The Sheepcat

Remembering Father John Harvey, OSFS

On this Feast of St John, we remember the death of Fr John Harvey, OSFS, a year ago today. Fr Harvey served with great patience and compassion as cofounder of Courage, the Catholic apostolate to persons with same-sex attraction and their loved ones.

This past August we had the privilege of attending the Courage/EnCourage conference at Mundelein Seminary outside Chicago. Five bishops supported the work by their presence: Bishops John Levoir, Thomas Paprocki, Mark Seitz, Thomas Olmsted, and the keynote speaker, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke.

Here Cardinal Burke speaks on "The Memory of Fr. John Harvey, OSFS and the Future of Courage and EnCourage." (The link opens a PDF in a separate window.) He is introduced by Fr Paul Check, the executive director of Courage.

At the opening Mass, on the Memorial of St John Mary Vianney, Cardinal Burke's homily remembered with gratitude the ministry of faithful priests such as Fr Harvey (the PDF opens in a new window).

Father Harvey accepted a priestly ministry which many either ignored or avoided. He faced serious misunderstandings and endured years of questioning, on the part of those from whom he rightly expected support. But, through, with and in Christ, he remained steadfast to the end, expending his every energy on behalf of the flock entrusted to his care. Our privileged time together, during these days, offers us the occasion to contemplate how Christ has loved us and cared for us, announcing to us the divine truth accompanied by the works of divine charity, through the priestly life and ministry of Father Harvey.

We were greatly inspired by the homilies and talks we heard. Courage members Angelo and Tina gave powerful testimonies recalling Fr Harvey's influence on their lives. Listen to them and watch other Courage conference talks here.

Rev John F. Harvey, OSFS, RIP

Father John Harvey, founder of the Courage Apostolate, passed away at the hour of mercy, Monday, December 27. He was 92. We've been temporarily inactive with this blog in recent months (and we ask our readers' continued prayers), but we're making an exception because of the special circumstances.

We met Fr Harvey in January 2009, when he came to the Archdiocese of Toronto on a speaking tour. At a time when some family members and friends had grave reservations about The Sheepcat's capacity to be a husband, he believed in us and helped us to prepare for the great sacrament of marriage. While marriage is not the goal of Courage (most members who wish to pursue the possibility of opposite-sex relationship seek professional help outside the group), he had seen enough successes to know that The Sheepcat's transition was authentic and that we would have what we needed for our life together. We were touched that he made time to see us privately, and his advice to us has proven valuable.

The occasion of that five-day visit is memorialized in the first-ever Salt and Light FOCUS episode on homosexuality, which features Fr Harvey and other interviewees, including us.

We and other Courage members saw him again when he returned to Toronto for a social visit in August of that year, a few weeks after our wedding. Here we are at the end of the Courage lunch.

We remember Fr Harvey with affection and gratitude. May he rest in peace, and may his ministry flourish. Already a cause is pending for the canonization of his Courage co-founder, Terence Cardinal Cooke, and we wouldn't be surprised to one day see a cause put forward for Fr Harvey too.

Courage has posted a brief notice, which links to a memorial by the Order of St Francis de Sales, the order to which he belonged for 73 years. How fitting that Fr Harvey died on the feast day of his namesake, the beloved disciple, St John the Evangelist.

French Priest Recovers Ukrainian Holocaust Stories

Fr Patrick Desbois has been travelling the Ukrainain countryside to hear and record the testimonies of witnesses to some of nearly a million and a half murders of Ukrainian Jews by the Nazis. Most were shot or buried alive. Fr Desbois has helped to locate many mass graves.

The Memorial of the Shoah exhibits some of these testimonies. Mykola Kristitch was six years old when he saw a mass execution in 1941. Perhaps it's my imagination, but I hear something of a six-year-old's voice as he speaks, as if part of him had been so seared by the experience that he never changed.

I'll stretch my central Europe category to include this. Link via T19.

Farewell to a Fine Priest

Te Deum laudamus! notes the sudden death of Fr Richard J. Rego, STL, of the St Gianna Latin Mass community in Arizona. Just a glance at Fr Rego's website and blog confirms what a fine teacher he was. Requiescat in pace.

Link via the Curt Jester.

Reservation of Priestly Ordination to Men: Fundamental Reasons and Theological Arguments

While checking out parishes in Poughkeepsie, New York, in preparation for a visit next month, I came across a notice for a lecture at St Joseph's Seminary by one Sister Sara Butler, MSBT, on "Women’s Ordination—Is It Still An Issue?" This could be dreadful, I thought, or it could be very good. So I searched the Web for Sr Sara and quickly found her paper "Ordination: Reviewing the 'Fundamental Reasons.'" It's masterly.

Update: I then explored some other links and saw just how eminent Sr Sara, whose name had rung no bells at all in this head of mine, really is: one of two female theologians appointed by Pope John Paul II to the International Theological Commission and arguably one of the four highest-ranking female officials in the Catholic Church today. So colour me beet red.

Canada's Next Generation of Bishops

In Canadian Catholic News Deborah Gyapong reveals some of the process by which priests are chosen to become bishops. With more than 20 Canadian bishops reaching the retirement age of 75 in the next five years, we can expect the choices to have a major effect, one way or another, on the face of the Church in this country. (Canada has 155 living bishops, of whom 58 are retired.)

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Toronto hosts a bevy of events to welcome Archbishop Collins, who is to be installed this Tuesday. Now here's a sign of his humility: he's living in the rectory of St Michael's Cathedral, the first archbishop to do so in a long time, and takes the subway to diocesan offices. Here Fr Rosica of Salt and Light TV interviews Archbishop Collins about his new role.

Gyapong quotes the secretary to the Papal Nuncio to Canada, whose office had quite a hand in the nomination of episcopal candidates, on Pope Benedict's approach.

The pope is inviting people to be positive, to say “yes,” accepting a new life in Christ, he said. Christ doesn’t ask us to say “no,” Msgr. Crotty said, “he asks us to say “yes” because he wants what is good for us.

Orthodox and positive. To me that's one inspiring combination.

More coverage from Rocco at Whispers in the Loggia, with links to this lively portrait in the Toronto Sun.

Father Dwight!

Father Dwight Longenecker, as he now is, was ordained to the priesthood on Thursday night in Greenville, South Carolina. I've been following his blog, Standing on My Head, with great interest, but it has taken me a while to catch up with his latest batch of posts.

See more pictures of his ordination and his ordination to the diaconate two weeks earlier. Read about the Catholic woman who helped lead him to Rome without ever discussing religion with him, about someone with honest doubts about the Catholic Church (can I guess that this is a trick question about Dwight himself some time ago?), and speculation about possible new developments in the pastoral provision, under which he as a married man has become a Catholic priest in the Roman Rite.

Consider how Catholics belong to both the establishment and the ultimate in underdog sects. Check out C.S. Lewis versus once-popular process theologian Norman Pittenger. And above all, pray for separated brethren still hanging on in the Anglican communion.

Congratulations, Fr Dwight, and God bless you and your family!

Pontificator Is Ordained

Former Anglican priest Al Kimel, whose blog helped lead me across the Tiber, is now a Catholic priest. Deo gratias!

Here he receives the once-in-a-lifetime Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Day 6. Kraków (Cracow)

On the Sunday morning we first went to Łagiewniki in the southern part of Kraków to see the Divine Mercy Cathedral …

… with its airy, modern sanctuary.

In the old red-brick convent on the grounds, St Faustina Kowalska wrote a spiritual diary that has been published in at least a dozen languages. The image she painted of Christ with rays of light has been widely imitated.

The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. … Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter.

St Faustina's painting includes the Polish for "Jesus, I trust in you."

And while I'm sure some people find these things meaningful, if you want to gawk at bad Catholic art, you can hardly do better than the Florentine collection inspired by the devotion to The Divine Mercy.

On a more uplifting note there is The Divine Mercy Chaplet itself, a prayer that has become quite popular in some circles. In it we repeat the cry "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

Some members of our group would have preferred to spend the entire day at Divine Mercy, but instead we  agreed to return later in the day and rushed off to our appointment for a tour of Wawel Castle.

During the Nazi Occupation, the castle became the local headquarters and residence of the tyrannical governor Hans Frank. You may possibly recognize this courtyard from Schindler's List.

As we waited at the castle exit, a great procession arrived on its way into the cathedral.

One of the things that impressed me most about Poland was how many religious there were, and how young. Vocations are booming. (Now, I've since been told that there's a cynical side to this, in that having a priest in the family is seen as a form of economic security, but still.)

The more senior members of the Church were well represented too.

There's that Divine Mercy picture again.

And you can see four red hats here. I believe it was Cardinal Dziwisz, the longtime private secretary to Pope John Paul II, who greeted a member of our group. Incidentally, if you ever want to find out who's who among the cardinals and bishops of the Catholic Church at any time from the Council of Trent to the present, Catholic-Hierarchy is a terrific resource.

We clearly weren't going to get into the castle cathedral until after whatever event there was finished, so we walked down the ramp and out.

As we walked, it began to rain, soon heavily, and we sheltered in the doorway of a restaurant. I couldn't remember if this was the place that a Polish-born friend of mine in Toronto had recommended, so we went on to eat lunch elsewhere.

At the other cathedral, of course I had to get a picture of St Philip Neri, patron saint of the Oratory where our tour's spiritual guide, Fr David Roche, lives and works.

And look at this marvellous screen.

During one of the invasions of the city, a trumpeter perched high in this tower sounded the alarm before being shot dead by an archer.  Each afternoon, the tradition is re-enacted, and the musical signal ends abruptly to symbolize the original trumpeter's death in the line of duty.

A tiny chapel with this image of Jesus' burial is one of the oldest in the city.

As promised we returned to Divine Mercy. I went to a beautiful little side chapel for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Cracking Some Heads of Dissident Priests--Why Not?

In light of the statement of dissent published by 19 dissident priests in Quebec, I went to read Waiting in Joyful Hope. True to form, Fr. Dowd pointed to some excellent reflections at The Great Pumpkin on the how the Roman Catholic Church should deal with dissenters (Part 1) (read the comments too) and Part 2, where Linda quotes him extensively. I confess I had been rather troubled in my Protestant days by 1 Corinthians 5, and Fr Dowd explains it well. Most certainly the corrective force of ostracism as recommended to the Church in Corinth is undermined these days by the existence of so many ecclesial communities, so that if one body attempts to discipline a member, well, there's always some other denomination down the road where the sin in question isn't considered a problem.

And God bless Fr Dowd for his reflections on frustration.

Beyond this, though, I see a sad trend among some Catholics whose love and defense of Faith seems to make them myopic when it comes to Hope. The result is that they try harder and harder to defend the faith to the point of getting frustrated and wondering if it's all worth if, wondering where it's all going — in other words, losing hope. And when Hope is lost, Charity is not far behind. It is possible to have faith and still be on the road to perdition.