Thursday, April 08, 2004

Lexington bishop dismisses 5 top officials

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Lexington Bishop Ronald Gainer is dismissing five high-ranking Catholic officials, four of them women, as part of a "departmental reconfiguration."

The director of pastoral services, Sister Helen Garvey; the parish leadership director, Sister Elizabeth Wendeln; educational ministries secretary Margaret Ralph; the director of ministry formation, Sister Iris Ann Ledden; and chief financial officer Stuart E. Duba are losing their jobs.

The firings stunned some of the diocese's 46,000 Catholics.

Gainer, Lexington's bishop since February 2003, announced the dismissals Friday in a letter to diocesan staff.

[Article here]


The diocese of Lexington under former Bishop Kendrick J. Williams, who was forced into early retirement for sexual abuse complaints, was corrupted from the top down. I had tried to help my brother write letters to get some 'aberrations' resolved when he lived in the area. Apparently the diocese was a hotbed for the homosexual subculture.

The catechetical instruction program for the diocese was abhorrent and run by a religious sister who was repulsed by anything orthodox. They had a practice of First Communion before First Penance despite the fact that this practice was suppose to have ceased 30+ years ago. Many of the churches had no kneelers, stripped interiors, no tabernacles, and were frankly, little more than meeting halls. I have a copy of a letter he wrote in response to a letter my brother sent him. As long as the diocese was engaged in "social justice" programs, all other matters (doctrinal, liturgical, etc) were of little importance. Truly sad!

Three good, faithful priests of the diocese received death threats via mail, presumably by brother priests, for speaking out on the evils and abominations of homosexuality. My brother and father are friends with one of the priests who was threatened - a old priest well past retirement age.

Hopefully, the new bishop will be able to continue fix the problems there.

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