NO APOLOGY

And then I have some notes after.

All of us have been in situations where our desire made us hear what we wanted to hear, only to realize later just how wrong we were. Unfortunately this seems to have happened to Fr. Paul. Fr. Paul wants nothing more than to be a priest and to serve the people of his home. He has been praying earnestly for reconciliation with his spiritual father. Upon receiving the call to meet the bishop this past Wednesday, he expressed his hopes for the meeting and for reconciliation to a few friends. He earnestly believed that the Archbishop wanted to talk things out and at the very least work out a truce. As we now know, there was no interest in reconciliation or a truce, only the order to "cool it", or more specifically, "call off Tim Rohr." 

MORE NOTES

Some are disturbed by the increasingly hostile tone of these posts. They only see the situation before them. They can't be blamed. They can't know that for twenty five plus years, and especially for the last ten, that letters begging for help have been going to Rome about many hurtful matters, with hardly a grunt of acknowledgement from Rome. Guam? Where's Guam? You know the drill. 

Unfortunately Rome will not act until division becomes visible and it gets into the press, and even then there is often nothing. The only thing that seems to work is law suits. The clergy sex scandals are glaring evidence of that. For years, lay people had gone to their bishops telling them what was happening, begging them to do something about it. Several posts back I recounted my own experience with this in Los Angeles, a diocese which eventually has had to cough up nearly a billion dollars in damages because they had no one like Fr. Paul. Read it here. 

For nearly 50 years, children were molested and abused. The bishops knew. They were told. But they COUNTED ON THE PEOPLE BEING SILENT. And they were, for nearly 50 years. But then came the law suits. And guess what? Rome responded. Had bishops and the hierarchy in general been doing their job in the first place, the massive damage done to the church and the horrific loss of souls could have been avoided. 

During the Arian heresy, St. Athanasius is purported to have said: "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." One has to wonder whether the molestation and abuse of children, often known to, and often covered up by bishops, will not be judged as worse than the episcopal defection to Arianism. 

Some people are critical of Fr. Paul for taking action against the Archbishop and for allowing his case to be made public. But most people are thankful. For nearly three decades the chancery door has been slammed in their face. Finally, one priest, ONE PRIEST, had the courage, the humility, to sacrifice himself for the good of others. And, make no mistake: there would be others!

In Fr. Paul's letter to his congregation of July 20, 2013, he advised that he would not take the easy way out and just resign, but would take the hard path and challenge the Archbishop's actions. Those who know him know that he is not taking this path for his own aggrandizement. 

Fr. Paul knows the history of persecution of Guam's priests. He knows how faithful priests who have served this archdiocese for many years have been denied incardination, sustenance in their old age, and even health care. He knows how some priests have been discarded and abandoned while others, who cater to the Archbishop, are treated like royalty and put on the payroll. He knows how some priests, who served Guam faithfully for many years, were threatened to either engage in the illicit practices of the Neocatechumenate liturgy or GET OUT! 

He knows that the lies and abuse used to discredit him and grind his name into the dirt would be used on the next priest, and the next. He knows that good men like Aaron Quitugua would be lied to and kicked to the curb because they desired an authentic priestly formation and not the pseudo formation of the Neocatechumenal Way whose leaders lie to their own members about what the pope has approved. 

He also knew he would be maligned by laity who would simply see him as disobedient and proud. Well, he's not. He has chosen to suffer the "arduous and painful" path that the Archbishop promised he would suffer in the hopes that Rome might finally hear. But apparently it's going to take a lawsuit. 

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