Cardinal laments lack of priestly vocations in Florentine archdiocese

Denver Newsroom, Jul 28, 2020 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- A fire tore through the parish offices of a historic Catholic church in Monroe, North Carolina early Monday morning, and though the damage is extensive, the church’s pastor is thankful that the blaze did not touch the main sanctuary or the Blessed Sacrament.

Father Benjamin Roberts told CNA he arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Monday morning, ready to celebrate daily Mass, to find the parish office building had burned to the ground.

Roberts was shaken, but he resolved to celebrate Mass outdoors in the outdoor grotto, as scheduled.

“I told people: I don’t have much information, and I’d appreciate it if you’d not ask me anything [yet] because I don’t have a lot of information, and my staff doesn’t have any more information than I do. But I need the consolation of the Eucharist,” he said.

In preaching the homily, Roberts said he sought to remind his parishioners that although the old church building was damaged, God is still present in the community of His people.

Roberts said investigators have told him that the cause of the July 28 fire is still “undetermined,” and though investigations strongly suspect that it was an accident, and not arson, they have not yet reached a conclusion, he said. No one was hurt.

“I was relieved to hear that there was no evidence of arson or anything else. We hadn’t had any threats, but there have been so many [arsons] throughout the country and throughout the world, so that was a grave concern for me,” Roberts told CNA, referring to attacks against Catholic churches and statues in recent weeks.

“But once I heard that, I was relieved on a certain level.”

The final picture shows the remains of these two chalices after today’s fire. As I said to my Bishop when he visited me today, “My priesthood is more than a chalice.” @CatholicNewsCLT @jdflynn pic.twitter.com/bO19btUAAA

— Fr Benjamin Roberts, DMin (@fr_benjamin) July 28, 2020

The early 90s-era building that holds the parish offices— normally used by Roberts, his secretary, and administrative assistant— were completely destroyed, and along with them many of the parish records.

Roberts is still assessing where the parish personnel will be able to work while the offices are repaired, but he said the campus has enough space to accommodate them temporarily elsewhere.

The priest said there was also some damage done to the original church, which was built in 1945 and is attached to the parish offices. The main stained glass window in the chapel above the altar was destroyed.

The original sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes was one of the oldest Catholic churches in the county.

Today— at least before the pandemic— that smaller sanctuary was used as a daily Mass chapel, with the main sanctuary located across the street. The original rectory, which dates to 1947 and is used for extra office space and storage, suffered minor damage. 

Because of coronavirus restrictions, Roberts had already been celebrating all daily and Sunday Masses outdoors, in the parish’s grotto, which did not suffer any damage.

Providentially, Roberts said, the Blessed Sacrament was not in the chapel tabernacle at the time of the fire. The priest had moved it to the main church building, which also was untouched.

“There is some considerable damage, but hopefully all of it repairable,” he said, adding that an engineer is expected to examine the building on Wednesday.

He said the parish is working with the Diocese of Charlotte’s properties office and insurance company to assess the damage. The bishop and vicar general have visited the church to lend their support, he said.

Bishop Peter Jugis of Charlotte was actually pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes until his appointment to lead the diocese in 2003, Roberts said, so the offices that burned had once been his. 

The fire knocked out phone and internet access at the church, Father Roberts said. Since the parish lacks a website, Roberts has been communicating with his flock via Facebook since the fire, attempting to address rumors about the fire’s cause and to reassure parishioners that the damage can be addressed.

“Lots of support, lots of promises of prayers from our parishioners, and from people all over,” he said.

“One of the first questions people were asking was: Is Father okay?” he said, adding that he does not actually live on the parish campus, so the early morning fire did not threaten his safety.

The main sanctuary had been renovated extensively in the past several years, Roberts said, so he is glad that there was no damage there.

Among the items destroyed in the fire were two ornate chalices, both with special significance for Roberts— one of them he had been given upon his ordination, and the other he had bought in Spain when he finished part of the Camino de Santiago.

Still, Roberts said when he found the ruined chalices, he felt an unusual sense of peace, as he realized that his priesthood was worth far more than these sacramental items.

“There’s been this unexplainable sense of peace today…recognizing the presence of the Lord and wanting to take the next step and the step after that. It’s a wonderfully supportive community here.”

The North Carolina fire, though likely not arson, comes after a spate of intentional fires against church properties across the country and the world.

The Catholic community at Queen of Peace Parish in Ocala, Florida is rebuilding after the church was set on fire earlier this month and a Florida man was charged with arson.

A man on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia attempted on Sunday to set fire to a crucifix outside a Catholic church, while parishioners worshiped inside the building.

A church volunteer has admitted to starting a fire at Nantes Cathedral in France on July 18, and has been charged with arson.

Another possible arson occurred in California, where a fire ravaged the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel church in Los Angeles in the predawn hours of Saturday, July 11. That fire is now being investigated for foul play.

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New York City, N.Y., Nov 14, 2019 / 06:49 pm (CNA).- Planned Parenthood is already the largest abortion provider in the U.S., and its new web tool aims to direct more women to its abortion clinics.

The “Abortion Care Finder” tool, located … […]

Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2017 / 05:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission has resigned his position as a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, following the publication of a letter written to Pope Francis asking the Pope to correct the “chronic confusion” of his pontificate, which he says “fosters within the faithful a growing unease.”

Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap., who previously served as Executive Director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Doctrine, sent the five-page letter to Pope Francis July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Weinandy told Crux that he sent the letter after a powerful experience of discernment convinced him that “Jesus wanted me to write something” that would “be of help to Pope Francis, to the Church, and to the faithful.”

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, James Rogers, Chief Communications Officer of the USCCB, said that “after speaking with the General Secretary of the Conference today, Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap., has resigned, effective immediately, from his position as consultant to the USCCB Committee on Doctrine. The work of the Committee is done in support of, and in affective collegiality with, the Holy Father and the Church in the United States. Our prayers go with Father Weinandy as his service to the Committee comes to a close.”

Weinandy’s letter, published by Crux on Wednesday, addressed five points. Weinandy told the Pope that his pontificate had fostered confusion, diminished the importance of doctrine in the Church’s life, appointed bishops who teach and act in harmful ways, fostered a culture of fear among bishops, and caused faithful Catholics to lose confidence in the papacy.

The letter also expressed Weinandy’s “love for the Church and sincere respect” for the office of the Pope. The priest expressed hope that by recognizing “darkness, the Church will will humbly need to renew herself, and so continue to grow in holiness.”

Father Thomas Petri, OP, academic dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, told CNA that Weinandy “is a theologian of the highest caliber,” and that the “letter to His Holiness is quite obviously written with a deep filial piety and loyalty to both our Holy Father Pope Francis and to the Church.”

“There is no need to continue to litigate theological points in the public square and so Father Weinandy says directly but, I think, charitably what he believes is on many people’s minds. Many priests are confronted daily by members of the lay faithful expressing confusion and concern in reports they read or hear about Pope Francis and his advisors,” Petri added.

Chad Pecknold, professor of theology at the Catholic University of America, agreed. Weinandy “is arguably the most distinguished Franciscan theologian working in the English language today,” Pecknold told CNA. “He is a theologian centered in the Church, and not at all at her outermost fringe. So his letter carries the weight of the center.”

“Rather than presume to correct, Father Weinandy describes the current situation, and informs the Holy Father that what seems to many like ‘intentionally ambiguous’ teaching has led to confusion, leading some of his own advisors to publicly advance error….There is something admirable about the impassioned plea of a son of St. Francis writing to Pope Francis, in truth and love, as a son to a father. His love for the pope is evident throughout his appeal.”

While Pecknold called Weinandy’s letter “deferential,” he told CNA “it is certainly reasonable to ask whether it should have been published in the media.”

Jacob Wood, theology professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, raised similar concerns. “If Father Weinandy’s intention is fraternal correction, publishing his letter might not be the best way to go about it,” Wood told CNA. “It is easy for our intentions to get warped when treated in the mass media by people who don’t share the perspective of faith. There does exist some danger of scandal.”

Weinandy told Crux that he published the letter because it “expresses the concerns of many more people than just me, ordinary people who’ve come to me with their questions and apprehensions,” adding: “I wanted them to know that I listened.”

RR Reno, editor of First Things magazine, and formerly a professor of theology at Creighton University, told CNA that publishing letters like Weinandy’s can be helpful to Catholics.

“Weinandy’s letter is an attempt to clearly state problems we face,” Reno said.

“Everyone in the Church has a role – priests laity and bishops – and each of us is going to have to make a discernment how best to serve the Church in the current climate. We have to discuss how to move forward in this pontificate as loyal members of the Church,” he said, adding that Weinandy’s letter is a helpful catalyst for such discussion.

Reno also said that publicizing letters like Weinandy’s “aids people who are in positions of responsibility,” in the Church, “providing some support for those who want to address the challenges the Church is facing.”

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, “on the nature of dialogue within the Church,” which he said was occasioned by the publication of Weinandy’s letter and his resignation. DiNardo said that theological debates are often the subject of media attention, which “is to be expected and is often good.”

DiNardo added that theologians and bishops should make every effort to interpret the Holy Father’s teaching charitably, and that all Catholics should “acknowledge that legitimate differences exist” among Catholics, “and that it is the work of the Church, the entire body of Christ, to work towards an ever-growing understanding of God’s truth.”

Father Charles L. Sammons, OFM Cap, told CNA that he lived with Weinandy in 2015. “I experienced Fr. Thomas as an uncomplicated and earnest person who simply loved the Lord and his Church, and didn’t seem to have many concerns apart from that. I remarked to myself more than once that this seemed like a blessed way to live,” Sammons told CNA.

Sammons said that time with Weinandy “had been given to me as a grace of good example, for my own religious life as a Capuchin friar.”

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