Pre -'55 Missal would be a more accurate title/description
Yes. Thank you Jacina.
Here is the statement Father Starbuck mentioned today at Mass.
It is his response to the school board's recent post.
8 January 2022
Dear Faithful,
On January 6, on the OLHC website, the following words were posted regarding me:
“Father Starbuck’s deciding reply, as he reiterated in his public sermon and as has been published on the internet, was that he would not work under the authority of another priest as pastor; nor would he take any good faith advice from the Board. As you can deduce from the sermon of December 19, Father Starbuck refused to accept Monsignor’s stipulation, effectively declining to work with other priests, and in fact publicly denouncing one by name. This had clearly become an unworkable situation since Father had obviously decided to go his own way. We wish Father Starbuck well and thank him for the years he has spent with us.”
I believe that a response is in order. First of all, I did state to the PPA/OLHC Board that I would not work under another “pastor.” Is there anything wrong with that? That is not insubordination, it is my priestly right. The following statement “nor would he take any good faith advice from the Board” is unintelligible to me, since it is ambiguous and open to more than one meaning. Are they saying ‘that’ I told them that I would not take good faith advice? I did not. Or are they saying that I would (or that I did) not in fact take good faith advice? If they are saying that they had rendered “good faith advice,” to my memory none was never offered. And if it had been, I would have done my best to hear them out. Moreover, their statement that “Father had obviously decided to go his own way,” is not accurate. I had made no such decision, and had told them that, minimally, I wanted to see the situation through to the end of the year, and that I would consider working with them into the indefinite future. I felt that that was the least I could do for the good people of this parish. But instead, on December 23 one member of the Board called me to tell me that I was “on vacation” that weekend and that if I were to appear on church property I would be considered to be “trespassing” and would “be arrested.” (That is the last and final communication that I received from the board.) Because another schedule was later posted on the church website with other celebrants for my Masses (and given the previous threat), I did not return. They later sent the contents of my mail bin home to me, which included outgoing items, with no explanation. Moreover, this same Board continues to tell people that I am on a leave of absence. And perhaps most strikingly, I was never given any notice of termination. So far as I know, maybe I am still employed by OLHC.
They state that I refused to work with other priests. When? They state that I had denounced one by name. When? My criticism on December 19 was not of the priest. My criticism was of the Board for not doing their job to vet priests in the time that I have served this parish. And regarding “Monsignor’s stipulation,” what on earth are they talking about? I was never given any stipulation. Moreover, their tone seems to imply that I am an employee who is answerable to them in the same way other employees are answerable to employers. The same member of the Board, cited above, himself admitted to me that he did not know what I spent all my time doing as a priest (i.e., what a priest’s duties are). Is it not obvious that this Board does not know what a priest does, especially when they have not made one good policy decision since Fr. Perez died? And they have been responsible for numerous misrepresentations of the truth (may I call them lies?). For example, when did Sister Taddeo “return to Korea”? This statement in the January 2 Sunday bulletin was very hurtful to Sister Taddeo, as she faithfully attends Mass now in my chapel and has, indeed, not left the country. And where was the compassion for this Sister who had served this parish for at least ten years in cutting off her rent at the end of December (at Christmas), especially when I had negotiated a continuing rental fee well below market value, retaining a month-to-month agreement with the property manager? This treatment of a religious Sister at this time following the death of Fr. Perez was a heartless calculated decision that saw dollar signs and not human hearts.
Further, I would be remiss in not noting how disappointed Fr. Perez would be with the introduction of the 1962 Roman Missal at OLHC. How much time over the years did he spend criticizing that Missal from the pulpit? He must, indeed, be saddened by this development (even from the grave).
And I want to say that as an independent priest, I have owed no one anything in my ministry at OLHC over the course of this past 15 years. It has all been gratis. And if the situation had been workable with the Board, I would have stayed for at least another 20 years. But I want to be clear in stating that if I had left at any time over the course of my tenure, that would have been my right and my decision to make. I owed no one anything. And it is in that same spirit that I continue my ministry here locally in serving those who seek my ministry, my teaching, and my sacraments.
Finally, one wonders why they will not produce the docuмent they cite. Would Fr. Perez have cogently signed such a docuмent? Regardless, it should be noted that the Catholic Church is not governed by laypeople, nor can it be. The situation of having a priest answering to laypeople is simply not workable, nor could they have ecclesial authority or jurisdiction to elect a “pastor.” They don’t understand his priestly duties, his obligations, Canon law, and certainly not his limitations as a human being. As it was, they were just posting or sending out anonymously written schedules expecting us to jump at their whim. I did not know who was writing what.
Lastly, please let me state that I wish everyone well, including those who stay at OLHC. I have been telling people that I am tired of all the stirrings, and simply want to move forward peaceably. If the Board of PPA/OLHC had handled things better, then they would not feel the need to continue blaming me for their own incompetance. I, therefore, ask them to make better decisions for the parishioners of OLHC, and to accept responsibility for their own decisions.
In our Lord,
Fr. Starbuck
Topic: St. Dominic’s is a new TLM (pre-1962 Missal) Chapel in Orange County, CA (Read 11568 times)