Beware of Black Sheep Dogs

Sadly, you could almost see the Corapi story forming like a storm cloud on the horizon.  It seems like the chances are good that when a priest rockets to celebrity status, we end up reading about him days, months or perhaps years later doing something outrageously scandalous.  I’m just going to start making it a personal rule…whenever a priest or clergy star rises, red flags should ascend my mental flagpole and I need to start praying for them.  (see Marcial Maciel, Fr. John Eunteneur, and now Fr. John Corapi).

[Furthermore, anytime that a professed addict/alcoholic decides that they are going to start a public speaking career, move to Montana and live by themselves, those same red flags should be hoisted, prayer efforts redoubled….yes, we saw this coming.]  

A priest, especially those who make vows of chastity, poverty and obedience make a public proclamation that they are choosing the narrow way and not the broad highway.  And by the way, it’s not just them; we who are believers also choose the narrow way when we make a profession of faith.  Do we not make a public condemnation of “Satan and all his works and all his pomps”?  Yes we do; it is in our baptismal credo either answered for us in infant baptism or later by ourselves in the Adult Rites of Initiation.  Words mean things and sacramental words are a potent representation or part of an outward sign of an inward reality; a life of grace.

Here’s another way to look at it: What goes up, must come down.  “He who exalts himself shall be humbled and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14:11).  “Pride comes before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:28) This wisdom didn’t just towel snap us in the fanny a few seconds ago…it was around when the Dead Sea was still alive. Personal exaltation is a no-no.  It is a brother to the original sin of pride and we know where that got us. 

Here’s a clip from the St. Louis de Montfort’s Consecration to Mary on the Devilish Search for Greatness, Honor, Praise and Applause…

Devilish wisdom consists in an unlawful striving for human esteem and honors.  This is the wisdom which the worldly-wise profess when they aim, although not openly, at greatness, honors, dignities and high positions; when they wish to be seen, esteemed, praised and applauded by men; when in their studies, their works, their endeavors, their words and actions, they seek only the good opinion and praise of men, so that they may be looked upon as pious people, as men of learning, as great leaders, as clever lawyers, as people of boundless and distinguished merit, or deserving of high consideration; while they cannot bear an insult, or a rebuke; or they cover up their faults and make a show of their fine qualities.

I remember the moment that I started to puzzle about the motives of Father John Corapi…like somebody leaning on a keyboard, it was when he named himself the Black Sheep Dog.  Not only did this sound stupid & defensive, it is insulting to dogs! It is one thing to defend a position or even yourself in a matter of jurisprudence, it is quite another to endow yourself with a label over it, like some superhero.  That’s when I knew he was in trouble and when I noticed that he wasn’t on the narrow path anymore.   I shall offer prayers for him and for all who have been scandalized over the allegations.  But a bigger lesson for me is that I must keep my watchful gaze on Christ and never on powerful men or women.  Keeping principles before personalities is an idiom that works not only in AA, but in all areas of life.  And finally, I, too must learn to keep my ego in check because I am as susceptible of a fall as those who have fallen before me.

“Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14)  To squeeze onto a narrow way, I think you have to be small.  In spiritual language, smallness can be equated to meekness or humbleness.  I remember thinking once that being fly-sized might be a good thing.  It’s hard to be a target for the evil one when you’re quick and small.  Quick to confession and small in ego.  You may be familiar with the “Stay thirsty my friend” quote from the ‘most interesting man in the world’ commercial that put Dos Equis Beer on the map? Perhaps it might be prudent to craft a more fitting spiritual maxim about staying on the narrow path; How about:

Stay small my friend. 

Great things coming out of Poland...again

The nation responsible for giving the world the gift of Karl Wojtyla, aka Blessed John Paul II, the Great, is now making headlines again.  Mary Nowick from Lifesite news reports that Poland is a few measures away from completely outlawing abortion in their country...here's the scoop.  And keep praying! 

by Mary Nowick of Lifesitenews.com

Let us draw inspiration from the actions of the Polish Parliament last week in the overwhelming vote to totally outlaw abortion. There is hope!

Last week the Sejm – the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament – voted to outlaw all abortions in a landslide vote of 254 to 151 with 11 abstentions. This great legislative victory rode on a great wave of support from the grassroots, with over 600,000 signatures that were gathered in just the two weeks before the vote. Among the supporters for this legislation are OBGYNs, journalists, and lawyers.

With this vote, the people hope to reclaim Poland from the culture of death that was imposed on it by the Nazis and the Communists that introduced abortion to this beautiful country. Women journalists express their support for a ban on all abortion in Poland in an open letter stating,

“A vote for the protection of the unborn would be a vote for the restoration of moral order.  It would be a vote for the protection of women, and the protection of their relationship with their children. It would also be a vote for the restoration of dignity and respect for motherhood.”

Abortion drives a wedge between a mother and her child, pitting one against the other. Polish women recognize that a total ban on abortion safeguards this relationship and gives motherhood the esteem that it deserves.

Poland is one of the most pro-life countries in Europe. Currently, abortion is only legal in Poland in the case of fetal anomalies, when the pregnancy results from criminal acts, or when the life or health of the mother is at risk.

The battle is not quite over in Poland. The abortion ban still needs to pass the Polish Senate and be signed into law by the President, who has stated his reluctance toward the measure.

As we continue to strive to make our own country one where everyone is welcomed in life and protected in law, let us take this bold move by Poland as a source of inspiration and hope that we might be able to do the same one day.

America the Beautiful and other songs we should not sing during Mass

The Declaration of Mass Independence

We sing these songs to be self evident that all Masses are created equal.  That we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable entitlements…that among these are the rights to do & sing whatever and however we want at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, including the pursuit of my own version of happiness.  That to secure these rights, pastoral councils are instituted among parishes – so that whenever the pastor or the bishop becomes destructive of my will – it will be the rights of the people to withhold their plate collections until such a time that we laity will be able to institute a new mass that is less challenging, less good, less beautiful and by far less truthful than the one we started with.

Of course I’m having a little fun at the expense of a truly great document, however there is a point.  Actually it is a question.  When will we stop trying to change the Mass to suit our emotions?

I am a patriot.  I come from a family of patriots – people who have served our county and some who have paid with their lives.  One of my great grandfathers even served as a field commander to Abraham Lincoln during the Blackhawk Wars.  Frankly there is no time better than this time of year – Our Nation’s Birthday – to proclaim our love of nation boldly and proudly.  In honor of this special day, our family, among other things, has supported the economy, worn red, white and blue clothing, prayed for our country at Mass, flew the stars and stripes over the garage and took a day off to remember the birthday of our country.  This will be the first year that we have purposefully skipped fireworks but, hey…it’s 115 degrees in Phoenix today and every part of me is rebelling against going outside.  We shall enjoy fireworks from the air-conditioned comfort of our living room.

I also am a Catholic and these two identities get along just fine under normal circumstances except for last night. I am a cantor at my church and after the 4:30 Mass, where I serve, I was confronted by a parishioner who complained that we did not sing “America the Beautiful”.   I think his exact words were:  “This is the most unpatriotic parish I’ve ever been”.  

I think he is right—we do not offer a “Patriots” Mass, our windows are not red, white and blue, nor do we espouse allegiance to any such saint of patriots.  Father will be so happy to learn that I deferred his question to the pastor (!)

Excuse me, but when did Mass become a piano bar?   No, it is NOT our right to sing patriotic songs at Mass, actually.  I have served in music at many parishes and much of the time, offering patriotic music serves as an appeasement in order to honor the vets, our country, or whatever thing other than God we are trying to worship.   I’ve sung God Bless America (long intro version), the National Anthem, America the Beautiful, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, My Country Tis of Thee.  I’ve done this sort of stuff on Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Independence Day.  As a former liturgist, I have had many a fellow Catholic get downright ugly with me about why the American Flag somehow needs to be placed up near the altar during the 4^th of July Liturgies, even when the 4^th does not fall on Sunday.  I am exasperated with this line of thinking.  Perhaps we need to re-examine a few priorities.

My first point: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrates, honors and worships the Triune God.  The once-for-all sacrifice of Christ (Heb 9:28) is eternally re-presented to the Father on our behalf (Heb 9:24). It is the actual events of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior in which we participate, and we do so in the sublime action of sharing a meal—a supper that is our Holy Communion.  Only the Catholic Mass fulfills Malachi’s great prophecy: “For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations and everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering; for great is my name among the Gentiles, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:11). We come to praise and worship our God and King, the author of all life and freedom.  We gather at Holy Communion to be present in an eternal kingdom; a world without end; that flies one banner which is love.

My second point:  We have our priorities turned around.  I think it is the well-meaning intentions of Americans who are Catholics at Mass who want to hear these patriotic hymns that inspire our nationalistic sense of pride. I sense their plea: It is good to be an American!   If it weren’t for our religious liberty-bought at a hefty price by other Americans- we would not be able to worship as we please.  We want to offer thanks to God for America, for this great and exceptional nation who does hold certain absolute Truths to be self-evident.  Hey—that’s a swipe at relativism, isn’t it?  America is, by far, the greatest country on God’s green earth.  Who doesn’t remember how packed our parishes were directly following 9-11? We implored God through our many Masses offered, to spare us, save us and come to our aid.  We even blur the lines a bit on the secular side of things by singing God’s praises at baseball games, invoking his blessings at graduations (though it is becoming much harder) and emblazoning stunning God-centered Latin phrases on buildings and structures within our own government.  So what’s so wrong with that ambiguous blurriness?    

Nothing, at first.   But as I mentioned, the priorities are skewed.  Stating it the correct way, we have God to thank for our freedoms, all of them.  They were not free.  In our nations early history, it was not easy to be a Catholic.  There were grave persecutions of early Catholic Americans.  They went to Mass-it was sung in Latin then-and they offered prayers and petitions for our country.  There is no reason why it still cannot be so now. 

So what’s the problem with patriotic songs at Mass.  My answer: It simply is not the best way to offer praise and worship to God.  Which brings me to my third point.  There’s a whole lotta “Mass my way” going on in the church.  Have you noticed?  Ever since Vatican II, almost every aspect of the liturgy has changed.  In fact, if you compare the Novus Ordo Mass to the Tridentine Mass, it will seem like two completely different things.  I could go on and on about EMs, “clown” masses, holding hands, receiving the Holy Eucharist in the hand, and all of our various “ministers” and I just keep seeing this as the poor laity being bored out of their gourds and needing some activity to distract them from what’s really happening at that altar.  How sad this is.  This is not to say that it’s a contemptible thing to sing America the Beautiful as the recessional hymn.  This hymn could be sung after the final blessing when Mass is officially concluded making it a fair choice.  I’m just saying that we need to keep our priorities straight.   We need to keep God first.

My concluding point;  America is beautiful but Beauty is an attribute that God personifies.  America can also be, at times, very ugly.  For instance, when she forgets about the standards and values that formed her great traditions: standards that protect the inherent dignity of every human life.  And if I went into a local public school and wanted to teach the kids about why we still say “UNDER GOD” in our pledge or why the Pilgrims really left England, or how our legal code was derived, I would be roundly mocked and eventually silenced. 

Which is why we need to wholeheartedly PRAY for America; that she be conformed to the image and likeness to the One who did salvage our eternal freedom; Who ransomed us from a place of slavery, Who bore us up with His pinions, Who sheds His grace on thee, Who crowned thy good with brotherhood.

So if you should decide that you would like to make a special song request of the cantor next 4^th of July at a Catholic parish in Phoenix,  be prepared to hear at least from me that the blue field of Old Glory bears a striking resemblance to Our Lady’s Mantle!   

May God bless America.

One noteworthy response to the Goodrick Puff Piece

Posted at the entrance to the St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Phoenix.  Thank you, Father John Ehrich 

Some things really make me sick...

This is one of them. This particular abortionist has been on my last nerve lately because not only is she The Provider who a bunch of stalwart prayer warrior friends protest twice weekly, she is also The Provider who my FORMER Ob/gyn refers all of her abortion patients to. I'll tell that tale in another post.  For now, pay attention to this one.  At the end, I'll parse the paragraphs so that you can tell truth from fiction.
Happy gagging.

#####

What Jessica Testa's piece is missing is a dose of truth.  Let's look at some detail...

"So this is what an abortion clinic looks like?"  Not really.  This particular one is trying to hide under a few monikers.  One is Camelback Family Planning, the other is Jackrabbit Clinic. Camelback Family Planning is on the door and Jackrabbit signage is displayed at the street entrance. Both are facades that hide a more sinister money making machine: a for-profit abortion clinic that spins itself as a "family practice".  How do I know this? Because a little over a year ago, my sidewalk counseling partner and I were doing recon work at this particular location.  When I visited (it wasn't that pretty on the inside by the way), I posed as new patient needing a strep culture for my young son.  I was advised that Dr. Goodrick was not accepting new patients and for routine family medicine, we were given a referral to a doctor down the street. Repeated attempts at procuring routine services were met with the same reply. Hmmm.  So much for doubling as a "private family practice". 

"Toys in the waiting room":  I suppose this is for the lucky ones who survived a visit to Dr. G's abortion mill.  Or perhaps they are just more props to make you think that this doctor is actually in favor of you bringing a pregnancy to term. Whatever the case may be, it's about as oxymoronic as selling bacon in a kosher deli. 

"Her pink scrubs matching a t-shirt bearing a cartoon uterus" tells me she doesn't take my insides very seriously.  I'm runnin. 

"When you start doing abortions it takes over your practice because there's such a need"  Yes.  A need to get rich and make tons of money. Another blogger used his calculator to determine how much money Goodrick rakes in on an annual basis. According to CamelbackFamilyPlanning.com, the website for Goodrick’s practice, she charges the following for the abortions she conducts:

Doing the math on performing 2,000 abortions at the rate of $460 (the cheapest rate at 5-11.6 weeks), Goodrick is paid around $920,000 a year!  

"The (abortion) procedure is so stigmatized and marginalized".  Sorry, but anytime the medical establishment starts to mainstream the killing off of perfectly alive humans in the womb, I get just a tad worried. 

"Even the protestors are quieter"  OMGosh, this one just made me laugh.  First off, nobody's been there protesting or praying until a little over a year ago since she's been flying so low on radar.  Now she has the audacity to imply that the reason the prayer warriors are quieter is because she's conducting a private abortion practice???  So somehow the prayer warriors know that there is actually some real medicine being practiced here?  Our Lady's Mantle Prayer Warriors, I hope you're listening!

 "For who she is and what she does, Goodrick flies considerably under the radar" . This statement is 100% accurate.  What is omitted is the rather inconvenient Board of Medical Examiners action that has been filed against Goodrick and rendered her on a long term probation for an addiction problem that involved one of the drugs that she uses in her practice.  I'll call this debacle the Fentanyl Irony. Seems like the stuff she uses to knock out her patients has knocked her out as well.  Speaking as merely one of the abortion-wounded, all of the fentanyl in the universe cannot numb a pained conscience forever. Let us hope that the oversight her practice may now receive may shed some light on what really happens in this murky industry. 

"Up to 24 weeks, a woman can have an abortion for any reason she wants".  (Can't you almost hear the diabolical smirking?) Most non-elective medical procedures usually require medical rationale in order to justify them.  This may sound hysterically obvious, but to have a fibroid lump removed recently I had to have 2 doctors and one insurance company approve the procedure. We have reduced the taking of a human life to an elective procedure akin to having a routine Botox injection or tattoo removal. And by the way, if it is okay to kill a human at 24 weeks, then why would it not be okay at 25 weeks?

"After their procedure, the patients go to a recovery room and write about their experiences in notebooks"  I would imagine those are some pretty scarey journal entries sans fentanyl. 

Generally speaking, most patients undergoing routine tissue removals are not traumatized, stigmatized, or emotionally disabled after their procedure.  Most do not require a visit to a recovery room to journal about their experience.  Most of them do not have guilty consciences resulting in months or years of therapeutic interventions.  Most of them, do not develop addictions to substances or alcohol, develop depressions, anxiety, insomnia or suicide ideation.  Most of them go on and simply forget about their cyst surgery.  Not so in abortion. The law that is written on our hearts stabs at our conscience. It is a torture that starts early for some....much later for others. 

I labored writing this answer to Jessica's flawed piece of journalism.  I know she is not perfect, nor am I.  I offer my prayers for Gabriella Goodrick. (I refused to label her as a doctor).  I pray that she find sobriety and recovery from whatever it is that has caused her to take such a destructive role with our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.  I am certain that there is a wound in her that is very deep indeed.  However, we must stop glorifying this absurd and disgusting action that is abortion; passing it off as some kind of remedy to disease.  There is a dis-ease.  It is not the human fetus. It is a darkness rooted deep in the human conscience.  It can be healed by One Who has all power.  May we find Him now.