Denver Newsroom, Oct 14, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).-
Like many Catholics in the Archdiocese of New Orleans these days, Theresa Truxillo said she was alarmed when she learned Fr. Travis Clark had filmed a pornographic video involving himself and two women atop an atlar in his parish.
The scandal sent shockwaves through the local Catholic community. Clark was removed from ministry, and the altar he desecrated was burned and replaced. The church in which the act took place was reconsecrated. The news came shortly after Fr. Pat Wattigny, a former high school chaplain, came under suspicion for text messaging students, and was removed from ministry for admitting to the sexual abuse of a minor.
“That was just really shocking and upsetting,” Truxillo told CNA.
“My friends and I were just processing it, and I would say our initial reaction was disgust and anger.”
After the initial upset, however, Truxillo said her heart, and the hearts of her friends, turned toward the good priests and seminarians of their diocese, “because they do so much for us, and we became protective of them. We didn’t want the whole world to think that everybody was making those terrible choices, especially our clergy.”
They wanted to do something soon, and they wanted it to be something that would visibly show their support, Truxillo said.
Truxillo and her friend, Sheri Derbes, decided to organize a prayer rally of support outside Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, which took place on Saturday, Oct. 10.
“I was concerned that so much negativity was hovering over us,” she said.
“Sheri and I joked that it felt like a great cloud was hanging over our whole archdiocese, and it felt bad. And (the rally) was an opportunity to stand up and maybe turn that tide – not to forget or gloss over the tragedy that is happening in a few of our parishes, but also to recognize those priests and seminarians and our archbishop who are being good leaders and who are pure and who are probably really hurt by this scandal.”
Just 24 hours after the idea came about, about 200 Catholics showed up – socially distanced – to the prayer rally, praying together for their priests and seminarians, Truxillo said, and hoping to encourage them.
Everyone was asked to bring a small rock from their garden with a cross or other religious symbol drawn or painted on it. Participants held the rocks while they prayed the rosary and other prayers, and then left the rocks on the steps of the seminary, so that they could be distributed among the seminarians as physical reminders of the prayers offered for them.
“We very specifically prayed for our seminarians and our priests and our archbishop, who we believe are the successors of Peter, who Jesus built his Church on,” Truxillo said.
Fr. James Wehner, rector of Notre Dame Seminary, told CNA that Truxillo had asked him for permission for the prayer rally, and he told the seminarians to expect “three or four people” to show up on Saturday to pray the rosary. Then he left for a parish mission for the day.
“I came back and there were over 160 people…and I thought, what happened here? And I think word was getting around,” he said.
Wehner said he was “inspired” that this prayer rally was completely lay-initiated. He added that the seminary has held meetings about the recent scandals, to ensure that seminarians are receiving the best formation, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“The seminarians were very humbled by the role of the laity in offering this spiritual support,” he said.
“I think in some sense, we preach to seminarians, so we’re embarrassed by this criminal, Satanic behavior of both of these priests,” Wehner added.
The rector said it’s been inspiring and humbling “to see people looking past that, to say, the faith of the Church, the faith of the priests, and the faith of Jesus Christ cannot be undermined by the power of evil.”
Wehner added that this year, Notre Dame Seminary has seen its highest enrollment in its 97-year history.
“So for me to see young men who should be very discouraged by the infidelity and the scandalous behavior of clergy, they look beyond that and still want to respond to God’s call…I’m inspired by their commitment to solid priestly formation.”
Truxillo and Derbes are both students of a lay program at the seminary, but since the pandemic struck in March, they have been unable to resume their regularl classes, or see their seminarian friends.
Coronavirus has been especially rough on seminarians, Truxillo said, because they live and study in the same place, and thus have been more restricted than most people during the pandemic.
“COVID has separated the seminarians specifically from the lay people because they live on campus and so they have been in a different lockdown than the rest of us,” Truxillo said.
“I’m allowed to go to the office now, I’m at least interacting with people. My children have gone back to school in person now – but they haven’t. And they commented to me that it was meaningful to know that we were there praying and to have just a small rock they could keep on their desk and remember that their vocation is valued and is important to the people. So that was really nice to hear.”
Jordan Haddard, the director of the lay programs at Notre Dame Seminary, told CNA that while he was not at the rally, he was grateful for the lay-led initiative.
The participants have a “deep love for our priests and recognize that the awful actions of a few do not in any way change who we are as a Church, and doesn’t change what our mission is. And it also doesn’t impugn the good reputation and the good work that the rest of our priests, deacons, our Archbishop does on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“We draw closer together to one another in difficult times like this, because we’re really hurting and suffering in the Archdiocese right now by these scandals. And when one member suffers, we all suffer,” he added.
Truxillo said one of the most moving parts of the prayer rally was when she noticed the parents of priests were there.
“When I saw the father of Father Steve, and then I saw Deacon Martin, whose son is Father Andrew, and I saw another lady whose son is a priest, I got a lump in my throat because I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, if I’m hurting, think about how these people must be hurting. They’ve given their son to God and to feel that attack must have really been heavy,’” she said.
Truxillo said there are other events being organized in the archdiocese in reparation for the recent scandals. A Mass of Reparation, advertised on the Notre Dame Seminary website, has been postponed, but is expected to take place soon.
[…]
So much for the great pro life president ever! Like that other fake, riki lake, they promise everything and yet provide only molehills!
Mr. Trump promised to nominate prolife judges and he did exactly that. There’s a lengthy list of his prolife accomplishments online.
That’s all I can go by in selecting a candidate:past results.
I was with ya until your last sentence?
Trump is as pro-life as Biden is Catholic. Will never vote for either of them. Glad for any good that the Good Lord brings out of this.
America is finished.
Doomed.
How can God bless a nation so intent on destroying its own children?
Without even an organized opposition to the evil?
I am so disgusted.
Utterly, totally, vehemently, violently sickened.
By my country.
My state.
My political party.
The “pro-life” movement.
*And* my church.
*Especially* my church.
The end is near.
Here, probably.
We deserve whatever we get.
In the past fifty-one years, we have crucified Jesus more than a billion times.
The “pro-life” movement is a fraud.
America’s war on children is only gaining in intensity.
Sounds like you have a disagreement with Our Lord when He promised that “the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.” His church is forever and when it is in serious danger His return is eminent. Keep watch.
The Church has a lot of work to do, because the work probably won’t be done anywhere else. The overturning of Roe v. Wade was the overturning of one injustice in the law, and this legal event is now giving cover to many Republicans including the likes of Trump who is already pro gay marriage & pro IVF, and now pro-abortion as is everyone who believes that abortion is to the “will of the people” and can be decided by referendum. Trump is basically saying I gave you what you wanted, so stop complaining. He hasn’t a clue about what “pro-life” means (or pro-family for that matter).
We cannot compete in the metropolitan areas. we spent a lot to defeat Prop 3 in that last election in MI and we were soundly defeated with Big Gretch and her media working to get out the vote to save abortion rights. One of the churches in Detroit area had pro life signs around it to defeat 3 and a Ford family heir that lives nearby was all bent out of shape about it.
Meanwhile, regular healthcare is being rationed.
Let’s keep bending them over time into the right shape.
Trump is merely keeping with the Dobbs Decision, which makes abortion an issue for the states.
Exactly. That’s how federalism works. I think a national ban would actually backfire and produce more negative than positive consequences. Leave it to the states.
That’s fine if you are happy with the way things are just want a “game manager” to preserve the current American paradise.
If you want someone who will use the bully pulpit to advocate your principles and priorities, then the question is whether this guy’s principles and priorities are the same as yours.
Exactly. He is correct in this decision of his, as much as I am pro-life, I have zero doubt that if Trump were to support a federal ban on abortion of any type, it would guarantee defeat of him and Republicans. At this point, leaving it to the States as per the SCOTUS decision is the most moderate statement anyone can make. And, frankly, at this point, I have to choose between Republicans and Democrats to lead this country, and I know which of the two is the worst for the future of this country in all ways. Not voting for Trump or any Republican because s/he is not perfect is simply a vote for Biden and and every other yet more imperfect Democrat.
OK, in what sense exactly is this “correct”? That he acknowledges that he lacks the authority to force change? Sure, it would be a nice change if he were to begin acknowledging that he is not omnipotent, that he is not an absolute monarch, and that he is not omniscient. It would be a nice to see some humility, but let’s be sure this is not merely indifference.
But here’s the thing: One need not be an absolute monarch of unlimited authority to insist that some things are absolutely wrong and should be universally illegal. Sorry, but it is clear that Trump fundamentally does not consider abortion to be one of those things.
You seem to think that if he kicks abortion way back to the back burner and concentrates on the “really important issues”, like money, then maybe he can gain power. Maybe that is true, but if so, his money perish with him.
The most pro-life president in American history, amiright?
Donald Trump’s presidency got us a Supreme Court that overturned Roe. Now it’s up to each state’s voters to enact laws protecting human rights. Our state did that and so can can yours.
🙏
Unfortunately, the opposite is happening in blue states with blue governors.
Ours had ads out and still thinks, that reproductive freedom will get young professional women to stay or move to MI.
Are you in N Mexico? How did your state do it?
No, New Mexico’s a beautiful state though.
Our own state is extremely prolife. Even many Democrats here are, too. We don’t get every issue right but we have the safety of unborn lives covered 100%.
Mrs Cracker –
Nobody who is genuinely pro-life uses phrases like “abortion rights” and (in commenting on the Arizona law) “Do what’s right for your family and do what’s right for yourself”. Trump’s only enduring principle is that he is awesome and people who acknowledge his awesomeness are great human beings (even, Kim Jong Un).
This doesn’t mean go support Joe Biden. But stop pretending Trump is pro-life or pro-anything other than himself.
People who will take whatever position is needed to ‘get elected’ [“And then, you guys, he will be super-duper pro-life!!!”] are not worthy leaders.
I’m not in charge of Mr. Trump’s conscience, I’m only concerned whether he can slow the cultural tailspin our nation’s experiencing or not. In his previous administration he did much good. My hope & prayer is that will happen again if he’s reelected.
Whether effecting good is more of a business deal for him, I don’t know but I’m just looking at the results. Not the motivation. I have quite low expectations of all politicians. It’s always a pleasant surprise when they carry through with their campaign promises. We’ll just have to wait & see.
Now that the “pro-life” movement has agreed to permit some abortions under certain circumstances, they have forfeit any basis on which to object to any abortion.
If you accept the killing of one child, then you have no moral compunction about the killing of any and all children.
The pro-life movement is dead in America.
It’s not dead where we live, Brineyman.
Please expound.
Our own state has been 100% free of legally enshrined feticide since Dobbs. Every single clinic that committed feticides has been shuttered & closed.
Our state prolife organizations are active, pregnancy help centers have lots of community support, & both Democrats & GOP here tend to be prolife.
It’s not perfect. We have higher rates of poverty, crime, chronic disease, & illiteracy. We have IVF clinics operating because prolife people have not not educated about IVF’s destruction of embryos. But overall, we’re in a very good prolife place considering all that.
See, in our state a simple majority got it enshrined in the state’s constitution. the college kids who never cared about voting were lined up and voting till the end for prop 3 and Whitmer and her cronies. the next few days were blue for the pro lifers. didn;t the same thing happen a couple months ago in OH? The media played Dixon over and over saying about cases of incest and rape not exempt – it was brutal
You can’t paint up everyone like that. What good is it. Yes pro-death is very astute and iron-handed! For that! – and for love, those who would have faltered should come on back to the true fold and let’s make the righteous heard with more determination.
No politician, in no historical context, can ever be sincere, otherwise they cannot hope for an election. They must promise, lying. In this regard, Trump is at least less hypocritical than before. Unlike ordinary people, who make mistakes out of ignorance, above all, a politician will never, ever not lie. Unless he is a saint.
Machiavelli lives on. At least in the minds of politicians. Perhaps I’m naive. Would Diogenes perhaps find an honest one?
Trump is trying to get re-reelected.
He was extremely favorable to “Catholics” while in office.
He is the only President to participate in the DC March for Life.
He made a very succinct and even reverent address there on the sanctity of Life.
Our devious ecclesiastics never supported Trump – they receive hundreds of millions in government funds for their efforts to undermine our nation.
It is reported that 60% of “Catholics” are pro-choice.
The term ‘pro-choice’ is a Luciferian lie of language that claims murder in the womb is acceptable.
“Catholics” have voted in the majority for the corrupt DemoncRats in all the past presidential elections since the Clintons.
Trump felt betrayed by the “Catholic” church so he modified his stance to hide behind the cowardice of the Supreme Court – 5 “Catholic” “Justices” who could not even protect the lives of 9 month old babies in the womb.
All the people trashing Trump for his decision should rather pray for the conversion of their pope and bishops.
If the Barque of Peter had not gone adrift post VatII it is very possible “Catholic” votes could have prevented this horrible maelstrom.
How many priests do you see outside Planned Parenthood in surplice and stole leading parishioners in Rosaries and exorcism prayers?
The greatest massacre in human history gets little attention and some eejit Vatican favorite Cardinals publicly minimize it.
Trump ain’t half as bad as they are.
Least we forget that the democrats are far more devoted to abortion now than the democrats then were devoted to slavery.
The Catholic Church needs to abandon politics and walk alone. The man-made government in Washington DC is not part of God’s plan. The Catholic Church and the Word of God are the tools God gave us to change people’s hearts. Anyone who pledges allegiance to a man-made government is worshipping a Golden Calf.
With today’s overwhelming publicity and controversy, we are over Trumped.
Trump is a duplicitous paradoxical anomaly and has displayed a significant danger to society, especially his incessant lying poisoning the minds of our innocent children. His niece Mary Trump has the whole story in her book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man”. Moreover, his MAGA puppeteer influence has “in-your-face” snookered many devoted Catholics, Evangelists and Protestants and their prelates and cowardly politicians. He exploits lying cables TV of Fox News and Newsmax. Amazingly, in Catholic Vote in March 2024 the Catholic Bishop organized a group to go to Mar A Lago to genuflect at Trump’s altar. Stunningly, the CV website has become a funding port to elect Trump. Pure hypocrisy!
Trump’s “moral” position on abortion he stated that there should be “some sort of criminal consequence of an abortion, regardless of a life threat to the mother.
He would not support a national ban on abortion. He would leave the decision to the states. That is exactly where we are today and it is a disaster. Red and blue states with a competing attitude and its widening. Arizona using an 1864 draconic abortion law that is causing MAGAs to reverse their position.
The chants by the radical left have become deafening. There MUST be a nationwide “ban” on abortion with the medical exceptions. The only issue is “how we morally manage” abortion on demand? Political hacks have stumbled and failed. How can we be monitoring and adjudicating a “violation” of a law. Whose law? God’s law!
Not is Trump only an anomaly, he is a unique study. His recent expose’…
“I am your retribution. I will expand the power of POTUS. I will invoke Marshall law to attack demonstrators, I am absolutely immune”…. In his campaign of 2016 Trump said “anyone who invokes the 5th he is guilty”. Then in the NYS indictment held by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office in its probe into the Trump Organization’s illicit NY business practices, Trump invoked the 5th 450 times answering only once to acknowledge his name. WOW!
Let us enhance our attack on abortion on demand.
Let’s be honest. Trump is no idiot. If he said he would sign a universal abortion ban, he would be handing the Democrats a club to be him over the head with. There is no way the Congress and Senate will pass a law making abortion illegal that he needs to veto. It is a fantasy to believe this could ever be a realistic event. Trump is starting this to keep the Democrats from making this an issue. If you don’t support Trump, you’ll get Biden and you know what Uncle Joe believes about abortion.
You are rignt that Trump is not a idiot. He has hoodwinked my entire GOP!
A nationwide abortion ban, with exceptions, is the only reasonable solution. When SOCTUS overthrew Roe and gave each state the sole responsibiity to deal with the iasue, a patchwork disaster occurred. Arizona and Texas are examples of restricted abortion law. Political hacks have created a veritable nightmare. We will never win when we praise polticians.
We must clearly state our case and increase our war on abortion. .
DT has done and is doing more for prolife than any president before him. A) he has nominated more prolife judges than any president b) he follows that Constitution, which leaves to the people and their states all powers not enumerated; so abortion should be left to the States c) his stance lessens the ace in the sleeve the pro abortion Democrat party had for the coming election d) his election will assure more pro life judges. I could go on. Don’t vote for him in November and you will see not only abortionists win the country but the anti Christian left win the country for ever because they will add twenty million illegals to the voter rolls and they will consolidate power forever.
I agree mostly but the Democrats miss that many migrants are socially conservative and hold traditional values on family matters.
I have a bridge to sell for anyone who believes Trump.
Onward, Christian soldiers, All! Hope is found in my Traditional Latin Mass church pews full of families and elders, singles, older couples, with smiling faces and dressed in Sunday best. Private Catholic citizens and their churches are hard at work donating time and baby needs to pregnancy resource centers in multiple cities. Be encouraged, Church!
Mrs. Cracker, I agree that this election we must vote for helpful, formerly kind-to-pro-life-views Trump. (He’s our hope federally to clean up the swamp! Please VOTE- our duty as Catholics. And become involved in State and Local Republican events esp. now to get out the vote! We must be stronger as Democrats’ illegals are stealing our resources and could dilute our votes as our country becomes united to the unholy world order agenda!
A nun joked with me: “Hilary played the female card;
Obama played the race card; God played the Trump card”!