LA CROSSE St James Novus Ordo Mass 05/23/2021

A Wisconsin priest who has faced criticism for his defiance of COVID-19 restrictions and his vocal skepticism on the pandemic and vaccine told his congregants last weekend he has been asked to step down.

The Rev. James Altman told his flock at St. James the Less Catholic Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Pentecost Sunday that the Bishop of the La Crosse diocese, William Callahan, has asked him to resign — a request that Altman will be challenging with his canon lawyer.

“For the record, dear family, Bishop Callahan has asked me to resign as pastor as of this past Friday,” he told his congregants, “because I am ‘divisive’ and ‘ineffective.’”

Emphatic cries of “no!” and what sounded like more lengthily worded objections to the notion that their flock’s shepherd would be stepping down could be heard from the pews in a YouTube video of Sunday’s mass:

“In response, my canon lawyer asked for clarification, asked for the justification and a chance to review what was in my file that suggested I was so ‘divisive’ and ‘ineffective,’” Rev. Altman continued.

“And I say all this only because I’m no expert on canon law but understand only that while we are contesting Bishop’s request, and we are, he could, in theory, appoint a parish administrator whilst I remain a pastor without duties until the appeal goes through Rome which could take upwards of a year or more, I speak only on my understanding of what could happen, not what will happen.”

During his fiery homily, the Rev. Altman laid out his case that any division he has caused was done so in pursuit of his calling to obey Christ and to provide his congregants with the sacraments that Catholics view as necessary to maintain a state of grace, going as far as to accuse those who have not met the spiritual needs of their flocks of putting souls in peril.

He pointed to the Words of Christ himself, who specifically said in both the Gospels of John and Luke that he brought with him division. (Matt 10, Luke 10)

There is division. Jesus came to divide the truth vs. the lie, the sheep vs. the goats, the few vs. the many. As we know He will come again, He promised to divide those few sheep from those many goats,” the priest said.

“So dear family you have to ask yourself, why is anyone accusing me of being divisive, like as if that is a bad thing?” he asked his flock.

“If we know that the truth divides… then why is any good Catholic complaining of me being divisive?” he continued, noting that in 14 months of criticism from the media and Catholic establishment, no one has once accused him of not speaking the truth.

“No good Catholic is complaining,” he said pointedly.

Earlier, he explained that while he has been accused of “disrespecting the office” of Catholic leadership, that it is the “shepherds who lock the people out of the churches and denied access to the sacraments” who “have disrespected their office more than we possibly could.”

“What really is at play here, dear family, is that other shepherds are offended because I simply state the facts that they abandoned their sheep in a time of need,” he also said.

The priest pointed to “20 years of scandal after scandal revealed” within the Catholic church and the “billions paid out to victims in the coup de gras after they dared to lock the faithful out of the church and deny them the sacraments.”

“Nothing I ever could say could ever come close to disrespecting their office as they have disrespected their office,” he charged.

Meanwhile, as far as the accusation that he is “ineffective,” Rev. Altman pointed to impressive collection envelope figures as well as donations from all over the world thanks to the viral nature of his defiant stance on COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination that have helped address some of the church’s biggest needs, including ramps and bathroom facilities that make the building more accessible to elderly congregants.

More important than the “staggering” donations that have come from visitors to the church as well as supporters all around the world, however, was the rate at which St. James has been growing in number — they’ve seen double the number of new baptisms, he said.

This is not an isolated case for the good reverend — other churches are also seeing spiking rates of attendance and new baptism, something which the Liberty Counsel recently noted of the Romanian Pentecostal churches in Chicago that they are representing in lawsuits against Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and whose charges of “disorderly conduct and mob action” for holding services with more than ten people were just dropped by the city.
https://www.westernjournal.com/bishop-demands-divisive-priest-resign-defying-covid-restrictions-brings-holy-fire-next-sermon/?utm_source=Email&;utm_medium=WJBreaking&utm_campaign=ct-breaking&utm_content=western-journal