Madison: Bishop Wisconsin has taken unusual steps to eliminate a priest from service after he made a series of comments dividing about politics and pandemics.
La Crosse’s diocese said in a statement on Friday that Bishop William Patrick Callahan had issued a decree to immediately release Reverend James Altman as Pastor St.
James is getting smaller, the parish in the city of La Crosse on the Border of Wisconsin-Minnesota, around 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of Minneapolis.
The decision will still apply for an unspecified period of time, the statement said.
“(Bishop) and his diocesan representatives have spent more than a year, with prayer and disputes, work towards the resolution related to the ongoing public and ecclesiastical issues from the Ministry of FR.
James Altman,” said the statement.
“The obligation of a bishop is to ensure that all who serve believers can do it while uniting and building the body of Christ.” Diocesan officials did not release decisions and did not immediately respond to copy requests.
Altman told conservative news outlets LifesiteNews.com that he was not surprised by the Catholic hierarchy trying to silence him.
“Unfortunately for corrupt hierarchies, I will not be silenced by arbitrary decrees, it will not be mashed by any action against the faculty of my priesthood,” he said.
Altman did not describe.
He did not respond to the related press email who was looking for comments on Friday morning.
The parish voicemail will not receive a message for Altman or parish secretary.
Altman rose to stand out before the 2020 presidential election with a fiery YouTube video where he said Catholics could not be a Democrat and that anyone who supported the Democrats would burn in hell.
He has also criticized the sharp efforts of Covid-19 vaccination and restrictions related to pandemic at Church meetings as “Nazi-esque control.” The orthodox approach to the masses and sermons has pushed several parish members to leave St.
James but has glared with others.
Callake asked him to resign in May.
Altman announced the request of Callahan to his parish during Mass, drawing “NOS” which was heard from the crowd, YouTube video from the ceremony show.
Altman refused to step down, said the Catholic hierarchy wanted him to leave because he spoke the truth and called the “cowardly” and “viper” u-Ahps in online videos.
Supporters throughout the United States responded quickly, raising more than $ 700,000 through Christian Cristhdfunding sites for defense in June.
Altman can appeal the decision of Callahan to the Vatican Congregation for Klergy, which can uphold or change the Callahan decision.
The Vatican Review is further possible if the priest does not agree with the Congregation decision.
Request that a priest resign is not infrequently but they rarely lead to very high rejection, Catholic observers say.
One of the few cases like that in 2002, when a priest in Boston’s diocese refused to step over the charges that he had sexual harassment three decades before.
Rev.
D.
George Spagnolia took his case to the Vatican but could not cancel his suspension.
He died in 2008.
Recently, Rev.
Frank Pavone, an anti-abortion activist who heads for life priests, appealed to Vatican limitations to his ministry in 2011 by his bishop at Amarillo, Texas.
Pavone managed to get limitations, moved from Texas and remained active with priests for life.