Stone Walls and the Falsely Accused

“There is no segment of the American population with less civil liberties protection than the average American Catholic priest.” Bill Donohue, Catholic League President

Psalm 141:7 Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. [8] Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the just wait for me, until thou reward me.

Before I happened upon the blog, These Stone Walls, it never occurred to me that there were priests in prison who had been falsely accused of sexual abuse. Who knew? (That's a rhetorical question!)

It is utterly unthinkable that people would "cash in" on the Church's misery of the sex abuse scandal by laying claim to hundreds of thousands of dollars by lying about being sexually abused by a priest. But that's exactly what happened to Father Gordon MacRrae. His story has been well documented in the sixteen years Father has spent in prison. Had he confessed to guilt, he would have been out in less than three years. But Father MacRae maintains his innocence, doing penance in prison since 1994 for crimes he did not commit.

I urge you to read this post. I urge you to read These Stone Walls. It is authored by Father MacRae from his prison cell, though he has never seen his own blog. He types the posts on a typewriter from his prison cell, and sends them by mail to a friend who scans the posts to send on to Australia for publishing, complete with graphics. Father MacRae only gets to see the posts after his friends print them out and mail them to him.

Please pray for the falsely accused. Please pray for Father Gordon MacRae.

The Priests

Have you heard of The Priests? They can sing! Have a listen to a wonderful harmonic version of Panis Angelicus, above, and below, Irish Blessing. You can order their CD's from Amazon. It certainly is unusual for priests to be touring concerts and recording CD's. They all have voices that glorify God. I like that they perform in their clerical clothing.

The Grace of the Priesthood

Pray for vocations, that you may get priests who live and teach the Faith. Do you have twenty-eight minutes to spare? Here are three videos, about nine minutes each, put out by the FSSP, called "To God Who Giveth Joy To My Youth."



If you have never attended a Traditional Latin Mass, be prepared to see God glorified in all His Majesty, as these videos will show.

The Weight of Criticism

I find it very distressing when people, especially the Catholic faithful, slam priests. I just had a phone conversation with a lady from my parish who is in charge of the Catechism program - I was signing up to teach grades three and four- and partway through our discussion this woman started to tell me things I didn't want to hear about a priest I consider a friend. I told her to stop and pray a Hail Mary, but she just continued on, informing me of things I didn't need to know, and quite frankly, don't believe. I do know that this priest encountered difficulties as a pastor of this very liberal parish when he purchased kneelers for the pews and tried to have them installed. He was moved shortly afterwards, and I believe the kneelers are collecting dust in a closet somewhere. Several times I told this woman to pray for the priest she had difficulties with, but she kept on with her tirade - that is, until I said, "Stop right there! Let's get back to discussing Catechism. I don't need to know any of things you are telling me."

There is a prayer for priests in my Pieta book. I may slip her a copy when I meet her at my first Catechism class. Prayers are what priests need most, not criticism.

Keep them, I pray Thee, dearest Lord,
Keep them, for they are Thine -
Thy priests whose lives burn out before
Thy consecrated shrine.
Keep them, for they are in the world,
Though from the world apart;
When earthly pleasures tempt, allure, -
Shelter them in Thy heart.
Keep them, and comfort them in hours
Of loneliness and pain,
When all their life of sacrifice
For souls seems but in vain.
Keep them, and O remember, Lord,
They have no one but Thee,
Yet they have only human hearts,
With human frailty.
Keep them as spotless as the Host.
That daily they caress;
Their every thought and word and deed,
Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.

Womyn, criminalized

Not a bad article by a secular newspaper. The Vatican has made it a crime against the Sacraments for women to attempt to be ordained as priests. I say "attempt" because ordination of a woman to the priesthood is an impossible feat. That doesn't seem to stop them though.

Holy, holy, holy

Pope Benedict XVI, ordination Mass at St Peter's Basilica, June 20, 2010

Mass Intentions for Vocations

If you know someone who is considering a vocation to the priesthood, send me their name and I will have a traditional Latin Mass said for them. You can find my email address on my profile.

Prayer for Priests

Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests; for Your unfaithful and tepid priests; for Your priests labouring at home and abroad in distant missions field; for Your tempted priests; for Your young priests, for Your dying priests.

Above all, I recommend to You the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolve me; the priests at whose Masses I assist; and who give me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who have taught and instructed me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.

O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and eternity. Amen.

From an FSSP prayer card my sister sent me.

Value your priest

Today I picked up a book I read a few years ago, Angels & Demons by Joan Carroll Cruz, and out fell a pamphlet on priests. I'm not sure where it came from, but it contains some interesting perspectives on priests, and reminds us of their value in our salvation, along with a poem called "The Beautiful Hands of a Priest." Let me quote from the pamphlet:

What is a Priest?
Priests are mystery men. They come in assorted sizes, ages and clours. They are found everywhere speeding along, perspiring over, walking by, kneeling on, praying over, laughing with, preaching to, teaching about, pardoning for, and playing hockey with. (Hockey? -Now I know the pamphlet is Canadian!) Little children run to them, teenagers marvel at them, aged folk turn to them, non-Catholics stare at them.

A priest penetrates secrets, shares sorrows, heals wounds. He has the trust of a child, the kindness of a best friend, the sterness of a top-sergeant, the daring of a tightrope walker, the authority of an encyclopedia, the versatility of a commando, and the salesmanship of a Fuller-Brush man.

A priest is a humble creature, a mystifying worker at all professions. His hours are the longest, his salary the smallest, his Boss the best! He likes the smiles of children, a home-cooked meal, and the name "Father."

A priest is all things to all men in the sight of God. He may be misquoted, mistaken and misunderstood, but he'll always forgive because he's a mediator, a go-between heaven and earth. It's no wonder God loves him. He's a man standing at an altar clothed in Holy clothes, who, while being aware of his own nothingness, speaks to God for us and to us for God. And although his greatest act is to offer sacrifice, his most consoling one is to say to me, "Go in peace. Your sins are forgiven."

Beautiful Hands of a Priest
(Unknown)

We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek it while tasting life's woes.

When we come to this world we are sinful,
The greatest as well as the least.
And the hands that make us pure as angels
Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness
Their dignity stands alone.

For there in the stillness of morning
Ere the sun has emerged from the east,
There God rests between the pure fingers
Of the beautiful hands of a priest.

When we are tempted and wander
To pathways of shame and sin
'Tis the hand of a priest that absolve us.
Not once but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner
Other hands may prepare us a feast
But the hands that will bless and unite us,
Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress,
What can a poor sinner do better
Than to ask Him who chose them to bless

When the death dews on our lids are falling,
May our courage and strength be increased
By seeing raised o'er us in blessing
The beautiful hands of a priest.

You can watch a traditional ordination May 30 on EWTN

Be sure to tune in to EWTN on May 30 (the feast of the Sacred Heart) to watch the priestly ordinations of four FSSP deacons to the priesthood. This will be the first time a traditional ordination has been televised on EWTN. Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, the President of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission, the Vatican office concerned with the Traditional Mass, will perform the ordinations. Mark your calendars!

EWTN live coverage
Friday, May 30, 2008
8:00 a.m. (PDT) (4 hours)
From the Cathedral of the Risen Christ, Lincoln, Nebraska

From the Pieta

Oh, the gems you find when you move! (or more precisely, when you are unpacking all that stuff you forgot you had!)

THE PRIESTHOOD IS A MASTERPIECE OF CHRIST'S DIVINE LOVE, WISDOM AND POWER. NEVER ATTACK A PRIEST

"Jesus, Mary, I love You, Save Souls."

CRITICISM OF PRIESTS

Our Lord's revelations to Mutter Vogel

"One should NEVER attack a priest, even when he's in error, rather one should pray and do penance that I'll grant him My grace again. He alone fully represents Me, even when he doesn't live after My example!" (page 29, Mutter Vogel's Worldwide Love, St. Grignion Publishing House, Altoting, South Germany (29. 6. 1929)).

When a Priest falls we should extend him a helping hand THROUGH PRAYER AND NOT THROUGH ATTACKS! "I myself will be his judge, NO ONE BUT I!" "Whoever voices judgment over a priest has voiced it over Me; child, never let a Priest be attacked, take up his defense." (Feast of Christ the King 1937) "Child, Never judge your confessor, rather pray much for him and offer every Thursday, through the hands of My blessed Mother, Holy Communion (for Him) (18.6. 1939)&nsp; "Never again accept an out-of-the-way word about a Priest, and speak no unkind word (about them) EVEN IF IT WERE TRUE! Every Priest is My Vicar and My heart will be sickened and insulted because of it! If you hear a judgment (against a Priest) pray a Hail Mary." (28. 6. 1939)

"If you see a Priest who celebrates the Holy Mass unworthily then say nothing about him, rather tell it to Me alone! I stand beside him on the altar!" "Oh pray much for My priests, that they'll love purity above all, that they'll celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with pure hands and heart. Certainly the Holy Sacrifice is one and the same even when it is celebrated by an unworthy priest, but the graces called down upon the people is not the same!" (28. 2. 1938)

Mary. Queen of the Clergy, pray for them.

A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

Keep them, I pray Thee, dearest Lord, Keep them, for they are Thine -

Thy priests whose lives burn out before Thy consecrated shrine.

Keep them, for they are in the world, Though from the world apart;

When earthly pleasures tempt, allure, - Shelter them in Thy heart.

Keep them, and comfort them in hours Of loneliness and pain,

When all their life of sacrifice For souls seems but in vain.

Keep them, and O remember, Lord, They have no one but Thee,

Yet they have only human hearts, With human frailty.

Keep them as spotless as the Host. That daily they caress;

Their every thought and word and deed, Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.

Imprimatur: +D. Card. Dougherty, Arch. of Philadelphia

Our Father Hail Mary Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for them.

Pray for priests

Are you in the habit of praying for your priest? They need your payers, for God has entrusted them with a great responsibility as well as a great honour. St Laurence Justinian says that "the sacerdotal dignity is great, but so is the burden." He says that because "priests have been raised to so high a degree of honour, that they must be sustained by great virtue, for without this virtue, instead of receiving great merit, they will receive great punishment."

Priests are called to greater sanctity than seculars, for God has called them to the sublime ecclesiastical state which demands greater perfection from them. According to St Augustine, when a priest is ordained, he places upon himself the obligation of being holy. St. John Chrysostom tells us that "priests should be so holy that all may look to them as models of sanctity; because God has placed them on earth that they may live like angels, and be luminaries and teachers of virtue to all others."

When we consider how God kept the Blessed Virgin Mary free from the slightest stain of sin, because she was to carry the Incarnate Word of God in her womb, it makes sense that God would also want his priests, whose hands daily touch the flesh of the Son of God, to be spotless as well. St. Alphonsus de Liquori call priests mirrors in which seculars should view themselves.

What an incredible responsibility it must be to be a priest! The least we can do is to show them the respect due to their divine office and to pray for them, that God will sustain them in His grace, that they may carry out their holy ministry with heavenly perfection.