Full Story Not Being Told...
Letters To The Editor
Thursday
March 8, 2007
Full story not being told about deacon
To the editor:
This letter strongly supports Deacon Alvin Gerbermann from Holy Spirit Catholic Church and exposes deceitful practices of the Call To Action (CTA) mini-group. Obviously, The Monitor and CTA are again attempting to make a “mountain out of a mole hill.”
To the editor:
This letter strongly supports Deacon Alvin Gerbermann from Holy Spirit Catholic Church and exposes deceitful practices of the Call To Action (CTA) mini-group. Obviously, The Monitor and CTA are again attempting to make a “mountain out of a mole hill.”
First, the real issue here is not the protection of our children, but CTA’s and their sympathizer’s repeated attacks against church authority. CTA could care less about our children and knows that the issue of sexual abuses in the church relate largely to homosexual priests. Since CTA approves of homosexual acts, they have to disguise the root cause of the problem. They have an extraordinary ability to distort facts, use half-truths and slander, in addition to bullying tactics against parishioners.
Although information is available, neither The Monitor nor CTA have the moral courage to expose the truth behind the real issue of homosexual-related sexual abuses in the Catholic Church. Any unbiased research into this problem will produce identifiable patterns, including certain “homosexual-friendly” religious orders, seminaries and schools. The real culprits are those individuals and groups that have deliberately promoted (some exclusively) homosexual candidates for priesthood.
To the Diocese of Brownsville, the Catholic Church does not need to appease any media, least a traditionally discriminatory one. Instead of needlessly disciplining a righteous and knowledgeable religious man, the church should create a commission to investigate the CTA. Other dioceses have taken uncompromising action against this organization of hypocrites. Many Catholics are questioning why the diocese has not yet excommunicated CTA members.
Ironically, CTA abuses are serving to strengthen our local Catholic community and are motivating groups to denounce CTA.We feel that enough is enough and any so-called Catholic supporting these Pharisees should be held accountable. CTA can not provide any solutions to the church’s problems because CTA represents those problems!
Edwin R. Rodriguez
McAllen
16 comments:
"OFF THE WALL" is all I have to say about Mr. Rodriguez' letter to the editor. His commentary is not worthy of any intellectual discourse.
What hole did this Edwin Rodriguez crawl out of?
Sounds like he has been too attentive to the Monsignor!
Poor guy... we must all pray for his recovery.
Where did Erwin Rodriguez get his information? Disneyland?
What is a matter with us (CTA). Can't we defend ourselves against the Holy Spirit folks. We got to do a better job or we won't be able to stay in business once they find out our CTA hidden agendas.
A few points:
1) The deeper problem is not that there are homosexuals, but that there are priests sexually abusing children.
I find it hard to believe that anyone could say that the true problem is that there are homosexuals.
2)Okay, so assuming you are correct and the problem is in a few religious orders, seminaries, and schools, then why hasn't the problem been solved?
CTA is just asking for the names of priests to be released. This would help us identify whether there is such a coorelation and then we can work together to fix the problem. The first step, though, is identifying if there is such a trend, which we cannot do if we do not know the names. I'm glad that we argee on something, Mr. Rodriguez.
3)The Diocese does not need to appease any media. At the same time, it does not need to appease it's constituents (which include you as well as us).
4) You are right that other dioceses have taken uncompromising action against CTA. This is the perfect example of a "half truth" (which you so generously accused us of using).
Some Diocese have also cooperated with CTA and released the names of sex abusers in the church.
5)Perhaps we should be excommunicated. That is, in fact, what the church should do to people who practice their faith. In fact, anyone who is a mover or a shaker should be excommunicated. It sort of reminds me of the martyrs...
6) If CTA is strengthening the church, why are you bothering hating us? Is it that you don't want a strong church, or is it that you want to show all the readers of The Monitor how you are better than we are.
7) CTA is responsible. You are correct. In fact, it is the existence of CTA that caused the homosexual priests that you were talking about and the sexual abuse of children. While we are jumping on the scapegoat bandwagon, let's also blame CTA for the Spanish Inquisition and everything else bad in the Catholic Church (it's amazing how people can say that there is nothing wrong with the Catholic Church and that CTA is responsible for all things wrong with the Catholic Church at the same time)
I think that Mr. Rodriguez is making a mole hill out of a mountain.
If anyone disagrees heavily with my points e-mail me at ben dot salinas at gmail dot com.
In the past several days there have been two posts to this blog that have been despicably dishonest. One was signed as if it came from "Kevin Horan-Bussey" and the other as if it came "Patty Hawk." At one time Kevin worked for the national CTA office in Chicago and Patty is the current national co-chair of CTA. Neither of these people wrote what was attributed to them.
Posting in a public forum under another person's name is something that is actionable in civil law. What sort of strange, misguided people would pull such a stunt? It undermines the whole notion of public discourse--if someone has something to say and wishes to say it anonymously, fine, but they should not appropriate someone else's name and pass their own thoughts off as that other person's.
Hey, Kanickers:
Can't the 2 dishonest posts be traced back to a computer address and be compared with, say, some losers we know?
Hey, "Patty", what is our agenda anyway? I thought it was to out sexually abusive clergy. And don't worry; WE are the "Holy Spirit Folks" and we are giving the abusive church hierarchy fits!
My apologies go out to the folks that run the blog, all the readers, Kevin Horan-Bussey, and Patty Hawk. Mr. Bussey and Mrs. Hawk didn’t post those messages. I ask for everyone’s forgiveness. Most of all for Gods forgiveness. I tell you unless we all repent including myself, we will all likewise perish…Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Ben,
You are right on!
And yes, CTA does support the rights of gay people, including gay priests that Rome wanted out of the priesthood because of this mess. And, the Church supports the rights of gay people, just does not support their right to be sexually active with each other. And, the church condemns those who are unjust to gay people. And not all pedaphiles are gay, Edwin. How unfortunate that you do not realize that pedaphilia has nothing to do with whether someone is gay or straight. And, how sad that gay people are blamed for all the pedaphilia problems in the church. CTA does not support bishops who cover up for priests who abuse minors, whether they are heterosexuals or homosexuals. That is the point. One of the biggest cases in Massachusetts was a priest who was abusing girls. Get your facts straight, Edwin.
People without an honest, sincere argument, or a desire for understanding and dialogue, often use the attack tactic. I'm not surprised by the hate filled words of Mr. Rodriguez. This is not his first time, and his writings are not worthy of more comments.
At times like these, when the church instead of being a light for the world, is being pushed into darkness by those in charge and their blind followers, I firmly believe that only organized movements like CTA will make the light shine again. It is the only thing that keeps me from leaving the catholic church.
For my fellow CTA brothers and sisters: Your love for the church sometimes amazes me. After all the false attacks, and so many difficulties you don't fear to hope, and that's what encourages me to hope too. THANK YOU!
Reading the New Testament today I found many encouraging words, and I'd like to share a few with you:
"I will send you the Spirit who comes from the Father and shows what is true. The Spirit will help you and will tell you about me. Then you will also tell others about me, because you have been with me from the beginning.
I am telling you this to keep you from being afraid. You will be chased out of the meeting places. The time will come when people will kill you and think they are doing God a favor. They will do all these things because they don't know either the Father or me. I am saying this to you now, so that when the times comes, you will remember what I have said."
(John 15.26,16.1-4)
"Dear friends, don't be surprised or shocked that you are going through testing that is like walking trough fire. Be glad for the chance to suffer as Christ suffered. It will prepare you for even greater happiness when He makes his glorious return."
(1Peter 4.12-13)
Logic
At UTPA they are considering allowing a student to take a course in logic to fulfill the mathematics requirement. As a longtime mathematics professor, I have always thought that would be a bad policy, but after reading Edwin Rodriguez’s letter of March 8, I am beginning to think everybody needs a good course in logic. In such a course a person would learn that the strength of any argument depends upon the strength of the premises and the validity of the reasoning.
If I understand his argument, Mr. Rodriguez says that since priests who sexually abuse young people are homosexual and Call to Action (CTA) supports homosexual acts, it is hypocritical of members of CTA to criticize such priests. Aside from the premises being highly problematic, this seems akin to saying that since people who rape women are heterosexual and XYZ supports heterosexual acts, it is hypocritical of members of XYZ to criticize such rapists—is that valid reasoning?
It seems clear that it is not relevant whether a person who sexually abuses a child is homosexual, heterosexual, pansexual, or asexual—that person is a criminal. If an institution, whether it be a business, a school, or a church, knowingly places a sexual abuser in contact with children, then that institution is engaging in criminality and needs to be held accountable. Parents would never knowingly place their child in such a situation, but we have ample evidence that institutions have done that and, even today, many of these institutions still refuse to publicly take responsibility for their role in enabling sexual abusers to continue to harm children.
Jerry, if people were logical religions would die out.
Religion has nothing to do with what predator priests have done to children. They are criminals and should be punished to the full extent of the law. Period! I am totally confused about Joe Connor's admission to being sexually abused by a priest. My understanding is that he is a lawyer. What happened to the judicial system? If anyone should understand the magnitude of this problem it is that poor man. Why are people so resistant to seeing justice being served?
It seems to me that some legal action should be taken to ascertain as to who is using CTA members' names to post information. I would, if my name were being used.
Even in his distorted and biased diatribe, Mr. Edwin Rodriguez is illuminated by the light of reason, the light of God's Holy Spirit, whether he chooses to see the obvious or not. Just as the high priest prophesied unwittingly that it was better for one man (our Lord Jesus Christ) to die for the nation of Israel than for many, so too does Mr. Rodriguez shed light on the problem at hand, albeit unwittingly. When he speaks of religious orders, seminaries, groups and individuals who fomented a culture of homosexual priesthood, who is he referring to if not to the Church leadership? Does he not realize that it is the same Church leadership that we rank and file Catholics call to accountability in the wake of this sex scandal? I love my Church and have to take the good and the bad in her members because we are all fallen, broken, in need of redemption. When a group claims to be above another, beyond reproach, that is where evil is given free reign. I know Mr. Rodriguez will come to know the full truth, so I will not put him down like other posters, rather, I will pray that he be spared a close up encounter with the very evil that we seek to abolish and realize that we all want the same thing: a credible community of faith at the service of the Gospel of Christ.
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