Heretical Priest Association Publishes Highly-Revealing Survey Results

The heretical organization of Catholic clergy which calls itself the Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP) held its Annual Assembly online this past week, and since it was a virtual “pay-to-play” conference, the Lepanto Institute sat this one out.  We’ve been exposing the heretical activities of the AUSCP as a subversive organization Hell-bent on perverting Church teaching on a number of levels.  Here are a few of our most damning reports:

• AUSCP Officially Called for Women’s Ordination to the Priesthood
• AUSCP Gives Venue to Condemned LGBT Organizations
• AUSCP’s Plan for Ordained Women and Priestless parishes
• AUSCP’s Idea for Priestly Formation and Info on Conference speakers
• AUSCP’s Desire to Obtain Funding from Unsuspecting, Pew-sitting Catholics
• AUSCP’s Membership in an International Network of Heretical Organizations
• AUSCP’s Alliance with Heretical, Pro-Sodomy Organizations
• AUSCP’s Keynote Address from Notorious Priest, Fr. Richard Rohr
• AUSCP’s Vision of the Church in Relation to the Vision of Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich
• AUSCP’s Bridge Dialogues Attempt to Change the Entire Structure of the Catholic Church

This past February, AUSCP took a survey of it’s members asking respondents to rank a list of issues related to the priesthood, social justice, and the Catholic Church in general, ordering the list according to what they believe to be the most important down to what they believe is least important.  Included on the list were items such as “Abortion as the single issue,” “optional celibacy” “racism,” “the environment,” “priestless parishes,” “women deacons,” and the like.

A supporter of the Lepanto Institute recently forwarded us a pdf file of the results of this survey, which contained some rather revealing information indicating the state of mind of many of its members.  A total of 393 AUSCP supporters (priests, religious, and laity) answered the survey.  Of that total, 256 identified as priests (160 retired and 96 active), 72 identified as “religious” (48 active and 23 retired), 3 deacons, and 29 simply designated as “other.”  Those who indicated “other” in this survey question had to explain in a comment box, the results of which indicated a possible additional 23 priests (15 specifically indicated they were priests, and others, by the description are likely priests, but it is unconfirmed).

Details from the comments of those identifying as “other” provided information that gives an insight into the kind of reach and influence exercised by AUSCP members.

One simply identified as “gay,” which is unsurprising.  Other indicators are as follows:

• educational ministry in public colleges
• founding and directing the Casa Esther Catholic Worker House in Omro, WI
• VAMC (Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center) Psychotherapist and Chaplain
• Pastoral Leader of a “Priestless” parish

After looking up the Casa Esther Catholic Worker House in Wisconsin, it didn’t take long to discover that the founder and director is Fr. Joseph Mattern.  In a 2018 article on Pax Christi’s website regarding Bp. John Stowe, Fr. Mattern commented about having met Bp. Stowe (ordinary of the Diocese of Lexington, KY) at two separate AUSCP conferences:

Fr. Mattern is also listed among the 2018-2019 donors to the AUSCP.

In another portion of the survey, respondents were asked to indicate their “religious community.”  In this section, some of the respondents actually named their parish or convent, which are as follows (NOTE: we do not know WHO from these parishes or convents answered the survey, but the association of the parish with the AUSCP is deeply troubling):

• Christ the Redeemer parish, Manville, NJ
• Conception Abbey, Conception, MO
• Holy Family Parish Endwell, NY
• Sisters of St. Dominic, Amityville NY
• Sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin, OHio – 2
• St Margaret Mary Naperville illinois
• st patrick church, london oh
• Genevieve/St. Maurice Parish and Faculty – Madonna University
• Thomas Becket in Eagan, MN

In question 2, respondents were asked to write about issues or concerns they had which they would like the AUSCP to take on.  This section gives a deep insight into the mindset of AUSCP members.  Among the responses, AUSCP members unshockingly focused on homosexuality, women’s ordination, and married priests.  In addition to this, some respondents indicated that they would like the AUSCP to focus on “getting Trump out of the White House,” reducing abortion as the “pre-eminent” issue among pro-life issues, and concerns related to care for priests who are guilty of sexual abuse.

What follows is a selection of such answers (these are copied straight from the survey, all spelling and grammatical errors are original):

Q2 If there are issues/concerns that are important to you that were not reflected in the issues/concerns in the previous question, please share these issues/concerns in the space below. Then tell us how important these issues/concerns are to you, relative to the Top 10 concerns that you force-ranked in the previous question.

1. 1. #1 Very serious: Ideology of USCCB that elevates abortion to the only sin that is “pre-eminent”. This leads majority of US bishops to support immoral policies of politicians who promise to Mae abortion illegal. Instead they should embark on widespread moral teaching about abortion and the other evils the USA currently engaged in – racism, unfair wages, rejection of refugees, etc. Simply making abortion “illegal” does not satisfy bishops’ moral obligations to women or the unborn.
   2. Married priests
   3. LGBQT
   4. LGBTQ outreach
   5. LGBTQ
   6. Gay candidates and priests – #2
   7. # 1 Discrimination against LGBTQ teachers and employees
   8. The Catholic Church and the rules it has made up that it considers a sin. Should stick to preaching the good news instead if being like the scribes and Pharisees and making burdens too hard to lift.
   9. American church’s obsession with abortion, birth contro ll and homosexuality would rank the highest on my list. 2. Uselessness statements and conclusions from USCCB meetings. Have no relationship to reality of average individual or family. 3. Continuing absence of women’s voices/votes in church issues from electing popes to local parish decisions. Without women’s equal rights who make up more than half of the Catholic Church, Catholicism is irrelevant as an Institution. Women have fought for centuries for their equality in their personal lives, their jobs and place in society. Why believe in a church that denies them the same rights. 4. Make all male religious orders follow the Dallas Charter in dealing with sexual abuse. These male orders are not held to the same standards and receiving an impartial hearing is much more difficult, orders do not have to publish names of credibly accused priests and their financial responsibility is far, far less.
   10. I am concerned about the priests who because of allegations or actual guilt of abuse are out on their own. What about our responsibility to them and to the greater community. They seem to be abandoned. Are we concerned about their healing and their possible threat to the community?
   11. Legalism and authoritarianism among the younger clergy who seem to be wanting to return to an earlier church with strongly established clericalism. I am very concerned about many of the recent crop of clergy who seem more inclined to memorize and parrot back dogmas than seeking to serve their communities.
   12. rethink role of sexuaity and morals around it
   13. LGBT clergy and laity
   14. #1 widen access to ordination to priesthood and episcopate to include married persons and women
   15. 1ordination of women to priesthood,e.x Anglicans,Lutherans
   16. Support of priests accused of sexual abuse and especially support of priests falsely accused of sexual abuse
   17. Reasonable dealing with celibacy tradition
   18. I truly believe it is time for woman deacons and married priests
   19. Mission to the marginalized, especially LGBTQ+ List in top 10
   20. Women’s equality and dignity in the Catholic Church
   21. Theology of sex – we come from a priori How about going from nature and experience. Our society needs this dialogue
   22. That many bishops, priests do not preach loudly about justice issues eg. Racism, white supremacy, homelessness, LGBT respect, government….
   23. Optional celibacy
   24. #2: Women priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes. #3: Inclusivity (race, gender, nationality, etc.)
   25. sexual and gender issues
   26. married priests, it would change and affect all the other issues
   27. Priest and the lgbt community within the ordained and the baptized. After my #6
   28. Getting Donald Trump out of the White House, getting the GOP out of power in Washington, D.C. These concerns were not mentioned in the force-rank selection

Question three was similar to question two and covered a lot of the same ground.  The following are a few selections from that section:

Q3 If there is anything else that you would like to share, please use the space below to tell us.

1. 1. Women deacons
   2. Catholic morality centers almost exclusively around issues regarding sex. The world needs us to do better
   3. The church should stick to the two great commandments and the ten commandments. Also not be judgemental and exclusional of gays. We are ALL sinners. Is one sin worse than another? Gays
   4. Until women are invited in leadership with the Bishops and Priests the wounds will not be healed. Many of those in leadership have never experiences a deep and abiding love for a woman and consequently are so afraid of a shared existence.
   5. After 45 years I hope to see something get better. As an observer to all the expensive fad programs to revitalize the church I find it bewildering that Bishops don’t learn from successes accomplished in ministries in their own dioceses. My observation is that the strong local parishes get there by flying under the radar of bishops. Nobody in authority is curious about successes. In my diocese under a strict conservative bishop the seminary was transformed from a place of ministerial formation and theological education into a school of training for deputy Marshall’s empowered to enforce orthodoxy and liturgical rubric. We are paying a huge price for that style of leadership. The young men that I ministered with during my last 15 years were told that they should assume that they were better educated theologically than the pastors he was sending them to. Costly arrogance!
   6. Radical change beginning with language. Priests are our brothers in Christ, not our father…we only have one father, our Father in heaven. Get rid of the words clergy/laity. We all have the same vocation to represent Christ as much as we possibly can. Get rid of language in ordination rite that says the ordained have a greater responsibility to represent Christ more fully. Not true. We are all called to do that. Unteach attitudes of St. Thomas and Augustin on women. Reteach and educate seminarians on the contributions and sacredness of women. A six week course should be required of all in formation as priests/deacons.
   7. women priests
   8. Both male and female, married and single people applying for ordination should have completed college and some graduate theological education
   9. Celibacy whould be optional for diocesan clergy
   10. Women Deacons and Women in Church Governance needs to include what was once the unspeakable, Ordained RC Women Priests

Some of the most useful information came in question 5, which asked each respondent to identify the diocese in which they reside. The information is useful as a cross-section analysis of where the AUSCP “hot spots” are.  Given that AUSCP boasts of having over 1,300 members, the 315 responses on this question represents about 1/4 of all AUSCP members.  The AUSCP claims that members are “priests in good standing in dioceses and religious communities.” However, comparing this claim with the findings in the survey, the identified dioceses below with AUSCP members should be cause for great concern to all Catholics, and especially bishops.

Given the responses to this survey, there can be no doubt that the AUSCP is a thoroughly heretical organization, filled with heretics.  The AUSCP needs to be completely condemned by every bishop throughout the United States.

We’ve tallied up the members identifying with any given diocese and compiled it into the following list:

Albany – 5
Altoona-Johnstown – 1
Arlington, VA – 2
Atlanta – 4
Austin – 2
Baltimore – 5
Beaumont – 2
Belleville – 1
Biloxi – 1
Boston – 3
Bridgeport – 2
Brooklyn – 1
Buffalo – 4
Camden – 1
Charlotte – 1
Cheyenne – 2
Chicago – 11
Concinnati – 9
Cleveland – 5
Columbus – 6
Covington KY – 1
Davenport – 3
Denver – 6
Des Moines – 1
Detroit – 12
Erie – 1
Evansville – 6
Fall River – 1
Fort Wayne/South Bend – 2
Fresno – 1
Galveston-Houston – 1
Grand Rapids – 1
Green Bay – 2
Indianapolis – 1
Jackson, MS – 1
Joliet – 3
Kalamazoo – 1
Kansas City St. Joseph – 5
kansas city in Kansas – 2
La Crosse – 3
Lafayette – 1
Lake Charles, LA – 1
Lansing – 3
Lexington, KY – 1
Little Rock – 1
Los Angeles – 4
Louisville – 7
Madison – 5
Metuchen – 4
Miami – 2
Milwaukee – 8
Mobile – 1
Nashville – 1
New Orleans – 2
New Ulm, Mn. – 1
New York – 6
Newark – 6
Oakland – 9
Ogdensburg – 1
Oklahoma City – 1
Omaha – 2
Paterson – 3
Philadelphia – 5
Phoenix – 1
Pittsburgh – 2
Portland in Maine – 2
Portland in OR – 2
providence – 2
Richmond Virginia – 4
Rochester – 9
Rockford, IL – 1
Rockville Center – 4
Saginaw – 5
San Antonio – 1
San Diego – 1
San Francisco – 2
San jose – 1
Savannah – 2
Seatte – 2
Shreveport – 1
Sioux city – 2
Spokane – 1
St Augustine – 1
St Louis – 8
St Paul and Minneapolis – 11
St. Petersburg – 1
Steubenville – 2
Syracuse – 4
Toledo – 23
Trenton – 1
Washington, DC – 5
Wheeling Charleston – 4
Wilmington – 3
Worcester, MA – 1
Youngstown – 8

What we recommend is that you print this article and mail it to your bishop, asking him to condemn the AUSCP, forbidding his priests from being members and from supporting it in any way.  Contact information for your bishop can be found by clicking here.