USA: Faithful Priest Speaks Out – “You Can’t Be A Catholic And A Democrat!” (That’s For Sure…)
LA CROSSE, Wisconsin, September 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Hundreds of people descended on a rural Wisconsin city on Sunday in a show of support for Father James Altman, whose viral video message, “You can’t be a Catholic and a Democrat,” has now been viewed more than 660,000 times.
Fr. Altman’s bishop, the Most Rev. William P. Callahan, recently threatened the outspoken priest with “canonical penalties” for his video, even as public support for the priest has surged among rank-and-file Catholics around the country.
Supporters reportedly came from as far away as Puerto Rico to pray the rosary for Fr. Altman, who has been called “brave and courageous,” a “true shepherd,” and a “modern-day John the Baptist.” Many supporters praised Altman for empowering laity and priests alike to be bold and speak the truth.
Nearly all the prayer rally participants interviewed by LifeSiteNews shared a common sentiment: “We need more priests like Fr. Altman who are true shepherds.”
“When you look at how many people showed up today, that came from many states away, that just speaks volumes about how hungry people are for truth,” said one woman. “What a great gift Fr. Altman has for being able to proclaim that truth in an eloquent way that not only empowers the public.” He is “empowering our priests as well.”
“Fr. Altman speaks the truth loud and clear and bold,” observed another. “We need more priests like him.”
“Fr. Altman is a rare breed. He’s a modern-day St. John the Baptist,” declared another. “He’s really changed my life and so many others he’s had that impact on. We need more priests who are true shepherds.”
“He takes his role as shepherd extremely seriously and we need that, especially in today’s world,” the Fr. Altman supporter continued. “There’s so much chaos, and I love how he calls out the ‘brood of vipers’ within the Church, within our government.”
“He is motivating us Catholics to do more than just watch him on video and feel good,” she added, saying that she thinks people will now get out to defend the faith. “I think he is being used by God as a catalyst for change within the parishioners in Catholic churches, not only here in Wisconsin, but all around the world.”
One young woman told LifeSiteNews that she believes a lot of priests remain silent because of fear of repercussions from the hierarchy.
“Fr. Altman is so brave and courageous that he’s willing to risk all of that for us so that souls might be saved and that people might be spared from the eternal fires of hell,” she noted.
“Fr. Altman is an incredibly humble man,” said a woman who works at Fr. Altman’s parish, St. James the Less in La Crosse, as she waved her hand, pointing to the large surrounding crowd. “I think this whole thing really mystifies him.”
She said she was shocked to see people from all around the country come to support her parish priest. That support is needed, though, because Fr. Altman “preaches the truth [which is] sometimes hard for people to hear; it can be hard to swallow, and so there are some people who are resistant to the truth.”
A man who said he’s not Catholic but showed up to support Fr. Altman nonetheless commented, “We’ve been watching his homilies since May.”
“We love these fellow patriots, we love them, we care about them,” he continued.
He said he has been disappointed with some members of the “Protestant clergy not speaking up.”
“We’ve got Fr. Altman over here, our friend, speaking up boldly, so we’re 100% behind him,” he concluded.
Father Richard Heilman, a popular speaker and writer who led the “Peaceful Prayer Rosary Rally,” said, “I know a lot of people wrote letters of appreciation to Fr. Altman’s bishop, and I bet he saw thousands – if not tens of thousands – of letters, because we all do appreciate Fr. James Altman.”
“Bottom line: He loves, loves, loves his flock, and so like a good shepherd, if he sees the wolves invading, he sounds the warning alarm,” said Heilman.
“Finally!” proclaimed Heilman. “Finally someone with such fiery passion is speaking directly to what’s going on in the Church and in the world, and we’re so eternally grateful to him for that.” Source – Lifesitenews
Comments invited…
Comments (16)
Quoting from the above report, the following struck me forcibly…
Nearly all the prayer rally participants interviewed by LifeSiteNews shared a common sentiment: “We need more priests like Fr. Altman who are true shepherds… “Fr. Altman speaks the truth loud and clear and bold… We need more priests like him.”
In the USA they will have – more likely than not – other priests, like Fr Altman, who will be preaching faithfully and who, given the opportunity, would speak to a wider audience.
But, here in Scotland? In the wider UK? Is there even one priest who will act like a true shepherd, speaking out, in the midst of the confusion and chaos around us?
Perhaps in this part of the world there is more need for the exercise of the virtue of prudence? Is Fr Altman correct in saying that more priests don’t speak out due to fear? Is he right to call out the bishops for their failure to teach the Faith and deal with dissenters?
Editor,
We certainly do need more priests like Fr Altman, but we won’t get any in Scotland, or even in England (I don’t know anything about Wales or Northern Ireland).
The trouble is, if a priest speaks out like that in this country, he’s liable to be suspended – just look at what happened to Fr Despard for trying to expose the homosexual element in the Church in Scotland.
I feel sorry for priests, although I would love it if we had our own Fr Altman here.
I’ll be praying for Fr Altman, although I think with all the publicity and the letters gone to his bishop, the bishop is not likely to do anything against him now.
Lily,
I understand that it is not easy for priests to speak out but then I remember the words of Archbishop Vigano, which I think are worth quoting here:
“To bear witness to corruption in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was a painful decision for me, and remains so. But I am an old man, one who knows he must soon give an accounting to the Judge for his actions and omissions, one who fears him who can cast body and soul into hell. A Judge who, even in his infinite mercy, will render to every person salvation or damnation according to what he has deserved. Anticipating the dreadful question from that Judge – ‘How could you, who had knowledge of the truth, keep silent in the midst of falsehood and depravity?’ – what answer could I give?”
A sobering thought, which should give every priest – and bishop – pause for thought.
LSN are carrying the following story today: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholics-for-biden-enlists-high-profile-dissident-catholics-to-sway-catholic-vote?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=standard Worrying, because there seem to be far more dissident ‘Catholics’ these days, than faithful ones.
Westminster Fly,
That’s a disgrace – Joe Biden is a total disgrace, posing as a Catholic and now actively trying to fool Catholics into voting for him by using celebrities.
I would love to hear a Catholic justify supporting Biden. I wish one of the them would come on here and say that they feel they can, without any problem in their conscience, vote for this baby murderer.
If it’s because they don’t like Trump’s personality, then they are obviously short of a few cans from their six-pack. Trump is not a Catholic, yet he is 100% prolife and even stood to attention in honour of Our Lady during the singing of the Ave Maria at the end of his party conference. Meanwhile, Joe Biden removed the very word “God ” from his party conference.
As I say, I would like to hear, first hand, from any Catholic who plans to vote for the baby murderer when there is an alternative – a candidate/President who is 100% prolife, the most prolife President in America’s history.
Fidelis,
I agree totally – let any Catholic planning to vote for Biden, try to convince us here that they are right to do that. It comes under the heading “Mission Impossible” IMHO.
WF,
I agree with Fidelis and Lily – Joe Biden is a total disgrace, along with every Catholic who even considers voting for him.
I will pray for Father Altman – what a great priest. I’ve heard some of his sermons published on this blog and he is always impressive. As he says, the bishops let the dissenters away with everything but they walk all over a sound priest. It’s all part of the diabolical disorientation – Fatima again!
Fidelis,
Spot on – it’s all part of the “diabolical disorientation” of which Sr Lucia spoke, clearly quoting Our Lady. It’s everywhere – everything turned upside down in the world, with good being made to look like evil and evil like good.
In this case, the sound priests are persecuted and presented as “bad priests” while the self-evidently faithless and immoral priests are defended and promoted. This disorientation is manifestly from Satan – turning everything upside down, is his hallmark.
I agree – we ought to pray hard for Father Altman and other persecuted priests.
Yep, all paths lead back to Fatima . . . Russia has successfully spread her errors throughout the world. Cultural Marxism reigns. Evidence of the diabolical disorientation in the Church and in the world is plain for all to see. I was interested to read about Karl Marx’s tomb in Highgate Cemetery, London, recently. With all this vandalism / destruction of statues of people linked to slavery, I was wondering why this tomb and statue have seemingly achieved a kind of shrine status – even tax-payer funded CCTV has been put on this tomb to stop the occasional acts of vandalism that have occurred there. If I had my way, I’d dismantle the tomb and disinter his remains and have them put in an unmarked grave, preferably not in this country. I haven’t read it but I have been recommended to read the book “The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration” by Paul Kengor. Marx once wrote in a poem in 1837, a decade before his Manifesto: ““Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well,” “My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.” That certainly seemed to be the perverse destiny for Marx’s ideology, which consigned to death over 100 million souls in the twentieth century alone, and that death total continues to rise each day by abortion.
Westminster Fly,
That is really interesting information about Karl Marx. I have family members who are very politically minded and they defend Marx. They just think he’s the saviour of the working class. I need to remember those quotes. Thank you Westminster Fly – it goes without saying that you are right abut all paths lead back to Fatima.
Lily
That book on Marx is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Devil-Karl-Marx-Communisms-Infiltration/dp/1505120055/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1600345599&sr=8-1 It’s presently out of stock but I think it will come back in stock fairly soon.
WF
This is the brief review of the book – mandatory reading for those who laud Marx:-
Two decades after the publication of The Black Book of Communism, nearly everyone is or at least should be, aware of the immense evil produced by that devilish ideology first hatched when Karl Marx penned his Communist Manifesto two centuries ago. Far too many people, however, separate Marx the man from the evils wrought by the oppressive ideology and theory that bears his name. That is a grave mistake. Not only did the horrific results of Marxism follow directly from Marx’s twisted ideas, but the man himself penned some downright devilish things. Well before Karl Marx was writing about the hell of communism, he was writing about hell. “Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well,” he wrote in a poem in 1837, a decade before his Manifesto. “My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.” That certainly seemed to be the perverse destiny for Marx’s ideology, which consigned to death over 100 million souls in the twentieth century alone. No other theory in all of history has led to the deaths of so many innocents. How could the Father of Lies not be involved? At long last, here, in this book by Professor Paul Kengor, is a close, careful look at the diabolical side of Karl Marx, a side of a man whose fascination with the devil and his domain would echo into the twentieth century and continue to wreak havoc today. It is a tragic portrait of a man and an ideology, a chilling retrospective on an evil that should have never been let out of its pit.
Westminster Fly,
Those quotes from Marx are really chilling. “My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell” – that suggests he was religious in some way previously.
I know someone who made a statement once saying that he had sold his soul to the arts. Is it wrong to interpret that as selling his soul to Satan? I’m interested in your opinion
Michael J Matt, Editor of The Remnant, spoke at a Trump rally this week. The video is in this article
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/5061-freedom-matters-michael-matt-speaks-at-trump-rally
https://youtu.be/ctql1vqNCQQ
A courageous priest indeed!
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