Friday, October 12, 2007
BISHOP NIEDERAUER OFFERS APOLOGY
California Catholic Daily has Archbishop George H. Niederauer's apology for giving communion to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence posted on its website:
At Communion time, toward the end of the line, two strangely dressed persons came to receive Communion. As I recall one of them wore a large flowered hat or garland. I did not recognize either of them as wearing mock religious garb.
Afterward it was made clear to me that these two people were members of the organization "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," who have long made a practice of mocking the Catholic Church in general and religious women in particular. My predecessors,
Cardinal William Levada and Archbishop John Quinn, have both denounced this group's abuse of sacred things many times in the past. ...
Although I had often seen photographs of members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, I had never encountered them in person until October 7th. I did not recognize who these people were when they approached me.
After the event, I realized that they were members of this particular organization and that giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake.
I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so.
The manner of dress and public comportment of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is deeply offensive to women religious and to the witness of holiness and Christian service that women religious have offered to the Church and to the world for centuries.
Read all of it...
Hmmmmm. Let's take another look at that picture, shall we? Perhaps the Archbishop needs to have an eye examination. I'm not sure what more this "nun" could have done to "her" costume to be convincing. Is it that the archbishop wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, perhaps?
More likely the explanation offered in the LifeSite article comes closer to the truth.
Anthony Gonzales of St. Joseph's Men Society, one of the groups which filmed the Archbishop giving the 'sisters' Communion, told LifeSiteNews.com that he was pleased with the apology. Gonzales, who will be discussing the matter on Fox's O'Reilly Factor tonight, added, however, that "The Archbishop has a history of "mistakes" especially where homosexuality is concerned."
The article goes on to list several instances of the Archbishop's "mistakes".
