Church Militant published an article yesterday about two New England priests who have abandoned their priestly obligations to simulate marriage — to each other.
Fathers Joseph Cooper and Michael Clements “recently ‘married’ and moved to Minnesota, leaving behind a trail of hurt and betrayed parishioners as well as financial questions of a possibly criminal nature.”
About nine years ago, our Brothers and Sisters were on a little pilgrimage to the seat of our diocese, the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Manchester. The cathedral rector at the time was kind enough to give us a tour, showing off the improvements he had recently overseen to the church’s interior by reversing many of the silly wreckovations of those mad years that followed Vatican II. (The Cathedral has since undergone more genuine renovations, thankfully in a more traditional direction.) I recall that the rector, a former Franciscan, was particularly excited over refurbished Stations of the Cross that were soon to be erected in the cathedral.
That Cathedral rector was none other than Father Joseph Cooper. He had subsequently changed assignments, as the post he abandoned was that of pastor of Kathryn’s Church in Hudson, New Hampshire. It is sad, infuriating, and terrifying to know that this man has left the priestly ministry, under false pretenses, to simulate the sacrament of matrimony with another priest. To the sin of sodom, their wicked union adds the sin of double sacrilege owing to the priestly character indelibly marked on both their souls.
One thing to note in the CM article is the bulletin announcements that both of these priests wrote announcing their departures to their parishioners. On the surface, they are thick with narcissism, which is one of the unmistakable traits of the homosexual male. In hindsight, and given the actual purpose of leaving their respective posts, the farewells are also replete with outrageous mendacity, another common attribute of the male homophile.
It’s easy to get angry at these things and vent, but what we who love the Church should do is pray all the more; see, love, and seek God all the more; and remain faithful to the Church’s perennial wisdom all the more, even if it seems that there are so few of us doing so. (Elias was surprised when God told him, “I have left me seven thousand men, that have not bowed their knees to Baal.”)
It has been said before, but in such troubling times, it takes heroism to be normal — “normal” meaning here faithful to nature and to grace.
Please pray for all those poor parishioners, especially the children, who have been scandalized by this, and pray also for Messrs. Cooper and Clements; they are headed straight for Hell, and we do not want them to go there. Lastly (but really uppermost in priority), prayers ought to be offered in reparation to our offended God; HIS divine Majesty has been outraged by His priests, and reparation ought to be made for that by those who love Him.
The prayer revealed by Our Lady to the Fatima children is apt:
O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly, and I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ truly present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. And by the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
Cooper and Clements (image: Facebook). “And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man… . Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie… . For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affection… . [T]he men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.” —Romans 1:23-27
