No matter whether one prefers the traditional or reformed liturgy, it infuriates me that a shepherd like Archbishop Bernard Hebda should be ridiculed for disciplining a disobedient priest. Ordained in 2024, Father Philip Conklin was the assigned parochial vicar of two parishes. However, he took a leave of absence in March of this year and quickly affiliated himself with the schismatic Society of St. Pius X. The priest is now recruiting funds online for his canonical defense. The archbishop has informed Fr. Conklin that he is not permitted to exercise any public ministry. The matter is largely academic, given that the SSPX also regards his ordination as suspect. The good archbishop has responded to the negative press by asserting his good will toward the renegade priest and his family, stating, “This is a painful situation that merits our fervent prayers for Father Conklin, for his family and for the parishes of Saint Michael and Saint Mary. Please know of my prayers for all of you and your loved ones.”
Ordained in 2024, this priest knew full well that he would be expected to celebrate the Novus Ordo. If that was not his intent, then he should never have presented himself to the archbishop for ordination. I have no problem with the faithful sympathetic toward the traditional liturgy; but none of us should have anything to do with those who ridicule the reformed Mass under Pope Paul VI. Only two years a priest and already this priest is fed up with the post Vatican II Mass. He writes: “I simply couldn’t do the deficient, abuse-ridden liturgy anymore. My conscience ate at me more week after week.” Lacking a love for the normative Mass of the Roman Rite, how is it that he was approved for ordination? I suspect the real problem was deception on his part. I was ordained forty years ago, and I still find the Novus Ordo liturgy enriching and spiritually powerful. It is our participation at the banquet of the Lamb and in the oblation of Calvary. The fault here was not the liturgy but, in the heart and soul of this renegade clergyman. He defames both the holy liturgy and his own priesthood. His online appeal for funds disgusts me as he makes it an occasion to broadcast his scandal of disobedience.
No amount of funds will save him as the canonical case is clear. Diocesan priests make two fundamental promises, one to obedience and the other to celibacy. In truth, the promise that has all the gravity is obedience. The man is configured to be an “Alter Christus” at the altar and in the confessional. Our Lord extends his authority to men to act in the person of Christ. The priest is also a ministerial extension of his bishop, something this man obviously forgot about soon after ordination. If proven that he should not have been ordained, he will be laicized. It is tragic but for the best.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Bible, Catholic, christianity, Faith, Jesus, novus-ordo-mass, obedience, priesthood, sspx |
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