Santa Fe, John Wester, and Me
A visit to the cathedral years ago told me something was very wrong in Santa Fe.
Before I begin, I should alert you in case you haven’t heard that the Title IV townhall in ACNA went much better than I had expected. For one thing, the “trauma-informed” language is to be removed from the Title IV proposal.
Thanks be to God and to all who spoke up. And thanks to the Governance Task Force for their courageous decision.
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So a Roman Catholic priest, Steve Rosera, was in a homosexual domestic partnership for ten years. When that became public, the Archbishop of Santa Fe John Wester did nothing.
Well, that is not fair. Wester did do something.
As noted in its original report and in the letter to the nuncio, not only has Archbishop Wester not imposed any canonical sanction upon Rosera, despite the public report documenting the priest’s homosexual “domestic partnership,” but he has promoted Rosera to several influential positions of authority within the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, including pastor of parish and grade school and judge on the marriage tribunal.
That is rich. Rosera willfully violates the most basic standards on marriage and morality for years. But the Archdiocese of Santa Fe puts him on a marriage tribunal.
This brings back a memory of Santa Fe, a bad memory. It might have been before Wester became Archbishop, but I’m not sure.
I had visited the Cathedral of Santa Fe a number of times as a tourist. It is a beautiful building with interesting history. So when I read a particular Sunday Mass was to be special for some reason I don’t remember, I decided to attend.
But, early on, I knew something was wrong. A gentlemen was standing up and talking about a ministry of the Cathedral or its ministry in general. And he said with a big cloying smile something like “All we do here is all about . . .”. There was a brief pause for emphasis. I pretty much knew he was about to say “Jesus” or “the Lord”. But that is not what he said.
All we do here is all about . . . you.
That startled me. And the Mass went downhill from there. I particularly remember the awful music. I wish I could get it out of my head. They could have had excellent music. The imposing organ was hardly used or misused. Instead, imagine if some clueless white honkey crackers tried to be indigenous and hip. That’s what it sounded like. Reverent it was not. “Pretty fly for a white guy” comes to mind. [WARNING: The music video below is almost R-rated.]
I quietly fled before the awfulness was over. But I should have known what was coming as soon as I heard . . .
All we do here is all about . . . you.
Much could be written about how and why the Roman Catholic Church is going astray. But that someone would say the above during a Mass without blushing says enough. When the church gets diverted from being Christ-centered to being man-centered, the prevalent sins and errors of man will sooner or later take over.
And, of course, several of these prevalent errors today are in the area of marriage, gender, and sex. So when a priest shacks up with his boyfriend, if the church is man-centered instead of Christ-centered, then who is to judge?
Yes, that is an echo of a certain lib Pope who said on the same general subject, “Who am I to judge?” If Christ and his words are not centered and man is instead allowed to usurp the throne of the church, the answer is no one except the prevalent zeitgeist of the day.
Of course, this is not just a problem with the Church of Rome. Evangelical Protestants are notorious for being man-centered in their worship and preaching. It surprised many, including me, when Evangelicals began to struggle in dealing with wokeness and alphabet ideologies. Weren’t they Bible-believing and all that? But we should have expected it given the Evangelical penchant to be a man-centered Church of What’s Happening Now.
Of course, all the effort to be hip and with it ends up cringe, not unlike “contemporary Christian music” and the Church of England.
I’m stomping on everyone’s feet this morning, aren’t I. Oh well…
The Church of Rome, the Church of What’s Happening Now, and maybe your church can struggle with whatever variety of cultural flatulence comes wafting through the doors. And Satan and his Marxist minions promote their lies with ever changing smells and labels.
But the problems, nay, the problem is deeper. Will we be Christ-centered or man-centered? The church will never be perfect until Jesus returns and cleanses her. But Christ-centerness is the road to faithfulness. Man-centerness is the road to perdition. And the sorting in both directions is ongoing and will increase as the time draws near.
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Lead-in photo by Frank Romeo
Kudos to you, Mark, for raising the "trauma-informed" issue, and kudos to the ACNA for removing the language from the proposed canons. I just watched the most recent episode of Anglican TV, recorded the day before the ACNA townhall, in which George Conger called "trauma-informed" language as "witchcraft," and that may also have helped.
There are important differences between how therapists work with people who have experienced trauma and how a church should approach disciplinary procedures. I am not a therapist, and so I can't comment on whether the process is valid in that setting or not, although I should think that even in a therapeutic setting it would be important to try to understand if the offenses were, in fact, as the patient describes them, and whether emotional responses are inhibiting healing.
Thank you a great musical blast from the past. It's an entertaining and prescient tune. But most of all thanks for the laser focus on man-centered vs. God centered worship. So easy to lean the wrong way, sometimes with good intentions but more often out of the needs of the flesh. I was for a time at a church where I celebrated facing East (toward the altar, oriented with the people toward God rather than toward them.) I'm not fussy about it but I think there's much to be said for it.