A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
Click on photo for this corporal work of mercy!

Saturday 13 February 2021

St. Margaret of Scotland in Toronto - A parish in collapse

The video below is of a priest ordained in Toronto by Thomas Cardinal Collins in 2018. I do not know this priest nor anything about him other than what he says in this video published by the communications department of the Archdiocese of Toronto. I am sure he is a good man, a faithful man. This post is not about him, but it is for him.



It is about the fact that this  thoughtful, persevering masculine priest has been ordered by his pastor, Andrew MacBeth, to cooperate in the complete shuttering of St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Parish in the tony district of Avenue Road in Toronto. In this community of $4,000,000.00 homes and Filipino nannies, the people have indicted MacBeth, tried him and found him wanting. Obedience, it seems, works for some, not for others.



This is what happens when you choose to cower in fear rather than use the example of the founder of this Archdiocese, Bishop Michael Power - a man who died ministering to his dying kin from the Old Sod. An example that his Irish descendent Collins seems to have forgotten. This is what happens when you disobey the Cardinals niggardly munificence to provide a service of Holy Communion for ten rather than the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for ten. This is what happens when you can't even open your doors for the Filipino nannies to come and pray.

They fight back the only way they can. And they go elsewhere. (If you can't find a priest for the sacraments, write me at voxcantoris@rogers.com)

Why has Cardinal Thomas "No Mass for You" Collins not ordered MacBeth and others (Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Moore Park is another rich parish in lockdown) to open their doors? I know many priests who are doing everything they can within the bounds of Premier Bumpkin's politburo diktats and the Cardinal's cowardly failure of leadership. Not here though.  

What does this example of MacBeth do to a new priest? What example does MacBeth give to Father MacDonald and what will Cardinal Collins do to save this young priest from becoming Andy MacBeth? I'm sure that St. Margaret of Scotland expects more out of the MacBeth and MacDonald clans than this.


5 comments:

Maudie N Mandeville said...

Thanks for what you do, Vox. I'm still on only to share posts like yours. I don't feel that I'm properly selecting unless I get one or two daily 'FALSE! See Why' notices from FB's Ministry of Culture and Public Enlightenment😆

Anonymous said...

Didn't completely agree with you last time, but I liked your point about Bishop Power. I used to go to Cathedral for a year, and l thought that Fr McDonald was certainly no liberal hack (I know you never said that but just an encouraging thought).

Vox Cantoris said...

Yes, no liberal hack to be sure. Well, he is in a little trial by ordeal and may he come out the better for it.

On the other hand, there are good priests doing all they can.

Any at The Oratory at Holy Family and St Vincent de Paul
Ordinariate of St Thomas More at St Vincent de Paul
All at the great St Timothy’s
Merciful Redeemer Erin Mills
St Joseph’s Streetsville
St John the Evangelist Weston
St Peter’s Bathurst Street
The Cardinal and those at the Cathedral
And of course, the Society of St Piux X in Etobicoke.

And many, many others.

As for the Cardinal, until this, I’ve rarely questioned or criticized. As Barona has opined, we would be his greatest defenders.

Vox Cantoris said...

P.S. I am not Zuckerberg or Dorsey, I don’t expect my readers to agree with me all the time, or ever, nor I them; after all Tom A. and Peter are always great to have around and respectful of me and this blog.

There are others, however, who consider me a mincer, which would be a surprise to my wife, and worse. Others too in high places thinking that I am a fomented of coprophagia.

C’est la vie.

Phineas said...

Honourable mention should go to Our Lady of Lourdes, open daily for private prayer from 8am-6pm. And run by the Jesuits, go figure.

On the other hand we have the two Catholic parishes at U of T (St. Basil's and St. Thomas Aquinas) with their meager hours of opening. Are there not Catholic students able and willing to keep the doors open? And what of the semi-retired Basilians?

And let's do away with confession by appointment only. Is it so difficult to establish set hours? Guess what, people don't want to identify themselves when they go to confession. Gee, who knew? That's why the confession by appointment numbers are abysmal. Or maybe that was the intent?