Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Open Thread

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Get your feet off my lawn, you dang-fool kids!!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry...but feel badly for gramps...

gramps said...

So you clearly do not want me at your site Father. At 72 years old, a lot of folks do not seem to want Catholics around who actually remember when a bishop was teaching the actual faith loudly and proudly and not pleading guilty to helping hide the abuse of children, silent on abortion issues for fear of losing a tax exempt status or offending some pro choice catholic. When my son set up my computer and showed me how to find blogs, I felt that maybe there was a place for this old man to send out his voice. You want your site to be about your topics only and say you do not want to be involved in politics and it is your site. I was mistaken in that your blog might be a place to voice strong Catholic faith beliefs. But as a Catholic priest, you seem ready to shut any of this down and send me away so I will do that for you and go away. After serving in wars for this country, I will soon be passing through life to a better place. we seem to be ready to turn everything on its head that we once believed in for a little free healthcare, silence on abortion, gay marriage, and a catholic leadership in absolute fear. I was attracted to your site innitially because I thought maybe here was a new young bold priest who would preach the faith and in the midst of genocide stand up and preach. Sorry I was so mistaken. At a very crucial time before an election to decide the lives of millions of babies, you took a pass and went silent. Maybe you had orders from the bishop in this area whose silence and history are the shame of our area Catholic history. I will pray for you and no longer bother you. Your grace and mercy have shown through in this post.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Gramps:

I thank you for your service to our country. That's not what this is about.

No, I don't want you to leave; but I do want you to behave with respect for others, including me.

For you to accuse me of not preaching the faith is, I am sorry to say, "exhibit A" of the lack of courtesy and respect I mean. For you to accuse me of remaining silent is, in fact, exactly contrary to the facts.

I hope when you settle down, you'll see that.

Eileen:

I feel badly for Gramps, too.

Anonymous said...

Fr. Fox,

It appears you removed your email address so I'm going to post this here. Sorry if it is right in front of me somewhere on your site and I just don't see it.

FWIW I think starting a post titled "What gramps cares about" is beneath you regardless if you are right.

Gramps,
I share your frustration with Fr. Fox's position but the many documents I read by good bishops like Archbishop Naumann and Bishop Finn's that encouraged the decision you and I made also supported Fr. Fox's decision.

Thanks for your unwavering dedication to the victims of abortion.

Tim Lang

Fr Martin Fox said...

Tim:

Fair point. I changed the title of the thread to "Open Thread."

Here's what set me off.

I offered a homily on All Souls Day -- which only comes on Sunday every 5 or 6 years -- about the Last Things, about a happy death, about purgatory. These are subjects that so many Catholics rightly observe get too little attention and and need more explanation. This was a golden opportunity to do so and I took it.

Now, I am also well aware of the need to have people approach the decision on election day the right way. In addition to talking about pro life at various times through the year, I gave not one, but two homilies on the subject in recent weeks, both of which were posted on this site.

And there are other things that happen in this parish that are supportive of prolife and aimed at helping our Catholics go the right way.

Given all that, I definitely take offense when gramps makes the accusation that I failed to do my job and that my homily on All Souls was out of bounds. As I told him, on that thread, I found his comments "way out of line," and I would have expected he would come back with the natural question, "how so?" Instead, he continued pounding the same theme.

However frustrated he is, I find that rude. And, really, if he's going to post on my site without even responding to me, there's a problem there. When I've had political threads, he has in those threads tried to dominate those threads, and I have asked him not to do that. It's one of the reasons I decided they were too much trouble.

Anyway, I didn't ban him, I said he should think about behaving differently. I created a separate thread to make the point. I can see where the title came across as insulting, so I'm sorry about that, and I fixed it.

If the issue is my refusal to vote for McCain, I point out that McCain lost Ohio by more than one vote cast in Miami. My vote would not have changed the outcome, so I really wonder why anyone should keep pounding me to cast that vote.

If the issue is my refusal to get up and tell people to vote for McCain, there are a lot of reasons why I chose not to do that which I am happy to explain if anyone wants to know.

But if someone scrolls back two weeks, he will see the homily in which I told people, point-blank, how to vote.

Anonymous said...

Fr.

You are right, not only about your homily but also what and how you decided regarding the election and your vote.

I understand any priest taking offense when wrongly accused of not preaching the faith in his homily.

You have been patient with all of us who disagree with you and post on your site.
Thanks,
Tim Lang

gramps said...

Father Fox, just wanted to come back this one time. I have thought a lot about my posts at your site and have come to believe that I did go to far in my passion to try and ignite a fire to fight this genocide of abortion. I think I saw in you and a few other priest and deacon blogs real talent with the ability if ignited to change a few minds and that just maybe in some way make a difference. I do not have a blog because I do not know how or have writing ability. With your background in Washington and now what appears to be a strong love of the church, I guess I was trying to bring your voice to the forefront of this battle.

On a personal note, I just wanted to give you a little more insight into my passion. Two years ago my son committed suicide. He had lived for years with the knowledge that his wife had decided on her own to abort his child because of her career. Eventually this destroyed their marriage and ended his life. I hate abortion and all the lives it takes and despise someone like Obama who says things like he would not want to punish his children with a baby and sees nothing wrong with even partial birth abortion.

I was a little upset when you made the decision to make my post a topic on your blog, but now see I did overstep my bounds and so will move on and no longer bother you. Just wanted to say sorry before I leave.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Gramps:

Well, I appreciate you sharing that, and I'm so sorry for what you went through.

I am happy to have you post here, I just would appreciate you being mindful of a thing or two when you post.

Anonymous said...

Dear Fr. Fox,

Thank you for your blog. I also wanted to e-mail you to ask if you would consider taking a look at our blog and, if you liked what you saw, could put in a plug for us. We are a new group blog - blogging about virtue and holiness and how we can grow in our relationship with Christ in the everyday moments - like the one you and Gramps were having :)
Our blog is called Broken Alabaster
http://www.brokenalabaster.com
I greatly appreciate your efforts and look forward to a blog-visit from you (and anyone else that reads this) Sincerely, Mary