|
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Orr
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 10:25 AM
To: Veil of Innocence
Subject: VIRTUS & The Culture of Death
Importance: High
Mrs. Grayson,
My name is Rick Orr. I'm a Catholic home schooling father of five living in the archdiocese of Indianapolis, IN. I happen to be very good friends with Thomas Augustine of the diocese of Charleston, SC and have been working with him to try and expose VIRTUS for what it is. I am also in the process of feeding information to my mother in-law (who happens to live in Hellertown, PA) to get her involved in fighting this program within the Allentown diocese.
This past Thursday I attended a VIRTUS training program for adults here in the Indianapolis area. The following day, I wrote these comments to Thomas Augustine:
*******************************
Well, yesterday evening I attended my first VIRTUS training session. I showed up armed with every bit of information I had received from you [Thomas Augustine] as well as the archdiocese of Indianapolis.
The VIRTUS facilitator was a woman by the name of Cathy Tichenor, a very well known and respected principle at one of the local Catholic schools. The very first question she asked was why do we think Priests have been preying on 'children". I looked around the room and noticed that no one was going to say anything so I blurted out because they're homosexual and, for the most part, those 'children" were pubescent or post-pubescent boys. She told me in no uncertain terms that I was the first person to have ever said that and that she would love to know where I was getting my information. She then proceeded to tell the 'class" that priests were no more likely to prey upon 'children" than any other group within society. It was at this point that we were also informed that homosexuality had absolutely nothing to do with the crises in the Church. I brought up the fact that if this were true than why is the Vatican going to great lengths to release a document, approved by Benedict XVI, on barring homosexuals from the priesthood, due to be released in October. She had no idea that this document was even in the works.
I sat through both VIRTUS videos and the feelings sessions that followed each. All the while I was doing my best to just keep my mouth shut until the time came for Q&A. Finally, the Q&A began and I raised my hand. Mrs. Tichenor, I could tell, was trying to avoid me, but alas she had no choice but to hand the floor over.
Upon questioning the program and informing them that as of November 1, per the Office of Catholic Education for the archdiocese of Indianapolis, sex education was going to begin in earnest in Catholic schools and CCD classes under the guise of VIRTUS, I was immediately attacked by the vast majority of women in attendance (90% of those in attendance were women), one of whom began questioning who I was, what my credentials were and where I attended Mass, as if it mattered. I simply responded that I was a concerned Catholic home schooling father of five; apparently that wasn't good enough. I was then accosted by the VIRTUS facilitator who said she, being a Catholic principle, had no idea about this VIRTUS for children program and that it couldn't be possible without her knowledge.
More women began chiming in with questions such as, 'other religions have just as much of a problem as we do, so why do you insist on picking on priests?" My response: 'I really don't care about other religions, I am Catholic and as such I care about Catholic priests." This went over like a lead balloon.
Ultimately my Catholicism was questioned and I was asked by Mrs. Tichenor why I remained Catholic if I could possibly believe that our bishops would give us a program that had ties to Planned Parenthood. I replied that I was and remained Catholic because the Catholic Church is the one, true Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which there is no salvation. After regaining her composure, she then asked me how it was that I could adhere to any Church teaching if I thought that these men weren't infallible. I almost fell over out of sheer shock. I asked her if she understood the Church's teaching on infallibility and in short, she was clueless.
In the end, Mrs. Tichenor did take all of the material that I had brought but flat out said she refused to believe that the bishops could possibly offer a program with ties to the culture of death. I responded that I didn't think it was possible that the bishops could or even would try to cover up one of the most heinous scandals to befall the Church, but they did.
After all was said and done, only one women in the room came to me and began asking questions and wanted to know more. Not surprisingly, she was a home schooling mother.
On the Easter Vigil of 1999, the day I came into the Church, had someone told me that I would be fighting a program such as this and that it came straight from the bishops, I would have laughed at them. May God have mercy on us.
*******************************
I would very much like to send a link to your website, Veil of Innocence, to the homeschooling e-mail forum that I am a part of but every time I try to access the site it is down. Please let me know when this will be resolved.
Pax Christi in Regno Christi,
Rick Orr
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
Send to a friend
