Another Prominent American Priest, Fr. Richard Gill, Leaves the Legionaries of Christ

This news is being reported on various blogs, including Genevieve Kineke's "Life After RC" site, which contains the text of Father Gill's January 9th letter announcing his departure from the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ.

I am not surprised to hear of this development, as there has been a significant, though quiet, exodus of LC priests and seminarians from the order in the past year (my friend Father Thomas Berg, for example). I am aware of other priests who, not having left the order quite yet, are definitely moving toward the exits, and I am happy to see that at least some of the departures are being publicized this way.

Historically, the Legion has been very intent on preventing the news of defections from the order by its priests and seminarians from becoming known among the rank and file membership of the Legion and its lay affiliate, Regnum Christ. The euphemism that "Father So and So has been reassigned to a different front" has long been a standard opaque response given when someone inquires as to why a certain LC priest is suddenly no longer around.

But with Father Gill's open letter explaining the reasons for his leaving to seek incardination as a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, there can be no doubt as to why he left and where he went. I suspect that more than a few of his LC confreres will follow his lead and that of other Legionaries who exited before him because of the Fr. Maciel scandals and the mishandling of the scandals which have engulfed the order over the past year.

I've known Father Gill personally for nearly 20 years now and have always known him to be a dedicated, cheerful, and energetic priest. I have no doubt that he will excel in whatever new ministry the Lord guides him to carry out. He's a good man. It's such a crying shame that so many good men have been caught up in the putrid machinations of the founder of this religious order (see my previous commentaries about that) — so many excellent years in the prime of their priesthood spent grinding away in a system that, it now appears quite clearly, was orchestrated by the founder primarily as an engine of cash, pleasure, power, and influence for himself.

Good for you, Father Gill. I admire your courage of conviction and I wish you well in this new chapter of your priestly ministry. You can count on my prayers and, I am certain, the prayers of a great many others who feel the same way. God bless you.

"It's Crap," says Mark Shea, and he rejects it. And so do I.

Mark Shea throws down the hammer on those who impugn Catholics (such as Karl Keating, myself, and others) as "Neo-Catholics," pointing out that this epithet is simply a thought-stopping term used by some against those who, as Mark pegs it, are not "sufficiently bitter" toward Pope John Paul and Vatican II.

While Mark and I may disagree on a variety of issues, I think he's right on target in his analysis of the connotations implicit in the snarky "neo-Catholic" put down. Frankly, his push-back on this particular issue is overdue, and I am happy to see it. Thanks, Mark. You said it better than I could have.

(See also my post on Catholic name-calling [with audio clip])

Sorry, but no deal. "Neo-Catholic" remains a swear word designed to impute the odor of heresy to faithful Catholics who are docile to the Church, to Vatican II, and to the papacy of JPII. To say that such people are not Catholic is a smear. And to say that calling them "Catholic" means that people with Traditionalist sensibilities are not Catholic is a lie. The Church is the home of many kinds of piety and many schools of opinion. Traditionalists are Catholic. So are people who think the Council was a good thing and JPII a good Pope. Indeed, sometimes those two classes of people overlap. All "neo-Catholic" does is provide Traditionalists who would like to reduce the Faith to their particular cultural obsessions with a tribal label designed to traduce the good faith of Catholics docile to the Church. It's crap. And I reject it.

The Big Chill

Britain's SKY News is reporting that winter conditions across the UK are bad and getting worse. This satellite image shows all of England, Wales, and Scotland entirely covered in snow and ice, with temps in some areas rivalling those in Antarctica.

Click . . .

Yesterday, on the "Open Line" radio program . . .

We had two hours worth of calls on a good variety of issues, including a few on Medjugorje, Guadalupe, and Marian apparitions in general, the sinlessness of Mary, priestly celibacy, the tetragrammaton YHWH, the Novus Ordo Missae, Calvinists and baptismal regeneration, whether the devil spies on you when you're praying, indulgences, and more. Click to listen to the show.

Killian Is Coming Home Soon, Very Soon

Here's a snap of grandad visiting with the little man in the hospital preemie ward recently.

And here's the wee lad, as of today. He's rather a stout little fellow now, wouldn't you say?

Praise be to God! He will be coming home soon. Thank you all for your many prayers on Killian's behalf. May God reward you.

Killian Patrick, my 7th grandchild, the son of my son Timothy and his wife Nina, was born 3 months premature. Here are some previous updates.

16 Anti-Theft Gadgets to Deter Thieves

I'd like a couple of number 7s, please. The rest of the list is available here.

For those who have difficulty waking up in the morning, this alarm tone might help

I didn't know you could do this with an iPhone

I want one.

Please? Someone?

Full of Sound and Fury; Signifying . . . Nothing

This visual metaphor depicts something I've witnessed countless times over the last 23 years of engaging JWs, Protestants, and Mormons and their attempts at biblical arguments against the Catholic Church. At first glance, some of their claims might seem plausible but, upon closer inspection, they simply collapse.

Examples of paper-tiger Protestant arguments that fall flat can be found in debates such as “Does the Bible Teach Sola Scriptura?” and “What Still Divides Us?”

I didn't know you could do this with Legos

Calvinists are swarming over on Free Republic

Things are getting a little fidgety over in Calvinland, at least within the Sovereign Calvinist embassy to Free Republic. The Great Reformed Ping List is underway again, complete with some obligatory tub-thumping and chest-beating about their enemies' "anthropomorphic rantings" and how their solas are being "mightily assailed," etc., etc.

It's kind of fun to watch (bad Latin grammar and all), but still, it's sad to see good people become so hopelessly entangled in the errors of the Calvinist religious system (some of which are quite ably refuted here, here, and here).

Exurge, Calvinisti, et judica causam tuam...

Arise (some older mss still read 'Swarm'), O Calvinists, and plead your cause. The doctrines of grace are mightily assailed by those who would proclaim with their father, “I will be like the Most High.” Set forth the biblical case for a sovereign God who is jealous for His glory. Disallow through disputation (and lampooning when needed) the damnable errors of those who have refashioned the great sola doctrines into a salvation-helper gospel that exalts the fallen will of man.

From every corner, in every thread exalt the right of God to do whatsoever He pleaseth. Be not dismayed by persistent anthropocentric rantings. Blessed are you when they revile you for the sake of the truth. Happy are ye when the Servetus card is played and the strawmen are paraded before you for He who is enthroned in heaven reigns.

Google is for Dhimmies

Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch shows how Google automatically offers viciously derrogatory search suggestions on phrases such as "Christianity is" (I also found it does the same for searches on "Catholicism is," "Pope Benedict is," and "the pope is"), but it does not do the same when someone searches "Islam is." In fact, as Robert points out, type in "Islam is" and Google suggests . . . nothing at all.

Draw your own conclusions.

If horses ran the world . . .

"You're late for work again, Smith. Mr. Ed wants to see you in his office immediately!"

Okay, as long as we're in the mood for some Shatner, feast on this

Daddy-O William Shatner's Beatnik Interpretation of Sarah Palin