MA,
Since you know of this priest and you live in the area do you have any idea why the Resistance group in Philadelphia would accept this man instead of a real priest? Do they not understand that he is defrocked? Do they not recognize the authority of the Pope in this matter?
I'm as baffled by that as I am the Colorado and Minnesota groups inviting Moran to their missions.
Yes, we know this priest plenty well. He has a certain dramatic confident presentation that impresses impressionable people. We admit to having a very good first impression but it does not take long to see that there is nothing behind the first impression when you routinely catch him in lies. Just last week I learned of more lies from a family that just left him.
I would like to start my response by explaining why the SSPX may be responsible for Fr. Pfeiffer’s good impression of “Fr. Tetherow” (FT).
Fr. Patrick Mackin, as a seminarian, used to attend the chapel in York with his family. We were told by Mrs. Mackin that according to (now) Fr. Mackin, FT had made a “very good impression” on +Fellay at the Auriesville Pilgrimage (2008, I believe). FT was invited to the next SSPX Priest Meeting. Knowing that he had made a good impression on +Fellay, the chapel paid for his trip (hoping to build a good relationship with the SSPX) and at FT’s request to spend an extra day to be able to talk to +Fellay I personally changed his flight arrangements to stay the extra day.
Upon his return, FT announced from the pulpit: “as of now, I’m approved to say Mass at any SSPX chapel”. The SSPX continued to work with him. They even planned and published a summer boys camp in Pennsylvania with Fr. Mackin and FT. I have a picture of Tetherow at St. Jude in Philadelphia with Bishop de Galarreta assisting with the Mass at the Confirmations after FT’s dismissal from SSP&P Mission chapel. They obviously believed all his lies.
After FT’s group bought the chapel in Windsor, PA, members of SSP&P who did not follow FT were invited to the Consecration of the chapel (St. Michael the Archangel) by +Fellay. The press showed up and this article appeared in the local newspaper
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/07_08/2011_07_30_Nann_hαɾɾιsburgDiocese.htm +Fellay didn’t come out but I was told the chapel was consecrated after the press left.
When the article came out, the SSPX lawyer called our home (FT probably gave him the #). I answered the phone and first he tried to intimidate me explaining who he was and that “Fr. Rostand is very concerned about rumors that the SSPX bought the chapel for FT”. I responded calmly that it wasn’t a rumor and gave him the two reliable sources (one an SSPX priest and the other SSPX coordinators). His tone changed and wanted to find out all we knew about FT. Later my husband called him back for more information followed by emails. The lawyer, Mr. Wright (?) told us after that that they (SSPX/+Fellay) had ordered FT to “stay clear of SSPX chapels” but I guess they kept it quiet for fear of scandal. That was in July, 2010.
I would guess that Fr. Pfeiffer thought FT was a “good priest”. All the people in Philadelphia that follow FT were turned off by the changing the rubrics at St. Jude and contacted FT who was doing the pre-1962 Missal in York (That’s the Missal the chapel uses). They were very impressed with him and although some of them have known us since 1986, never came to us with questions. The old priest that told my husband he had to “fire” FT and told us he was a ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ and warned one of the families that follow him, gets upset when I try to reach out to people and said to me once: “Don’t you see they don’t want to know because they are not pure of heart?”. I guess that is the bottom line.