Rev. Fr. John Trigilio, Jr., PhD, ThD has written an article in response to a recent editorial in Commonweal magazine. His response is excellent and truly a must read.
On Fr. Trigilio’s site he has a great picture of himself handing a copy of his book John Paul II for Dummies to Pope Benedict XVI.
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What a wonderful essay by Fr. Trigilio. I especially appreciated this paragraph in reference to the hi-jinks in the diocese of Orange CA.
“If the ultra-reformers (those who feel V2 did not go far enough) were truly collaborative, they would not be the ones who bully and harass the elderly woman who chooses to kneel for Communion. Paradoxically, the same bullies are too timid to refuse Communion to politicians who openly support abortion”
A great article, I have sent it to all priests of my acquaintence.
I note though that the priest organisation of which Fr Trigilio is president has 700 priest and deacon members. I read that there are 46,000 priests in the USA. Fr Trigilio’s membership represents less than 1.5 % of the nation’s priests and so would have little/no orthodox impact. To what other organisations would the majority of priests belong? Are they orthodox or heterodox?
Here in Australia the orthodox priests’ organisation has the minority of members also.
If you aren’t praying for orthodox vocations, then what are you praying for!? Name three young men YOU have invited to serve as priests! Sorry: put up or shut up. If you don’t think this is Crunch Time, you aren’t paying attention. Get pissed off if you need to: this is your fault–what have you tolerated? What have you let slide? What orthodox young man has slipped through the cracks b/c you were whining about a crisis? My list? Too long to put in a combox! Mea culpa. But I’m making up for lost time…one Lord, one Baptism, one Faith. Let’s correct this.
Do you know a young man called to priestly sacrifice? Put him in touch with me: neripowell(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Jeff, my challenge to you: say what needs to be said, brother: we need men called by God to witness sacrifically to the Gospel. It’s time to step up or shut up! Do what the Lord has called you to do…I don’t know need to spell this out b/c you know. Do it.
Fr. Philip, OP
Fr. Trigilio has a strong reputation as an orthodox priest and there is little that I would disagree with in his response.
That said, he really fails to address the concerns set out in the editorial. He is correct in pointing out the false dichotomy between “Romans” and “collaborators” but really says nothing about the quality of men who came into seminaries after him. It is almost as if he interprets unflatering sociological data about priests more recently ordained than he as an attack on himself or them. No intelligent reading of the original editorial suggests that it is an attack on any group of priests but an expression of concerns about some of the shortcomings of these men and their training. All priests have shortcomings and it is a fair guess that all have found themselves ill prepared by their training for some aspect of their work. (Trigilio certainly had plenty of complaints about his education.)
Isn’t the wisest course of action to look at the data we have, invest in getting more complete data and then using it to address the problems that are found? Certainly seems a better approach than denying any problems exist.
I love Father Trugilio by the way, as his documented snubs and efforts by the homosexual and liberal elite in seminary after seminary he attended to push him out of the seminary and priesthood is well documented in “Good bye Good Men”
The only problem is that the church and the laity do not believe there is a problem, the Pope on down keep this quiet (nice Job JPII in giving Cardinal Law that nice cushy job after he covered up for predators for years)and all keep putting your money in the baskets
I look at “Orthodox” and “Liberal” among the priesthood and I think this is what is drawing me and my family and friends closer to the “Trads” is what one Trad (and I find this tag amusing also) as he said that before Vatican II there were always disenters, but the Popes for the most part shut them up, had them take a vow (Pius X oath against modernism) and so on, and either you were “Catholic” or you were not, no exceptions. Today almost anything goes with different Catechism and interpretations and Masses said from one church to another in some cases because of the advent of the Synod of Bishops established by Paul VI after Vatican II basically emasculating the Pope to a figurehead and handing over the power to the Bishops. The smashing of the tiarra and the Pope now wearing nothing more that a Bishops mitre is the perfect example.
It will take another 40 years before we are blessed with a true leader, a true Vicar who will restore all things in Christ to his church
“That said, he really fails to address the concerns set out in the editorial…Isn’t the wisest course of action to look at the data we have, invest in getting more complete data and then using it to address the problems that are found?”
He might be so accused, and that might be the wisest course of action if the concerns expressed are valid.
But an editorial that equates “learning disablities” with “shortcomings in education” seems to me to be stretching facts to try to make a point that the data doesn’t support. (Innaccurate details in support of a premise make one suspect the basic premise.)
And to say that more “remedial” theology is required nowadays may speak, not so much to current deficiencies, as to previous low standards, might it not?
“In 1990, only 17 percent of diocesan priests in his sample required remedial pre-theology courses after entering the seminary. Today, that figure has leapt to 47 percent.”
And how dire is such a deficiency in a seminarian (as opposed to in a seminary GRADUATE, a priest — now THAT would be a problem, and those rates would have been more valuable statistic to compare, IMO.)? Education in the study of God is, after all, something a seminary should be highly suited to supply; other lacks, holiness, for instance, or an actual calling… not so easy to fulfill.
“some priests even voiced serious doubts about the relevance of their theology courses to their ministry”
I wouldn’t worry about that.
I would worry if they voiced serious doubts about the value of THEOLOGY, but to voice doubts about theCOURSES they were given may be eminently sensible.
The editorial does not seem to admit the possibility that there may be genuine problems with the courses, the instructors, etc.,
I’ve often admired Fr. Trigilio, but this essay goes a little astray. He has some salient points, but when he calls his opponents Nazis and Stalinists and Communists, well, that’s when people used to lose me in freshman seminar. I understand there are reasons to be bitter, but this rhetoric is simply sensationalist.
I think Fr. Trigilio really beat the stuffing out of Commonweal’s editorial. He reassesses the split within the community, and shows how it contributes to a lack of formation in the faith.
His point on the corporate nature of current workings reminded me of the Diocese of Uttoxeter sketch.
When I used modifiers like “Nazis” and “Stalinists” they were not ‘ad hominem’ attacks on personal enemies or opponents of mine. They were meant to be graphic descriptions of the real enemy of Holy Mother Church. When I was in minor seminary, the book which opened my eyes to what was happening in seminaries across the nation was none other than “The Gulag Archipeligo” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The techniques used by the Gestapo and the KGB to indoctrinate and the use of propoganda are amazingly similar to those employed by the heterodox dissenters who ran the seminaries for decades after V2. Sorry if the message comes across too strong but this is not hyperbole or sensationalism. Ask any survivor of the witch-hunts in the 1970’s and 1980’s for ‘rigid’ seminarians who were deemed too ‘traditional’ or too ‘conservative’. Faculty evaluations sent to bishops never stated that the problem was praying the rosary or owning copies of the Summa, rather, psychological nomenclature was incorporated just as those used against Soviet dissidents.
Remedial theology is needed for those tabulae rasae who bought hook-line-and-sinker the heterodoxy they were taught. The underground orthodox ‘papist’ seminarian who did Deo gratias get ordained is not the one who needs refresher courses since in many cases he recognized the rotten fish by its stench. Dissident theology is usually very complicated but in the end it is like rotten food, it smells and tastes bad because it is bad.
I am not saying that standards were not lowered here and there. Latin was made optional and then non-existent as a discipline; philosophy requirements were lowered in many places; thorough study of the actual documents of Vatican II was not universally expected nor done. Still, there were many of us in the trenches who did private study, networked with other sems from other seminaries, had outside spiritual directors who were completely orthodox, etc.
The dynamic of the past 30 years of American seminary life is that there were and there are some very good seminaries and some very bad ones. There were and there are some very good theologians and there were and there are some very bad ones. There were and there are some mediocre ones as well. This is why priestly associations like the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy exist. Recommended by V2, encouraged by Canon Law and exhorted by the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, clergy need to help each other with ONGOING SPIRITUAL, THEOLOGICAL, PASTORAL formation in a FRATERNAL atmosphere.
We need a two prong approach today. Recognize all the good seminaries and clean up the inadequate ones (or close them); and secondly, promote ongoing formation among the ordained clergy. Doctors and other professionals do regularly and priests and deacons are no exception. If the nightmares of the past scare some people, they should. Church history is full of instances where infection attacked the Mystical Body of Christ in different parts (members) from age to age. Ignoring or misdiagnosing the malady is not a viable solution. These are not bitter grapes being spewn out of revenge or a thirst for vendetta.
Pope John Paul the Great and now Pope Benedict XVI have inaugerated invaluable improvements in the training and formation of seminarians and clergy. Sure, there is still plenty of work to be done but the same is true in the parish, in the diocese and in the world.
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