COVER-UP BISHOP CANCELING HONEST PRIEST

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https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/art ... est-priest


COVER-UP BISHOP CANCELING HONEST PRIEST

A bishop in the “Old Dominion" is rejecting dialogue with and trying to defrock a faithful priest for speaking truth.

Richmond's bishop, Barry Knestout, suspended Fr. Mark White in 2020 for openly and honestly discussing sex abuse and cover-up in the Church.

And now, refusing to converse with Fr. White, Knestout is petitioning Rome to forcibly laicize the priest — without substantial cause.

Father Mark White:

I'm facing possibly being expelled from the clerical state, which is a stunning thing for me to experience. The priesthood is my life, And I never thought that I'd have to go a whole year to celebrate Mass by myself, because I've been suspended for no good reason.

Father White was ordained by disgraced homosexual pederast Theodore McCarrick. But as revelations of the ex-cardinal's predation surfaced in 2018, Fr. White began blogging about sex abuse and cover-up within the hierarchy.

His candor piqued Knestout, who's made it clear he wishes to cancel Fr. White. The priest does remain respectful and obedient to the suspension, but also to truth.

Fr. Mark White:

Broad strokes like demonizations of the hierarchy, that's not really going to get us anywhere in the long run. ... The answer, I would say, is systematically seeking the truth and demanding the truth. ... Just because you're a bishop, you can't fudge things and rest on your prerogatives as the authority. You've got to answer questions like everybody else does.

Knestout's attempt to ostracize Fr. White and even make him question his own sanity are failing.

Fr. Mark White: "But thank God there are enough good people out there who care about me. So that hasn't worked. The bishop hasn't succeeded in making me feel like it's just me out here on an island. I know that's not true."

One of those supporters is Judy Rogers, a parishioner at St. Francis parish in Rocky Mount, where Fr. White was pastor. Rogers' attempts to defend Fr. White to Knestout have fallen on deaf ears.

So, through apostolic nuncio Abp. Christophe Pierre, she wrote to Pope Francis detailing the events that led to White's current predicament.

Judy Rogers: "It worried me very much that someone like Theodore McCarrick should be overlooked or allowed to continue and yet a good priest like Fr. Mark, they're so quick to try to get rid of him for speaking the truth."

Rogers sent a copy of that letter to head of the Congregation for the Clergy Cdl. Beniamino Stella, as well as the head of the Congregation of Bishops and Knestout's metropolitan in Baltimore.

Her correspondence is in the transcript for this report.






While Knestout converses with Protestants claiming to be about dialogue, it seems he'll do everything in his power to silence priests who speak truth.