Bishop Morris’s Anglo-Catholic Model for Mass?
(PS – This is NOT Morrris, although he did say a clown mass, according to The Australian)
(PPS Gabrielle Saide (see comments below) says that Morris did NOT say a clown mass; in which case my only sartorial objection to him is the odd tie – Jeeves would no approve)
(PPPS It is odd that people object more to the allegation that he said a clown mass than the allegation that he differed seriously from the Vatican on doctrinal and sacramental issues)
Although Pope Benedict has not done enough, he is tightening Church discipline much more than John Paul ever did.
He has just suppressed the Cistercian monastery in Rome because of financial and moral irregularities.
He has also removed William Morris, the bishop of Toowoomba in Australia. Some the points of disagreement were trivial; on other points something could be said for Morris, and something for the Vatican.
See this, this, this, this, this this, and this.
From The Australian
His sartorial style can be seen in a photograph of him with a clown face, sent to The Weekend Australian by his critics.
Bishop Morris has a certain lack of good taste and common sense: he wore a tie with the archdiocesan coat of arms, and gave similar ones to his priests. If he wants priests to dress as laymen, they should wear regular clothes, not imitation secular clothes – although my wife is much in favor of clerical dress, because bachelors should not be allowed to choose their wardrobes. Morris also celebrated mass while dressed as a clown – that shows that he has a lack of liturgical understanding, common sense, and good taste – lacks common among priests and laity, who too often want to entertain or be entertained at mass. But bishops, for better or worse, are not removed because they lack common sense and good taste.
The sacramental and doctrinal points were:
Morris allowed the rite of general absolution in his diocese. Rome set up this rite and then started having second thoughts about it, and tried to restrict it to only emergency situations like war.
Morris also said that the Church, to deal with the declining number of priests, should discuss: 1. ordaining married men, 2. ordaining women, 3. allowing laicized priests to return to ministry, and 4. “recognizing” Anglican, Lutheran, and Uniting Church ministries.
I have been looking into the abuses of auricular confession and how it has alienated the laity, especially men. The Vatican has decided that auricular confession is necessary; Morris disagreed. I would tend to side with Morris, although I wonder if those who received general absolution performed penances appropriate to their sins – the spirit of penance is not much in evidence these days. It is a debatable point, and it would seem bishops should be given the leeway to decide what is best for their diocese in this disciplinary matter. Or the Vatican should make a compelling case for the importance of auricular confession.
Ordaining married men and allowing laicized and married priests to return to ministry is debatable. These are disciplinary matters; Eastern Catholic Churches already ordain married men; whether the Latin Church should follow their practice is a legitimate point for discussion.
What really got Morris in trouble were his remarks in 2006 about the possibility of ordaining women and “recognizing” Anglican and Protestant orders.
John Paul is issued a document, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, that said that the Church was not authorized to ordain women. He also went further and forbad discussion of it. Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae had declared that Anglican orders were invalid because of defect of form: that is, the Anglican texts made it clear that the intention of Anglicans was not to ordain bishops and priests as the Catholic Church had always understood those offices.
Morris seems to have a voluntaristic concept of church law. That is, laws are not judgments if reason but acts of the will. But Leo XIII and John Paul both made it clear they were not promulgating a disciplinary law but making a judgment, and as they were popes exercising their ordinary magisterium, this judgment was guided by the Holy Spirit. Benedict has called these decisions infallible (others disagree). Morris seems to think that the non-ordination for women and the non-recognition of Anglican orders are acts of the will, which could be reversed.
One if his supporters proposes an Australian Council of laity (mostly women) and priests:
The Council’s mandate will be to review and reform the Church’s ecclesiastical structure, including the present papal positions on papal primacy, selection and infallibility and to restore democratic accountability to the laity. The Council will also review and reform all of the Church’s policies on gender and sexual matters, including on optional celibacy, female ordination, homosexuality, contraception and abortion, and make its decisions solely by majority vote.
This is almost pure voluntarism. Doctrines are reduced to policies, and policies are acts of the will of a majority.
Anyone who had taught in middle school could have told the Vatican that it is always a lot easier to loosen discipline than to tighten it. The Vatican let discipline get very loose and is now trying to restore order without provoking a schism. In developed countries the majority of laity and priests (and some bishops) have a different idea of Catholicism from the one dominant in the Vatican, and see little reason to cede to the Vatican’s judgments. And this situation is itself the result of Vatican policies. Both Vatican II and rapid and extreme changes in liturgy and discipline gave Catholics the idea that the pope had the ability to change anything he wanted, and that if he didn’t change what people wanted to change, he was just being stubborn and power-hungry.
The Vatican also has no sense of PR and how its actions will be perceived. If it wanted to restore discipline it should first have acted against sexual abusers (it did this for priests but not for bishops), secondly, it should have acted against the bishops and religious superiors who enabled sexual abuse and only then acted against those who were involved in liturgical abuse or doctrinal error.
So bishops and religious superiors who have enabled abuse get a free pass, and bishops who deviate in liturgical and doctrinal matters are removed from office. Morris, whatever his faults, took the right actions when dealing with a sexual abuse scandal in his diocese. The same could not be said for Pope Benedict when he was archbishop of Munich.
Bishop Morris with episcopal cravat
I think your accusation against Pope Benedict and not cleaning up in Munich is a little too much. If you are talking the Hullerman case – we don’t really know much. If accepting the priest was the crime – we need to know what he knew. In the report from Munich this past year, we learned that he did take a priest from ministry for sex abuse. Therefore, the record is somewhat mixed.
Quite a dramatic accusation. You really need to elaborate on that.
As archbishop of Munich, Ratzinger mishandled the Hullermann case. He turned it over to a subordinate, who immediately put Hullermann back into ministry. where he abused (see my blog of March 15, 2010). Apparently Ratzinger never followed up to see what had happened with Hullerman and whtehr he was still endangering children – this was a serious oversight.
When Benedict takes Law out of St. Mary Major and removes Mahony, Danneels and Vanghelewe from the College of Cardinals, then he should be taken seriously. Having not done so until now either means 1) he’s trying to set the atmosphere for that up by the moves you mention, Leon or 2) the episcopacy truly is a religious Mafia that’s isolated from basic morality, let alone the laity and God.
BTW, WTH is up w/all these “clown Masses”? WTH is the point?
This Mary agrees with you.There has been no consistancy in justice and protection of the inncocent. I have wondered if the Vatican tries
first to be pleasing to God or to the public through the media.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a01y_Kiesle_Arn.html
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a01x_HoyosTells.html
Joseph it is called ‘religious entertainment”, They cannot believe in the Real Presence!
I had an elderly Italian lady friend who literally went into her Church and pulled the burlap off the altar, removed the baloons on the arms of the crucifix that hung over the center ,and threw out all the stuffed animals that surrounded the altar and sat on the end of every pew. The Monsignore told her hse was no longer welcome there. This was in Camden NJ Diocese, in marlton NJ to celebrate their annual parish carnival under the late Bishop James T McHugh( the Vatican appointed ‘Pro Life’ Bishop) over a decade ago. But I betcha it still goes on there! the Vatican itself puts on entertainment which is less than tasteful.
http://queeringthechurch.com/tag/acrobats/
It has always seemed odd to me that Catholics are supposed to take the Vatican seriously on something like contraception — which is a minority position based on some very sketchy arguments — when the Vatican doesn’t take Really Serious Things seriously.
It seems to me that serious heresies have been overlooked while “the faithful” are all concerned with straining at gnats.
It also seems odd that we’re supposed to trust the Vatican’s judgment on things (“they take the long view — they think in terms of centuries, not years,” and so on) when it is blazingly obvious that they don’t know what they’re doing on even mundane things.
Years ago in my parish the pastor allowed liturgical dancing. I told him that it was against the norms for our diocese, and he said, “If the pope can have liturgical dance in his masses, so can we.”
I thought he had a good point, especially since the bishop wasn’t going to do anything about it in any event.
Why take the rules seriously when the church doesn’t even take them seriously?
Crowhill, your basis thesis also must include the following point: If the bishops do not take their role as “apostolic successors” seriously, then why should the doctrine of apostolic succession as Catholics interpret it be taken seriously?
Fr Michael K , your comment Re: St Don Bosco prophecy on standing firm. When at in which decade does one apply it? At and after Vat II to justify the Latin Tridentine Mass only crowd? To justify the Grunerite position on the fake Third Secret of Fatima? When punished by being skipped over for receiving Communion on tongue ONLY? By walking out on liturgical dancers? Walking out on Dignity type homilies? Why is it that you think the time has come now for the prophetic fulfillment for Catholic’s standing firm when even the Vatican seems schizoid? Does that include the poor souls who joined the SSPX or an independent priest and parish ? By realizing the institutional Church’s failures concerning the abuse scandals and leaving the parish? These people all felt they were standing firm and it has been going on for many decades now.All can be justified by somebody’s Prophecy. My Grandmother comes to mind,’When the Church and the world are one, you are near the End.”
Crowhill, according to David Yallop Pope John XXIII echoed your sentiment privately concerning contraception. I have read your blog on NFP and have a little different take being a woman and not subjected to the wild surges of indiscriminate testosteronal desires. It seems to me that men in general do not curb their appetites as a habit anymore. Long ago in the Dark Ages and before , preachers and monks alike had more of an ascetic outlook on pleasing God.When was the last time we were instructed to abstain from pleasures for the sake of our souls? Time to purchase an old edition of Thomas a Kempis’ , My Imitation of Christ. The second most read book in Christian human history aside from the Bible, has fallen out of readership and favor in these times ,replaced by poorly done abridged versions.Self sacrifice and self control has been replaced by rehabilitation therapists. Contraception is really a non issue in a real Christian marriage. Abstinance CAN be agreed on.
Good Riddance! Bishop Morris was a joke. I am tired to go to mass and put up with non sense.
Last Sunday 29 the priest said this gem, “next thursday is asencion day, a day of obligation but if you don’t want to come is not a sin.”
The time of the aging white liberals, the 68 generation is dying i am happy that we latinos will be there to see it gone.
JDH — It is reasonable to argue (as a general principle) that an office can continue even if the people in that office are corrupt. For example, Jesus told people to listen to the scribes and Pharisees, even though he frequently castigated them.
That kind of argument can be applied to exceptions, but when the exception becomes the rule, you have to wonder if the principal is a bunch of baloney.
Mary, to my knowledge St. JB didn’t give a specific date or time. He simply said a time “was coming”. I know that with private revelation, even that of a saint, we need to be cautious.
I think the time has come partly because of what your grandmother said. Also because of the “silent apostasy” (JP II’s words) of once Christian Europe. “The faith is Europe and Europe is the faith” said Hilaire Belloc. Well, not anymore.
Tony, Don’t be too happy because when your celebrating because remember that Marcial left us with a serious progeny of perverts and it does not look like the Vatican is doing too much weeding ! it should be noted that of the original young boys who were his first seminarians , of the few who are left who have been denied justice by Benedict, have revealed that they themselves have had to curb the inordinate desire to molest boys themselves.
God Bless these elderly men who are fearless enough to tell the truth how this practice can create a psychological link to repeat the abuse!
They are all Latinos and their honesty and bravery for the sake of innocent children gives me hope.
God Bless Jose Barba , Vaca and Athie!
Where does your money go from the collection plate? A little off topic , I apologize Lee ,but certainly well worth watching this interview of Jason Berry.
http://www.wwltv.com/video/featured-videos/Sunday-Edition-Render-Unto-Rome-122801334.html
Father Michael Koening,
Oone thing you should realize about the Faith in Europe is that Rome is in Europe and as such the people of Europe have been closer to the Vatican corruption than we have. For example , as Americans we are somewhat more privy to News coming out of our States, even if not the one we live in. Same over there. How many people here, even Catholics, took notice that a good portion of the the Vatican Bank’s assets were seized last Fall under suspicion of money laundering?
That even Opus Dei, Tedesch,i the Vatican banker is being investigated?
Italians are very aware of the clerical scandals there too.
Aside from that, there was NO real crackdown on all the Liturgical and Catechetical abuses coming from the last four or five Papacy’s directed to the European Bishops. The exception being LeFebvre’s Consecrations.
I guess accordingly ,we might also blame the innovations , mis interpretations and novelties of Vatican Council II on rock and roll. Or, like my Grandmother also said, ” As the CHURCH goes, so goes the world.” So the question is ,which came first the chicken or the egg?
All depends on whether you defend the Spiritual origin of the Church as that which supports the world or choose to defend the physical Institution of the Church as being corrupted BY the world.
Since I am a person of Faith I blame the loss of morality and faith in the world on the effects of the corruption within the Institution of the physical church itself.Come to think of it I am supported by Our Lady’s apparitions and prophecies at LaSalette and most likely Fatima too.
“next thursday is asencion day, a day of obligation but if you don’t want to come is not a sin.”
Tony, how did the congregation respond to this kind of double-talk? And where, exactly, do you go to church?
Dear mary GOD will clean up his church. We all catholics have to help cleaning up, how? notifying the civil authorities, using the internet etc.
Joe it was in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. The parish is “Saint Joan of Arc” a beautiful church.
How they respond?
With Silence! It was so fast at the end of the mass that if u were not putting attention you will miss it.
Tony, Our Lady told us how.Her rosary daily.
Perhaps the alleged Third Secret they told us was partly true in 2000. It kinda resembles the destruction of Rome in the Apocalypse.
Truly a haven for every filthy bird. Yes, it will be an act of God or allowed by God.
Leon, This must be a picture of a clown mass; but, it leaves me with questions. My first reaction was that the clown is Bishop Morris himself. Is that true? Where did this mass take place and which bishop actually approved it. Let me know so that I can avoid visiting this diocese’s liturgies should I be traveling therein.
Tony and Joseph, I thought to attend a local Mass today for the Feast of the Ascension, so I checked the parish bulletins for the times of Holy Day Masses and found that there were none listed. There were just the regular weekday Masses. So I guess the Ascension is no longer an obligatory holy day.
Father Michael can you tell us more?
The celebration of the Ascension is no longer on Thursday but on the following Sunday, this year June 5. Thursday the second, today, is not a Holy Day of Obligation in the USA,
Janice,
That is not Bishop Morris; that is why I said that it was his model for a mass. It is an Anglo-Cathlic mass.
There are pictures of him made up as a clown and saying a children’s mass. but they do not seem to be online.
Janice, here in Canada the feast of the Acension has been moved to the following Sunday. It’s news to me that the same thing has happened in the US. Here we have only two holy days of obligation; Christmas and January 1.
This is just my personal prejudice, but holy days of obligation bug the heck out of me.
If I had the power to create a rule which, if my children broke, would make them guilty of mortal sin, do you think I’d make such a rule? No way.
I would suggest and encourage. I would recommend. I might even nag. But I would never command if the consequence of disobedience was damnation.
There are certain things that (from a Catholic perspective) bring about damnation on their own, and not by the fiat of the church. The church can command those things all it likes. But to add to the list of things that might damn people — that, IMO, is damnable.
In the US, I believe each diocese decides whether or not Ascension is a holy day of obligation. In our diocese, it was a day of obligation. But I noticed the missal stated that for most dioceses in the US, Ascension would be celebrated on Sunday instead.
It did occur to me how arbitrary the whole things seems. If I missed mass on Ascension, I would be doomed to burn in hell for eternity, but if I traveled to another state, I could miss mass and retain my halo.
My son, a 7 yr old heathen, was devastated when he found out he had to attend church Wednesday night, “Do we still have to go this Sunday, too?!”, he cried. I didn’t tell him that when he grows up, he just needs to make sure he moves to a diocese that isn’t into celebrating holy days mid-week, and it will be a non-issue.
Joseph, their is a bigger general cleanup needed then you suggested in comment #4. View the interview in comment #15, and realize that card Sodano is the HEAD of the College of Cardinals.
God Help Us!….
The Feast of the Ascension has retained its celebration on the 40th day after Easter in archdioceses of Boston, Hartford, New York and Philadelphia. I think all dioceses in Nebraska also observe on Thursday.
Crowhill, the problem how I see it is that “When two ideas contradict each other, they can’t both be true.”
Why he did not said, next Thursday is Asencion day there will be masses through out the day? It was wrong to add ‘is not a sin.’
Crowhill, I don’t have a problem with holy days of obligation per se, but you bring up an excellent point about the attachment of mortal sin to missing liturgy on holy days. You would think that individual parishes would do everything in their power to increase Mass attendance during Holy Days. But here in my diocese in the Northeast, most parishes make no attempt to increase the number of masses from the usual daily weekday schedule. This makes it near impossible for the average working stiff to attend mass when most of the holy day masses are held during working hours.
Mere Catholic, Then there is the question of Penance. The Sacrament used to be offered at certain hours most often on a Saturday. Now it seems you have to make an appointment because even if they DID offer it regularly on a Saturday, in many places I have found the doors to be locked at the appointed times. Also, if there is such a”priest shortage” , I would like to know why so many are flying around all the time as guest speakers at this seminar or that?
It seems to me that the excess of priest personalities could be useful helping to staff all the areas with shortages.If your in the Northeast Philly you might be interested in this article with some very good links at the bottom.
Tom Monaghan’s “invaluable” Cardinal Bevilacqua accused by grand jury of covering up sexual abuse of children
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/marielena/110228
Mr Podle
I am an Australian Catholic and I am a real stickler for intellectual and journalistic honesty. That picture above implies almost states that the ? ‘celebrant’ of that travesty liturgy is indeed Bishop William Morris. I have never known of or seen these travesties of liturgies in Australia, they seem to me to be a shocking American phenomenon. I am 66 and a committed but neither pious or bigoted Catholic and I do NOT appreciate this dishonor of Bishop Bill. Your reporting is just downright inflammatory and degrading.
I am waiting for your reply please Admin
Jane Walton
I would still like to know in which Anglican diocese this worshipful entertainment took place. If I walked into such a ritual, I would probably think I had entered the twilight zone.
Some Roman Catholic friends were in Las Vegas last year and attended a Mass wherein a woman liturgical dancer in a long purple robe took part, and a bare altar was liturgically set up for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This Mass also had a general confession in which people shouted out their personal sins and the congregation responded “Kyrie Eleison.” This could be an entertaining and informative alternative to private auricular confession, but I do not think I would find it a comfortable experience. Perhaps general absolution would be appropriate here.
Everyone, upon rereading my comment, I want to apologize for the suggestion that heartfelt confession of any kind could ever be considered entertaining. That was definitely insensitive on my part.
However, with respect to entertaining worship services, I learned a long time ago in my Presbyterian background that there were people who just could not stand to repeat the same prayers and creeds every week and wanted new and different approaches to all services, especially Morning Prayer and Holy Communion. These people were serious Christians, and I could not ever think that they were coming to church for entertainment.
The only incident I can remember that was out of the ordinary was one Sunday morning an elderly man in dementia raised his hand and asked the minister to please preach a sermon on Hell because he thought that he might be going there. Happily the minister was prepared to handle this sort of event and did so with compassion.
Mr Podles /Administrators
I note that my request for a response to my post, querying the source of your picture and which was clearly displayed as comment 33, has now been removed. The credibility of this site is in serious question.
Jane Walton Australia
Dear Jane,
In the bigger picture ,one wonders about the lack of priestly formation so rampant in the seminaries. This begs the question ,”How is it the Popes never really acted to end these abuses?”and ” How did it happen that so many Bishops were installed who do not give a damn?”
I beg to differ this is not ONLY an American phenomena………
http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-pentecost.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovRwra4kzQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQPkYwIOCRM&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wedpLBTKd84&feature=related
…and Jane, I am in my sixties also, committed and pious and now probably what you would label “bigot”. I left the RC Church for an Eastern Catholic Rite at age 27 ,precisely because I came to Mass to worship God not for an entertainment fest to worship humanity. After almost two decades in a Byzantine Catholic Diocese in America the bishops sold our church. In hindsight, we experienced about seven pastors in that time of which, only two were straight ,and not active homosexuals . One was found dead in his apartment when the police arrived to arrest him, having succumbed to AIDS, but only after he had left a trail of sodomized children in his wake
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2003_04_23_Ferguson_FatherDanilak_John_Danilak_3.htm
http://snapsurvivorsnetwork.yuku.com/topic/3233.
He was “reported’ by the Bishop to the authorities years after he began his pedophile sodomite career because the bishop,”…was not convinced he did anything wrong.”
Prior to this our Bishop came to chastise me during a Liturgy for ,”Having written to him questioning the faith of a priest”. That “priest” had given an Easter homily assurring us Christ was NOT Present in the Eucharist. I have seen it all or at least enough to know the Catholic institutional church is now for the most part in Apostasy.
Hello Mary
Thanks for your reply. I was really asking the Administrators of this site to respond to my post but it seems that isn’t going to happen. I have watched your utube posts and I repeat that if there is evidence of Bishop Morris conducting clown masses or any footage of these being conducted in Australia please post them. I can see nothing that I identify as Australian on the videos posted. I am not here to defend what are clearly awful travesties of the liturgy wherever they appear. I stay with the Catholic Church for a whole raft of reasons and I work with Priests Bishops Nuns and lay members of the Australian community to hold to account, and reform in every way we can the scandals perpetrated by Priests and Bishops. I do NOT define myself by what I am AGAINST. I define myself for what I STAND FOR. I think its up to each of us in our own faith walk to do that. If that involves becoming a member of another denomination, then so be it. I was at one time terribly upset by many things in the Church and I started to explore Buddhism. I saw the Dalai Lama in Sydney several years ago and he said before leaving your own tradition , seek first what you may have ‘missed’ within your own tradition. I took his words to heart and I have spent a lot more time studying Church history, becoming much more familiar with an array of spiritual practices, meditation and the practice of silence. Today I was at a session which was entitled “praying with icons”. It was held in a convent with some nuns that taught me at school and it was a wonderful respectful prayerful day. I really believe we do need to go where we are lead and fed. I am sure that God understands. I believe that God is always calling us into the Light. So thanks for your time and very best wishes on your faith journey. Jane
Jane, I have been searching for the source of this picture and cannot pinpoint it. The picture is posted on google; and, from the blogs I have read, this clown mass seems to have taken place in an old Episcopal Church somewhere in the United States. If I find more, I will post it to this thread.
This clown mass (some of the participants look more like re-enactors than clowns) should not be confused with the annual Anglican Mass for clowns at Holy Trinity Church in East London. A stain glass window there honors the memory of Joseph Grimaldi (Royal House of Monaco?) who is considered the “Father of Modern Clowns” and is offered in memory of deceased clowns. The gospel of St. Matthew is read in which Jesus states that worrying will not add one whit to a lifespan. Clowns attend in their costumes; but, the picture I saw showed the bishop in his regular vestments. If there was room in the church, I would attend that Mass.
Mary, it is a small world after all. I visited one of those churches where Danilak served, possibly when he was there. At the time I was observing the differences between the Eastern Orthodox Liturgy and the Byzantine Rite.
Thank you also for posting the queering the church link. I can’t stand to read anymore of it. The segment on Felicitas and Perpetua shows an icon of them with their halos making a heart. Since they were both mothers of infants, they must have been involved with men. I know of no reason to think that they had a romantic relationship and the insinuation of such just makes me want to throw up.
The newspapers reported that Morris conducted clown masses in make-up and that pictures of Morris as clown were sent to the newspapers. I have not been able to find those pictures on the internet, so I used an Anglo-Catholic mass and I have indiacted in the title of the picture that it is NOT Morris.. If anyone has the authentic pictures of Morris, I will be happy to subsitute them. Perhaps Morris showed good taste, and was dressed a a figure from the Commedia d’Arte -Harlequin, perhaps – but if anyone says a clown mass, he is open game for mockery. Also I have grave doubts about the episcopal cravat.
Also, you might notice that on the more serious issue of general confession I think Morris has a good case against the Vatican.
Admin
Thank you for your reply and Janice.
Janice I am utterly sick as well at the whole awful tragedy of the abuse of children by Priests. I elect to stay in the Church to support the great Priests and the local Bishop who are working toward reforming the whole process. That is my clear choice and it in no way denotes my approval.
Admin, I would still like to see the source and determine its credibility regarding………”The newspapers reported that Morris conducted clown masses in make-up and that pictures of Morris as clown were sent to the newspapers” .
The internet is a magic resource BUT I for one am very very ‘fussy’ about what is presented as credible, especially when it comes to such dramatic and unprecedented moves as to oust a good holy pastoral man.
What really bothers me, and this is a very overly simplistic summary, is eg a Cardinal Law of Boston gets a plum job at the Vatican and a Bishop Morris gets the boot for very practical and pastoral reasons, ie the enormous size of the Diocese, its lack of priests and the heat, which surely must allow for a relaxation of dress code just for a start. If he were wearing shorts and a T shirt and thongs I’d have to question it. This will be my final post but I want to restate; the internet is a magic resource BUT I for one am very very ‘fussy’ about what is presented as credible.
If anyone is interested in what the local Bishop here is doing to combat the problems of wicked priests may I can recommend looking for Bishop Malone’s writings in the Aurora. This is an online publication which is also presented to the wider community each month in the local newspaper.
http://www.mn.catholic.org.au/
Thanks for bearing with me on this,
Respectfully
Jane Walton
Mary, you stated in comment 38 that after two decades the bishop of your diocese sold the Byzantine Rite Parish. Was that done without the consent of the parishioners?
I have heard some Anglicans predict that this may happen in a generation or so to the parishes which join the Ordinariate. I do believe, however, that there is really no difference in this respect between the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches. IOW, a parish or convent can be suppressed and sold at any time, if the bishop wants the money.
Please correct me if I am in error.
Leon, it sounds to me as if Bishop Morris has been influenced by the Swiss Reformers in the matter of wearing business suits with a coat of arms cravat. Nonetheless, since he has not committed the crime of covering up crimes, I do not think he deserved the deposition.
To those of you looking for a photo of Bishop Morris dressed in a clown outfit you won’t find one. He did not dress as a clown. The occasion was a diocesan gathering of schools at the showgrounds – not a Mass – a liturgical celebration and some of the young people painted a clown face on Bishop Morris – as simple as that.
Gabrielle, Many thanks for telling us the real story here. I will add Bishop Morris and his hurting diocese to my prayer concerns.
Janice, Yes, of course this was done without the consent of the parishioners. Bishops have been selling off properties like hot cake Sunday breakfasts to raise money without any consent or concern of those who, along with their ancestor’s, built and financed these properties. Now since the real estate market has taken a downturn with the economy, parishioners are squatting 24/7 in many closed church properties and the bishops are waiting them out rather than increase media attention and negativity by having them thrown off the gounds.
Meanwhile Cardinal Sodano’s nephew escaped the justice met out to Raphaello Folierri who was sentenced for money laundering and who ran Follieri Group, a real estate compnay which profited in the exclusive sales of Church property. Andrea Sodano worked for the Follieri Group and touted his Vatican connections as a gateway to meet with the profiteering Bishops who were and are saddled with sexual abuse debts and claims.