I came to your website via a link from a Catholic mom’s blog. This post painted a vivid picture for me of those times. I wasn’t yet born when Kennedy was shot, I was born the following July.

I think I would have been happier living in another decade, when life was simpler and predictable. It seems that our way of life has changed so radically in the last 40 years, that it seems our only hope is prayer. I have been praying the Rosary for some time regularly and started attending weekly Adoration.

I live in a little protected bubble as a stay at home mom and Catholic school parent, but I watch the news and what I see happening today is frightening. I am bookmarking your page to read more about what has happened to you. I have long felt that the abuse crisis has been largely made up by greedy and evil people.

I know that there are bad people everywhere and a few priests that have committed these horrible things, but because of them, many good priests have had to suffer. I saw Fr. Corapi in person and in his talk he said how once in an airport a mother grabbed her child away as the child was wandering in his direction and she made a comment that was very hurtful.

I get tired of people who are not Catholic making insinuations about priests based on what the media has created. I have only known good and holy priests, and I will keep you and all priests in my prayers.

I came to St. Mary’s Seminary in 1980. I remember you telling me that the seminary declined the opportunity to attend the Holy Father’s visit. I was really shocked! What did I, a young and inexperienced Catholic know about dissent? I grew up in an Italian neighborhood in central Pennsylvania. I thought the would world was Catholic and loved the Pope. O dopey me. At the time I asked you why anyone would refuse to visit the Pope. You tried to help me understand, but I was way too innocent.

Throughout that first year of my formation, I would discuss many issues with you, often while watching the latest episode of Hill Street Blues. You helped ease me into awareness of the disheveled condition of the Church of the 1980’s. For that I thank you. You were always patient and clear in your explanations. Somehow I persevered without loss of my faith and was ordained in 1985.

Aside from the historical synopsis you offer in this post, the most poignant thing you wrote is the following:
“No one can read this account and not see, with the tools of hindsight, that dissent at the expense of charity and justice has brought much harm upon the Church.”

You have certainly experienced this first hand, as have I. My priesthood has twice been nearly sacrificed. Once because I was falsely accused of having an affair and destroying the marriage of one of my female converts. Her mother-in-law had previously sued the diocese on a different matter about a dozen years earlier. The bishop removed me from my post and sent me away for therapy. Six months of my life and a sterling reputation were ruined because the bishop wanted to avoid a lawsuit.

Fifteen years later I was serving in the Church of my baptism. I was so happy and at peace. I was much beloved by the people, not only in my parish but throughout the 9 parishes in our county. I am also a very orthodox priest. I am not afraid to speak the truth even when it means I am correcting the misinformation given by other pastors.

Jealously got the best of one of my brothers who then launched a campaign against me with all kinds of rumors and lies. I was accused of everything from stealing, alienating parishioners, and improper relationships with the youth. I was prevented from offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for over a year. I was denied sustenance or salary of any kind.

Thank God I am back in the active ministry now. Our Bishop resigned, and Cardinal Rigali having read my file recognized that this was a miscarriage of justice based on politics and jealousy. It didn’t hurt that I also had hired a canon lawyer to secure my rights and clear my record.

Fr. Gordon, my case is so mild in comparison to yours, but it does speak to the need for us to support one another in prayer. Educating the people of God through your website is a work of the Holy Spirit. We need their prayers and support always, especially when falsely accused. I will continue to remember you in every Mass I offer. One day I hope to sit with you and rejoice that you have been vindicated and freed. May that day come very soon.

Fr. Michael McCormick

But I rejoice because just the other day, over ten bishops, including Cardinal Rigali, and numerous Christian evangelicals and main line Protestants stood together and signed a document entitled The Manhattan Declaration which affirmed our God given right to life, marriage, and freedom of religion.

These brave men and women have stated that no matter what, they will stand for these principles even if it comes to ‘civil disobedience’ just as Dr. King did. We can all sign this declaration by simply going to their website: http://www.manhattandeclaration.org WE MUST UNITE AS CHRISTIANS AND FIGHT THESE LIBERALS AND ATHEISTS NOW OR IT WILL BE TOO LATE !

later doing prison work, they were the only ones i could not visit….i went back to calif and finished up a degree…interned at a psych-clinic near the “Hate-Ashb” district in San Fancisco where drugs ran ‘in the streets’.., i sat thru a physical /neurological exam with dozen young doctors in training……after the examination….the head Doc looked out at us and said….”mental age of the 19 yrs old, now about age 4… he will committed to the ……..hospital the rest of his life due to
his use of drugs “…at taxpayer expense….i then went to work at a drug treatment clinic(for 13 yrs)….

what amazed me about all the Peace Marching, Anti-War, freedom freedom cries, love one another, etc. songs and chants, was the fact that on one hand we were killing 50,000 people a year( according to the highway safety reports) on our highways
thru carelessness, drugged driving, self-ishness, speed love, etc….., my clients were saying….”oh, the war is terrible”….and i would add, “isn’t this interesting, you are killing yourself with drugs….if life is sacred, etc. then why are you killing yourself
from with -in with drugs”?….and abortions done???? ummmm,

so, my memory of the 60’s and 70’s always makes me reflect on how we treat our selves, our neighbors, do we take care of
one another….we want Peace, but look at our behavior in our neighborhoods, in our parishes, on our highways( those deaths are about 150 a day, or 3,000plus a month), ah, and all in the name of ‘respect and the sacredness of life?’,…have any of you
asked or heard your pastors give a sermon about driving with “love of the other” driving, or ever heard a sermon on ‘right
to life sunday’, directed the sermon to the men, fathers, sons, uncles, grandfathers about their role in the abortion issue,?…
the whole issue of sexuality, “the sexual persona”???

men’s role in all of this abortion debate…women in the end get the “kick in the gut” with abortion..what happened to personal responsibility…are we lovers of victimhood????..and the song we sang…” where have all …..[our men] gone….long gone”……and the role of our Church Good Shepherds, who ‘Throw-away our priests,” …innocent are some, ill are others, care for widows, orphans and prisoners….”where have all our…….gone?” dee

In the latter, Father Randall relates stories from the seminary which are similar to what you wrote. If I remember correctly lmost all of these men ended up leaving the seminary and it eventually closed.

Thanks Father.
God bless,

Right now my only hope is Mary. She will get us through this. I have locked up all my family and friends in the Garden of God in her Immaculate Heart. Now we are so blessed to have good shepherds who feed us. I attend daily Holy Mass and pray for you unceasingly. It is painful to think of our neglect.

Jesus of Divine Mercy I trust in You. I will make spiritual communions with your Holy Mass too. I am so happy when I think of Jesus asking Zecheus to “Come down from that tree, I mean to dine with you at your house tonight.” He comes to my house as many times as I invite Him.
In His Name, Patricia I.O.L.

Thank you for your post of Nov 18.

I was out of the country for many of those years. This was an enlightening and informative post about our country and the Church during those years.

Many thanks,

Eileen

I say ditto a million times to what Fr. Joe Coffey wrote. I remember the first time I met the Pope, and how I had to stretch out my hand to touch him along with classmates of mine. Pictures show we had faces of “inexpressible joy”.

I never thought that years later, as a priest working for an episcopal conference, I would actually have dinner with Pope John Paul II. I still remember that day so vividly. He was already fairly sick, but maintained conversation in two languages at the dinner table. He managed a few jokes too… One could see the Crucified Christ in his suffering body. Yet his spirit was ever so bright.

Stay strong Fr. Gordon. You are in my prayers. Always.

Msgr. Michael

I had written to the White House the previous year and had been sent a nice letter and autographed photo of the President and his wife, which I still have to this day. We were so proud to have a Catholic president in the White House. What a thing it was.

My mother, who was a transplant in Dallas from Port Chester NY, had experienced prejudice first hand as a Catholic seeking employment in Dallas back in the 50’s, as had my other relatives from the Northeast now living in the South. Kennedy seemed to be the antidote to prejudice in so many ways.

Of course, my dad had grown up in Dallas in very different circumstances from my mom, and his political affiliations were more conservative, although he had gone to Catholic schools, and graduated from the Jesuit high school there in its first graduating class, and had considered the priesthood himself. And his love for the Blessed Mother had visually left an imprint on my mind and soul, an image that touches me to this very day.

Anyway, you bring this all to mind today as I take a look back with you on my life at that time. I was in the Church but not really with it. My folks were regular Catholics, and we never missed Mass on any Sunday or holy day, and they spent loads of money they didn’t have on a Catholic education for each of their six daughters all through elementary and high school. I will always be grateful for this although I was not especially grateful back then. I was into the Beatles and boys and could not keep my mind focused on the serious current events of the day in our Church or in our country.

I am afraid I was oblivious for many years until my conversion/reversion in the 90’s and especially during the jubilee year 2000. I seemed to be in a constant state of confusion about what the Church taught anymore. I remember my Dad stopping his attendance at Mass when the Latin was changed to English. He had been an altar server and Latin was a big part of his life as a Catholic, of course. He eventually reconciled and came back to Mass. This was such a hard time for faithful Catholics who were caught in the middle of so much social upheaval in our country and in our Church.

I must say that I never knew anything about what was going on in our seminaries until after the year 2000. I finally was made aware of how horrible the climate had really been for good Catholic men who wanted to serve Christ and His Church faithfully in the priesthood. The dissent in our Church just did not fully register with me as far as our Bishops and priests were concerned. I could never have imagined the real truth as I discovered it of late. I read Good Bye Good Men and my heart sunk. I never knew about any of that. But it explained so much that I had been confused about.

Anyway, today I am here and grateful for my Bishops and priests, no matter what. I get angry about certain things, like the funding of groups by our donations to the Bishops’ CCHD, which sponsor and promote those things in direct opposition to what the Church teaches. But today I can forgive, because I have been forgiven. Mercy is my theme today. One cannot ask for mercy if one cannot give it. This is a fundamental lesson each Christian must learn.

However, I must take a stand most days as a practicing Catholic. I stand with you Fr. MacRae, in your unjust imprisonment. I stand with the unborn whose right to life has been taken away by unjust so called law. I stand with the Bishops who speak out about unjust political strategies. I stand with politicians who try to protect our freedom of speech and religious liberty.

I stand with Holy Mother Church on all she teaches through the Magisterium, and I plan to do that always with God’s grace. I must be an example if I want to do God’s will. Thankfully He lead me through His grace out of the confusion of the 60’s and 70’s to this place today. I am grateful to God and to you Father MacRae for your courage in the face of evil each and every day in prison.

You remain in my daily prayers. God bless you.