Abbey-Roads2

Peter Canisius

There is a group in the archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul who go around to various parishes looking for liturgical abuses and homosexuals.  One of their members has been known to pour blessed olive oil and sprinkle exorcism salt around various churches.  Another one - maybe the same guy, who goes by the name Peter Canisius, sends email alerts about abuses and homosexual activities in various parishes to Catholic bloggers across the country.  Members of this group, some of whom may have once earned a bit of fame as whistle blowers elsewhere, struggle to keep themselves in good standing with chancery people in order to discredit certain priests, religious, and lay folk.  These same people, who function like a catholic gestapo, have the ear of a few prominent priests, who hopefully try and guide them away from their lives of calumny and detraction.

Spirit Daily

Over the past couple of years a few of us in the blogging community jumped on Peter Canisius’ stories - not a few of which proved false.  Hopefully, we have learned our lesson.  Obviously some bloggers haven’t, and Spirit Daily, the Catholic tabloid of gossip and misinformation and scary end-times stories, usually buys into Canisius’ scandal mongering.  One example concerns a meditation room at the St. Lawrence Newman Center, under the care of the Paulist Fathers.  (See the Spirit Daily post here.)

Spirit daily ran the Peter Canisius’ story - with photos - of the prayer room wherein “icons” by Robert Lentz, of Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and another of Our Lady of the Disappeared hang on the wall around a crucifix.  The email I received said - “St. Paul Archdiocese canonizes new saints.”  That is misleading and contentious - until the photos emerged, the archdiocese most likely wouldn’t have been aware of the images.  The images of the lay people, which only imitate the style of icons, are heroes of peace and justice, and inspiration for human rights activists - especially Catholic human rights activists.  While it is true that the images ought not to be exposed for veneration, they may have their place as a work of art in a hallway or conference room.

Our Lady of the Disappeared.

On the other hand, the image of Our Lady of the Disappeared can indeed be considered an image of devotion which permits veneration.  Canisius and Spirit Daily falsely claim this image is from an apparition - which Canisius claims the archdiocese has approved of.  The following is what he wrote in his email:

This particular image originally painted by Lentz is based upon an icon of the Sorrowful Mother, which Lentz interpreted to represent the intercession of the Mother of God for the missing of the Argentinian “Dirty War” between 1976 and 1983.  The Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo   wore white scarves similar to Our Lady’s as depicted in Lentz’ image.  Devotionally there is absolutely nothing wrong with this particular image.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

The Mothers’ association was formed by women who had met each other in the course of trying to find their missing sons and daughters, who were abducted by agents of the Argentine government during the years known as the Dirty War (1976–1983), many of whom were then tortured and killed. The 14 founders of the association, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée García Buelas, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz, Julia Gard, María Mercedes Gard and Cándida Gard (4 sisters), Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin, Sra. De Caimi, started the demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, on 30 April 1977. Villaflor had been searching for one of her sons and her daughter-in-law for six months. She was taken to the ESMA concentration camp on 10 December 1978. 

The military have admitted that over 9,000 of those kidnapped are still unaccounted for, but the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo say that the number is closer to 30,000. The numbers are hard to determine due to the secrecy surrounding the abductions. Three of the founders of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have also “disappeared”. After the fall of the military regime, a civilian government commission put the number of disappeared at close to 11,000. - Source

Scandal

So here is what you do if you find something scandalous in a local parish.  Speak to the pastor first.  Calmly, politely and respectfully explain why you are scandalized.  If that doesn’t work, contact the chancery, and calmly, politely, and respectfully ask them to handle it.  Do not spread lies and misinformation across the Internet, or deface Church property.