This situation has become a public scandal and it requires a public response from the only person who has the authority to remedy this situation under the laws of the Church. Bishop Burbidge must come down hard on this. The Church cannot treat these people as your average run of the mill Modernists. This isn't the St. Francis of Assisi (Raleigh), St. Mary's (Wilmington), St. Mark's (Wilmington), etc. parish type situation. Those places are long gone anyway and the Bishop has apparently written them off as un-salvageable. It is well known to all Catholics of the diocese that you should avoid those locations as much as possible in order to avoid heresy and the possibility of losing your faith.
HOWEVER, the Fr. Ospina situation was an open and notorious assault on a good and holy priest. It is one thing for Modernist clerics to invent a religion and mislead lay Catholics away from the Catholic faith. This has been going on for 40 years and is what has happened at most parishes throughout the country, not just the three mentioned above. And it is one thing for a Modernist Bishop to persecute good and holy orthodox priests. This has been going on in all but maybe one or two US dioceses throughout the last forty years, and it is what happened in the Diocese of Raleigh from about 1975 until about 2005.
However, it is quite another thing when the Modernists attempt to lay claim to diocesan property and presume to have the authority to determine who the Bishop shall place in any particular parish. While the two situations summarized above are evil and unjust situations, and are definitely examples of how the "smoke of Satan" has entered the Church, they nonetheless are situations brought on by the institutional Church and not in spite of the institutional Church. The latter situation affecting Fr. Ospina not only encompasses the evil and unjustness of the prior two situations, but it is an open attack on the institutional Church. It is something straight out of "Reformation" England, Revolutionary France, Hugo Chavez Venezuela, etc.
If the Church as an institution is going to survive in the United States over the course of the next twenty years then it needs to begin asserting itself and go on the offensive when it is attacked in such a public way. In short, no less than severe censures are warranted for those individuals who perpetrated this riot. In fact, the Code of Canon Law requires that our Bishop do as much. See below for some applicable code provisions and pick and choose which ones you think apply in this situation. I reviewed the list below and see at least three which apply.
TITLE II
DELICTS AGAINST ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES AND THE FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH (Cann. 1370 - 1377)
Can. 1370 §1. A person who uses physical force against the Roman Pontiff incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if he is a cleric, another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, can be added according to the gravity of the delict.
§2. A person who does this against a bishop incurs a latae sententiae interdict and, if he is a cleric, also a latae sententiae suspension.
§3. A person who uses physical force against a cleric or religious out of contempt for the faith, the Church, ecclesiastical power, or the ministry is to be punished with a just penalty.
Can. 1371 The following are to be punished with a just penalty:
1/ in addition to the case mentioned in ⇒ can. 1364, §1, a person who teaches a doctrine condemned by the Roman Pontiff or an ecumenical council or who obstinately rejects the doctrine mentioned in ⇒ can. 750, §2 or in ⇒ can. 752 and who does not retract after having been admonished by the Apostolic See or an ordinary;
2/ a person who otherwise does not obey a legitimate precept or prohibition of the Apostolic See, an ordinary, or a superior and who persists in disobedience after a warning.
Can. 1372 A person who makes recourse against an act of the Roman Pontiff to an ecumenical council or the college of bishops is to be punished with a censure.
Can. 1373 A person who publicly incites among subjects animosities or hatred against the Apostolic See or an ordinary because of some act of power or ecclesiastical ministry or provokes subjects to disobey them is to be punished by an interdict or other just penalties.
Can. 1374 A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict.
Can. 1375 Those who impede the freedom of ministry, of election, or of ecclesiastical power or the legitimate use of sacred goods or other ecclesiastical goods or who greatly intimidate an elector, one elected, or one who exercises ecclesiastical power or ministry can be punished with a just penalty.
Can. 1376 A person who profanes a movable or immovable sacred object is to be punished with a just penalty.
Can. 1377 A person who alienates ecclesiastical goods without the prescribed permission is to be punished with a just penalty.
posted by Confiteor at
10:00 AM
12 Comments:
I'm not "directly" part of this diocese, but I live in the area and I'm going to write the Bishop today. (I'm affiliated with the military so we technically fall under the Archdiocese of the Military Services)
Fr. Ospina is being treated very unjustly and his parishioners should be ashamed of themselves. Also, you mention St. Mark's as a modernist church. It certainly was for most of its history, and it may have reverted back to the bad old days now, but under the leadership of Fr. Dan Oschwald, St. Mark's made a great deal of progress towards tradition. Latin and incense were used during the mass, the tabernacle was moved up to the main altar, and Father wore his cassock pretty frequently. A Latin Mass was even held a month or so ago which he participated in. I'm not sure how things are at St. Mark's currently, but the main bloggers on here say that things are pretty bad down at St. Therese at the moment, and let's not even get started on St. Mary's.
C -
That is good news indeed about St. Mark's. I was unaware that Fr. Oschwald had been appointed there or had had such success in turning things around there. My information may very well be dated. It is good to know that the days of the clown Mass at St. Mark's have come to an end.
Also, your information is correct about St. Therese. I attend St. Therese about two times a year and ever since Fr. Ospina left the new monsignor the Bishop has appointed to take his place has brought the parish back to its Modernist ways. I saw something in St. Therese's parish bulletin not too long ago which was on par with what you might find in a St. Mary's parish bulletin.
St. Mark's... simulating Tradition...???
PUH - LEEEEEEEEEEEAZE!!!!!!
It is very easy to judge people and talk about law. Many peiople is judging the community of Saint Andrew at Red Springs because they did something against our religious values and against the Code of Canon Law but NOBODY has seen and experienced what the Rev. Ospina has done to these people. My question is where is the Code of Canon Law to those priests who mistreat a community and humilliate people? do not judge people because you do not know about the internal situation in Saint Andrew. What the community did was an action of despair for not being heard and if they have the opportunity to do it again, they will probably do. Is it a sin to condemn the injustice? How can we call what the Rev. Walter Ospina has done to the community? The fact that he was ordained as a priest and that he dresses as a priest does not mean he is an angel. You do not know what he has done to these people.The dirty power is everywhere and unfortunately in the Church as an institution too. Father Ospina is a son of God and the community of Saint Andrew too!.Christ could have not founded this kind of Church. I will take and modify some words of Martir Monsignor Romero from El Salvador: "IF WE COPNDEMN THE INJUSTICE IS BECAUSE IS OUR OBLIGATION AS MEMBERS OF AN OPPRESSED AND HUMILLIATED COMMUNITY". Our Lord has the last word and remember that HE is the only one who can judge. For God there is no CODE OF CANON LAW. How many times Our Father have read to you the Code of Canon when you have acted against HIS teachings?. Our father has been with teh community of Saint Andrew and HE knows very well who is Rev. Walter Ospina.
In this deanery, you take what you can get. Considering an aging cabal of moribund hippies pressured Gossman to get rid of Fr Keane and Mears and still wield some influence over there, Fr Dan did what he could.
Carmen,
You're long on generalities, but short on specifics.What exactly has he done that so horrible?
Until you say something specific AND CAN BACK IT UP WITH FACTS, you shall be looked upon as a fraud.
By the way, Carmen... for someone who speaks so loudly against "judging", you sure are doing a good job of judging Father Ospina.
Also, I don't think anyone on this blog ever referred to him as an "angel".
Get your facts straight, Carmen. Then you just might be taken seriously.
You still can't close-ouy a lawfully appointed pastor from his parish. If the situation is so dire, I would send a group of people to camp out in the waiting room of the bishop's office until he's willing to hear their complaints. He'll come out. His secretary will make him do it when she gets very tired of having a crowded, noisy, and messy vestibule.
One other thing, if this priest is so disliked by so many people, then those people will (temporarily hopefully) go to another parish for mass and bring their money with them. The bishop will take notice as the weekly receipts drop precipitously in the Red Springs parish.
There are several ways to handle a troublesome priest without resort to an act of virtual schism.
Adeodatus-
Points well taken, but trust me: THIS priest is NOT the problem in Red Springs.
Having the Catholic Faith brought to obdurate people (many of whom have no legal or moral right to be in this country in the first place), who have been trained to think of their shepherd as a mere social worker/ community organizer, immigration law breaker - and trained to see themselves as perpetual vicitms of a cruel and unjust society...(like the society the fled in order to come here, again many who did so illegally) Now, THAT begins to touch on the real problems in Red Springs.
Oh - and there is that whole schismatic act business which most seem to still defend - but as another commenter said. I hope they feel better now that they have officially, de facto, turned themselves into Protestants.
Carmen-
Aside from engaging in the act of outright calumny, your words are spoken like a true heretic. God gave us human beings brains with the ability to reason and draw conclusions. We make judgments all the time on the basis of available facts and a properly formed conscious. My judgment of you and your ilk is that you are not Catholic and that the sooner the Church begins purging itself of its wolves in sheep's clothing the better off Holy Mother Church will be. I am very happy that the Bishop shut your parish down and I hope that all of you Modernist, Liberation Theology, Che Guevara wannabes find a new home somewhere else. Given the fact that you have already fallen away from the Catholic faith (if in fact you ever held the Catholic faith), its about damn time that you and your kind start doing the honest protestant thing and establish your own church instead of attempting to corrupt the One True Church.
I suggest that instead of casting baseless accusations at a good priest you begin to look at yourself and assess how you have been taken in by the ideologies of the world and how you have set your ideology up as a false idol. You have done nothing more than create a caricature of Christ in your own image. Instead of allowing yourself to be transformed by Christ you have obviously been engaged in the long standing campaign to transform Christ into a tool to advance your agenda.
Get a life. And if you ever do decide to be Catholic, we will of course welcome you back with open arms.
VME and Confiteor,
I just wonder who is behind all this?
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