Public Indecency

Indy priest might be assigned to parishes

A Catholic priest arrested a year ago on a charge of public indecency is in line to lead three rural churches, a proposal the archbishop of Indianapolis says is about forgiveness but which some criticize as reckless and insensitive.

In a letter to members of the three parishes, Archbisop Daniel M. Buechlein emphasizes that no final decision has been made on the appointment of the Rev. Ronald M. Ashmore as administrator and sacramental minister of the churches.

Buechlein said he wanted comments from the parishioners to be collected by the parish councils, which are to meet today with two priests involved in the staffing issue. The archbishop is in Rome for a meeting with Pope John Paul II; Buechlein said in the letter that he hopes to make a final decision in early June.

Comments

[tom]

Does it ever occur to the Church hierarchy that priests who become a scandal might be allowed to retain their priestly faculties but not in public ministry.

[Sandra Miesel]

I was trapped in this priest's parish when I was living in Bloomington. To put it crudely, he's a New Age flake. He never read the Gospel as written but did his own ex temp paraphrase. And how can I forget his sermon on how St. Paul wasn't against fornication, just "too much fornication."
But Ashmore got a lot of national publicity as Timothy McVeigh's "spiritual advisor". He characterized McVeigh as warm and gracious.After the execution, he gave a bizarre sermon about the child victims of OK City fighting forthe privilege of sitting McVeigh's lap in heaven.
This is not a man who should be in parish ministry anywhere. But now that it's been in the press, Buechlein will be excoriated no matter what he does. The idea of him being receptive to input from the affected parishioners is droll, given that the Archbishop has said in print that if laity oppose a decision of his, it only makes him more determined to have his own way.

[Stuart Buck]

Sure enough, here are Ashmore's comments that I pulled from LEXIS:

Jim Remsen, Should we pray for Timothy McVeigh? As execution nears, religions ponder, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 2001, at A1:

One Terre Haute priest who has counseled McVeigh said the souls of the Oklahoma City victims would hold a heavenly banquet to welcome the condemned if he repents.

"I often dream of the children sitting on Tim's lap and giving him a warm hug and saying, 'It is good to have you home,' " said the Rev. Ron Ashmore, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish. "People in the [heavenly] kingdom relate without rancor, like the heavenly God . . . and would even relate to the person who is the instrument of their death in a loving way."

Father Ashmore said he continues to correspond with McVeigh and senses that "God's love is purifying Tim's heart," though he would not elaborate.

[Rod Dreher]

Grrr! Yet another example of the contempt members of the hierarchy have for the laity. Forcing those poor rural Catholics to take a pervert as their priest, and having the audacity to lecture them, after all we've learned since January of 2002, to "forgive." The unmitigated gall of this! If I were in one of those parishes, I would take my family and go to another Roman parish far away, or find an SSPX parish, or even if it were available, an Eastern Orthodox parish.

[Lee]

Rod, the recent Diogenes column addressed this very issue, on the twisting of the concept of forgiveness.

It does seem that the RC hierarchy in this country is, for the most part, in self-destruct mode. Like the Bourbons, they have forgotten nothing and learned nothing. We need to pray for their conversion.

Lee

[John Hetman]

Forgiveness is a blessed act. I am all for forgiveness as soon as these priests are laicized and the bishops retired to a galaxy far, far away.

The same with conversion. Let them be converted without holy office.

[Gloria]

The thing that really gets me is that this priest flashed to a guy! It could have been to little girls or innocent little boys!
PLEEEEZE, a few weeks is not enough time to cure these people. They are never cured/healed. This is tantamount to sending them back to a life of "temptation:"....You don't tempt a thief with money, nor do you tempt a pervert with humans. Oh my, shall we pray?

[m.c.charles]

Are the bishops of the United States in the majority tending cowards and betrayers of the Church built on a rock? One keeps gathering this impression, reading your web. Have (most of) the leaders capitulated?
Is the church in Australia in large part tending this way too?