through Truth.

These two men are living the Crucifixion daily, and joining their sufferings with Our Dear Saviour in a way that most of us do not have to, and maybe could not even.

But, all the above priests in their station in life, are "Alter Christus", and bring Jesus to us in the Eucharist, and in the other sacraments instituted by Christ to bring grace to His people.

Deacon Greg Kandra came across a posting of this rendition of the Litany of the Saints, and I offer it up for you, along with my daily prayers of the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and Liturgy of the Hours, along with the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as I attend.

You, Dear Fathers in the Lord, are loved.  May God Bless you all, and all other priests who have touched my life, and indeed all priests throughout the world, both living and those who have gone before, in your ministries to the people of God.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for all these men, and all men who have taken Holy Orders.  Mother Mary, you our mother, who love all the priests who are Alter Christus for your Divine Son here on earth, surround them with your mantle of protection and frustrate the powers of Satan in their lives and in the lives of their loved ones. 

St. Michael and their guardian angels, come defend them in battle against the wickedness and snares of the devil.  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou Oh prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God,  cast into hell Satan and all the evil ones who roam through the earth seeking the ruin of their souls.

The Latest From "These Stone Walls"

Father Gordon MacRae

For those who have been following my postings, I have written often about our faithful Catholic priests, men who I respect greatly for their love of Holy Mother Church. 

One such priest of whom I have written is Father Gordon MacRae.  We don't hear about Father Gordon in "polite circles", because Father Gordon was convicted of being a pedophile, although there was no evidence against him, even though incredible fictitious evidence was manufactured.  He was caught up in the sexual abuse scandal at its peak, when squeamish bishops rushed to pay off those who would "bring scandal to the Church" on the mere receipt of a letter from some contingency lawyer, claiming his client was a victim of abuse. 

With the rush to dole out cash to assuage the guilt from hiding the real abuses of the past, which of itself was a precipitous action, our bishops left priests accused of abuse on their own, in a "Where there is smoke there is fire" type of response.  Often, all too often, there was a fire burning, though it had smoldered with the stench of burning flesh for many years right under their noses, and they somehow had chosen to ignore it for fear of bringing scandal to the Church.

Today's scandal in the Church is not the abuse of children, though it may always exist.  No, it is the refusal of bishops and law enforcement agencies, to give priests accused of wrong doing, the rights that we all have before the law, to confront our accusers, to defend ourselves when charges are brought against us

Father Gordon is writing a three part series currently from his current home in the state prison in New Hampshire, about "When Priests are Falsely Accused".  This is the second part and links to the first part are embedded in the article linked above.

As I have defended his cause, I have been able to have some contact with Father Gordon.  I have written about him, and his blog master has read either my posting or my email to him, because you see, as a prisoner, he is not allowed the types of contact with the outside world that we take for granted.  He has no Internet or even a device that would support it.  He uses an old electric typewriter with some memory in it to write his poignant articles.  Father Gordon has then responded to me by telling his blog master what he wants her to convey in an email to me.

16 years he has been incarcerated.  The chilling thing is that he has refused ever to admit guilt for the charges that were brought against him, and had he pled guilty, he would be outside in the free world today, and would have been for many years.  Only a very foolish person would pass up an opportunity to plead guilty to charges he committed, thereby reducing his time in prison.  But, a man of courage and high moral fibre would never submit to a lie merely to save his butt.

Father Gordon is a man of courage and high moral fibre, and so he sits.  On Tuesdays, the same day as this latest posting by Father Gordon, we pray the Sorrowful Mysteries, when we say our daily rosary.  On my iPod, I have an application with the rosary on it, and with the mysteries with the scripture verse that forms the basis of the particular mystery and with the "Fruit of the Mystery" for which we are to pray.

The fruit of the 3rd Sorrowful Mystery, the Crowning with Thorns, is Courage.  The fruit of the 4th Mystery, the Carrying of the Cross is Patience, and the fruit of the 5th Sorrowful Mystery is Perseverance.

We are called to see each other as Christ with skin on, and so as I ponder these mysteries, I call to mind Father Gordon and all our faithful priests, who embody in an earthly sense these mysteries.  Father Gordon's embodiment of these mysteries just happens to be a bit more hard hitting.

Each morning when I pray the liturgy of the hours, I offer an additional prayer somewhat as follows: "Father, I pray for priests, deacons and religious, those in formation and those discerning a vocation to religious life, that you would guide them and guard them from all evil, that you would send our Holy Mother to surround them with her mantle of protection and frustrate the powers of Satan, that you would send Michael and their guardian angels to defend them in battles against Satan and the powers and forces of darkness, and to minister to their needs, and intercede for them at your right hand."

I particularly pray for Father Gordon MacRae and Father Mark Gruber whose earthly sufferings are joined to those of Our Dear Saviour on the Cross in a redemptive way, uniting them to Him.

Priests and Sexual Abuse

The Scandal Within the Scandal

Readers of this blog will know that I have a great affinity for our dear Catholic priests.  I have always had such an affinity since my early days as an altar server.  All,  ALL, of my memories as a youth attending daily mass in Advent and Lent, and serving mass, even playing football in the altar boy football league in London, Ontario are fond memories.  Yes, some of the priests I met then were a tad crotchety, but they were for me at the time, and remain "alter christus", another Christ.  

I am not a babe in the woods.  I know that they were sinners, as I am a sinner, and I know that some (far too many) sinned in ways that society now realises did great harm to youth, in what it termed the "sexual abuse scandal."

I also know that the Canadian and American Catholic Churches hid the abuse that was happening under the eyes of leadership for many years, which only exacerbated the problem, and left victims with pains that magnified over time, absent healing. Over 20 years ago I met a priest who had been transferred to one diocese from another, and given work in the marriage tribunal, to keep him away from young people.  He was not the only one, and so rather than making him face the truth, and rather than face the truth itself, his bishop buried him elsewhere.

Of course, this was wrong, seriously wrong, and the Church of all places should know better.  Yet, at the same time, in polite society, sexual abuse was being buried as well.  Families built systems to protect the abuser from guilt, and if an outsider was presented with a claim of abuse, that claim found a hasty end, with no resolution for the abused, except possibly more serious abuse.  I have seen several instances where families of abuse have turned against one who would speak out the truth of what was happening, thereby re-victimizing the victim of abuse.

In our secular society, we now watch for signs of abuse, and point fingers much more quickly at things that look wrong.  It is not always the case that an abuse has happened, and many abuses go unnoticed, but the abused are more likely to receive a hearing, and to be believed.  Many men, and even women are languishing in prisons because of being successfully prosecuted for crimes of sexual and even physical abuse. 

But, when someone claims that a priest has sexually abused a young person, no matter how long ago, there is an added incentive, the monetary factor.

Catholic dioceses, particularly in North America, probably because of their guilt and shame over hiding abuse for so many years, changed the whole field of abuse.  A pendulum does not rest at center, unless the clock is stopped.  A pendulum first moves right and then moves left, passing center, but not stopping.  So too has the abuse scandal, to the effect that there is a newer scandal, the scandal of depriving priests of the right to confront their accuser, of the right to be considered innocent, until proven guilty.  This is the zero tolerance policy of the USCCB, followed similarly in Canada, that accepts all claims as valid and all priests against who a claim of abuse has been made, as guilty first.  Lawyers for dioceses rush to pay off, in so many cases, claimants and their lawyers, litigation pros working on contingency.

Many claims are valid, and there is a need for justice.  However, assuaging these claims with filthy lucre seems to this scribe to be fraught with opportunity for abuse of the justice system, and it has been so.

When a Catholic priest becomes a non person, unable to afford to defend himself, the possibility for justice for him goes out the window.  The rights of a priest to protection under the law, are different than the objectives of our Catholic dioceses, who are attempting to minimize scandal.  He must defend himself separately, but can ill afford it, based on the life of secular poverty that almost all priests live.

So the love of money becomes the root of all evil, even in the Church, which plays along.  The pendulum moves right and then moves left.

But, this pendulum must come to center.  The Church has too much at stake to allow the counter lies to the original lies about the very existence of the original sexual abuse scandal to continue.

Father Gordon MacRae, the falsely accused priest of These Stone Walls blog, has spent over 16 years as a guest of the State of New Hampshire, for claims against him that are so easily disproven that I weep for him, and for all the other falsely accused members of our priesthood.  Father Gordon has started a three part series here, about the false accusations against priests. 

I urge you to read it, and I urge you to pray for all those who are victims of sexual abuse, either those who poor victims who have had their lives damaged by it in fact, or those priests, who are falsely accused for crimes they could not have committed and in fact did not commit.

Father Mark Gruber - The Plot Thickens (or sickens)

At Least Somebody Is Doing Some Investigation

Father Mark Gruber is one of the "wrongly accused" priests whose case I have been following lately, the other being Father Gordon MacRae.  As a Catholic Christian, I have a deep love of our priests, who are for us "alter christus".  Some of them have sinned seriously.  All have sinned.  But, they need out love and support, and those who have been wrongly accused must be supported even more.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an article this morning by Ann Rodgers about Father Mark's case here.  In essence there is strong evidence to support that Father Mark was protecting the seal of confession in the somewhat specious answers he gave from time to time to direct questions of him.  That his abbot is blind to this is strange.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The dramatic case of the monk who filed a defamation suit against St. Vincent College for removing him from ministry after pornography was discovered on his computer has an even more dramatic subplot.


A former student of the Rev. Mark Gruber has told both state police and canonical investigators that he downloaded pornography on the priest's computer. He says that Father Gruber knew that, but couldn't say so because he had sacramentally confessed that sin to the priest before the pornography was discovered. Priests are forbidden to reveal the contents of a confession under any circumstance.

The seal of confession is very important to our faithful priests.  Without it, so many would not come to that wonderful sacrament.  Theresa McKernan, a commenter to the facebook page for Friends of Father Mark had this to say about his witness:

I was teaching my catechism students about the sacrament of confession this Sunday. They understand the seal of the confessional, but many shared they secretly believe that if the confession was "bad enough", the priest would find some way... to tell someone. I think this fear is one of the reasons many teens fall away from the sacrament, never sure if their sins might be "bad enough" for a priest to find a way to tell their parents or teacher.



There are many stories of martyrs and saints, but being able to tell them that I actually met a priest, a friend of my sister, who has been removed from his teaching job, suspended from his priestly duties, was accused and publicly lambasted for the most horrible of accusations, and had to have a serious fear of prosecution for a crime he didn't commit, rather than reveal something confessed to him, made quite an impact on them.


There is no great tragedy without some small good, and at least here in Michigan, Father Mark's tragedy may have the small good of inspiring a small classroom of teens to make their confession with a little more confidence and a little more faith.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining, and this may be it for our beleaguered priests.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in Your Love for Father Mark.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Today We Celebrate This Marian Feast

Not known by many is the Feast we celebrate today, as we remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother.  There are 7 of them that we commemorate, and they all relate to her son Jesus.  Here they are:

1.The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus. (Gospel of Luke 2:34)

2.The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Gospel of Matthew 2:13)
3.The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days. (Luke 2:43)
4.The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross. (Luke 23:26)
5.The Crucifixion, where Mary stands at the foot of the cross. (Gospel of John 19:25)
6.The Descent from the Cross, where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms. (Matthew 27:57)
7.The Burial of Jesus. (John 19:40)

I think too that Our Blessed Mother takes on as any mother does, the sorrows of all her children, and not just her first born.  When Jesus hung on the cross dying, he commended her motherhood to John for us all, and the Catholic Church has adopted her as a special mother of the Church and therefor of us all.

As a good mother, I am certain that she weeps and intercedes for us in our trials and tribulations.

One of the antiphons today in the Lauds, said along with the Canticle from Daniel 3: 57-88, 56 is "Let us rejoice that we have been made sharers in Christ's passion."  That is a difficult line to say and to mean.  We are not like Christians of older days who would mortify their flesh with painful practices.  But, we do share in Christ's passion as we offer up to him all that we are and all that we have.

Some of us, of course, are invited to offer more, like Father's Gruber and MacRae, where they have been imprisoned, either in an actual prison as Father MacRae, or hidden away in a monastery, and kept from those things he loves, in the case of Father Gruber.

As Catholics, we believe that Mother Mary has a special love for her priests, and they, in turn have a special love for her.  So many of them are devoted to the Rosary, and to living a life of holiness as she did on earth, in service to God.

From the intercessions for this morning's Liturgy of the Hours, which were taken from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the response was "May your mother intercede for us, Lord."

One of the set prayers for which the above was the response, said: "Saviour of mankind, Your Mother stood at the foot of Your Cross, grant, through her intercession, that we might rejoice to share in Your Passion."

Both of these priests are sharing in His Passion, as they, like Him, were unjustly accused and lied about, and shunned after the lies.

Father Gruber had a profound statement that I put in a posting the other day from John Allen, as he said to John: "No man is just, except Jesus our Savior, and while I’m certainly not guilty of this crime, we all deserve any sufferings short of the fires of hell, simply for being a sinner on this earth.”

We do deserve any sufferings short of the fires of hell, but these sufferings unite us with Christ our Saviour into His Passion and Death.  For without the passion and death, there could be no resurrection, and though His sacrifice was sufficient for us all, we are called still to join Him in his suffering, and Our Mother in her sorrows.

Lord, may Your Mother intercede for these two men of God, and for us all.

Father Mark Gruber and Father Gordon MacRae Update

Free Will Sucks Often

As I continue to think about the cases of Father Mark Gruber and Father Gordon MacRae, I have received some comments from those who are supporters of both of these men.


Dr. Ken Minarik, a childhood and long time friend of Father Mark made this comment the other day:

Thanks for your interest in justice for my dear friend Mark Gruber.


His complaint reads like a bad b-movie script that never ends.


I would point out especially paragraphs 123 and 129, which point out that Towey and Nowicki showed binders of unedited, unpixelated pornographic images to a variety of people who had nothing to do with the legal community or law enforcement. Fr Mark's attorney believes that since they possessed images that they purported to be of underage persons, they are themselves guilty of felonious criminal behavior. Such would have to be proven in court. Such alleged behavior is obviously vulgar, violent, and morally heinous in any case.

As well, I heard from Ryan MacDonald who has been a faithful supporter of justice for Father Gordon MacRae:

As someone who has researched and written extensively on the case of Fr. Gordon MacRae, I want to thank and commend you for what you have written to date about not only his situation but Fr. Gruber's as well. At this juncture, I must believe that God has something in mind for the case of Fr. MacRae. Though none of us can know God's mind, I hope that that something will be not just an exoneration, but a demonstration of how easy it is to set up and destroy a priest in the current climate of accusation and fear that has permeated our Church.


I happen to know that there are some accomplished investigators and a legal team hard at work on exposing the truth behind the claims against Fr. MacRae. I also happen to know that this team is itself convinced from the newest evidence that this priest was set up for the purpose of extorting money from the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the Church has been all too eager to be a party to that extortion as our bishops "reach out" to victims with lucrative settlements and few questions asked. It seems to me that what has happened to Fr. MacRae has been complicated by the fact that he has refused to play along with such an agenda, has named his false accusers, and has forbidden his Diocese to settle. It did so anyway, and simply cut him out of the equation. I know that Fr. MacRae is now forced into fighting his case, and splitting his meager resources against two fronts. He is trying to overturn an unjust conviction while simultaneously trying to prevent his administrative laicization. Let's keep up some due vigilance. Thank you for your interest and support.

This indicates to me that people of faith are actively working on helping out these two men of God.

The most telling comment to my recent article on the Thorn in the Flesh came on the FaceBook site for Father Mark came form Peg Skurka Waldmann:

I have some difficulty with that whole concept, even the permissive part-- I always have--God gave man free will to choose to do right from wrong. The abbot chose "wrong" and that is not God's work nor his will--it is true evil.

Peg says what so many of us do not have the courage to speak out loud about free will, and its operation in our world.  
   
But, to imply that God does not have his hand in what is going on, or in every part of what is going on here, is to limit God's abilities to actually be God for us, in times of trial, as well as when "right' choices are made.

God will bring good out of these terrible situations, because those in the situation Father's Gruber and MacRae trust in Him.  However, God will not trample on the free will of those who have perpetrated evil in the lives of these two faith filled priests.  His plan is bigger than that.

That in no way reduces the disgust and sorrow that the supporters of Father Gruber must be feeling at this time, particularly if they read the document that Dr. Minarik put up, being the claim filed on Father Gruber's behalf.

In the mean time, as Ryan MacDonald states above, there are people on the ground trying to unravel the false allegations against Father Gordon MacRae.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  But absolute power occurs often in the Church, where a local Bishop or Abbot has power over individuals in their charge.   That power is a burden for them, and yet many of them work very hard and take their responsibilities very seriously.  But, they all seem to come aflutter when sexual abuse is mentioned even remotely. 

Father MacRae was railroaded over unsubstantiated lies, and no one would come to his aid, as the Church reeled from the sex abuse scandal that was being unveiled at the time.

Father Gruber's case is different.  Here, using the guise of sexual abuse, which is totally unfounded in this case as well, Father Gruber has been railroaded because he had previously stood up for his fellow faculty members, and for others against an oppressive regime at St. Vincent's College.

Those who have allowed two fine priests to be falsely imprisoned should be ashamed of their actions, and should seek forgiveness for their abandonment of the Christian principles of our faith.

It is bad when non-Christians malign faithful Christians.  It is worse when those claiming to be Christians, of the more fundamentalist persuasion, routinely speak in derogatory fashion of the Catholic Church and Catholics in general.  But, it is far worse when those in Church hierarchy abandon their principles of filial love, to perpetuate lies and deceptions against faithful priests.

Neither of these situations look to be coming to a healthy conclusion soon, and so we must pray for both of these men, and for their persecutors, and those who have been instruments of their imprisonment.

On this feast of St. John Chrysostum, a priest of the 4th century, who was himself persecuted for speaking the truth, let us invoke his patronage for Father Mark Gruber and Father Gordon MacRae, and invite him to intercede on their behalf.

Saint John, we beg you to pray intercession for these our brothers, Father Mark Gruber and Father Gordon MacRae, that they may have the peace that you had during persecution, and that they will remain in the truth.  Please also pray that these false accusations that have been levelled against them will be shown to be false and be repudiated, and that they will be free once more to perform fully their priestly ministries.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in your love for Father Mark and Father Gordon. Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in your love for all those who have been involved in their persecution.  Sacred Heart of Jesus fill them all with Your Blood.