Tuesday, December 10, 2013

THIS IS WHY

I am turning the following comment into a post because it demonstrates how MANY people have responded. There are many groups in the church. No other group has been given a regular platform at Sunday Masses with a captive audience with the clear blessing of the archbishop to do its recruiting. 

I think I was at the same Mass. I had no knowledge at the time about the NCW, but there was no doubt that the speaker believed all of us were dead Catholics. I flared with anger, not because of the man's comment, but because the Mass was abused for a commercial and I and others were taken advantage of. 

Let's be clear, the priest did not ask us to stay for a talk after the conclusion of the Mass and the final blessing. He DELAYED the conclusion and the blessing till after the talk. He abused both the Mass and the people present. 

The man's point was no different than what I had heard from people who had left the church and "found Jesus" elsewhere. I had spent years battling anti-Catholics, and here I had to listen to someone bash my Catholic Faith in my own church AND AT MASS!


And the fact that this was said, from the sanctuary, with the priest who had just said Mass standing behind the man, telling us we were dead, that he was "just like" us...simply outrageous. It felt like a rape. 

By the way, if after 400 years of Catholicism, Guam Catholics (without the neo - which was the message) are all dead Catholics, what does that say about the shepherds? Here's the comment:

*****


I remember attending a Sunday evening Mass at the cathedral a few years ago at which a Neo was invited by the priest – I think it was Monsignor David Quitugua – to speak to the congregation. I don’t remember the speaker’s precise words, but I remember this for certain: he clearly regarded the regular non-Neo Catholic Church as deficient. In support of this view he provided a long litany of spiritual and material ills that he suffered before he joined the Neos and while he was part of the regular non-Neo Catholic Church. He said – again, I don’t remember the precise words, but here I pretty closely paraphrase – “I was once just like you,” and at the same time cast a hand toward us, the congregation. Without knowing any of us – he was from the States — he could deduce that we were all in a spiritual malaise and that our souls were in jeopardy based upon the mere fact that we were regular non-Neo Catholics. My question is this: Does Archbishop Apuron believe that the Roman Catholic Church is somehow inherently flawed; that it is deficient as a source of spiritual sustenance and guidance and thus needs to be replaced by the NCW? If not, why does he invite people to assert this position at the cathedral? This speaker clearly did not view the role of the NCW as to aid the traditional RCC or to operate in harmony with the traditional RCC. He viewed the traditional RCC as the problem: a stumbling block to salvation. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded by the speaker and more so by the fact that a priest had invited him to the pulpit to attack the Church. 

7 comments:

  1. I, too, have been held hostage and have had to sit through the annual "recruitment" testimonies for The Way. Lest someone who is "walking" The Way takes exception to my feeling of being held hostage, please note that a hostage is one who is INVOLUNTARILY controlled by an outside influence. In this case, the fact that the priest has not imparted the Final Blessing and proclaimed that the Mass has ended prevents us from leaving; hence, we are being INVOLUNTARILY controlled and are forced to sit and listen to someone's testimony.

    In response to the question "Does Archbishop Apuron believe that the Roman Catholic Church is somehow inherently flawed; that it is deficient as a source of spiritual sustenance and guidance and thus needs to be replaced by the NCW?" The answer is a resounding YES!!! In January 2006 I heard him state on KOLG that ONLY The Way offers the FULLNESS of the Eucharistic Celebration. He made several other remarks that extolled the Mass of The Way and also made the "regular" (non-Neo) Mass seem incomplete or inferior.

    I believe that it was an abuse of authority for the Archbishop of Guam to make such a statement on the airwaves. It is one thing for him to share his passion for the Neos in a private conversation, but it was imprudent of him to proclaim his belief of the superiority of the Neo-Mass on "Guam's Catholic Educational Radio for Guam and the Mariana Islands."

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  2. In one case, the commercial was allowed to occur in place of the homily. I walked out. Found another Mass.

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  3. Another commercial will happen in January. Another member will once again speak to the congregation about how the NCW has changed his life.

    Then they will stand outside the door handing out invitation cards. I just walk by and politely say no thank you. I don't bother taking the card . If questioned why, I simply say I do not believe in the movement. Simple as that.

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  4. I was a young parishioner in my twenties..was involved in the parish CCD program, youth group and I also assisted in doing volunteer work for the parish such as being a greeter, cleaning up after mass and other church functions etc...when we first had an actual couple stand up to do their talk about the neocatechumenal way I knew in my heart that it wasn't right. They killed the reverence of the mass for me.

    When they started taking over the social hall and using it towards their advantage without having to pay for the use of power, which by the way, the villagers were being charged to use for functions such as rosaries, funerals, etc., it became a big deal for the villagers. They then invaded the CCD program...and we couldn't do anything about it because the priest was a NEO.

    I was invited to a Saturday night whatever you call it thing. So I went. I went out of politeness to the people who invited me and I admit I went out of curiosity. Everything was different...everything...and I didn't like it one bit. Anyone who knows me knows I like to try out different things and I like to go with the flow...but my heart knew this was the wrong river I was flowing in. Dancing around the altar?...think about it....all the occult books, stories, movies you watch usually involves dancing around something...and that ain't Christian like at all. Telling your sins to perfect strangers who may one day use it to their advantage is crazy. What really gets me is that majority of the NCW members I have encountered have a snobbish attitude as if they are better than thou because they are in the way... That the sacraments they receive in the way are superior to church sacraments. The list goes on and on.

    Since the NCW has already invaded my sanctuary I decided to find sanctuary elsewhere..so I left my parish for another parish....and I will move if this parish I attend becomes an NCW parish. I no longer give a donation when the collection comes around but I give a mass intention when needed. I now choose to make my donations directly to the charities that will benefit. How do I know if the money the churches are collecting are also being given to help the NCW??? I don't, so I don't give.

    And yes, I am not an NCW supporter...if Kiko and Carmen (an ex nun) are your superiors then by all means please choose to follow them. I will continue to follow the pope...support the NON NEO priest and pray to Mary, Jesus and all the SAINTS in heaven to help restore the church. Oh and by the way, I will continue to say all the prayers and sing all the songs that have been prayed and sung for thousands of years...not 50 years ago...

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  5. In my church, the young man said "i bring good news, next Monday, Jesus is coming to this church", i about fell out of my pew! I thought to myself, i didnt know he left! I guess he was letting us know that we were unworthy to have Jesus in our church.
    Then the next few minutes were spent telling us how this particular seminarian had a problem since youth, and it was only through his involvement with the neo, that God gave him the grace to stop doing that to himself!
    That type testimonial may be appropriate in a men's prison, it was not appropriate in church!

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  6. If the NCW continues for years in the Catholic Church, what will you do? It's more positive than negative. Yes we have flaws, but yet it can be fix through the help of everybody. Nobody is perfect. But like Jesus said, love your enemies as I love you. And yes I see those against the "NCW" looking at like enemies but really, were all the same. Notice how the "NCW" comment here, trying to bring peace, hole everyone bashes us with what is wrong? Is that Christian? You comment how inappropriate Fr. Edivaldo statement was inappropriate but you allow people to call us Protestants and Neon cult?is that really Catholic Christian? Instead of letting people see the negative, help them see the positive, and guide us. Really cause were all one family in Christ.

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  7. In response to Anonymous at 11:08 PM on December 11, 2013: You seem like a very nice and sincere person; but your comments, while earnest, don’t address the issues raised in the post. The archbishop is sending his NCW proxies to the parishes on Guam to explain to parishioners there that they are members of a religion (i.e., the non-neo RCC) that is per se inferior to the NCW. In drawing this comparison, the archbishop is acknowledging the existence of two churches: one that is in his view spiritually desiccated (i.e., the non-neo RCC) and one where Jesus resides and which is spiritually abundant (i.e., the NCW). You are right to value the unity of the Catholic Church. This is not just an administrative or structural matter. It holds great theological consequence because we believe that the Church was, in effect, started (and continues to be guided) by God. This is one of the points upon which we diverge with Protestants (whose doctrine of sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fides subordinated ecclesia to mere a man-made institution which led to the balkanization that we are all familiar with). I also treasure the unity of the Catholic Church. That’s why I am so concerned about what the archbishop is doing now. It appears that he accepts the existence of two churches on Guam and promotes one over the other. Don’t you see why this is a source of concern for many Catholics on Guam?

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