The Diocese of Worcester and vocations: Are orthodox candidates to the priesthood welcome?

Once again, the Diocese of Worcester is putting out the word that it is looking for men who have "thought of a vocation to the priesthood"

But is this call open to everyone?

Apparently not. See here.

As Archbishop Elden Curtis explained in an article entitled "Crisis in Vocations? What Crisis?": "There is much media hype these days about the present and projected shortage of priests and its effect on the sacramental life of the Church. It is time to pay close attention to the dioceses and religious communities reporting increasing numbers of candidates. There have to be reasons for these increases that bear objective analysis from which some conclusions can be drawn.
I personally think the vocation "crisis" in this country is more artificial and contrived than many people realize. When dioceses and religious communities are unambiguous about ordained priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these calls; when there is strong support for vocations, and a minimum of dissent about the male celibate priesthood and religious life loyal to the magisterium; when bishop, priests, Religious and lay people are united in vocation ministry—then there are documented increases in the numbers of candidates who respond to the call.

It seems to me that the vocation "crisis" is precipitated and continued by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the Pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines the ministries.

I am personally aware of certain vocation directors, vocation teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who do not support the possibility of ordaining women or who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the Rosary.

When there is a determined effort to discourage orthodox candidates from priesthood and religious life, then the vocation shortage which results is caused not by a lack of vocations but by deliberate attitudes and policies that deter certain viable candidates.

And the same people who precipitate a decline in vocations by their negative actions call for the ordination of married men and women to replace the vocations they have discouraged. They have a death wish for ordained priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines them. They undermine the vocation ministry they are supposed to champion." (Full article here).

Although I have had extensive psychological testing and screening for the United States military (as part of my security clearance for military intelligence) and have received glowing reports which indicate that I am free of any pathologies - including a homosexual inclination, when I contacted the Worcester Diocese (twice) to express my interest in discerning a priestly vocation, I received no response whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Worcester has ordained homosexual men to the priesthood.  For example, a psychological evaluation in 1977 prior to the ordination of Fr. Jean Paul Gagnon  indicated that the candidate had possible "sex role identification" problems. See here.

Related reading: Expert on Islam prevented from speaking at the Diocese of Worcester's "Catholic" Men's Conference.

The "Catholic" Free Press: Pope Francis' example makes it possible to accept heresy

The Catholic Church claims, and has pronounced on many occasions, the infallible truth that Christ both willed and established a hierarchical Church.  Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., in his book entitled Fundamentals of Catholicism, Volume 3, notes how, "In the course of her long history, there have been many heretics and dissenters who have denied, in one way or another, the hierarchical constitution of the Church.  Some have said that Jesus had no intention of establishing a visible Church with bishops, priests and sacred authority; for them, the Church is an internal, invisible reality of the heart that arises from the preaching of the Gospel and faith in Jesus.  Others rejected the special priesthood and the hierarchy, and acknowledged only the general priesthood of all the faithful.  Against them the Council of Trent solemnly declared: 'If anyone says that in the Catholic Church there is no divinely instituted hierarchy consisting of bishops, priests, and ministers: let him be anathema.'" (Fundamentals of Catholicism, Vol. III, p. 102, citing Canon 6 of the Council of Trent's Canons on the Sacrament of Order).

The word anathema comes from the Greek meaning hated or accursed.  An anathema is an excommunication.  Saint Paul employs this term to describe  those who have separated themselves from the Christian community by sins such as teaching a false gospel [See for example Galatians 1].

Those who produce The "Catholic" Free Press [Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts] have now separated themselves from the Church's communion by embracing the very notion that the Council of Trent anathematized: that the hierarchical constitution of the Church is not divinely instituted.

In an editorial entitled, "Winning friends and souls" [January 10, 2014 edition], the newspaper makes the claim that: "Over the centuries the Catholic Church has acquired a vertical and pyramidal power structure, with graduated layers of hierarchical status from top to bottom.  Pope Francis' example makes it possible to say that that might not be right: that far from being the Church's defining characteristic, the very idea of a hierarchy of power is alien to the Gospel*, just as is the idea that all that power should be exclusively in the hands of elderly male clerics.."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church [which the "Catholic" Free Press apparently has little or no use for] refutes such nonsense: "The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church...a society structured with hierarchical organs" (CCC, 771).  And again: "Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church.  He instituted the Church.  He gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal." (CCC, 874).  And again: "When Christ instituted the Twelve, 'he constituted them in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among them.'  Just as 'by the Lord's institution, St. Peter and the rest of the apostles constitute a single apostolic college, so in like fashion the Roman Pontiff, Peter's successor, and the bishops, the successors of the apostles, are related with and united to one another." (CCC, 880).

For the modernist, dogmas are merely tentative, provisional formulas which are the fruit of on-going religious experience and are as changeable as that experience itself.  For such deluded souls, future followers of the Antichrist, authority in the Church does not originate from Christ Jesus but from the Collective Conscience.  For such sons of Hell, the Church is not hierarchical but democratic.

Make no mistake about it: the "Catholic" Free Press is not interested in reformation and authentic renewal within the Church.  For such a renewal can only come about from holiness of life.  No, this long-time dissenting newspaper (see here for example) has become openly satanic .  As such, its goal is not reformation but revolution - the transformation of Christianity and the re-shaping of Christ's Church into the image and likeness of man.


The Man of Sin draws ever closer.


*  Alien to the Gospel?  The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15: 1-29) bears witness to a definite hierarchical, episcopal structure of government in the early Church.  It was Saint Peter who presided over and issued the authoritative pronouncement (Acts 15: 7-11) and  Saint James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, who issued a concurring concluding statement (Acts 15: 13-29).

Those who produce the "Catholic" Free Press should spend more time with Scripture.