I hope you were able to explain to her that the sacrament isn’t about liking or disliking out pal Bishop Braxton. (Here we use the title bishop – as someone with a military e-mail address, I would have thought that respect for the office was part of your background….)

When the leader of the diocese is activle driving the youth away from the church all that is going to remain is the old conservative parishioners…you know…the ones that help turn a blind eye to all the predatory behavior the Catholic church has had to recover from and spend millions of dollars to victims.”

Zip! Bang! Pow! Totally ignoring that it is only the greying elderly priests who are protesting (the JP2 kids are doing no such thing) you are wanting to somehow tie in sex scandals to this? Are you sure you want to do that? Something like 12+ members from the grey panthers’ cohort were sacked or left under cloud of scandal in the past two decades. One wonders, was it at their insisting and behest? That is, if you really want to bring this up.

So I am glad you have ownership and pride in your parish. But being a shareholder – as it were – doesn’t make you chairman of the board. He is the bishop, this isn’t what priests do when they disagree – it is against their vows of obedience to the bishop that ordains them and his successor, and against canon law. All of the anecdotal evidence in all the world about what a meanie Bishop Braxton is simply won’t change that.

If they had a leg to stand on, I bet they could have pursued it in the Vatican privately. I suspect it is the case they well know Rome would not be sympathetic to priests that were protesting since the appointment.

Firstly I would like you to demonstrate what false numbers have been used. I have no idea why “facts” is in quotes. I am more befuddled still why you capitilize and put the word ‘man’ in quotes in that fashion. Why did you do that?

You claim the numbers are false – give us some refutation.

i know many of the priests some of which many of you have condemned for their stand on this issue. some of them i have known all of my life. i am closely related to two of them. believe me they would not take the positions they have lightly.

This is a non-sequitar. I am not interested (and it is not relevent) what your relationship to any of these priests are. They are not being “condemned for their stand on this issue” (heck, it isn’t really clear WHAT their issue is at times).

What this is now about – what it has ALWAYS been about – is the public act of disobedience and disloyalty. There are ways to reddress situations – including seeking an audience with the papal nuncio or going to Rome. This sort of nonsense – waging a media war – simply will not do. It is undignified and it is against the vows that EVERY priest – including the ones you are related to and the ones you have known for years – take.

i have worked and yes poured my sweat and blood into improving racial harmony in this diocese and am personally insulted by the smear tactics of implied racism in some of the above statements. if the Bishop will not work on his own “house” he needs to see the light!

It is regrettable that you feel personally insulted.

I am trying to understand what you mean with “the Bishop will not work on his own “house” he needs to see the light!”

Your mind is not “clouded” by the “old ways” of the Catholic Church? You mean the ways of the apostles? My mind is not clouded by those old ways either: it is illumined.

News flash for ya: Your “ways” have been killing us for forty years. Prepare for counterattack.

I have taken many communications classes. My profession requires that I be able to communicate on many different levels. Sometimes communications have to be “dumbed down” so people can receive the message sent. When speaking to a crowd it is rcommended that the speaker communicate at an 8th grade level because not everyone has the ability to comprehend at a higher level. From a one on one perspective I understand at an acedemic level what he speaks of, but again when you are speaking to the masses you have to speak TO the masses.

As far as your comment about the youth. It is very disheartening to read your comments. Pope John Paul was a catalyst in bringing the mass to the youth. He understood the importance of the youth for OUR future and wanted to make sure that they understood what it meant to be Catholic. I am not a cradle Catholic, I was Baptized and confirmed in 1999, so my view is not clouded with the “old ways” of the Catholic church. The intolerance for our youth will be the death of our church. It is sad to hear that you are only 32 and are already old. I am 37 and got involved with Youth Ministry about 6 months into my journey of becoming a better Catholic and the Youth are what keep from leaving. They are more “Catholic” and Christian than most of the “Catholic” adults I know. So I will pray that you will learn to be more tolerant of our youth.
I think we kind of got off of the orignal topic. Sorry!

Except for about 6 years total, I have lived in the Belleville Diocese. I have seen all the “wreckovated” churches. I’ve seen the Rock N Roll “Youth Masses” at the Belleville Cathedral in the late ’90s when Abp. Gregory was bishop. I’ve been to many Novenas at Our Lady of the Snows and attended Daily Mass there. I know that there are not enough priests to go around and the priests we do have are stretched thin, many of them really do say 4 Masses per day at 3 different churches in 3 different towns or villages. There is extreme diversity in the diocese, in the fact that on every block in Belleville (pop 50,000+ not counting suburbs) there is a Catholic Church, yet in Carbondale (pop 50,000+ not counting suburbs) there is only one Church and there is Mass at the Newman Center at SIU-C. If there aren’t enough priests to go around that is hardly His Excellency’s fault.

I know that there are very unorthodox priests and that there are good orthodox priests. My former priest, who is responsible for the salvation of my soul (indirectly,) taught us the very Truth of the Catholic Faith. He saved all his money from his vairous Chaplaincies, had no heat and no air conditioning, and with that money he was able to give our little area a new church (ours was a tavern that was retrofitted) after he died. For the record, Msgr. Jerome (who married my wife and me) has been saying the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Mass for decades. So that has always been here in So. Illinois.

Youth Minister,

If you feel His Excellency speaks AT people (in my recollection he spoke to me not at me in my various meetings) then maybe you should take a course in communication. I did and it has helped me deal with all types of people. Remember, “perception is projection.”

And, as far as the “Youth” are concerned. This cranky ol’ 32 year-old would appreciate less pandering to them. I didn’t like the “Youth Masses” when I was a teen and a 20 something and as I get more set in my ways I have come to become less and less tolerant of them. St. Dominic Savio didn’t go to a “Youth Mass” nor did St. John Berchmanns. St. Maria Goretti didn’t sway and hold hands across the aisle during the Our Father and neither did St. Aloysius Gonzaga. It’s high time Catholics start acting like Catholics and less like Protestants. Besides, they do it better than we do. But we have Our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist and they don’t. Why don’t we show and tell our Youth about that instead of filling their emotions with bad rock n roll “Praise and Worship Music.”