Trouble at St. Anne, Part II

By David Fiorito

"That Freak with the Cassock"
That simple phrase sums up quite adroitly the looks I received from new administration when I donned the dreaded “mark of orthodoxy.” After only two days of wearing it, I was confronted by the two nuns who run my parish who had open resentment towards the whole idea. However, long before this, I had decided to leave my parish, St. Anne Church in Rochester, NY. My reasons were simple; a parish ought to have leaders who follow Rome and who respect the liturgy. I summarized many of the abuses in a previous article, “The Eucharist, Source of Vocations,” but there are more which I would like to disclose. Primarily, our pastoral administrator wears an alb for Mass, and sits only four feet away from the “sacramental minister.” You see, in my diocese, that term means “priest.” She also stands during the consecration, and doesn’t even reverence the altar or the Blessed Sacrament thereupon. She processes in and out next to the priest, and feels the need to interject her personal ideas and views into every possible point – introduction, prayers of the faithful, announcements, and homilies. Yes, she even preaches with frequency.

This is why I left, but we must return to the title to get the full dose of what is going on here. When I first wore my cassock on Tuesday the 22nd, I did so to the unanimous feelings of the parishioners. However, when our pastoral associate saw, she said that it was “not her favorite thing” and that it was “not in the tradition of the parish.” In her defense, we have not worn any cassock at the Church for nearly 15 years, however, a large number of people remember them fondly. She then disappeared for Mass. Today, the 23rd, our pastoral administer (her boss) showed up too. Before I get into this in any more detail, I had decided that today’s Mass would be my last one at the parish, for I had borne enough condescension and anger previously. I don’t take fondly to liturgical abuses, particularly when the abusee is “in cahoots” with the bishop.

Anyways, I served my final Mass nearly in tears the whole time. The presider completely understood why I was so distraught, and he gave the entire Mass a theme of humble service in the face of “infertile soil and adversity.” Both nuns were present for this, and, I imagine, found the entirety of the Mass to be most disturbingly loyal to Rome. After Mass was finished, they confronted me in the sacristy, after I had told them of my leaving the parish. Sr. Joan Sobala, the administrator, asked to speak to me privately. She is well known for her willingness to be ordained a priest and for her dislike for the pope. I removed my cassock and surplice, placed my various belongings (relics, incense, etc.) in a box, and went to her. We walked a short ways to a private room where the following conversation was held:

“D.J. [my nickname], I was saddened to hear of your leaving.”

“Yes, sister. It saddens me too.”

“Well, where will you go? You said you feel unwelcome here.”

“I’ll be going downtown to OLO Victory, to the Carmelite Monastery, and some other places where I have been invited.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

[More small-talk and nicey-nice verbiage . . .]

“So . . . I have heard that you wore, um . . . that. Yesterday and today.”

“Yes, sister, I did. The parishioners really think that it elevates the Mass.”

“Just out of curiosity, who gave you permission to wear it?”

“I didn’t think that I needed permission to wear an approved garment.”

“I’m in charge. You do.”

“Well, I spoke with the parishioners and . . . "

“You didn’t speak with me, D.J., and that’s what matters.”

“Okay.”

“I bet you haven’t spoken with the others who will be serving over you about it.”

“Actually, I have. Every last one of them approves enthusiastically.”

“Well, here’s my problem. When you wear one of . . . those . . . you look like a seminarian.”

“Okay.”

“And you’re not one.”

“Yes, sister, I know.”

“The people might think that you are a priest, standing there near the altar in the vestments you chose. I don’t like that kind of confusion.”

“You mean the confusion that you are a priest? Because that type of confusion happens every time you step into the sanctuary with your alb.”

“Well, um, yes. But, but, I explained in my homily.”

“Perhaps you could afford me the same luxury?” [sarcastically, of course]

“Well, I don’t want you to wear it again.”

“Perfect, because I am not here anymore.”

“Good.”

[Conversation ends.]

So, yes, I was rejected because I wore a cassock. I did so, not to make me look good, but rather, to make the Mass look good, for her abuses had overshadowed the presence of Christ which is made manifest in each and every celebration of the Eucharist. Her arrogant self-promotion makes the parishioner feel an abandonment of sorts. It is no longer your parish, it is her parish. This is not the way a “good shepherd” is supposed to act. Rather, it is the complete opposite.

I don’t write this to condemn anyone. I don’t write it to vent or to make myself look good. I write it because I am a Catholic who is shunned for loving the Tradition of the Church and for serving the parishioners as they see fit. Vatican II said that the parish belongs to the people, and its leaders are merely servants. This administration shows a complete disrespect for this, from its open schismatic nature to simply the feeling one gets upon entering, and seeing her chair directly next to the priest while the concelebrants sit in a corner about 20 feet away.

Below is the letter I handed Sr. Roberta Rodenhouse, our pastoral associate, regarding my departure:

Sr. Roberta,

It has become clear to me that my services are no longer needed or desired. Therefore, I feel that I must tell you of my departure from St. Anne Church. For two months I have borne injury, pain and dishonor for the sake of Christian charity. I leave now, for the charity I showed was not returned in any degree or vestige. “Dialogue” turned into chastisement and people who felt a loyalty to Rome were made to feel inferior. I thought that our administrators were supposed to gather the flock, and yet the flock of St. Anne is scattered more so than ever. It became evident that this was the time to leave when I felt unwelcome in my own parish, a parish where I became a Catholic and embraced a vocation of service.

I would ask that you find appropriate replacements for me, that is, if you want or need them. I pray that you need not feel the pain and sorrow I feel at present.

If people want to see the proof of such abuses and the effects of the same, simply look at what is happening in the diocese as a whole. Schools are closing, parishes are closing, priests are dying and being replaced with liberal nuns whose agendas are no secret. The faithful are being gathered into one or two parishes that have the audacity to have chant and incense. The liturgy elsewhere is being used as a medium for a political statement. There is schism and heresy, anger and grief. For the first time in nearly seven years, I sobbed as I have never sobbed before. The pain I felt at being forced to leave was as if someone had kicked me in the chest and tied my bronchial tubes into a knot. I needed to look behind me as I walked down the sidewalk to ensure that I wasn’t leaving bleeding entrails in my wake. I sincerely hope that any who read this need not feel the pain and anguish which I have endured. It is fortuitous that my school’s motto is “For the greater glory of God,” for it is this phrase which allows me to focus on God, as I ought, and not on my personal grief.

Rochester needs your prayers. Rochester needs, at least, people who aren’t showing open contempt for Rome and those who choose to serve it. Most of all, it needs more “freaks with their cassocks.”

Want Justice in Sebelius' Kansas? Bring Cash!

By John Francis Borra, SFO


On July 2nd, notorious millionaire abortionist George Tiller once again evaded justice when a grand jury, hobbled by months of state-sponsored stall tactics, was dismissed without indicting him. But who, really, is surprised? After all, Tiller, Planned Parenthood and other players in the country’s abortion industry own the justice system here in Kansas.

Time after time, through the appointment and manipulation of attorneys general, district attorneys, judges and law enforcement, Governor Kathleen Sebelius has helped abortionists evade Kansas law. At every level— city, county and state— the regulation, investigation and prosecution of abortion operators have been stymied during her tenure, permitting illegal abortions, sexual assaults and other crimes to continue unchecked.

In April, Sebelius vetoed the Kansas Legislature's broadly supported Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act intended to protect mothers from being pressured into aborting their children. The intention of the bill was not to restrict abortion, but simply to ensure that existing laws were complied with; however, even this was too much for Sebelius, arguably the most aggressively anti-life governor in US history. In May, it was discovered that she'd spent public funds on a lavish private party to thank Tiller and his genocidal staff for their support. Indifferent to the plight of vulnerable young women, Sebelius has funneled Tiller’s huge campaign contributions to likeminded politicians. Her near-sociopathic commitment to killing has earned her rock star status among the leftwing of the Democratic Party, catapulting her to the top of its list of VP hopefuls.

Her persistent reception of the Eucharist, in direct defiance of Archbishop Joseph Naumann, is a testament to cynicism and sacrilege. Having facilitated the deaths of untold thousands, her actions cannot be reconciled to the Gospel. Yet she blithely desecrates of the very Body and Blood of Christ in a pretense of piety aimed at uninformed and gullible voters. And while this has little or no meaning to those outside the holy Catholic faith, all should understand its meaning: God is, at most, a stage prop to Kathleen Sebelius. This, more than anything, explains her easy fit as Barack Obama's running mate. While Sebelius feigns adherence to the ancient Christian faith, Obama has created God in his own image, a Trinity of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic experimentation compatible with his dark, utilitarian philosophy.

Cartoon copyright John Francis Borra, SFO. Used with permission.

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The Eucharist, Source of Vocations

By David Fiorito

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation to which you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Such advice is given to us through Scripture to be read and followed, not just nodded to or spoken merely to fall on “lukewarm” hearts. No, on the contrary, it is given to each one of us, as Christians, children of God, to embrace and proclaim as the source earthly fulfillment of God’s plan for us.

St. Paul does not, however, tell us how to act when we seemingly lack a vocation, or at least, find ourselves being torn in two directions on the path of Christian living. Yes, he tells us that Jesus is the goal and the source, the Lord and Saviour, but what do we ourselves do in the face of such things as the critical need for priests and religious? What do we do when our marriages fail and our family life decays? What do we do when our parishes are closed and clustered, and there is no one to whom we may turn for spiritual guidance? We must go to the Eucharist, the Church at its deepest.

I think we ought to have some background information before we begin our look at the Eucharist as the rescuer of the Church. I am a high school student in the Diocese of Rochester. We were the home of Fulton Sheen for three years, and our borders stretch from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border. We had at our peak one hundred and fifty five parishes, with all but two having permanent pastors. There were 360,000 Catholics, the majority of which attended Mass weekly. We were orthodox, living truly and faithfully, practicing the true Catholic faith, not the buffet we have made it to be now. Currently, we are closing parish after parish, school after school, and losing more Catholics than we baptize. The current statistics of the diocese are conveniently “unavailable,” but one statistic has been released to the public. In 1990, we had 208 parish priests. In 2010, we will have 25. The rest will be dead, retired or too ill to say Mass.

I am lucky to live in a traditional parish, one that is loyal to the teachings of the pope and the Tradition of the Church. We have had priests (and only priests) that used incense and Gregorian chant commonly during Mass. The only nuns present were merely to make the priests’ jobs easier. However, we are to be “clustered” with another parish that is considerably more left of center. Their typical Mass consists of bongo drums, guitars, dancing girls and preaching nuns. These things, it is feared, will be transmitted to my parish, for it was announced that their “pastor,” Sr. Joan, will be our new pastor as well. When asked about her views on the liturgy, as it ought to be, she replied smiling, “Well, dear, incense and chant have no place in modern liturgy.”

I do not relay this information to relieve myself of this burden. After all, St. Paul just told us to be “longsuffering.” Rather, I tell this to you to make you realize how dire our needs are in this diocese. In some ways, I am uplifted, knowing that I will be one of 25 priests ministering to the people of this diocese. However, it feels also like a sentence passed in stern judgment upon those who will be serving the 300,000 Catholics residing in my area of upstate New York. Those of us discerning the call to priesthood, or even religious life, have few sources of assistance in this, our time of need. Our Vocations Awareness Group has had two meetings in the last year, one of which was a pizza party, the other being a baseball game. The only traditional priests are being sent out to tend to the bankrupt country parishes, while the urban parishes turn into liberal, folky, feminist churches. These parishes do not turn out priests.

The reason for this is that they lack the solemn respect and adoration for the Blessed Sacrament so prevalent in the conservative parishes. At my Catholic high school, 95% of the student body does not know what a “benediction” is. For those of the 300,000 who will not be having weekly Mass, benedictions may be the only sacramental life they have in the Church. This ignorance of Christ in the most Blessed Sacrament must be combated, as must radical liberal ideas such as female priests, and rock music for the Liturgy. When things were solemn, when nuns taught religion, when priests were respected and not mocked and labeled, when even children knew to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament, that was when vocations flourished. When “priest playsets” were common among children, when confessionals were occupied by the penitent, when the rosary was esteemed, that was when vocations flourished.

The days of tradition and respect must return, and we must be leading that charge. A friend of mine, a missionary-priest, once said that “American interpretation of Vatican II removed the moral thermometer from society.” I agree with that, saying also that we must accurately read the documents of Vatican II, and actually practice what they say and not merely assume what others interpret. For all the things that Vatican II reformed, such as lay participation and a more accessible sacramental life, people seemed to lose their utmost respect for the Eucharist. People began to assume that because the Lord’s residence in the tabernacle was different than it had been, so too was the Sacrament itself different. It was no longer the “bread of angels.” No, it was the bread of the blind and disrespectful.

In light of all this, how can we possibly “walk worthy of the vocation to which we are called?” The answer is simple. We must forge a Church strong in its adoration to the Blessed Sacrament. We must bring the forgotten traditions of the Church back into daily life. We must teach our children from birth that it is really Jesus in those pieces of bread and in that wine. If we are to have vocations, we must have families of prayer. If we are to have holy families, we must have holy priests, priests with deep spiritualities who are not afraid to defend the unborn from their pulpits, who are not tentative to defend the Church publicly when she is attacked. If we are to have these priests, we must pray and do all that we can to foster vocations to the ordained priesthood.

How, then, do we gain Vocations to the priesthood if all these things must happen, if all these ideal occurrences must come to be? We must love the Eucharist and openly revere Christ’s presence within it. Without the Eucharist, the Church is nothing, for the Church serves to bring the Eucharist to its people, the people of faith who yearn to see their Lord every Sunday. Let us see the Eucharist for what it truly is – Our Lord and Saviour. He called only twelve ordinary, sinful, vice-ridden men to His table, to share in His divine meal. These twelve, after seeing the bread and wine for their deeper being, became the core of the Church. From them, the first priests and bishops, vocations flourished. It is by the Lord whom we are called, and through the Tradition of the apostles we find his holy priesthood.

If, then, we are called to our true vocation through our love of Christ, we may more fully realize our vocations as Christian men and women when we pray before the Blessed Sacrament. Whether it is during Mass, in a dark Church in the early morning, in nocturnal adoration, or even during a Benediction, we must spend time with the Lord whenever we can. It is through Him that we become full members of His Body and His Church. It is through Him that we may walk “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Kansas, Coercion and Flying Monkeys

By John Francis Borra, SFO


Governor Kathleen Sebelius' facade of concern for the human person grows ever more transparent. In April, she vetoed the Kansas legislature's broadly-supported Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act intended to protect mothers and children from coerced abortion. The intension of the bill was not to restrict abortion, but simply to ensure that existing laws were complied with; however, even this was too much for Sebelius, arguably the most aggressively anti-life governor in US history. Sebelius, who has funneled a fortune in campaign contributions to likeminded politicians on behalf of the abortion industry, thus demonstrates mind-boggling indifference toward her pregnant constituents and a near- sociopathic commitment to aborting children.

Time and again, through the appointment and manipulation of attorneys general (including Stephen Six, the latest of George Tiller's lapdogs), district attorneys, judges, law enforcement and criminal investigations, Kathleen Sebelius has helped abortionists circumvent Kansas law. Her public repudiation of Archbishop Joseph Naumann, of Catholic moral imperatives and the natural law have earned her rock star status among the leftwing of the Democratic Party, catapulting her to the top of its list of VP hopefuls.

Earlier this spring, legislation to protect women and children from coerced abortion became law in Idaho. It was resisted by Planned Parenthood who, along with other abortion operators and anti-life interests groups, is fiercely resisting similar legislation in other states. But thanks to the pernicious influence they exert through proxies like Kathleen Sebelius, abortionists in Kansas continue to prosper at the expense of vulnerable women.

Cartoon copyright John Francis Borra, SFO. Used with permission.

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Obama & Clinton: Schmoozing Hell

By John Francis Borra, SFO



Admittedly, this pro-life cartoon is particularly political; however, it would be a mistake to characterize it as partisan; after all, John McCain and many high-profile Republicans have yet to embrace a genuinely pro-life position. Indeed, I severed my relationship with the Republican Party more than a year ago over life issues. But the Democratic Party is, quite literally, America's party of death, rivaling the communist and fascist parties of the last century as a material threat to human life and true freedom. It doesn't take a theologian to see the connection between the party's anti-life planks and Hell's chief executive officer.

Cartoon copyright John Francis Borra, SFO. Used with permission.

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