Was it Right for Minn Archbishop to Censor Fr. Altier from Relevant Radio?

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Georgette:
His outspokeness on the Bishops’ evil sex ed curriculum VIRTUS and “Talking About Touching” (also goes by a couple other names) was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Over the past three months, I have compiled quite a list of articles with information on this VIRTUS topic
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I am aware that Bishop Vasa has said that he will not use the VIRTUS program until there is more research about it.

I think that if the good Father was calling it an “evil” program, then perhaps there is the reason that he has been silenced.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if the opinion is not completely founded on facts. Given that the program was accepted by the vast majority of bishops, and it was put into place because they needed to make a response to the sexual abuse of children by priests in the past and needed to get off the dime and do something, it may be that the program was not well chosen. It may well be that the program is flawed. It may well be that the program is seriously flawed.
However, if (and I have no way of knowing if he did or did not) Father Altier publicly said that the program is evil, the logical conclusion is that the bishops are doing evil; at least, that is the conclusion that most people would come to.

It is well and fine to say that one does not agree with a choice of the bishops, but one needs to use some tact and diplomacy. If one goes off accusing, or being perceived as accusing, the bishops of collectively promoting evil, one is probably going to get silenced, as one should.

It is one thing to say that the program is unwise, or that it is inappropriate, or that parts of it may go too far. It is another thing altogether to simply say the program is evil.
 
It is one thing to say that the program is unwise, or that it is inappropriate, or that parts of it may go too far. It is another thing altogether to simply say the program is evil.
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“Evil Sex Ed Program” are MY words, not the good Father’s. He was calling for parents to be put on guard about this program. And believe me it is evil. It essentially puts the burden of protecting the children onto the shoulders of the victims themselves! It exposes children to things sexual in the innocent years, thereby destroying their innocence and modesty. It undercuts the parents’ prime duty of teaching their children about sexual matters. It goes against Catholic teachings at its very foundations.

Please check out these sites for information on these programs.
renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050821
catholicintl.com/catholicissues/cath-parents.htm#top
renewamerica.us/columns/augustine/050923
 
Georgette said:
“Evil Sex Ed Program” are MY words, not the good Father’s. He was calling for parents to be put on guard about this program. And believe me it is evil. It essentially puts the burden of protecting the children onto the shoulders of the victims themselves! It exposes children to things sexual in the innocent years, thereby destroying their innocence and modesty. It undercuts the parents’ prime duty of teaching their children about sexual matters. It goes against Catholic teachings at its very foundations.

Please check out these sites for information on these programs.
renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050821
catholicintl.com/catholicissues/cath-parents.htm#top
renewamerica.us/columns/augustine/050923
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Amen! When the innocence of our children is at stake, there should be no compromise in calling what this program is, and it is evil!
 
You are so right. My son is 19 but if he were still in school, I would not allow him to have this program. It is enough to know that the woman in charge has ties with Planned Parenthood (BTW PP approved this program - tells me all I need to know) and Eleanor Smeal. 5 year olds repeating body parts that preteen girls would even know. I could hear the child saying "mommy, I have a part of my body that is a car (volvo). Come on, why does a child have to know this word now. I should the program to some priests in my diocese and they were appalled. And also some of my friends who have children thought it was disgusting. Hey, I say if they think Fr. Altier spoke out ( which he did in a loving, noncondemning way )we should ask Fr. Corapi or Fr. Groeschel what they think - they would be blunt.
 
Fr. Altier responds:

Thank God for Fr. Altier!

spiritdaily.com/churchgyrations.htm

"Praised be Jesus Christ! The people who take care of the Desert Voice website informed me of your interest in the case in which I am involved with Archbishop Flynn. It is certainly fine with me if you want to write something about it, but there really does not seem to be much of a story, on the surface, to write. The fact that this thing has taken on a life of its own with no help from anyone in particular should tell you that it is really not about me at all. Rather, it is about something much larger than me.
"Beyond that, I really do not have much to say other than what was said of the Apostles 2000 years ago, i.e., that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name Acts 5:41]. All of this is part of God’s loving providence and He will bring about a greater good from this than any of us can ask or imagine. Can you think of a better way to live out the Lenten observance?

"Regarding the letter from the Archbishop, I will not release it to anyone. This is done solely out of respect for the Archbishop. He did not request that I not release the letter; it is my decision to act in this manner out of respect for his Excellency.

"The Archbishop acted within the bounds of his jurisdictional rights (canon 831 §2) and I simply have to obey. The rest is up to our Lord and Our Lady. It is so wonderful because I am at peace and filled with joy knowing that through obedience I am doing the will of God.

“Who could ask for anything more in this world than to know with certainty the will of God for you at any given moment and to be able to live it out in peace and joy? The whole thing is a pure gift from God. This is my take on the whole situation, but as I mentioned above, this cannot possibly be about me. I am merely an instrument that God is using for a much larger purpose. So, if you want to write an article, you really do need to look at what God is doing here.”

“We’ll let the Holy Spirit do that; we’ll urge obedience (above sacrifice); and we’ll leave it to your own discernment.”
 
I live in the Archdiocese of St. Paul so this is big news here among Catholics. I think there are two bigger issues and one smaller issue at work than Father’s message.

First, the Bishop is the primary teaching authority. I don’t think the Church is served when the flock is getting messages that usurp and draw attention away from the Bishop.

Second, this archdiocese has a very real problem with Priest’s asserting themselves on political issues (remember this is where the rainbow sashes are worn on Pentecost) on both sides of the spectrum. While a corrollary to the first comment, I think we need to concentrate our messages more from one voice and the Archbishop is the man to do it as in addition to the power of his words, he is graced with special authority from the Holy Spirit.

Third, maybe the Bishop just wants this diosesan priest to concentrate on a local flock.
 
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Orionthehunter:
I live in the Archdiocese of St. Paul so this is big news here among Catholics. I think there are two bigger issues and one smaller issue at work than Father’s message.

First, the Bishop is the primary teaching authority. I don’t think the Church is served when the flock is getting messages that usurp and draw attention away from the Bishop.

Second, this archdiocese has a very real problem with Priest’s asserting themselves on political issues (remember this is where the rainbow sashes are worn on Pentecost) on both sides of the spectrum. While a corrollary to the first comment, I think we need to concentrate our messages more from one voice and the Archbishop is the man to do it as in addition to the power of his words, he is graced with special authority from the Holy Spirit.

Third, maybe the Bishop just wants this diosesan priest to concentrate on a local flock.
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I agree that priests should do the best to be one voice with their Bishop. However, there are times when priests need to speak out, which is what this priest did (thank God) and as soon as the Bishop asked for obedience, the Fr. obeyed.

If this situation truly is about the Virtus program, then I thank God for Fr. Altier for taking a stance against this evil program.
 
We must all remember that priests must first be faithful to their vocation and to God. A priest is supposed to be obedient to his bishop and Fr.Altier is by maintaining silence. But a priest has to teach the truth of the faith - the truth taught by the Bible, the magesterium. The purple sash was not political - it firmly went against the teaching of God that active homosexuality is a mortal and therefore the person cannot receive the Eucharist. This is what our Catholic faith says and no bishop or even Pope can change that. I thank God for Fr. Altier, Fr. Corapi, Fr. Groeschel, Fr. Barron - all the priests who teach the true faith. That is how we are going to get to heaven - by knowing and following the truths of our faith. Lastly a priest is a shepherd to all of God’s children,not just those in his diocese.
 
We must accept this at face value. If Fr. Altier is being faithful, then we should follow along too.
 
I thought that I had a response from Archbishop Flynn when I got an email from him yesterday. Until I saw someone else received the exact same message. I guess it is a standard response that it going out.

God bless Fr. Altier. He is obedient and faithful and a really wonderful preacher. So I continue to pray that God leads Archbishop Flynn to allow Fr. Altier to use the charism God gave him.
 
Hey Georgette,

Nice to see you here too. I totally endorse what you have said in both of your posts on this thread and at this forum.

It is my ardent prayer that some day Jesus Christ, who is Divine Mercy Incarnate and Our Lady of Divine Mercy will bless me with the ability to be Father Robert Altier’s “Side Kick” in his awesome Ministry on the Internet as well as on Relevant Radio.

I pray that wish of mine will come true in the near future.

Your Brother in Christ,
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Georgette:
Father Robert Altier is a very holy priest beloved by his parishioners and radio listeners. He is very loyal and faithful to the teachings of the Church. He has been under much persecution for this from his bishop over the years. His outspokeness on the Bishops’ evil sex ed curriculum VIRTUS and “Talking About Touching” (also goes by a couple other names) was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Fr. Altier also knows that there is power in Obedience, which is why he is humbly taking this censorship without complaint. He knows the Lord is the One in charge, ultimately.

Over the past three months, I have compiled quite a list of articles with information on this VIRTUS topic which you can find at this post: chronicleofameanderingtraveller.blogspot.com/2006/03/us-bishops-evil-sex-ed-virtus-program.html
and this:
chronicleofameanderingtraveller.blogspot.com/2006/01/re-innocence-of-your-children-is-at.html
and this:
chronicleofameanderingtraveller.blogspot.com/2006/01/your-childrens-innocence-is-in-danger.html

There are other posts related to this topic at my blog:
chronicleofameanderingtraveller.blogspot.com

Parishioners of Fr Altier’s are requesting that his supporters write to Archbishop Flynn and voice their protest for this unfair censorship! They also wish to make the point that Fr Altier himself has never posted any of his homilies or recordings onto the Internet himself. This was always done by his parishioners who would lovingly transcribe his homilies and then post them to the desertvoice.org site. That has been closed down, but there are archives of his homilies still available online.
web.archive.org/web/*/www.desertvoice.org
and
desertvoice.excerptsofinri.com
and recordings from his “Fundamentals of Catholicism” are here:
trueteaching.net

Please call or write the archbishop:
Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn
226 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, MN, USA 55102
(651) 291-4400
or email his office: communications@archspm.org

In Christ,
Georgette
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As a member of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, I have to say I am appalled by the tone and language people have used to attack Archbishop Flynn. He is Fr. Altier’s bishop, and has the right and obligation to approve or disapprove of his involvement in any apostolate. And, he doesn’t have to answer to any of us as to why. As he wrote in his letter:
The specific reasons for this decision are within the context of a bishop’s relationship with his priests. It would be most inappropriate to discuss them with others.
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If we claim to believe in apostolic succession we have to accept such decisions by our bishops, as Fr. Altier is so rightly doing, without comment or rancor. The Archbishop wasn’t wrong to limit Fr. Altier’s involvement nor to order his words removed from the website of Relevant Radio and/or any others. It is his duty to do what he feels is best and ours to take him at his word in good faith.
 
I also received a letter in the mail today from Archbishop Flynn. Same form letter everyone else got. Here is what I don’t understand: If it is true that Fr. Altier’s website, “A Voice in the Desert” was maintained/managed by lay parishioners (a family I believe) in his parish then why would shutting it down be beneficial to Fr. Altier? If I assume correctly, this family merely records and transcribes his daily homilies and puts them on the website for public viewing. They do ALL THE WORK. This website doesn’t take any additional time away from Fr. Altier does it? He has to deliver a sermon whether it gets copied to a website or not, right? So how could having a website like “A Voice in the Desert” keep him from his “primary responsibility” as assistant to the pastor?? I could completely understand Archbishop Flynn’s decision to shut the website down if it was something that took up a lot of Fr. Altier’s time and kept him from his primary role as asst. pastor, but this doesn’t appear to be the case.

I just don’t buy the “canned response”. Something else is up and we may never know the real reason.
 
Archbishop Flynn allows communion for Rainbow sashers, yet bans Regnum Christi and the Legion of Christ from the diocese.

By their fruits you shall know them.
 
Lurch
Yes it does bother me too that the 17 priests in the archdiocese who are going against marriage being between a man a woman and advocating homosexual lifestyles are not being silenced. Parishioners have had to tolerate much sin in some of the churches because of the actions of the priests and the archbishop allowing it to occur. So I don’t understand why he would silence a true faithful and orthodox priest.

This is for Della

I do not see anyone here treating Archbishop Flynn disrespectfully. I do see them speaking out in truth about what he has allowed to happen in the archdiocese and that is no secret. If archbishops are of the world they can get caught up in not doing God’s will. I pray that this is not punishment for Fr. Altier speaking out against homosexuality, abortion, and priests being of the world and not teaching the truths. Bishops are supposed to do what is best for the flock and that is allowing priests like Fr. Altier to teach us the truths of the faith.
 
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truedisciple49:
Bishops are supposed to do what is best for the flock and that is allowing priests like Fr. Altier to teach us the truths of the faith.
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:amen:

Why does this concept seem to be so hard for some to grasp??? Why shouldn’t bishops be held accountable when they keep the flock from hearing the TRUE Word of God?? Many may think it isn’t the place of the ‘flock’ to question the shepherd…those days are long over my friends. We’re in a new day and age. Lack of accountability will no longer be tolerated from our bishops and hierarchy. The cloistered world they are used to is changing. I realize the importance of obedience in the faith and applaud Fr. Altier for complying with the requests of the Archbishop. But somewhere, sometime, Archbishop Flynn will have to give an account…maybe not to folks like me, but God will see to it that justice is done.

I really do pray that the Archbishop’s reasons for quieting Fr. Altier are just and for some greater good. I will continue to think that somehow the flock is being protected from something by all this and that Archbishop Flynn has only our best interests at heart.

Trying to stay optimistic is tough. :confused:
 
Why does this concept seem to be so hard for some to grasp??? Why shouldn’t bishops be held accountable when they keep the flock from hearing the TRUE Word of God??
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My guess (and it is only a guess) is that Fr. Altier would find this accusation to be appalling. Do we each, as individuals, get to decide what is the TRUE word of God? Or is that the role of the Church?
Many may think it isn’t the place of the ‘flock’ to question the shepherd…those days are long over my friends. We’re in a new day and age. Lack of accountability will no longer be tolerated from our bishops and hierarchy. The cloistered world they are used to is changing.
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I’m sure a certain priest named Luther felt EXACTLY the same way! 😦
I realize the importance of obedience in the faith and applaud Fr. Altier for complying with the requests of the Archbishop. But somewhere, sometime, Archbishop Flynn will have to give an account…maybe not to folks like me, but God will see to it that justice is done.
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You are assuming that what has been done is against God’s will. I would suggest that you don’t know the reasons and, even if you did, you are not in a position to make that declaration. After all, Bishop Flynn was put in his position by God. Is that not a very important part of our faith?

Peace

Tim
 
Tim,
The church has spoken. Active homesexuality is wrong. Abortion is wrong. The Catechism of the Catholic Church sets it out. There is no question. When there are priests actively living homosexual lifestyles, allowing lay people to give homilies (not permitted under any circumstances by the church) an archbishop giving the Eucharist to the rainbow sash people (Cardinal Arinze already told ARchbishop Flynn he was not allowed to do this - so the archbishop is not being obedient), there is a big problem in the diocese. The magesterium sets forth the truths of our faith. And this archdiocese is going completely against that truth. But Fr. Altier spoke the truth, He stood up and is taught the true faith. And now he is being silenced. The archbishop has the duty to make sure priests are teaching the truth and he is not doing that. But he is silencing a priest who is willing to go against the culture and speak the truth. I am not sure how much clearer this could be. Please pray.
 
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