The following is from Carol McKinley
Tuesday,
February 18, 2003 :::
Father
Groeschel @ St. Patrick's in Natick
Believe
the Church's Teachings. Believe in Jesus Christ.
St.
Patrick's was packed, which was a great surprise given the obstacles of snow.
Fr. Brian Kiley, obviously a gift to our Archdiocese. He welcomed Fr. Groeschel
saying we were blessed to have a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
Father
first spoke about "How did we get here?"
Nothing
we don't know, but boy, how affirming to hear him say it...without mincing
words and with great humor.
Fr.
Groeschel defined a true disciple as one who will argue in favor of the
teachings of the Church, loyal to the Holy Father. They believe the Church's
Teachings because they believe in Jesus Christ.
The
scandal has forced us to see the obvious consequences of our Roman Catholic
Church , which has been deeply ill.
But,
the devil bites his own tail...and out of this, the true Roman Catholic Faith
will be genuinely reformed.
The
education of our Faith has been dismal. Our children enter our Catholic grammar
schools, high schools, colleges and seminaries and many of them actually lose
their faith there. They completely depart from Catholic Tradition and teach inanity.
They
have committed blasphemy...to deny the Teaching of Christ.
He
brought up an interesting point that never occurred to me. He reminded us that
they are taking the Lord, thy God's Name in vain. To put a Cross as designation
that something is Catholic and Christian and then denies or teach contrary to
Christianity is blasphemous and dishonest. How true. How wonderful to hear him
say it and say it with such passion and conviction.
When
we are standing in the face of a blasphemer - - he told us to say "Get
Lost ". Or as they say in Brooklyn, "Take Gas". Being
"nice" got us nowhere. That is precisely what happened. Everything
got "nice". He said nice is used twice in the Old Testament, and it
is used sarcastically. It is not used at all in the New Testament. He said
"nice" comes from the Latin word "nicere", which means
"stupid". Instead of being truthful, we all got "nice".
He
described the tragic loss of religious life done by using psychobabble. Our
seminaries were filled with the nonsense of the gay scene. He described, so
rightfully, that a homosexual orientation can be a cross, which must be carried
with a lifestyle committed to chastity. He said we have to "stop pussyfooting
around" with lifestyles that destroy family life and the dignity of
individuals.
As
a result, the priests do not really teach the faith. Instead, they resort to
"enlightenment" where every phenominon
is rationally explained. When Humanae Vitae came along Richard McBrien was
right there to deny it on the day it was published. Priests began to
teach that we no longer had to follow the teachings of the Church to be
Catholic.
He said, if he had one wish - it would be :
That there would be a storm of Eucharistic
Devotion.
Everything
else will fall into place.
The
Friars (which started 15 years ago with 8...and now they have 80 with 25 new
seminarians coming into next year's class) started up an ancient traction
called Oratory of Divine Love to make up for Pilate's
inequity--with love and obedience to Jesus Christ. We are going to incorporate
this into our group. Develop it as we can.
I was blessed to observe a pretty awesome moment. At the end of the night, there was a reception line and most of us made our way through it to be personally blessed or speak to Fr. Groeschel, have him autograph his book. I saw a group of seminarians from St. John's Seminary there, waiting to speak to him. Later, there was a reception with some pretty awesome treats. I was impressed. They found Fr. Groeschel a chair and gave him some coffee. The seminarians asked if they could have their photo taken with him. They knelt down beside him, huddled in with their arms around each other with the most magnificent joy on their faces...and had their picture taken. A picture worth a million words.
Comments to Carol@Faithful-Voice.com
******
Footnote: from the Maid@FaithfulVoice.com,
who was also present at lecture:
Fr. Groeschel spoke for an hour and a half with a sore throat! ( Never complaining ) He left his friary on Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. and arrived in Boston @ 5:30 by plane. He rearranged his itenary to squeeze us in, because he felt the crisis in Boston was the most devastating. Father has written a book titled, “From Scandal to Hope”. He is giving us a remedy for our Holy Catholic Church. It is time for the Church in Boston to stop being Politically Correct. BCTV recorded the event. We will
wait to see if Father’s conversation will indeed be aired, since Fr. Benedict Groeschel is not “ NICE “ by Boston church standards.
Fr. Frank Pavone, was banned in Boston ( Archdiocese church property ) from speaking. WHY?