{"id":2272,"date":"2021-05-24T10:19:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T15:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/onthecatholicbeat\/?p=2272"},"modified":"2021-05-24T10:46:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T15:46:21","slug":"father-altman-vows-to-resist-his-bishops-request-that-he-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/onthecatholicbeat\/2021\/05\/father-altman-vows-to-resist-his-bishops-request-that-he-resign\/","title":{"rendered":"Father Altman Vows to Resist His Bishop’s Request That He Resign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Father James Altman, screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Credit to Mike Lewis, the editor of the Where Peter Is blog, for breaking the news last night<\/a> that Father James Altman\u2019s bishop has asked that he resign his position as pastor of St. James the Less Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Lewis transcribed Father Altman\u2019s homily on Pentecost Sunday, in which the controversial outspoken priest tells his parishioners that Bishop William Callahan of La Crosse had asked him to step down this past Friday for being \u201cdivisive and ineffective.\u201d<\/p>\n

As this video of his homily shows, Father Altman was defiant.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WrRIM6EpP3Y<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am not the ineffective one. I am not the one disrespecting my office. They [the bishops] have done a great job being divisive. They have done a great job of being ineffective and they have done a great job of disrespecting their office all by themselves, without any help from me,\u201d Father Altman said.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He goes on:<\/div>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ve had it with anyone who says to me, oh, you have to have respect for the office. Like as if we cannot complain about bad management, or in the case of the rampant feardemic church lockouts, godless management. Dear family, it\u2019s not you or I who are disrespecting the office.\u00a0<\/span>The shepherds who locked the people out of the churches and denied access to the sacraments have disrespected their office more than we possibly could. Again, we are not the ones disrespecting the office. They are, and we need not sit idly by while they do.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n
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\u201cAcross this whole United States, even around the world, they [the bishops] are the ones who have abandoned their sheep and disrespected their office. And the great martyr Saint Maximilian Kolbe said our duty to obey them ends when they, in even the slightest way, would contravene God\u2019s law.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
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\u201cBut to paraphrase the great, great Cardinal Burke. When I die, I will stand in judgment before the Lord, not any Bishop of the church, nor as the great Cardinal Burke specifically said, the USCCB.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Father Altman\u00a0 also claimed his enemies in the hierarchy want his \u201chead on a platter\u201d for \u201cspeaking the truth.\u201d He declared that\u201dno good Catholics\u201d are criticizing him; just the \u201cpansy babies\u201d who are looking to \u201ccancel\u201d him.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Said Father Altman, \u201cAnd that is why they despise me because that is the truth and the truth hurts. So dear family, if I had any words to give you as a gift, perhaps a parting gift on this Pentecost, those words are thank you.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Father Altman added that, through his canon lawyer, he will be appealing his bishop\u2019s order:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAnd I say all this only because I\u2019m no expert on Canon law, but I understand only that while we are contesting Bishop\u2019s request (and we are) he could in theory appoint a parish administrator whilst I remained a pastor without duties until the appeal goes through Rome,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>which could take upwards of a year or more. I speak only on my understanding of what could happen, not what will happen, but if what could happen actually happens, then I truly do not know how much longer I will get to serve you.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n
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He got in one last shot at the novel coronavirus pandemic, which he has called the \u201cfear-demic\u201d in bulletins and homilies:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf this alleged virus was allegedly a fraction as dangerous as I said, it was all the more reason to keep our churches open and get you the sacraments so that you stayed in a state of grace. They put your eternal souls at risk! They despise me for speaking that simple truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Reminder: More than 3.6 million people have died<\/a> worldwide from COVID-19 in the past year, almost 590,000 people in the United States.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Those who have followed the controversial Father Altman in recent months are probably not surprised that things have escalated to this point. Last fall, he appeared in a slickly-produced video warning Catholic viewers that they were hell-bound if they pulled the lever for Joe Biden, a Democrat who supports keeping abortion legal.<\/div>\n
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