To comment, please open your gmail account. Thank you.
A fellow priest of Fr Bryan Buenger, a priest of the Palmerston North Diocese, describes my remarks on this blog in relation to the latter and his return to the US as "perceptive", and adds, "he hasn't taken this decision without a lot of thought".
A lay person says she "can't sniff a rat". But she wonders if Bishop Drennan is sincere in his offer to extend his visa. Her husband, a staunch Protestant (so perhaps not realizing the nature of the spousal commitment made by a priest with his people the Church - a commitment deeply honoured, I'd say, by Fr Buenger), says "the poor bloke just wants to go home, for goodness' sake".
A third comment comes from someone in PN who's in the know. He says my PP won't speak supportively of Fr Bryan's priestly ministry in Tararua because the PP is "still in the position of dependency on the ordinary" (in 'ordinary' language, the bishop).
In his letter to Tararua parishioners, the bishop reportedly said he's prepared to appeal for an extension to his visa, but that Fr Bryan doesn't want it. Tararua parishioners will be wondering a) why the bishop isn't moving heaven and earth to keep a priest of Fr Bryan's calibre, a priest capable of pastoring four churches between Dannevirke and Pahiatua and b) what are Fr Bryan's reasons - reportedly described by Fr Bryan to his parishioners as "significant considerations" - for not wanting that extension.
Meanwhile, my PP is telling his 'Parish Team' that the bishop personally asked the Minister of Immigration to extend the visa but the Minister refused to intervene.
If this is a case of a priest finding the care of such a large parish, geographically, a cross too heavy to carry on his own, we lay people need to be told. We should be asked to get down on our knees, for heaven's sake (I say that advisedly), and pray for our priests, and for more priests.
Even if Fr Bryan's considerations are personal, this diocese has dire need of not just the occasional, casual "for more vocations, Lord hear us", but sustained, intense prayer, offering the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Rosary, for the intention not of 'more vocations' but of good, holy priests. God is always calling boys and men to the priesthood, but plugged in and wired up as they are now with digital distractions, they're on a different wave length; they can't hear His sweet invitations.
The Diocese of Palmerston North needs clarity on this issue. Lumen Gentium (Vat II) emphasizes "the importance of lay faithful in maintaining … the Catholic faith". Well, to maintain the faith, lay faithful need to be trusted with the facts. For far too long the Church has hushed things up, with disastrous results.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, a cleric who's earned an international reputation for defending the Catholic faith, warns against "a church of a relativistic or Protestant type". Speaking on the merely literal level, what is removing the tabernacle from its central position in the sanctuary to be replaced by the presider's chair, if not Protestant?
As demonstrated at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and Our Lady of Lourdes in PN - and most egregiously at Sacred Heart, Hastings and St Mary's, Taradale - that shifts the focus of the Mass from the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus Christ to the priest. It seems that in spite of the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, such improper promotion of the priest what we do, in this diocese.
St Brigid's church in Pahiatua, also in Fr Buenger's patch, is currently undergoing renovation plans and, I'm reliably informed, along the lines of St Joseph's Dannevirke where the tabernacle is in its rightful place. Is the St Brigid's reno a 'significant' factor in Fr Bryan's decision to depart?
Bishop Schneider says "the clergy are afraid and intimidated because they're afraid of (losing) their positions". He adds that the Second Vatican Council says this is the laity's hour: "be defenders of the faith". And, I'm sure he would agree, defenders of the faithful priests.
"The Lord does not abandon His Church, even when the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing" (Pope Benedict XVI).
No comments:
Post a Comment