On 9-23-02 at St. Eulalia¹s Church in Winchester, the Maid attended her first
VOTF Meeting. Guest Lecturer was Fr. James O¹Donohoe. Fr. O¹Donohoe is a
Priest of the Archdiocese of Boston. He received his doctorate in Canon Law
From the Univ. of Louvain (Belgium). Fr. O¹Donohoe taught Church Law and
Moral Theology at St. John¹s Seminary and was Assoc. Prof of Theological
Ethics at Boston College. He is on the Ethics Committees at St. Elizabeth¹s
Medical Center, Carney Hospital, Youville Lifecare and Wincherster Hospital.
Fr. O¹Donohoe is a judge on the Metropolitan Tribunal of Boston, member of
The Canonical Affairs Committee of the Archdiocese of Boston, consultant to
The Mass. Catholic Conference, and visiting lecturer on Justice and Rights at
St. John¹s Seminary.
Now keep all that in mind as I tell you about the
night¹s meeting.
The first name Fr. O¹D¹d throws out is Avery Dulles, Cardinal, Ah, one would
Think we were going down the right road ; Nature and Faith; Revalation, Faith, & Theology
(Doctrine & religion) Almost immediately Fr. O¹D¹d would get off the right
road onto his own broked down track. The next statement he made was his own
³If there is no conflict then there is No Church.² As the lecture continued I soon
realized that Fr. O¹D¹d was the King of ³Ragtime² talk. Everything he said
hereafter was nearly impossible to follow:
Community: Interpersonal; Must have a relationsh ip to the church. Church
not helping us to grow want s to keep us like children, by diminishing the
individuals growth. Next he quotes German Cardinal Kasper. Mumbles a lot to
himself, ³ that¹s why the church doesn¹t want you to take Communion in the
hand, wants to keep you like babies, feeding you pablum by mouth, not by
eating finger food.
Relationsh ip with Trinity: (hold onto your hats)
The word person is misleading, not unifying but diversiying: The Trinity is a
paradyme of all human relationships; diversity, equality, etc.
The Father is notThe son and
the Son is not the Spirit; he is just one being only. Justice defends
our uniquness. The Triune God is passive of all humans. God is of us too-
through unity only after death. If it is good we are not good. If it Œs good it¹s
not faithful.The difference between you and us and the Trinity is they don¹t
take their money and go home.
On Revalation: He doesn¹t like spirituality. It will never be a finalized theology.
The church cannot be defined: Many disadvantages.
On Religion: Religion is not the faith but little recipes put into people. Don¹t
confuse your theology with your faith, etc. Religion as an instituted form of
theology needs updating. Reinstutionalization‹total fidelity to the faith
commitment: ( He digresses at this point to tell VOTFer¹s ) I totally admire
what you people are doing. Don¹t let other s try to short circuit you /Wait/ We
want dialogue. We don¹t like dialogue that threatens. It¹s a process to gain
people¹s trust and only you ca n do it. Don¹t worry about the Bishops and
The Cardinal, right now they are saying Nothing. Move along as you have been.
But be prudent. If you come to a Posia, solve the problem. Love the guys who
won¹t listen to you. Love the depressed. Not evident in practice but let God love
us. Supposedly in practice Jesus is Divine. We have other models.
At this point one Brave Hearted Man who could no longer contain all Fr.¹s
Gobbeldy-Gook shouted out, ³Fr. Is JESUS HERE ? Is JESUS PRESENT?
ŒNO¹ shouts back Fr. O¹D¹d.
³Than where is he, Father ,² says Brave Heart! Fr. O¹D¹d¹, ³HE is only here
in Theory.²
Next Brave Heart Woman trys to explain the Trinity and Jesus¹s real presence.
she gets ridiculed by calling her down to the front of the church to hold the
microphone and explain her theory. She is shouted down by a few VOTFer¹s
saying we can¹t hear you and we won¹t understand you! (So much for their love
and charity) Brave Heart woman goes back to her seat. Fr. O¹D¹d states he¹s
glad he could help her to understand and to see how important this dialoging is.
Brave Heart woman springs to her feet and said , ³You didn¹t help me under-
stand anything! I know what I know because I knew who my teachers were.
You ,Fr. Are only sewing CONFUSION ! With this comment a lot of talking
commenced in the church three or more people walked out. You could see
Many people were visably upset. Fr. O¹D¹d than makes the statement , ³Oh
Well, what do I know I¹m only a Jack-Ass from out of town.²
No, Fr. O¹D¹d , you could never be that Humble!
Are you ready for more??
Religious Expression or Doctrine: Faith is waiting for the community of the
Lord. Faith is a success if it only co-ops on the intellictual level. States, Gary
Willis wrote a good book about the sinful church. The church can be manipiu-
lated. Just like some groups wanting to manipulate us. Gives example;
there are very few bad people, but the church is in the world. Anyone who
was taught by learning the Baltimore Catachism knows more religion than
God. They reject anything of church teaching that is taught to them by a
different perspective once they are educated in this manner. These people are
In need of continuing education, because living with ambiguity is most diffic-
ult . They are even afraid of another form of government. They are weary
of what and who could short circuit them. You must watch what¹s going on.
say out loud, why aren¹t people coming to church? ( Makes mention here
about the Wit and Wisdom of Walter of Newton, who is doing a great job of
trying to educate his parishioners. Other Œs could take a lesson.)
Tell the people we are all under sin. Original sin screwed us up from our
origins. Keep telling them church as servant. There consciences are very
poorly trained in theology, etc. Jose-Robar , professor, states Baptism is
not the beginning, conversion is the beginning---seems more useless than the
Cardinal. Let me witness to the community, at the present moment, the church
is not necessarily the kingdom of God. It¹s kind of lost! We are social
beings learning how to make the existing conflicts‹comfort.
No charity without Justice; This is very heavy stuff.
END OF LECTURE!
A little more back ground on Fr. O¹Donohoe---
He taught from l954 to l979, Moral Theology to students from elementary to
the college level. Upon enlightening one of his former cadets‹this poor young
man would make the remark to Fr. , ³Gosh , I didn¹t know that, but what
do us raggardy ass cadets know any way.² With great delight did Fr. take
in bending that young mans mind. Another student gave Fr. The nick name of
Fr. O¹D¹d.
I shall always remember Fr. O¹Donohoe, with charity.
P.S. Fr. O¹D¹d now is retired and lives at Youville Place in Lexington, Ma. He
Celebrates mass for the Grey Nuns and residents there .
My question to you Fr. O¹Donahoe, ³ If Jesus is only present in theory, then
What do you consecrate every day at Mass, and what do you pass out
at communion time? THEORY-O- BREAD???
Dear Fr. O¹Donohoe,
³If you don¹t believe in the Eucharist, than what is the point of your Priesthood.²
THE rosarycampaign@faithfulvoice.com
Date: Sat
Oct 12 17:35:48 2002
To: <MAID@FaithfulVoice.com>
Subject: Father
O'Donohue
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just read the piece
on the Faithful Voice site and wanted to add that I took a class on Catholic
Morality with Father O'Donohue several years ago through the Archdiocese AIM
program (Archdiocesan Institute for Ministry). At the outset I knew it would be
a very bumpy ride when he came right out and told us it was our duty as
Catholics to dissent from Church teaching. Most of the class focused on the
word "conscience" and I hoped to get a better understanding of the
Church's definition of conscience. What I got was totally confused, but this
confusion did lead me to the catechism and the writings of the church fathers,
where I finally got the truth about conscience and morality.
I enjoyed sitting in the front row in the class and raising my hand to question just about everything Father said. I particularly enjoyed throwing in comments regarding particular Catholic devotions such as praying the rosary and the Sabbtine privilege connected to the Brown Scapular - this would make Father's blood boil and he would just tell me I was ridiculous ! One person who truly angered him was Mother Angelica - he had no use for her or her network.
His hero was Charles Curran.
Our final assignment to
earn credit for the class was to write 5 things we had learned in his
class. I had a lot of fun with this because it gave me a chance to defend the
importance of obedience to Church teaching . Honestly, I was very surprised
when Father gave me a passing grade because everything I wrote went against
what he lectured in class.
Pax et Bonum,
rosarycampaign@faithfulvoice.com
This link will take you to Fr. Walter Cuenin
Some Questions re : The Paul Shanley Case ???
The Question is : Who knew what when ?
Who called John White to participate in this 1999 event ?
How is it that when all of law enforcement could not find Fr. John
White and Fr. Paul Shanley , those
listed below seem to have a direct line to them ?
Catholic Charities "Companions"
program
Alice
Slattery 11 APR 03
And to think
that Dr. Doolin claims that Catholic Charities is in line with the Church
teaching !
Fr. Richard Lewandowski one of the planners of
the Catholic Charities "Companions"
The
other planners and participants :
Fr.
Phillip Earley, St Thomas ,Wilmington,MA.
Member Board of Catholic Charities
Paul
Merullo
,Pastoral Asst St Thomas,
Wilmington ,MA. [ later convicted
of sexual assault against a Woburn teen and served 2 1/2 years sentence),
Fr.
John J. White (co-owner of homosexual bed and breakfast, in CA. , with Fr.
Paul Shanley ),
Fr.
Walter Cuenin, OLHC ,Newton , MA.
Fr.
Robert Congdon , instructor at St.
John Seminary ,Boston, MA.
Charles
Connors pres. of Boston PFLAG in 1999),
Pat
Dunn
(Catholic Charities Social Worker)
Vivian
Soper
(Catholic Charities Social Worker) and
Jean
Proia
,leader of Catholic Parents Network/New Ways Ministry at Immaculate Conception
parish, Stoughton, MA.(Fr. John J. White often helped her in her
"ministry").