Monsignor Vincent Foy - Requiescat in pace

Monsignor Vincent Foy has gone to his reward and to meet the LORD whom he served. A priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto, Foy was Born in 1915 and was ordained nearly 78 years ago. 

Monsignor passed away at 10:30 P.M. last evening, March 13.

He is a hero in Canada and a lion of the priesthood.

May he rest in peace.

 

No salt, no light, nothing to see and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

On June 7 of 2014, a glorious event occurred in Toronto which many, your writer included, will never forget. Early in December of 2013, I was approached to put some organisational muscle into getting it rolling and to develop the music program and choir for an exceptional event - the 75th anniversary of a priestly ordination, yes you read that correctly -- 75 years a priest. 

Msgr. Vincent Foy

This Mass would be according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite - the Roman Missal of 1962 and the Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, knowing this, had graciously accepted to attend and Preside. If you know the details of the traditional liturgy this would be no easy task. There were two options for His Eminence he either would Celebrate a Pontifical Mass or he would Preside from the Throne in what is technically known as a "Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate." All you liturgical geeks out there will ooh and ah in understanding. What this means is that the Ordinary "presides" but does not "celebrate." He says the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, blesses the incense and water, kneels at the faldstool during the Canon, gives the final blessing amongst other details but he does not perform the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass. Cardinal Collins did a splendid job considering he was ordained in the early 1970's; though he had been amongst the very last Subdeacons for the Diocese of London, he had never celebrated the Mass of all ages.

It was a glorious day, the Vigil of Pentecost, not a cloud in the sky and the Church, St. Lawrence the Martyr in Scarborough was resplendent and the Schola and choir well rehearsed. Mass began with a glorious procession to Vaughan Williams' Come Down O Love Divine as a processional which included over 50 priests. Then came the Sacred Ministers - Priest, Deacon and Subdeacon all Toronto diocesan priests one under 50 one under 40 and the other under 30 - does that tell us anything? They were not even born when Paul VI celebrated that mass on a table facing the people at All Saints in Rome fifty years ago this past weekend in what was known when I was a boy as the New Mass. Little did we know that we were to get the New New Mass in 1969 and when they made me shake hands and thought they could play guitars better than Jimi Hendrix, I promptly left and didn't return for decades! In came the Cardinal lead by a Subdeacon carrying the new Metropolitan Cross used for the first time outside the Cathedral. He wore a glorious cope which the MC and I found in a museum in a glass case. You have no idea how hard it was to put together red vestments for a Solemn Mass with all the copes and of fine enough quality for the event. We actually borrowed from museums and High Anglicans. What does that tell you!

The priest in question was the wonderful pro-life hero Monsignor Vincent Foy. Msgr. Foy was born in Toronto on the Vigil of the Assumption in 1915. He was the youngest priest ordained in the history of Toronto and he is loved and admired by all. 

Well, not quite all.

Monsignor was a great opponent of the schismatic Winnipeg Statement of Canada's bishops and suffered for it.

He also wrote a scathing assessment of Gregory Baum a notorious Canadian heretic born in Berlin after the Great War of a Jewish mother and Protestant father he later converted and to the Catholic faith, became an Augustinian monk and a peritus at Vatican II and eventually, dissented from the faith. Commonweal, on February 15 1974, published an article where the heretic priest Baum declared that Catholic teaching on homosexuality would change and embrace homosexuality in a few years and he openly advocated so-called same sex "marriage. Gregory Baum states that "I am a person of the left, I am surrounded by left-wingsocial and political scientists, and I am in touch with active members ofleft-wing political parties in Canada and Quebec." Baum later left the priesthood and married (a woman) and is greatly admired by the world with numerous degrees, honourary degrees and even the Order of Canada which is something he shares with notorious baby-killer Henry Morgentaler and water-bottle opponent Archbishop Weisgerber Emeritus of the non-Metropolitan Archdiocese of Winnipeg.

Mr. Gregory Baum, dissenter from the Catholic faith, one time speaker at Toronto's Newman Centre, (more on that another time), Canada's Vatican II heretic, I mean peritus was lionised in this glowing video at Salt + Light Television "Canada's Catholic Channel of Hope."

Which leads me to a question.

When the oldest living priest in the Archdiocese of Toronto, a Monsignor for that matter and made one by Venerable Pius XII; a man who knew and paid the price, celebrates the 75th anniversary of his priestly ordination and the only one in Canada to ever attain such a milestone; whilst at the same time a Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate is held for the first time in over 50 years, is that not news that you might think might be featured on Salt + Light Television - "Canada's Catholic Channel of Hope?"

Nevermind, nothing to see here.

Monsignor Vincent Foy,99 wearing the rochet knitted by his mother with Thomas Cardinal Collins following the Mass.

For more on Gregory Baum, please visit:
http://msgrfoy.com/?s=baum.

Courtesy of Brian in the combox, there is also this: 
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3012

 

Msgr. Foy or Fr. Rosica on Baum: Whom do you trust?

Let us take a moment to thank God for the genius of man who in creating the Internet has allowed the new media to correct the old and proclaim the truth.

LifeSiteNews has now featured the truth of the scandalous interview by Father Rosica with Gregory Baum which has been featured below. More importantly, is this by the great Toronto Canonist, Msgr. Vincent Foy who is as sharp as ever. 

Msgr. Foy writes, "It would take a large book to list and describe the errors and misconduct of Gregory Baum. Here I mention a few of them; there are many others."Michael Swan of Toronto's Catholic Register continues to weave the sycophantic fawning but fortunately some sanity is brought back by Father D'Souza in "toothless lions."

Go here to read the letter by Msgr. Foy.

Whose opinion would you trust?

Now, you and I owe a debt to the priest that follows. Unlike Father Rosica, Msgr, Foy is not fauning over Mr. Baum, but he is clarifying the truth. Here is the letter from 96 year old, sharp-as-a-tack, Canadian priest and hero, Msgr. Vincent Foy.

LifeSiteNews Editor’s Note: This article was received unsolicited from famous Canadian priest, canon lawyer, former head of the Toronto archdiocesan marriage tribunal and outspoken defender of the Church’s moral teachings, Msgr. Vincent Foy. Recent laudatory, uncritical quoting of Canada’s leading dissident former priest, Gregory Baum, in Canadian Catholic media, spurred the Msgr. to write this article and send it to LifeSiteNews. LSN gladly publishes articles from this great, now 96-year-old priest scholar, still writing in defense of the Catholic Church’s moral teachings.

The intention of this article is to protect the faithful from being deceived.

Recently there has been a flurry of references to Gregory Baum, all of them laudatory. An article by Gregory Baum entitled “Vatican II - The Church in dialogue” appeared in the January-February issue if the Scarboro Missions magazine. This article is riddled with false doctrine.

None of these references make mention of the theological errors of Gregory Baum, yet he has done more than any person to harm the Church in Canada in my opinion. His Marxist background and activities are described in detail in a four-page bulletin “Herald of Freedom” April 6, 1974. It is entitled “Rev. Gregory Baum - Canada’s Marxist Pope.” In 1996, in a failed attempt to prevent his talk at the Newman Centre of the University of Toronto, I compiled a fourteen-page list of some of his errors entitled “Notes on Gregory Baum.”

It would take a large book to list and describe the errors and misconduct of Gregory Baum. Here I mention a few of them; there are many others.

Contraception

A focal point of Baum’s efforts was in opposition to the teaching of the Church against contraception. In 1964, Herder and Herder published the book “Contraception and Holiness.” It was presented as a “balanced perceptive declaration of Christian dissent”. Among the contributors were three professors of St. Michael’s College in Toronto: Gregory Baum O.S.A., Stanley Kutz C.S.B. (an admitted homosexual who later left the priesthood) and Leslie Dewart, an atheist. An article reporting an interview with Gregory Baum was printed in the Toronto Globe and Mail of April 9, 1966. It was entitled “Catholics May Use Contraceptives Now.” A year later Baum said that even if the Pope came out against contraception his decision would be irrelevant (Globe and Mail, 1967).  After the Pope’s encyclical Humanae Vitae reiterated the Church’s condemnation of contraception in 1968, Baum was like a whirling dervish in his hyperactivity against the encyclical. He spoke in Canada and in the United States. On August 1, 1968, the Globe and Mail had a feature article by him “Catholics May Follow their Conscience”. In the August 23 issue of the US Catholic Weekly Commonweal magazine, there was his article “The Right to Dissent”. The September issue of the Homiletic and Pastoral Review carried his “The New Encyclical on Contraception” where he attacked the Pope for going against the experience of vast numbers of Catholics and the witness of other Christian churches.

Homosexuality

Gregory Baum openly advocated same-sex “marriage”. In Commonweal for February 15, 1974, he wrote an article on homosexuality in which he declared that Catholic teaching on homosexuality would change and embrace homosexuality within a few years. Homosexual activists used this article as a handout for almost two decades throughout North America. In speaking to Dignity and other homosexual groups, he encouraged them to remain in the Church but to work for a change in the Church’s teaching.

Devotion to Mary

In the early sixties, I attended a dinner at Osgoode Hall under the auspices of the Catholic Lawyers Guild. Gregory Baum spoke on the exaggerated “Cultus” of Mary in the Catholic Church. He stated that there was no evidence of devotion to Mary before the fourth century. At the time, I had been reading a section of the book “Mariology” edited by Juniper Carol, O.F.M. on the “The Origins of Marian Cult”. It gave numerous examples of devotion to Mary in the first three centuries. Mary herself proclaims in the Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55): “All generations will call me blessed.” Baum discouraged recitation of the Rosary.

Dissent and Rejection of Authority

Msgr. George Kelly wrote in “The Battle for the American Church” pp. 448-9: “Gregory Baum argued that Rome’s grip on the Church can be loosened by careful violation of law. In Baum’s view freedom from Rome’s law can be obtained by seizing it in the knowledge that violations will go unpunished.”

The Priesthood

I conducted about twenty of the first priest-laicization processes for the Archdiocese of Toronto. A number of priests said that they were encouraged to leave the priesthood by Gregory Baum. He promoted the concept of a temporary or “existential” priesthood. In an article printed in the Toronto Star of April 23, 1966, Baum stated that he was not alarmed at the large numbers of priests and religious departing from their vocations. He said “By assigning the laity a higher place in the Christian Church, the whole matter of the role of the clergy has to be re-thought.”

A Report to the Archbishop

I was pastor of St. John’s Church on Kingston Rd in Toronto in 1966. In the parish there was a convent of Notre Dame Sisters. I received a phone call from the Superior of the Notre Dame Sisters, who was in Ottawa. She told me that one of the younger Sisters, studying at St. Michael’s College, was obliged by Gregory Baum to attend a weekend retreat near Orangeville. This was before the mitigation of Friday abstinence. Meat was served on Friday evening. “The Sister said ‘Fr. Baum, this is Friday and you are serving meat’. He replied ‘Sister, here I am Pope. Eat your meat!’ In the course of the weekend, he encouraged immoral familiarities between male and female religious. You must report this to Archbishop Pocock”. I suggested that she report this to the Apostolic Delegate in Ottawa. “No,” she replied “Sister is in your parish and you should report it”. The next day I made a report on the matter to Archbishop Pocock. He threw up his hands and said “What can I do?” I said he could suspend Baum. He did nothing and allowed Baum to continue teaching at St. Michael’s College for another nine years.

Suspension and Excommunication

When the Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics was issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on December 29, 1975, Gregory Baum criticized it severely. He said “The concept of sex only within marriage was no longer adequate. Even if marriage is the ideal, this does not mean there is no responsible context of sexual relations for mature single people, the widowed and the divorced.” In response, Archbishop Pocock suspended Baum from hearing confessions. In the issue for January 14, 1978, the Catholic Register reported that “Gregory Baum, noted Canadian theologian and outspoken critic of the Church, married a former nun in a private ceremony recently in Montreal… the bride is Shirley Flynn, who left her religious order about fifteen years ago.” According to Canon 2388 of the Code of Canon Law in force at that time, Gregory Baum was automatically excommunicated.It is difficult to understand why articles by Baum should continue to appear in Catholic periodicals; why he should be praised in others; why he should be invited to speak in Catholic institutions such as St. Paul’s University in Ottawa and why this arch-heretic should be highly praised in an interview given him recently by a Catholic priest currently posted on a website.