It wasn't long ago that our favorite Bishop -ino was Bishop Martino of Scranton. Unfortunately, he stepped down, leaving us with nobody with that nominal suffix to discuss. Then, out of the blue, Bishop Morlino of Madison steps into the spotlight to not only fill the void as our favorite -ino but as one of our favorite bishops in the whole country.
His latest exploits come from his desire to be Catholic and run a diocese of Catholics. To do this, he's decided to bring Catholic priests there. Shocking stuff, yes? There has been some backlash over this from folks who apparently would rather remake Catholicism in their own image. The Wisconsin State-Journal reports:
The effort by Madison Bishop Robert Morlino to staff several Catholic churches in the diocese with priests from a conservative Spanish society has met resistance in another community.
About 200 members of St. Mary’s Parish in Platteville met with Morlino at the church Monday night to question his decision to bring in three priests from the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest to lead the church.
A diocesan official and parishioners who attended the 90-minute meeting described it as largely civil but occasionally heated, with Morlino apologizing toward the end for having raised his voice earlier in the meeting.
“It was a tough evening for everyone,” said diocesan spokesman Brent King.
And who are these priests from this society who are the cause of such friction?
The society, based in Murcia, Spain, is known for a staunch, traditional approach to Catholic practice. There are now eight society priests at seven parishes in the diocese.
Here are some other notes. Their main goal seems to be getting folks to love God and His Church. OUTRAGE!!!! And why so outrageous?
At other churches where they serve, the priests have prohibited girls from being altar servers, dispensed with the common Catholic practice of using trained lay people to assist with Communion and added Masses celebrated only in Latin.
Only in our modern, completely screwed-up society could a position known as an EXTRAORDINARY minister of Holy Communion be considered a "common Catholic practice."
Oh, and girls have no right to be altar servers. And Vatican II said the Mass should be in Latin. I wonder if this latter bombshell has been dropped on the dissenters yet.
Some parishioners praise the priests for deepening their faith and bringing discipline to wayward Catholics; others have left the church, saying the priests’ approach is regressive and too rigid.
“To me, it seems like a step backward,” said Fay Stone, a St. Mary’s member. The priests’ approach is “quite different than we have become accustomed to,” she said.
A step backward from what? This is a real question that I don't think anyone making such comments is ever forced to answer. What is it that the Church is "stepping back" from or "stepping towards"?
And enough of such a "step" for people to leave? These are the folks who strike me as hypocrites. I wonder if they would have thought the imposition of the Pauline Missal was “quite different than we have become accustomed to." Would they have left the Church over those changes? What are their opinions of those who did? Do they judge them or pity them?
What do they think of those happy with the new priests? Let's ask LifeSite about that part of it:
Supporters note that, contrary to the picture painted by dissenting voices in the media, Morlino's focus on orthodoxy is increasingly popular with Catholic youth - even in the liberal stronghold of the University of Wisconsin-Madison...
"(University of Wisconsin Madison's St. Paul University Catholic Center) has probably become the epitome of what a good Catholic parish would now look like," he said, with hundreds of students attending daily Mass, and maintaining Eucharistic adoration, Bible studies, and regular attendance at the sacrament of reconciliation - all on what is considered one of the most heavily liberal public research universities in the country...
Yeah, we can't have any of that. Too much of a step backward. Or maybe Bishop Morlino has stumbled across the main reason young people can't respect Church authority anymore.
Scott Hackl, director of development at the St. Paul Catholic Student Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison said "What we've found is students respond very well to the teachings of the Magisterium. And whether they personally agree with them or not, they still respond very strongly to that versus having more watered-down type of approach that just fuels an atmosphere of ... apathy," he said.
Yep. Looks like he's got it.
1 comment:
We love Bishop Morlino here in Madison!
The reason we need missionary priests... the Diocese has not produced enough vocations. There were only 6 ordinations during the entire decade of the 1990's.
Bishop Morlino has inspired over 3 dozen men to enter seminary since he arrived, 7 years ago. Most of these have come from the uber-secular University of Wisconsin, where our bishop has assigned two very holy priests to St. Paul's Catholic Student parish.
Now, Bishop Morlino wants to assign 3 holy missionary priests to Platteville, to serve the parish AND THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS THERE.
Our bishop is saddened by the parish fogeys who whine about "altar girls" and EMHC's.... but he is serving the needs of the young adult Catholics who want the spiritual meat, not infants milk.
Post a Comment