More on Fr. Altier

I’ve been getting lots of emails about Fr. Robert Altier, who I mentioned in the previous post. Some people just want to reiterate their high regard for Altier and how surprised they are by these actions. Others are passing on their conviction that the silencing has to do with Altier’s strong opposition to the Virtus and Talking about Touching training. There’s still no hard information, so I’ll hold off on direct speculation.

However, I will say that Archbishop Flynn, Altier’s bishop, is the chairman of the US bishops’ Ad-Hoc Committee on child and youth protection and thus it is important to his national credibility that all of the “safe environment sex education” training programs be implemented in his archdiocese. Having a prominent priest—who is heard on a national Catholic radio network and whose homilies are posted online and read throughout the country—opposing him on this is not good for his image.

Contrast the action taken against Altier with the (in)action against the infamous St. Joan of Arc parish in the same archdiocese. Outright heterodoxy from priests and people of that parish were tolerated for years until the pastor left on his own terms. There was no silencing, no rebuking. Just tolerance of stuff like a gay/lesbian ministry that openly defies the Church’s teachings.

Problems with Talking about Touching

Update: See new info after the jump.

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