US Bishop Change: Sacramento, California

[cmudd]

I see. I don’t know much about John Cummings. I’ve been really impressed in here with the knowledge everyone has of Bishops etc.

Bishop Cummins made some very devistating decisions while he was in Oakland. I was in that diocese for five years and week after week went to different parishes all of which had some huge problems. I ended up at St. Margaret Mary parish where they said the old latin mass. I went there because one of my professors said it was very orthodox. I had never been to a latin mass before and it was a pleasant suprise.

The new bishop there has his work cut out for him! But, I’ve heard that he is a good man in the same tradition as Weigand.

 

[SenorBells]

Our diocese newspaper had a whole section devoted to Bishop Soto (diocese-sacramento.org/herald/index.htm). I am much more comfortable with Bishop Soto. He is very strong on making the “Gospel of Life” know to our youth. He is also for immigration reform, but he does not support using churches to house illegal immigrants.

The only thing I was not able to determine was his position on liturgical abuse and TLM. He comes from a diocese known for some egregious liturgical abuses and for making it difficult to use TLM.

We recently inherited your former auxiliary, Bp. Richard Garcia. While I don’t know him, he actions so far suggest he will be a HUGE improvement over his predecessor, Bp. Sylvester Ryan. At least Bp. Garcia appears to be trying. At least he seems to follow the Church and not his own ego. I think he had a good boss up in Sacto. I hope things work out down this way…

 

[SenorBells]

**The Western US has been dealt a fairly poor hand of bishops over the last three decades. ** They all seem to have close associations with Cardinal Mahoney and many give ample reason for concern. I am not sure why Rome appoints men who show any ambivalence about orthodoxy or give the appearance of scandal. Please send us a “Burk” or a “Bruskewitz!”

That’s not true at all. You mention the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In fairly recent times I think Cardinals McIntyre and Manning both had remarkably good runs in LA.

You suggest that Bp. Fabian Bruskewitz would be a panacea? He leads a diocese of 80K Catholics in a very homogeneous Midwestern environment. Let’s just see how he would do leading an archdiocese of 4.4M Catholics employing 80 different languages…

I was thinking the other day that it will be great when some of our bishops retire, but given Rome’s track record as of late, I wonder if we won’t be worse off in that event.

“Rome’s track record as of late” seems to be been pretty good. Your poster-cardinal Mahony has been at the reins for a very long time…

Among others, Archbishop Neiderauer of San Francisco (a classmate of Mahoney) has been such a disappointment. He recently gave his apologies for administering communion to two members of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (a homosexual group that mocks the church by wearing nun costumes and performing lewd acts). He stated that he was not aware that they were who they turned out to be. How does the Archbishop of SF miss that one!!! He also seemed to enjoy Broke Back Mountain stating that “it was a very powerful film, etc…” Well, perhaps he will be named the next prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Then we can look forward to our next shepherd.

Neiderauer fouled-up. More specifically his staff did for not warning him. Cut the guy a break, he apologized. He’s likely got far more pressing items than following the exploits of “a homosexual group that mocks the church by wearing nun costumes and performing lewd acts.” So should you.

I hate to sound so uncharitable, but at some point, we must show some righteous indignation at these things. Many of our priests, nuns, and bishops use our obedience and silence as a way to cow the orthodox faithful. It is very upsetting. Is there anyway to demand a better bishop from Rome? Why do they send us these men? Does this sound bad? Is this sour grapes? Can someone give me the e-mail or mailing address to someone at the Vatican who will listen?

The Church also sent us men like America’s top churchman, Cardinal William Levada who had done far more good than bad. I believe his intervention was the very reason my diocese received Bp. Richard Garcia (former Weigand underling) rather than yet another auxiliary from LA.

Your criticisms seem to focus on a handful of highly inflammatory events and not the real meat and potatoes of running a diocese.

 

[under_the_dome]

With all due respect, those who are expressing trepidation over Bishop Soto based on extrapolations they’ve made from diocesan pamphlets and webpages are being quite ridiculous. I’ve met Bishop Soto on a number of occasions and have found him to be a pastor of the first rank. Any second- or third-hand analyses of him are just that, and should be taken as such.

I understand that there is a latent fear of bishops on the west coast, but most of that seems to stem from Mahony and those auxiliaries who he has secured positions for in neighboring dioceses over the last twenty or so years. We need to accept the fact that his influence will continue in that regard for another 5, until he retires and is replaced by someone of Pope Benedict’s choosing.

 

[cmudd]

That’s not true at all. You mention the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In fairly recent times I think Cardinals McIntyre and Manning both had remarkably good runs in LA.

You suggest that Bp. Fabian Bruskewitz would be a panacea? He leads a diocese of 80K Catholics in a very homogeneous Midwestern environment. Let’s just see how he would do leading an archdiocese of 4.4M Catholics employing 80 different languages…

“Rome’s track record as of late” seems to be been pretty good. Your poster-cardinal Mahony has been at the reins for a very long time…

Neiderauer fouled-up. More specifically his staff did for not warning him. Cut the guy a break, he apologized. He’s likely got far more pressing items than following the exploits of “a homosexual group that mocks the church by wearing nun costumes and performing lewd acts.” So should you.

The Church also sent us men like America’s top churchman, Cardinal William Levada who had done far more good than bad. I believe his intervention was the very reason my diocese received Bp. Richard Garcia (former Weigand underling) rather than yet another auxiliary from LA.

Your criticisms seem to focus on a handful of highly inflammatory events and not the real meat and potatoes of running a diocese.

I’m not sure where you get your info on some of our bishops, but I am certainly not looking at a few isolated mishaps from just a couple of bishops. First, Neiderauer’s appointment came as a shock to anyone who follows the American Episcopacy. Just Google his name/salt lake city/homosexual/liberal, etc… You will get a better idea as to why his appointment was, at best, strange. He vehemently rallied against the Utah constitutional ban against gay marriage. Look up his comments on the Pope’s directive that gay men, latent homosexuals, those in favor of the homosexual agenda are not suitable for ordination. He seems to think that the Pope’s directives are up to debate on that one. He seems to have really enjoyed Broke Back Mountain… called it inspiring, I think. Seriously, Google his name/homosexuality. You may be surprised to see what he has been up to… and not quiet about it either. The situation with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in SF is a joke. Did you watch the video? He obviously did not want to give them communion when they first came up. And for you to say that he has more important things to worry about than these deviants and that he most likely didn’t know about them, is disingenuous. These men are not dunces. They do not have their heads buried in the sand. I have known about The Sisters since I was in middle school in the diocese of Sacramento. They are also one of the loudest dissenters in SF. Neiderauer has been there for over a year. Do you really think he doesn’t know about them? And what about his handling of the gay adoption issue? How has he handled that, in your opinion? Soto and Neiderauer both wrote letters of appeal to the CA court asking for leniency for a convicted priest pedo-rapist!!! What was their excuse: “That was a poor judgment call… I was just speaking up for a friend…” Let me ask you something, if one of your friends was convicted of over 20 heinous acts of sodomy and other types of child rape, would you publicly ask for leniency for him/her?

And most of these bishops have NOT BEEN around for some time. Anyone who has been appointed in the last 15 – 20 years is a recent appointment. The only out and out Orthodox Bishops in CA in recent history have been Weigand (Sac) and Vigneron (Oakland). The rest have been lukewarm, at best. Until they act otherwise, I will maintain that appraisal. I heard Garcia speak many times and sat in on not a few intimate settings where he spoke. While it is hard not to be more orthodox than B. Sylvester, he is by no means without concern. In the right settings, he could be heard saying that abortion was wrong or that the pope was correct, but usually his leadership was watery on Catholic issues… except of illegal immigrants, of course, that issue was the only one where he would protest and make noise. He was also a teacher at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo park for years! Does that make you more uncomfortable?

Bruskewitz is one of the best bishops the WORLD has seen in the last 100 years. He makes no bones about being an orthodox Catholic. He stands up to the same public pressures that all other Bishops have to deal with. The big difference is that he stands up to them! He doesn’t shrink away, like some, or embrace heterodoxy, like others. He calls it like it is while at the same time, exercising the utmost pastoral care for his flock. Is he a panacea? Any bishop who embraces truth/orthodoxy is a panacea. Because a particular diocese has a diverse or possibly heterodox population does not mean that they should be given a poor shepherd.

Sorry about the lengthy response.

 

[Angels_Watchin]

One more thing re: Bishop Soto:

3 years ago, when Alexia Kelly (Catholics’ Alliance for the Common Good (socialist anti-Catholic organization)) was creating socialist voter guides for Catholics nationwide (after her 10 year term with USCCB and then 2 years working for JOHN KERRY’S CAMPAIGN) I spoke with Bishop Soto, asking if we will EVER get pro-life voter guides distributed at the parishes before an election. (NONE of the parishes would distribute them in the past - saying that they have not received permission from Bishop Brown)

He said, "I have a committee working on that for the next election (2008). I said, “Great, who is on that committee?” He stuttered and stammered a minute or 2 and then gave me 2 names. Within the next 2 weeks I was able to contact those 2 people and they BOTH said they didn’t know anything about it.

So I contacted Bishop Soto a few weeks later and told him what I had learned and he said, “Oh, they’re going to be handling that at the state level.”

Soooo, I contacted the Cal Conference of Catholic Bishops and spoke to 3 different departments including Ned Djoleski and they ALL said THEY HAD NO PLANS OF DOING ANYTHING REGARDING VOTER GUIDES.

Somebody’s lying, and it looks to me like it’s Bishop Soto.