Comments on: An Airport Encounter

By: Oscar Olluga

Oscar Olluga — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:46:43 +0000

Thank you very much. It is totally unfair that so may holy priests who are living totally dedicated to God and their fellow men are looked upon suspiciously. I think your article (which I have forwarded to many) will do a lot of good. –and of justice

By: Patricia

Patricia — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:06:03 +0000

This article just made it to our Catholic Herald. I guess the midwest is just slow! I appreciated the article because I’m tired of complete strangers attacking my faith–I’ve had it happen a number of times. As for Archbishop Dolan avoiding an apology for the Church, he was in an airport! If people want to have a discourse regarding the abuse, they shouldn’t blindside a person! Here’s a sample case re: myself. I was in the parking lot of the Universalist church, buying daylilies. That lot is where the local daylily society sells their plants and the money goes to the society, not to the church. A woman was standing near me, and she asked whether one had to be a member of the church to buy plants. My reply was, ‘oh no. I belong to St. Dominic’s, but I certainly come to the Universalist’s parking lot once a year for my lilies.’ I was just being light and funny, when ‘whammo’. She began to blast me about the Catholic church, how it practiced exclusivity, etc., And that she had left it. Believe me, I wanted to respond strongly but all I said was, ‘that was apparently the right move for you.’ And I moved on! I have never and would never attack anyone else’s religion, though, and I would like the same respect. There are many many more good priests than bad, I love my faith, AND my nephew is a priest, hurrah!

By: johnny

johnny — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:18:15 +0000

Excellency;
Your response to the gentleman was published in our parish bulletin. I was disappointed in the defensive tone to your response. I am a 1st. generation Irish Catholic, now in my late 60′s, I grew up believing a vocation was a call from God to serve him. I was desperate in my teens to hear the calling. I prayed daily for the sign from God that I was to be called to the Priesthood. I never thought you could choose to be a priest, I truly believe you must be called. News of the sexual abuse within the Church has shaken my faith to the core. I accept and understand that a priest is a mortal man and subject to temptation and can sin like any other man. What I cannot accept, is the idea that a priest would engage in any kind of sexual activity with a minor and feel he should continue as a priest. Alcohol abuse, gambling, short tempered behavior are all shortcomings that should and could be dealt with. I meet with a large group of classmates and sadly we all agree our view of the priesthood has changed of the past few years. I don’t know what the answer is, I do know the Church remains an important part of my life and always will. I pray for those in the religious life daily, I pray they have answered a call from God. I pray they will understand why I feel my trust has been betrayed. and will work diligently to weed out those who have disgraced the priesthood.

By: Michael O'Donnell

Michael O'Donnell — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:32:38 +0000

Excellency,
My wife,myself, and 11 children went through this issue back in the early 80′s. It did hurt when we were first informed about the priests involved in our parish. My wife said to me one day paraphasing St. Francis that she would still receive the Sacraments from these men because they had the power to bring Jesus Christ to her in the flesh and forgive her, her sins. So yes, while its devasting, I would still kiss the hands of the priest who consecrates the eucharist and gives me absolution for my sins. Then I would pray for his immortal soul.
By the way I used to be an airline pilot with TWA for 30 yrs, I believe that’s when I first met you I doubt you remember meibeat. If I’m not mistaken I was the pilot who flew you to Rome a few times. I also flew your predecessors to Rome a few times starting with Cardinal Cooke. I was based in Rome for a few years flying 727′s to Greece, North Africa, and Kuwait City.

By: Eduardo Rivero M.D.

Eduardo Rivero M.D. — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:43:32 +0000

Thank you and Bless you Msgr. Dolan for your answer to this man. I am 67 years old, I went to San Ignacio de Loyola School in Caracas,Venezuela. Much of whatever good is in me was taught to me by Honorable and Saintly men at San Ignacio.
The fact that there are sick men out there has not stopped all the good things the Catholic Church has done for centuries.
Let us all pray for the victims and do all we can to have the perpetrators pay for their crimes.
May 3,2011

By: Daniel Garvin

Daniel Garvin — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:15:55 +0000

In the words of our Savior Christ Jesus……\Get thee behind me Satan\ Well said Father. May He continue to shine His light on your path and fill your heart with His Enduring love.

In Christ,
Daniel

By: Patricia Sullivan

Patricia Sullivan — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:31:48 +0000

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” ; God be with you Fr. Corapi, we all have and will be accused by the many who cross our paths. What has your accusar been accused of or will be accused in the future. May you be a better man and a stronger man as others have been before you. Jesus is your model and redeemer.

By: Juan Pablo

Juan Pablo — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:23:08 +0000

I have attended Catholic school my entire life and I have never felt threatened or abused by ANY priest. The priests I have encountered in my life are devout men, determined to serve God and their parishioners. It sickens me the way that the media slanders these men because of their own hidden agenda. It is clear that modern media outlets are strongly controlled and influence by the enemies of the Church (liberals, atheists, pro-choice groups, etc.). Yet while the media reports thousands of cases of abuse within the Church only a minority of those are proven to be true. The Church has already apologized many times over to those who suffered at the hands of priests, yet the world it too quick to judge our beloved Church. We must remember that while the Church never errs on its teachings over matters of faith and morals its practices are sometimes corrupted by the actions of men, because our Church is made up of human beings who are flawed. If one of Jesus’ own hand-picked apostles (Judas Iscariot) betrayed our Lord how can we not expect the same to happen among Christ’s disciples in the modern age? I believe that as Catholics we should be proud of our Church because of its great accomplishments. It was the Church who developed the scientific method, who first began charity, who first established universities and schools. I am proud and honored to be a Catholic, I am proud of our priests and I fully support the actions of our holy father, Pope Benedict XVI, his bishops and those of the Catholic Church.

By: Fr. Christian Mathis

Fr. Christian Mathis — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:48:59 +0000

Dear Anne and Suzanne,

It may be overstepping to say so, but I don’t believe Archbishop Dolan is trying to avoid the issue of abuse by priests. It seems that he is trying to point out the fact that the vast majority of priests and faithful Catholics are not child abusers. It is unfortunate that the clergy have been portrayed as being overwhelmingly pedophiles, but if we were to translate the same statistics to everyone you and I might be accused of being abusers as well, in fact the statistics might lean more toward you being abusers than they would toward me. It seems that Archbishop Dolan is calling upon all of us to take a step back and look at the reality of child abuse. Priests have not been excluded from the ranks of pedophiles but the Church has certainly taken more steps that anyone else in trying to correct the problem.

By: Phil Brady

Phil Brady — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:05:46 +0000

Everyone is so quick to judge priests today. When Fr Edward Hinds in Chatham’s St. Patrick Church Church in NJ back in October (2009) was slain in the rectory by the church janitor , Jose Feliciano, (stabbed this priest 32 times) I was sickened at how the blogs instantly portrayed Fr Hinds as being the victim of a jealous lover.
When the smoke cleared, the truth about how Feliciano did not wiant to comply with a required background check because of his past criminal record started to shine the light on the matter.

How a man can look at ANY priest and see a child molester is beyound me. To instantly judge ALL priests in that catagory comes from a heart that has lost more thatn just faith, but has also lost LOVE for Christ in the Eucharist. What a hopeless place to be.

These incidents remind us of our daily need to pray for all those who have “justified” their retreat from the Chruch.