Father Tom Doyle - Interview (Question for The Editor) (Main Forum)

by clommer , United States, Monday, August 06, 2012, 00:47 (290 days ago) @ joanw

I am aware of St Augustine's rule. I attended an Augustinian University where we were not permitted to speak to the novices nor they to us. In our senior year we had a newly ordained priest assigned as prefect to our dormitory. He had come from Holland to study engineering in the States so he could establish a college in South America. He told us about being a seminarian in Holland during WWII. The Gestapo hunted them down for transport to labor camps. They hid in homes and during the raids would hide in trees. That practice ended when the Germans set up machine guns and sprayed the trees. Thereafter they hid in the small space above the doorway in each house. The Gestapo would check each bed for warmth and then count the people present. The seminarians then had sleep with a child and he said no child ever revealed the arrangement to the Gestapo. I remember his laughter when he told us that just before final vows, they would pool all their money and had a big party because they could have nothing afterwards and would have to turn over everything to the Order.

We all admire Tom Doyle and we all are saddened if he had to leave the Order of Preachers in order to be candid. In my parish we had 4 girl altar servers, 2 veterans and 2 novices. The pastor commented on what a good job they had done and how nice it was to see them on the altar. He continued and made an off the cuff remark that who knows maybe someday one of them might be ordained. The temple police reported him and the next Sunday at all Masses he had to apologize and assure the congregation that he misspoke and that there would never be a female priest. The Catholic Gestapo are just as bad as the German variety.

I would welcome a discussion on whether clerical candor depends on financial independence and what we can do to bring candor and freedom of speech back into the Church.