Why I Once Almost Clobbered a Priest

I just shared Chapter XXVII of Volume III of Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre (Volumes I & II are available here & here). It consists of an article from The Remnant for 16 May 1980 concerning Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen of Seattle approving recipes for Eucharistic bread containing salt, oils (oil, shortening, butter or margarine) sweetening (e.g. honey, brown sugar, molasses), baking soda or baking powder. Such recipes, of course, would create bread that was totally invalid matter for confecting the Eucharist.

He continued his un-Catholic & anti-Catholic antics & stunts until the Vatican was forced to act. In 1983 the Vatican authorized Joseph,  Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to launch an investigation. Archbishop (later Cardinal) James Hickey of Washington, DC, was named apostolic visitor to the Archdiocese of Seattle.

The upshot of the investigation was that an auxiliary Bishop was appointed with 'special powers' over certain aspects of the life of the Archdiocese. I had long forgotten that that auxiliary Bishop was Donald 'Whirly Donna' Wuerl of later infamy in Washington, DC.

So why I am I relating this ancient history? Because it gave rise to the only occasion in my life where I almost struck a Priest in anger. I was having a discussion with a dear friend, a Priest. He had presented my wife for (a very belated!) Confirmation, witnessed our marriage, and baptised all of our children. We had broken bread together many times.

He knew quite well my position on the questions facing the Church in those days. In fact, during his homily at our wedding, which took place on 'Epiphany Sunday' in the Pauline Calendar, he had remarked that 'for everyone except the Groom, today is Epiphany', knowing full well that I followed the Old Calendar.

He was very upset about the 'persecution of poor Archbishop Hunthausen'. Then he made the mistake of saying something to the effect that Hunthusen was being persecuted, but 'nothing was being done about Lefebvre'!

At the time Monseigneur Lefebvre was under suspension a divinis, which "forbids the exercise of every act of the power of orders which one obtained either by sacred orders or by privilege", the most serious punishment short of excommunication in the Church's arsenal of canonical penalties. In other words, he was prohibited from saying Mass, ordaining Priests, or giving the episcopal blessing (or, for that matter, any priestly blessing).

Hunthausen, on the other hand, had not actually been disciplined at all. He had simply had an auxiliary appointed to handle certain aspects of his powers as Ordinary of Seattle. The utter intellectual dishonesty of Father's statement made me so angry that I almost slugged him. 

Luckily for me (and my next confession!), my Guardian Angel intervened and rather than striking him, I simply walked away from the conversation until I had cooled off.