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sevendolours
Guest
Hello. I’m looking for anyone with any first-hand experience journeying with the Fathers of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS) to share some thoughts and opinions.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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augieboo
Guest
I spent two weekends with them, the first in Holiday, Florida, and the second in Manhatten. The guys in Florida were great, which is why I went to visit them in New York and in Cleveland, (where they are headquartered for the U.S. My experience in New York, however, caused me to drop them from consideration entirely.
Why?
Two main reasons, both closely interconnected.
- The order has large numbers of dissenters, especially among the relatively few priests and brothers who are not nearing retirement age.
- They do not live their charism, and it shows.
- At their New York residence, they have two libraries. One is on the first floor and is decked out with new hardwood floors, leather couches, and furniture to match. The other is tucked away on the third floor. The first floor library looks like a shrine to dissenting theologians. They must have at least one copy – and sometimes multiples – of everything Hans Kung, Charles Curran, and Richard McBrien ever wrote. To find anything written by a Pope or a Saint, one must go up to the third floor and look carefully.
- I got into an argument re theology with one of the brothers in N.Y. His thesis was that since Teilard’s work was once suppressed, it means that all theologians who disagree with the Church will eventually be vindicated, so we should just go ahead and read whatever we want and choose whatever “truth” we like.
- The spring issue of the magazine, Emmanuel, which bills itself as the only publication of Eucharistic spirituality, contained exactly two articles written by SSS fathers. The first such article holds the Church responsible for the vocations crisis because She will not readmit all those priests who left in the sixties and seventies to get married, join communes, or whatever. The other such article complains about the fact that the Holy Father would not renew the indult for lay persons in the U.S. to clean chalices. The latter article was written by their national vocations director, who is also pastor of their parish in Albuquerque.
- Dinner conversation tended toward criticism of Rome. The Vatican document about pastoral care of the road came out just before I made my visit, and they thought it was sooo funny that “The Vatican has nothing better to do” than write such things. The irony was that during that very weekend they had another visitor besides myself. He was a bishop from Pakistan, in the U.S. to try to raise money for his diocese. He needed the money so that he could buy used cars for all of his 17 priests. He had purchased motorcycles for them, but in the last year one had been killed and two had been maimed in accidents. The irony of this was lost on the SSS guys.
- At the parish they staff in Cleveland, at their HQ, they had been doing communal penance services with mass-absolutions twice a year for something like ten years. I don’t mean communal services which end with individual confession, I mean the type of thing that, under Canon Law, is reserved for wartime! They only ceased when the local bishop specifically told them to stop – never mind that JPII had condemned the practice at least ten years earlier and that it is a direct violation of Canon Law!
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augieboo
Guest
Examples of not living their charism
[1] Money
They were founded by St Peter Julian Eymard, who is known as the apostle of the Eucharist. He was noted in particular for fostering frequent reception of Eucharist among the poor. The SSS parish in NYC is in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country – only a few blocks from the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side. About ten years ago they decided to refirbish their church, which was falling down around their ears. They raised about $4 million from parishioners and another $4 million by selling a piece of property to a developer. This is all well and good. They now have a beautiful neo-renaissance church that is good-to-go for another hundred years at least. Of the $8 million plus they raised, they put $2 million into a trust fund to pay for future maintenance needs.
Here is the problem.
Before the renovation, there were homeless people who slept on their front steps.
After the renovation, there are still homeless people who sleep on their front steps.
Of that $8 million, not one CENT went to the people for whom their founder worked all his life!
[2] Prayer
One would think that a group dedicated to exposition of the blessed sacrament would pray all the time. Not so! One of the brothers rather proudly disabused me of any such notion, explaining that they do have morning and evening prayer – on weekdays only – but they are just too busy for anything more. He exaplained this to me one evening while we were sitting in front of the TV watching some talent competition and eating ice cream. (This is apparently the preferred evening activity in the house.)
[3] Booze
Prior to dinner they have coctail hour – again in front of the TV – served up from a very well-stocked liquor cabinet.
[4] Wealth
One of the priests in NYC is a member of the New York Athletic Club, an organization to exclusive and expensive that it’s impossible even to find out how much it costs to join, because membership is by invitation only. Some of his fellow members, according to Wikipedia, include:
Wellington Mara - NY Giants owner
Peter Jennings - Late ABC News anchorman
George Steinbrenner - NY Yankee owner
Rocky Aoki - Founder of Benihana Restaurant
John F. Kennedy Jr - Late publisher of George Magazine
A.P. Giannini - Founder of Bank of America
Remember, this is a man who has taken a vow of poverty!
Some of what I have said is probably nitpicky. So be it. I found my visit extremely disappointing, disheartening, and depressing. I think that this order is not long for the world, at least not in North America.
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LilyM
Guest
From the outside looking in, there’s an SSS Church in this neighbourhood. I couldn’t accuse them of squandering money or anything - the church was built in the 50s and it certainly shows.
And they do have public morning and evening prayer each weekday, one of the few places around here to do so.
But I concur on the issue of dissent - there’s one particular younger priest who is quite outspoken in his dissent on lots of issues - and unfortunately proud of the fact as well :doh2:
And they do have public morning and evening prayer each weekday, one of the few places around here to do so.
But I concur on the issue of dissent - there’s one particular younger priest who is quite outspoken in his dissent on lots of issues - and unfortunately proud of the fact as well :doh2:
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sevendolours
Guest
Thank you for your responses. I’m shocked to hear this happening within the SSS. I’ve always thought of them as orthodox teaches of the faith and presumed that they carried out much prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in reparation as St. Peter J. Eymard called for.
A friend who visited them in Sydney (St. Peter Julian Eymard Church) shared that they were absolutely orthodox and carried out their liturgies with utmost reverence and devotion.
I suppose you’re right in saying that there’s inconsistency and dissent within the order.
In some ways there are similar problems plaguing many religious orders as well.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the SSS.
A friend who visited them in Sydney (St. Peter Julian Eymard Church) shared that they were absolutely orthodox and carried out their liturgies with utmost reverence and devotion.
I suppose you’re right in saying that there’s inconsistency and dissent within the order.
In some ways there are similar problems plaguing many religious orders as well.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the SSS.
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LilyM
Guest
When did your friend visit? The priest of whom I speak has only been in Sydney, I think, for six months or so (but then I’ve only been going there for the past year).
And I’m not suggesting that there’s any irreverence in the liturgy itself. Certainly not that any problems extend to the majority of the priests either.
For one thing, though, there is the odd bit of uncomfortably strong (but not genuinely profane I guess) language from this particular priest. And the CONTENT of his sermons is problematic - belittling the recent Motu Proprio on the TLM, belittling the Sacrament of Confession (or at least belittling parishioners for the way they were approaching it
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sevendolours
Guest
I think he made a visit there a year back.
This isn’t new… many dissatisfied clergy are laughing their heads of the traditional latin mass movement.For one thing, though, there is the odd bit of uncomfortably strong (but not genuinely profane I guess) language from this particular priest. And the CONTENT of his sermons is problematic - belittling the recent Motu Proprio on the TLM, belittling the Sacrament of Confession (or at least belittling parishioners for the way they were approaching it
Anyway, I managed to get in touch with a priest from the Melbourne community.
Thanks a million!
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sevendolours
Guest
I was also abit shocked to see the various representative priests attend 2003’s World Leaders Meeting in street clothes instead of the clerical collar…
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ASimpleSinner
Guest
Have you ever met a dissenter who wasn’t proud?
You find such a creature, and we will put him or her on display at the zoo! Rarest find ever!
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