Conservative Catholics . . . React To San Diego Bishop’s Order Against Priest’s Bulletin Column

By DEXTER DUGGAN

Conflicting views emerged after the bishop of the San Diego Catholic Diocese, Robert McElroy, told a locally well-known orthodox priest, Richard Perozich, not to present his thoughts in a column in the parish bulletin of Immaculate Conception Church, where he is pastor, in the historic “Old Town” neighborhood.
With the November 8 election approaching, Perozich had listed major evils afflicting society in the October 30 bulletin including abortion, embryonic experimentation, punishment for opposing “same-sex marriage,” cloning to combine human and animal DNA, euthanasia, and silencing Christians who express their faith in public.
Perozich went on to list other negative influences, including “the importation of immigrants whose religious values are to eradicate every belief except those of their own prophet and god, and to impose this on America,” and “regulating the right to bear arms for free citizens in a nation where criminals and terrorists will always have weapons, and where government is now in opposition to the citizenry.”
Two weeks earlier, on October 16, an outside group inserted a flier in a number of Catholic bulletins around the diocese, including Immaculate Conception’s, pointing out the difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties’ stands on the “non-negotiable” — also called “intrinsically evil” — issues, like abortion. The flier also said that voting Democratic is a mortal sin. Perozich didn’t review or endorse the flier.
Neither the flier nor Perozich’s column endorsed any candidate by name. The priest concluded his column: “Pray for all the candidates. Vote for the one who most closely reflects Catholic truth.”
On November 4 McElroy issued a diocesan statement that said in part:
“Catholic teaching points to the importance of several major issues in this presidential election year: abortion, poverty and economic justice, the environment, euthanasia, immigration, religious liberty, and solidarity within society. This final issue of solidarity has a particular importance at this moment because the very democratic impulse which is the foundation for our national unity is being eroded by partisan venom and personal attack.”
A front-page story in the November 17 hardcopy edition of The Wanderer reported, “San Diego Bishop Adds To Confusion About Intrinsic Evils Issues.”
McElroy also met with Perozich, telling the priest to discontinue his bulletin column. Perozich agreed to do so, then bought his own domain name for a blog.
On December 2, The Wanderer asked diocesan spokesman Kevin Eckery by email:
“What reaction has there been to Bishop McElroy saying that Fr. Perozich should cease his opinion column. . . .? Has anyone suggested that it’s not equitable for Fr. Perozich to have to remove his column from his church bulletin, but Bishop McElroy may express his own political opinions to the entire diocese?”
Eckery promptly replied: “From your question, I think you may not be aware of why the bishop responded as he did. It wasn’t about politics, it was about Catholic teaching and his responsibility to make sure that teaching is true and faithful, not confusing to the People of God.
“In this instance, the materials in question, and which the bishop found objectionable, were material deviations from Catholic thought. There is no Catholic teaching, for example, that suggests gun control is slavery, as Fr. Perozich suggested, and it is absolutely against Catholic teaching to use religion to incite fear and hatred toward immigrants or adherents (of) other faiths, as Fr. Perozich also suggested,” Eckery said.
“Father is free to state his political opinions on his own website, just not confuse them with Catholic teaching,” he added.
Another spokesperson for the San Diego Diocese, Aida Bustos, told The Wanderer: “The reaction to the bulletin in Fr. Perozich’s parish has been mixed. In accordance with U.S. Catholic policy and practice, Bishop McElroy does not express his own political views.”
Bustos said McElroy proceeded to tell the priests in his diocese: “Let me stress again that while we have a moral role to play in explaining how Catholic teaching relates to certain public-policy issues, we must not and will not endorse specific candidates, use parish media or bulletins to favor candidates or parties through veiled language about selectively chosen issues, or engage in partisan political activity of any kind.
“Moreover,” McElroy added, “the only politically related materials that may be distributed in parishes must be approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the California Catholic Conference (CCC), or the Office of Social Ministry.”
In a December 2 email, Perozich told The Wanderer: “On November 9, Bishop McElroy met with me and the vicar general, Msgr. Steven Callahan. He asked how the flier got there. I told him. He said that there were other stories about how it got there, but did not elaborate. I told him that some of my brother priests had said from their pulpits to vote for Hillary Clinton, and that this is what stimulated a group of faithful Catholics to fight back.
“He told me he did speak to the priests at one church in the north (San Diego) county which I will not name. I told him that there were other priests and churches that I would not name, but that he would have to discover. Bishop McElroy said he wanted to be fair so he spoke to other priests as well as to me,” Perozich said.
“He said the information in my bulletin was not according to the Magisterium,” Perozich said. “The bishop criticized a section I had on the parish website for Christians who suffered martyrdom for their faith wherein I identified the offender as the perpetrator and the martyr as the victim. In a website headed ‘teachings,’ I had put other theological opinions in Islam, sexuality. He said that these were anti-gay, anti-Muslim.”
After saying he agreed to follow McElroy’s instructions, Perozich concluded his email: “The next day I bought my own domain, richardperozich.com, so that any comments Bishop McElroy may not like would not be directly associated with the parish. I now publish here theological and ecclesial thoughts by priests, bishops, and lay Catholics to help people form their consciences according to the entire Magisterium, and not just some new statement or opinion from a cleric in our current time.”
McElroy previously was an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. When Pope Francis named him in March 2015 to head the San Diego Diocese, Barbara Simpson, a Catholic San Francisco-area conservative commentator, told The Wanderer:
“McElroy is a known leader of the social-justice wing of the Catholic Church. He fit in very well in liberal San Francisco, especially his views on homosexuality, which have been described as ‘friendly and compromising,’ and ‘elastic.’
“But,” Simpson continued, “he may find some push-back with the move south — less acceptance of his focus on ‘poverty, exclusion, and inequality,’ social-justice activism, and tolerance of gay issues. The border problems, with illegal aliens and drug-cartel activities, are acute.”
After McElroy’s recent action against Perozich, Simpson told The Wanderer: “Any Catholic with eyes and ears is aware that many dioceses have become politicized, although the reality isn’t spelled out. Whether it’s a priest forcing his parish to operate according to his political beliefs or a bishop who uses the power of his position to have priests and parishes in his diocese toe the line. It goes on all the time.
“The heavy hand of censorship by Bishop McElroy against Fr. Perozich is because he doesn’t agree with his conservative point of view. It’s a clear case of undercutting the authority of the parish priest,” she said, adding that McElroy’s background with San Francisco liberalism imbues “the belief that the liberal way is the only way — whether dealing with conservative political views, gay issues, sexual issues, education, or following the traditional teachings of the Church.”

False Mercy

The Wanderer sought reaction from some conservative Southern California Catholics. Their responses follow below, with names and each person’s comments, sometimes shortened.
Allyson Smith, pro-life activist: “I find it ironic and deeply disconcerting that Bishop McElroy has prohibited Fr. Perozich from including faith and morals commentaries designed to help Catholics properly form their consciences, yet has asked all parishes in the San Diego Diocese to include a bulletin announcement about the outcomes of the late October diocesan synod.
“McElroy’s bulletin announcement speaks of ‘the need for divorced men and women…to utilize the internal forum of conscience in order to discern if God is calling them to return to the Eucharist.’ His bulletin also states that ‘the synod proposed a spirituality of family life which is deeply inclusive’ and embraces ‘LBGT families.’
“So, we see that Bishop McElroy has muzzled a faithful priest of his diocese while he simultaneously encourages divorced and remarried people to employ improperly formed consciences with regard to receiving Holy Communion, and gives credence to the false notion of ‘LBGT families’.”
Martha Lantz, a family nurse practitioner: “This order is beyond outrageous! The countless Catholics who understand and appreciate the truth should post the words of Fr. Perozich on billboards all over town.
“I’m sure that many, many parishioners and others would be more than happy to write columns for the Immaculate Conception bulletin, and every bulletin in town, that express what the bishop apparently hates — the truth. May God bless and inspire all of them to step up to the plate and volunteer. Also, many other writers of high-quality content would be happy to help a parish that is being subjected to the appalling evils of tyrannical, politically correct, and un-American censorship. . . .
“May God continue to bless and protect His courageous and inspiring holy priests, all the days of their lives. May God help Pope Francis to take a page out of Donald Trump’s book, and just tell the bishop, ‘You’re fired!’”
Diane Chapman, a business owner: “Father (Perozich) is one of the few priests who are brave enough to talk about the Catholic faith as it relates to our current country and world situation. He cares about the souls of his parishioners, enough to counter the lies coming from the culture at large. He has suffered much for this — most of what has been done to him, we do not know.
“The liberal, Episcopalian-type bishop is hell-bent on turning our diocese into a liberal, dumbed down, Catholic-lite group of Protestants. He is no leader and he does not plan to teach the faith. A political animal, he is simply parroting the Democrat Party bullet points. When asked at (the University of San Diego) in November about the Catholic five non-negotiables, he got upset and…blurted out that there are more non-negotiables. . . .
“Many Catholics like Fr. Rich . . . are warning Catholics about the dangers of the Muslim infiltration into the U.S.A. We have only to look at Europe to see what a disaster this is. What normally happens in war when the enemy overtakes a country, the West is inviting the ticking time bomb of Sharia law into our communities. Catholic Charities is one of the top culprits being paid to bring Muslims in. Yet they ignore our Catholic brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Africa who are being wiped out.”
Laurence Greenbank, electrical engineer: “This is the Christian persecution. Most have not yet identified it. Fr. Perozich and his parish, Immaculate Conception, did nothing wrong, except they were guilty by association.
“In the Catholic Church, the persecution manifests itself as false mercy and the Francis-effect, whereby liberal bishops are promoted and faithful priests are publicly castigated or sent to the remote outreaches of the diocese. The few faithful priests in the diocese are like gold. We must protect them!. . .
“We must fight the heresy of modernism in the Church, or we will continue to fight the persecution in the courts, then in the streets. This is a culture war which must be won by truth and love. The conversation about the heresy of modernism and secularism in the Church is vital for the nation as well, even though prudence forces us to keep it ‘in-family.’ The free republic cannot stand without a moral foundation, which ultimately comes from the perennial teachings of the Catholic Church.”
Joan Pernicano, restaurant owner: “Just wanted to add my two cents’ worth in that our diocese here received over $700,000 in federal funds for relocating and accommodating illegals and refugees, so it’s no wonder that the bishops have put immigration ahead of abortion. . . . Some of our California dioceses received $1 million to $2 million for the process.”
Jim Holman, weekly newspaper and Catholic Internet publisher: “Father P. has been outspoken on moral issues for years. Not surprising that Bishop Mc. not happy with him. I have seen two parishes that have taken the bishop’s synod seriously enough to put the welcoming stuff in their bulletins.”