“In my heart I do not feel I have done anything wrong,” he said via telephone from Alabama as he was traveling to visit his family in Louisiana. “On the contrary, it is my conscience that I am following and I find great peace whenever I am following my conscience. I feel I am a priest in good conscience. I feel if I went against my conscience I would be an unfaithful priest,” he said. “I feel I am a priest in good standing with God,” he added. “Am I a priest in good standing with the Vatican? No.” — Fr. Roy Bourgeois (National Catholic Register, Sept. 2, 2009)
(A sonnet, with humble apologies to W.S.)
Thy love for it increases, long grown;
Its fair form, a perfect mirror indeed,
Of ev'ry passion, whim, ovule sown—
Released! It springs from thy heart, taking seed,
In shallow soil of dissenting dust,
Moldy, modern fables—prevarications
Coated, cloaked, and concealed with rust—
warped egalitarian cerebrations.
Moved by rhetoric pleasing to the ear,
Justice! equality! feminism!
The rhythm of the age beats near, pounds here!
Crushing sanity whilst rushing schism:
Until, alone, you stand in proud defiance,
With sincere feelings—and a false conscience.
— Carl E. Olson
• Authority and Dissent in the Catholic Church | Dr. William E. May
• Curran's Attack on John Paul II Rebutted | Dr. William E. May
• Enter Modernism | Philip Trower
• Is Heresy Heretical? | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Church Authority and the Petrine Element | Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results | Dr. James Hitchcock
• A Religion the New York Times Can Love | Donna Steichen
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