'MR' FRANK PAVONE DEFROCKED - NOW WHY

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''Mr' Frank Pavone and Friend 

Mr Frank Pavone. That's the name by which the former Father Frank Pavone must now be known, says the Church. He's been defrocked. Laicised. Denied his priestly and pro-life ministries, for ever, by edict of the Vatican. And he gets to hear about it from a reporter.

Is this justice? Is it compassion? Is it Christ-like? What it certainly is, is a scandal.

It's tempting for Catholics faithful to Church teaching (especially on the right to life), to allow their knees - flexible as they are, through lots of humble kneeling - to jerk rather violently in reaction to this bombshell from Rome, and blame the man occupying the seat of St Peter. But there are always two sides to a story.

Father Pavone is famous throughout the world as a saviour to the most vulnerable members of the human race. They say that through his ministry he's saved thousands of lives. Contrast his exercise of his vocation to the cowardly silence and laziness of the vast majority of priests, certainly in New Zealand, in regard to society's greatest injustice - the barbaric slaughter of our unborn children.

He's charged, effectively by the man known as Pope Francis, with blasphemy and disobedience to his bishop. He used the word 'goddam' in railing against the US president, fake Catholic Joe Biden. (Many readers of this blog could easily come up with something a lot stronger.) He apologised for the blasphemy, repented it and was forgiven it in sacramental confession years ago. If God can cast all our repented sins behind His back, shouldn't His Church do likewise?

Father Pavone's disobedience to his bishop, however, has been persistent and undeniable. https://www.crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-sad-case-of-frank-pavone 

His permission for a pro-life ministry, granted by John Cardinal O'Connor, was later revoked by Bishop Patrick Zurek - who Fr Pavone says tried to punish him for publicly opposing the pro-'gay', pro-abortion Democrat Party platform in the last election. Ah, now we're getting warm: Father Pavone was a fervent Trump supporter. As you can imagine, that would have gone down with the US bishops (several of whom have obstructed and opposed Fr Pavone) like a cup of cold sick. 

The rage expressed by the left in the US following the reversal of Roe v Wade - for which Fr Pavone worked unremittingly for years) is nothing short of diabolical..Can we not see the dead hand of Satan here? Satan wants unborn babies dead, and souls dead - especially the souls of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and uses the latter to bring about the former.

And because his obedience has been persistent, obviously it hasn't been repented. Father Pavone may claim that obedience in his case would have been "blind obedience" which is emphatically not a Vatican II virtue. Like bells, incense, lace and adoration of God Almighty, blind obedience has gone right out of fashion. 

But on this point St Teresa of Jesus (Avila), Doctor of the Church, would bring us up with a round turn. She would call Vatican II thinking human thinking: relying on our own human powers rather than the power of God. 

St Teresa said: "When we see God in our superior we obey without argument or futile reasoning and with no delay: Christus jubet, sufficit, Christ commands, that is enough. What more do I want, when I know that the orders of my superior are those of God Himself? Even if the thing commanded is hard or painful, my certitude that Our Lord expects it of me will give me the strength to undertake it promptly, without offering the least resistance."

So had Fr Pavone obeyed his bishop and trusted in the power of God rather than his own priestly ministry, might he not have achieved even more for the unborn, in the long run? 

"Pope Francis encourages Fr James Martin in his LGBTQ ministry" (America magazine)

Ah but. If we're talking about disobedience, how about Father James Martin's "persistent disobedience" in disobeying the Commandments of God and the Doctrine of the Church by his promotion of sodomy? More to the point, how about Jorge Bergoglio aka Pope Francis himself, and his disobedience to the same Commandments and doctrine in cuddling up (we speak metaphorically, of course) to this disgraceful priest and others who live a sodomitic lifestyle? Not to mention his fawning over public sinners Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi? Such stunning inconsistency in a man often referred to as "Your Holiness" is remarkable.

On the face of it the Vatican may be hoist with their own petard: they seem to have infringed their own canon law.

 Fr Gerald E Murray, a canon lawyer and frequent guest on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo", advises that the Code of Canon Law does not state that the possible penalties for these two offenses include dismissal from the clerical state.Canon 1368 states that a person who utters blasphemy is to be “punished with a just penalty.” Canon 1371 states that “a person who does not obey the lawful command” of his Ordinary “and after being warned, persists in disobedience, is to be punished, according to the gravity of the case, with a censure or deprivation of office or with other penalties mentioned in can 1336, 2-4.” Canon 1336, 5, which is not included in the scope of punishments for a violation of canon 1371, mentions dismissal from the clerical state.

'Clement', a reader of this blog, observes that "It is evident that the Pope and /or his Dicastery have declined to follow due process. (ref. interview with Fr Gerard Murray, statement by Fr Pavone) That legal principle, of following due process, applies in civil law and canon law. If not followed, as seems to be the case here, then the laicisation of Fr Pavone should be challenged as patently invalid."

One suspects that there is another, and vital, factor at play here. Fr Pavone has dedicated his life to his fulltime pro-life ministry. Has his prayer life suffered as a consequence? A priest in his position needs to give at least two hours a day to prayer, and one of those hours to meditation/contemplation, in order to remain focussed on Christ as he must be if he is to bring Him to others. And lay people need to assist Fr Pavone and others in ministries vulnerable to Satan by contributing a good part of their prayer life to them. 

For his fellow priests, Fr Pavone's laicisation, legal or otherwise, just or unjust, is a cautionary tale.  

St Teresa of Jesus, please pray for the Church.