Pray For Chicago’s Catholics And Clergy
By REY FLORES
I know how rough Chicago can be. Having been born and raised there, I learned my way around the block a long time ago, and it ain’t pretty.
Having been a community and labor organizer, I also saw the inner workings of city hall, labor unions, housing projects, ghettos and barrios, the press and broadcast news media, and even the Archdiocese of Chicago, and many of its parishes and their own specific little worlds of parish politics.
Two recent shakeups have left many people perhaps wondering if there is something tainting the holy water there.
In 1965, the late radio legend Paul Harvey gave a fantastic soliloquy in one of his national radio broadcasts. It was titled If I Were the Devil. In this three-minute broadcast, Harvey went on to play the Devil, not devil’s advocate, but the Devil himself. Look it up online; it’s on YouTube. Pray for the repose of his soul since we mentioned the dearly departed.
The very first thing that Harvey said that he would do to take over the United States as the Devil is to “subvert the churches.” The rest of the broadcast is fantastic, but for our purposes here, I want to stick to that one specific statement.
If I, Rey Flores were the Devil, I would target the clergy first. Absolutely. You destroy the shepherd; the flock is all left for the taking. That is exactly what I believe is happening to our Church not only in Chicago, but everywhere.
As the Devil, I would then target husbands and fathers, the shepherds of the domestic Church, with the full intent of destroying marriages and families, therefore literally annihilating generations to come. I’d use temptations like alcohol, adultery, abortion, and pornography as my most effective weapons against these “shepherds” and “pastors” of their own domestic churches.
Before I explain anything further, let us ask St. Michael the Archangel to help our entire Church, specifically Chicago’s Catholics and clergy during these infernal attacks. “St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.”
It came to light recently that Fr. C. Frank Phillips, the now former pastor at Chicago’s beautiful St. John Cantius parish, and home to the Canons Regular, was removed from his faculties as a priest because of some alleged, unspecified, improprieties with an adult male or males. Whether that is true or not, only God and Fr. Frank know for sure, but the rest of us are left wondering what else might have really happened.
Gossip, calumny, and scandal are all things we are obligated to avoid, so we must never go down those paths regarding this or other similar cases involving clergy. It is, however, most interesting how swiftly Blase Cardinal Cupich acted on this.
Many Catholics in Chicago have asked why Fr. Phillips was not put on administrative leave while the allegations were being thoroughly investigated. Instead, Fr. Phillips is unable to do anything any longer as a Catholic priest, or as head of the Canons Regular.
“They took away all of his faculties. He can’t exercise his priestly ministry at all. It will feel different there for sure without the presence of Fr. Phillips. I’ll be forever thankful to him for so much of my knowledge of the faith after I returned to the Church,” said one very saddened and longtime parishioner from St. John Cantius.
Some have even speculated that since Cardinal Cupich is no fan of the Traditional Latin Mass, this was one way to deliver a near-fatal blow to St. John Cantius Parish, the strongest Latin Mass presence in the entire Archdiocese of Chicago.
Steve Skojec of OnePeterFive.com commented, in part, as follows on March 19: “Anyone familiar with Cardinal Cupich’s approach to homosexuality in the Church, or his refusal to even consider enforcing canon 915, will find this action particularly ironic.”
Another Chicago Catholic who was also upset about Fr. Phillips’ removal said this, “It appears that the archdiocese went way out of their way on this one, which is extremely odd when you consider that the cardinal’s own parish Holy Name Cathedral is hosting Fr. James Martin to speak about homosexuality at Holy Name for two nights.”
Some of you may already know about the very controversial Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin, but for those of you who may not, allow me to fill you in a little, and I mean a little bit. If you want the whole ball of wax on Fr. Martin, look him up online. LifeSite News’ Claire Chretien has written extensively on him.
Simply put, Fr. Martin has been very vocal, very open, and very aggressive on supporting homosexuality, and is very quick to label orthodox, more traditional and obedient Catholics who disagree with him as “homophobes.” Fr. Martin protests “gay” teachers getting fired from Catholic schools.
The fact that a priest like this is not only speaking for two nights at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral, at the invitation of Cardinal Cupich himself, no less, is disturbing. More shocking is that Pope Francis also named Fr. Martin as consultor to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication.
What is really going on in Chicago? I am not joking when I ask if someone put something in the holy water there, because it’s really disconcerting the direction that our Church is taking in that Godforsaken city of mine! Heaven help us!
When I ask you all to pray, I mean pray hard, and pray often for our clergy everywhere. Fasting, especially during Lent, is also a great weapon against Satan.
If I were the Devil indeed, clergy would be my most prized trophies in Hell. Then I’d focus on husbands and fathers, then mother and wives, therefore destroying generations of God’s creations.
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(Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
