Sensus fidelum baby! For all you non-brainiacs, that means priests don’t have to listen to Church teaching or their archbishop as long as they surround themselves with people who agree with them.
It’s being reported that a priest is openly defying his archbishop and seems to be completely getting off on it. He’s even sending emails to the media about it. I’m unsure if he’s going to perform some kind of victory dance on the parish lawn but I wouldn’t be surprised. What? It could be for a nice charity like Planned Parenthood or a marriage equality group.
Seattle Pi reports:
The congregation at Seattle’s Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church gave the Rev. Tim Clark a standing ovation Sunday when he announced that the parish would not gather signatures for a referendum to repeal same-sex marriage.
The parish became the sixth in Seattle to opt out of the petition drive for Referendum 74 that has been endorsed and foisted on parishes by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.
“I am happy to report that Our Lady of the Lake parishoners have been overwhelmingly and, thus far, unanimously supportive of the decision I made NOT to gather signatures in support of this Referendum,” Clark wrote in response to an e-mail.
“The standing ovation experienced during one of the Masses says less about me and much more about the health of this parish. I only wished the archbishop could have experienced the sustained applause — the ‘sensus fidelium’ — of the people. He needs to listen to this ‘voice.’ That is my prayer.”
You’ve got to wonder how many Catholics have scrambled out of that parish and found a decently Catholic parish to attend. But there might be slim pickings in Seattle as a number of other parishes have also refused. I’m unsure if they too are emailing reporters about their “standing ovations.”
But the Rev. Michael Ryan of St. James Cathedral reportedly said that the archbishop’s wishes in this case, “prove hurtful and seriously divisive in our community.”
Yes, let’s just tell people what they want to here to make them happy. Who cares what happenes to them after they die?
Archbishop Peter Sartain is asking Catholics to sign their name to put traditional marriage to a referendum.
Mind you, the archbishop is hardly donning gestapo boots. He’s gone out of his way to say that all persons “should be treated with respect, sensitivity and love,” but he also didn’t water down the Church’s teachings.
But Father Clark reportedly responded by telling the media:
“When I first read the archbishop’s letter I was troubled by the content and his intentions,” Clark wrote. “In conscience, I could not allow signatures to be gathered, to allow the faith to be politicized in this way.
Wait, what faith are we talking about again. Oh yeah, the sensus fidelum one that he makes up as he goes along. And it gets worse from there. He reportedly wrote:
“What troubles me is the message this whole approach sends which I find discriminatory and insensitive. To follow through with his wishes would be hurtful, divisive and a countersign to what we are trying to foster in this Catholic community in Wedgwood.
“I deeply believe, and say this with boldness, that this approach is not in the mind of Christ.”
Uhm. Father Clark, it wasn’t Jesus giving you the standing ovation. It was just the Catholics left in your parish.
I went over to the parish’s website and found “Father Tim’s Corner” where he wrote this:
Because the strategy behind this crusade has—unintentionally, I believe—a discriminatory and insensitive feel to it. However, if you wish to support this Referendum, that is your civic right. But, I must admit, the ovation I witnessed at the 9:30 Mass after I made my intentions known was overwhelming. And I thought to myself: How I wish the Archbishop was present! Something is being said within the echo of such applause that needs a hearing. Since our student days in Rome, I’ve always known him to be a deeply prayerful and genuinely good person. My fear is that the approach he’s determined to take will only undermine his authority in the Archdiocese and I would never want that to happen. Such a thought only saddens me because of my friendship with him and of my love for the Church.
Two things about this. The first is that he says that if you want to support it, “it’s your civic right” but then says that you should probably know that pretty much everyone else in the Church is with me on this.
Secondly, he claims that the archbishop’s actions will only “undermine” the authority of the archdiocese. But isn’t that actually what Father Tim is doing?
April 19, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Bishops in every diocese should do the same thing. Then they'll know which priests and parishes need some straightening out!
April 19, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Don't worry, we can just replace heretic priests like this with SSPX priests who will be getting their faculties soon!
April 19, 2012 at 3:28 pm
As more pressure is put on the Church from political and social areas of society we will see a greater divide occur. Catholics will have to decide whether to stay faithful to the faith or go with the dissidents and create their own truths.
April 19, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Many of us remember, last year, that this same priest tried to undermine the new English translation of the Mass. He failed, but he found some applause for himself.
His disdainful attitude toward the sacred liturgy seems to be consistent with his disdain for marriage, and with his celebratory attitude toward the sin of sodomy.
April 19, 2012 at 3:45 pm
There is something pathetic and narcissistic about his belief that the "sensus fidelium" is measured by human applause.
April 19, 2012 at 4:22 pm
As wrong as he may be, he's still one of Christ's priests. Pray for him. Pray for the Archbishop. Pray for all priests.
"When a priest falls, we should extend him a helping hand THROUGH PRAYER AND NOT THROUGH ATTACKS."
April 19, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Keep them, I pray Thee, dearest Lord,
Keep them, for they are Thine —
Thy priests whose lives burn out before
Thy consecrated shrine.
Keep them, for they are in the world,
Through from the world apart;
When earthly pleasures tempt, allure —
Shelter them in Thy heart.
Keep them, and comfort them in hours
Of loneliness and pain
When all their life of sacrifice
for souls seems but in vain.
Keep them. O remember, Lord,
They have no one but Thee,
Yet they have only human hearts,
With human frailty.
Keep them as spotless as the Host,
that daily they caress;
Their every thought and word and deed,
Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.
(Our Father, Hail Mary)
April 19, 2012 at 4:47 pm
Wow.
Good thing the bishops protect us from priests like Fr. Rodriguez and Fr. Grinazi with such courage and immediacy, eh?
How come it's only the evil heretics and schismatics who get to stay in charge?
April 19, 2012 at 4:55 pm
I wonder why my comment was removed – not only the one explaining what the false v. true sense of sensus fidelium is, but also the one suggesting we all pray for the priest and not just attack him, for Christ loves all His priests. It is sad to see comments attacking the priest remain, and mine apparently, unless I'm missing it, removed. The priest is wrong, but he needs prayers, prayers, prayers, and not vitriol. We must pray for and love all priests as we would love our own brothers if they went astray.
April 19, 2012 at 10:10 pm
I seem to recall that a leading figure in the organisation which opposed the new translation of the Mass was a Rev Michael Ryan. Is the same person or are there two clerics with my name who are disloyal to the Church? One was a bit much to bear but two would be just too much. (See Lady Bracknell and losing parents: Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.)
April 19, 2012 at 10:13 pm
By the way, if there are any Rev Michael Ryans out there who are totally loyal to the Church I would be very glad to hear of it.
April 19, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Anonymous wrote:
"The priest is wrong, but he needs prayers, prayers, prayers, and not vitriol. We must pray for and love all priests as we would love our own brothers if they went astray."
Jesus said that "salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot" – According to St Augustine, that is just what you are seeing here that you find distasteful. St Francis de Sales points out in "Introduction to the Devout Life" that the fallen are to be supported and the sin not repeated to those who do not know if their fall is hidden, but charity for one's neighbor requires the public excoriation of those who publicly attack the Church and morals, and the normal rules of restraint are removed.
the salt that has lost its savor is to be trod upon. Would that it had not.
April 20, 2012 at 3:51 am
… i think anonymous needs an explanation of the true sense of vitriol…
people who are correctly discerning the behavior of this priest are likely also praying for him.
your comments look like they assume otherwise.
since we catholics share in the priesthood of Christ, kindly ease up on the hyperbole of vitriol and just pray for all of us.
kim
April 20, 2012 at 6:46 am
Isn't there a parish in None, Alaska or Iran that has an opening for an "open-minded" priest?
April 20, 2012 at 7:12 am
I hope the Bishop does show up!
April 20, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Mea culpa_I have over the years at various catholic/protestant parishes done more than my share of vitriol, accusation (even correct ones),indictment, condemnation re: priests and I never changed one of them, not one, despite letters to them, to bishops, to Rome, to the head of the Jesuits, etc. That's because it was "I" trying to do this. I now agree with everyone who says pray, pray, pray – an almighty all-loving God can and will care for his priests.
April 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm
When our priest read the letter from the bishop regarding this he did so when Mass was over, not during the Mass. After he finished reading it, you could hear a pin drop and 1 second after, there was a thunderous applause which is saying a lot being we're a small parish. The priest in this article needs our prayers.
April 20, 2012 at 4:06 pm
What Father Tim does not seem to get is that just because he has a group of people standing in front of him who agree with his thinking, that does not mean his position is correct. Just because Pol Pot surrounded himself with supporters did not mean that the genocide in Cambodia was right or moral.
I put this situation to Father Tim. I have a bowl of apples on a table. I gather 10 people and I tell them that this is not a bowl of apples, but rather a bowl of oranges. We hold a vote and 7 agree with with the statement that the what we see is a bowl of oranges, not a bowl of apples. We have not suddenly, through our vote, magically changed those of apples into oranges. Such is the same with saying that x% majority of a parish say that same-sex marriage is okay. That doesn't magically make it okay.
The second issue is that he has, through his actions, denied those who wish to act in concert with the archbishop the right to do so.
Please pray for this Parish and this Priest
April 20, 2012 at 7:10 pm
The standing ovation experienced during one of the Masses says less about me and much more about the health of this parish
Yes….yes it does.
April 20, 2012 at 9:59 pm
I wonder if this priest knows how much he has in common with Martin Luther.