Never Too Late-Or Too Young-to Write!

We need to keep encouraging others to write letters to the Cardinal and Bishop. All this week, at least one or two faxes should arrive at each of their offices, reminding them that we aren't forgetting about this issue. Here's a copy of the letter my littlest brother wrote:

If your children love the Canons too, encourage them to write letters as well! Bishop Rassus' fax number is 847-549-0163. Cardnial George's fax number is 312-534-6379.  

Canons & St. Peter's Church

I say prayer & works go together. I think we should all do a novena, daily rosary, and make sacrifices offered up, as well as some form of fast. Pray like all depends on God & do like all depends on us!

My son suggested we have a meeting, and formulate a petition, and have all sign a well written letter with all our desires.

One copy for the Cardianal & one for the Auxilirary Bishop George Rassas.

Cardinal George Keeps Pfleger at St. Sabine, Fires Orthodox Priests from St. Peter

Where have you gone, Tom Roeser, when we need you most?

Tom Roeser died two weeks ago at the age of 83. Roeser was a radio talk show host on WLS, a columnist for the Catholic newspaper The Wanderer, and a talented blogger. As Chris Robling said of him, "no one was safe from his fairness." Chicago Archbishop Francis Cardinal George was certainly not safe from Roeser's fairness. Roeser repeatedly skewered the Cardinal for his indecisiveness and inaction on a host of issues, notably including the recent removal and re-instatement of the controversial heterodox priest Fr. Michael Pfleger from his pulpit at St. Sabine parish. Roeser predicted in advance that Pfleger would be reinstated.

While I'm sure there's no connection between Roeser's death and the timing of this new crisis -- yes, I'm calling it a crisis -- I can't help but wonder what Tom Roeser would say about this:

The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius have, for the past three years or so, served the people of St. Peter parish in little Volo, IL, on the far northwestern edge of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

It is a thriving parish, to which people come from far and wide to worship in exceptionally reverent celebrations of the Catholic liturgy, in both the ordinary and the extraordinary forms. Two or three awesome choirs, a new Knights of Columbus council, an active pro-life committee, an incredible religious education program, and a vibrant youth group are some of of the features of this parish.

Yesterday at the Wednesday evening daily mass, to the surprise of the celebrant, Associate Pastor Fr. Anthony Rice, S.J.C., Parishioner Angela Weingarten read a letter from Bishop George Rassas, the auxiliary bishop whose jurisdiction includes St. Peter's, and distributed copies to the congregation. To be sure, it's very peculiar letter, coming from a bishop as it purports to do. It is not signed, and is not printed on letterhead. It contains typographical errors.

And it is a lie.

The letter states that it is the desire of the Canons Regular "to be more of a monastic community." This is simply not true. The letter implies, but does not state, that the Canons have asked to be relieved from St. Peter's. That is also not true.

"The demands of parish life," writes Bishop Rassas, if he is in fact the author, "as well as their desire to live the canonical life, bound together by their Rule, the Mass, and the Divine Office do not easily coexist." In point of fact, Fr. Rice, and the prior pastor, Fr. Dennis Kolinski, S.J.C., achieved a balance that allowed them to be successful in ways of which few Catholic parishes dream.

And that may be the source of the current crisis.

This announcement was scheduled to be made not yesterday, not this coming weekend, but the weekend after next, Father's Day weekend. But the timing was suddenly changed when the news reached the rumor mill that the Canons were being removed from the parish. Letters began to be faxed to Cardinal George's office, and the Chancery knew that the game was up.

Once such letter came from parishioner Fred Dempsey, a local attorney, and his wife Sandra, a physician:

It is an outrage that you intend to remove the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius from our parish, St. Peter in Volo. You are compounding a series of bad decisions based on treacherous advice.

We have been registered parishioners since the days of our beloved Pastor, Father James Lyons. He was ably succeeded by Father James Doyle. He in turn was succeeded by your own confrere, Father Donald Deitz, O.M.I., who is now not content to minister to nuns and is in the thick of this connivance between the present Administrator, Father Eduardo Garcia, who is leaving the Canons, Auxiliary Bishop George Rassas, who opposes the Canons presence in Volo, and one Jay Weingarten, some professional fund raiser for the radical Maryknoll order.

When the Canons Regular arrived at St. Peter's, a new dynamism entered the scene. First, there was Father Dennis Kolinski; and then, Father Anthony Rice. Both men are recently ordained and are relatively young men in a new Order (the first ever founded in our Archdiocese, and under your leadership). They also embody the priorities of a new Papacy, which values the liturgical treasures of the Church. This is your response to Pope Benedict's generous efforts to restore the sacred?

The work of the Canons Regular is bearing fruit. From full choirs to double lines for Confession at every Mass, each of which is packed to overflowing. There are new apostolates (one of which prays for priests), new youth initiatives, a new Knights of Columbus Council, a speaker's program, and altar server training. We have Lessons and Carols at Christmas with the parish children singing, and the Living Stations of the Cross at Lent, put on by our teens. This is a flourishing parish. The nine children of ours who are still living at home simply love our parish. They love the Faith, and consider their parish to be the focus of their spiritual and social life.

This is how it is supposed to be.

It is well known that your first failure was to listen last year to a small, disgruntled group in the parish who waged a letter-writing campaign to you against Father Dennis Kolinski. Father was reassigned. Your second failure was to insist on a Spanish speaking Canon, which meant Father Garcia, who has not been stable in any assignment of his career. Now, you have fallen for a new campaign, building on its past success, which seeks to dislodge the Canons Regular itself from the parish.

We can only extend to you our very sincerest advice: resist those who seek to overthrow what you yourself have established at St. Peter Church in Volo. You have done so in wisdom and generosity to the many families who love this parish, which is a unique parish in the Archdiocese. The interest of those who have attempted to obstruct the good work of the Canons Regular appear to be self-serving and not in the interest of the salvation of souls. Whether they come in the guise of old timers, devout home school moms, or even members of the presbyterate, their poison seeks to kill a thriving, grace-filled community. We have witnessed many people returning to the Faith and being renewed in their Faith due to the tireless work and dedication of the priests and brothers of the Canons Regular. [Emphasis added.]

Another letter came from parishioner Gary Sarsok:

Dear Cardinal George,

I have heard with deep anguish and a broken heart that the Canons Regular of Saint John Cantius are being removed from Saint Peter’s in Volo. I also understand that a small minority of self righteous parishioners as well as other factions even including our pastor Father Eduardo Garcia have engineered this. I have no personal animus to Father Garcia, in fact he is a good priest but it appears to me that Father Garcia has wandered throughout our archdiocese fore and aft has not found stability in his priestly ministry.

I strongly support the Canons Regular against these people. The Canons Regular of Saint John Cantius has been for me a beacon of light and of great character in support of and faithful to the Catholic Faith. Father Kolinski our former pastor never waivered from authentic Catholic teaching as opposed to Father Pfliger whom you reinstalled giving him the benefit of doubt.

I urge you to give the benefit of doubt to the Canons Regular at our Parish at Saint Peter’s in Volo and choose another priest from the Canons Regular to become our new Pastor. [Emphasis added.]

Of course, I have written to the Cardinal myself:

Your Eminence:

When I wrote to you in January to send you a desk calendar from the Knights of Columbus Council #14819 at St. Peter Parish in Volo, IL, I wrote:

We are deeply conscious of the unique character of our parish, and very grateful for it, and for your fostering of our liturgical devotion and spiritual growth.

In real life, I suppose, the average Catholic in the pew knows little of what goes on in Chanceries or in the mind of his Ordinary. But I wonder sometimes if a bishop has a proper appreciation of what’s important to the members of his flock.

The rumor mill up here in Lake County is burning with a report that Your Eminence has decided to remove St. Peter Parish from the pastoral care of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, and place the parish under a diocesan priest.

I believe I am typical: I was previously a parishioner at St. Gilbert Parish in Grayslake, where I was routinely scandalized by the homilies of Fr. Gene Nowak and Fr. Dean Semmer, and by the liturgical abuses perpetrated there.

It was with great relief that I transferred my family’s parish membership to St. Peter, then under the pastorship of Fr. Don Dietz, OMI, who I understand to be a personal friend of Your Eminence. Shortly thereafter, Fr. Dietz retired and the parish was transferred to the Canons Regular, and what was already a good parish just got better.

Fr. Dietz heard confessions before every mass. Under the Canons Regular, an additional priest was provided so that confessions could be heard during mass. Under this expansion of the availability of the sacrament, there was a matching expansion of people to avail themselves of the sacrament.

Fr. Kolinski assented to requests from parishioners to optionally receive communion while kneeling at the altar rail, and now almost every parishioner makes use of that option. The return of ad orientam worship, the increase of the use of Latin, chant, and more traditional music and a marked improvement in the quality of the music have all been great blessings. The parish’s youth group thrives. Where there had formerly been a chapter of the Holy Name Society that had withered away due to lack of interest, I was able to start a new Knights of Columbus council. My son takes part in the exceptional altar server program here.

The homilies of the Cantian priests (like those of Fr Dietz before them), when contrasted with what I’ve heard at other parishes, have been, to me, like dining on steak after being served a diet of Three Musketeers bars.

For most of us, the news that Your Eminence plans to bring an end to the Canons’ Regular stewardship at St. Peter’s suggests that you intend to bring an end to all they have represented here, and we are very dismayed. My wife is quite literally in tears at the news.

If the rumors are true that this decision is prompted by the urgings of Bishop Rassas, Fr. Dietz, Fr. Garcia and other clergy in the local area, then it is difficult to escape the conclusion that this decision is motivated far more by political considerations than pastoral ones.

Removing this parish from the care of the Canons Regular will serve to substantially harm the parishioners, the parish, the Church in Chicago, and your own public reputation. The whole world will see you as the Cardinal who could never quite remove a heterodox priest like Michael Pfleger from what has certainly become his pulpit, but who restricts faithful, reverent, orthodox and obedient priests like these from serving the people of God who long to benefit from their charism.

I am a politician in my spare time, and it seems to me that Your Eminence must, in making such a change, explain to the parish in just what way this decision is for the benefit of the Catholic people of St. Peter, rather than for the comfort or convenience of a few who prefer their Catholicism mixed with a dash (or more) of modernism. Else, this parish will surely see an exodus of faithful Catholics (and their contributions) to somewhere else.

In all humility and obedience to you as my father in faith, I feel it my duty as a Catholic as prescribed in Canon Law and the documents of the Second Vatican Council to fervently urge Your Eminence to reconsider this decision, and give us a pastor from within the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. [Emphasis added.]

I can't help but wonder if the letter distributed yesterday was a feeble attempt to make the explanation I called for in my faxed letter to the Cardinal earlier in the day. If so, it fails utterly. Based on a lie, it fails utterly to explain how the change benefits the mission of saving souls at St. Peter's.

No one questions the authority of Cardinal George to make this change. So that he would lie -- or permit Bishop Rassas to lie on his behalf -- in order to justify his action seems peculiar in the extreme. Or, if the letter is not really from Bishop Rassas, what action will be taken to rectify the situation by the Chancery?

Stay tuned. This story is just getting started.

St Peters Protest

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