Today we review more of the story on Fr. Bryan 
Hehir’s next speaking gig coming up April 30 at the Diocese of St. Petersburg’s “Living Eucharist” conference in Florida. For new readers, here’s Part 1, where we shared how one keynote speaker alongside Boston Archdiocesan Secretary for Social Services, Fr. Bryan Hehir, is the non-collar-wearing Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. who advocates publicly for gay priests and tells his audiences they should be reading gay novels and watching gay movies like Brokeback Mountain. Hehir as a senior archdiocesan cabinet official and most influential advisor to Cardinal Sean O’Malley apparently feels just fine sharing the main podium with Fr. Timothy. So here we look at the other keynoter Fr. J. Glenn Murray and then next at Bishop Lynch’s leadership of the Diocese of St. Petersburg where the talk is taking place.
Fr. J Glenn Murray, SJ. Fr. Murray is a Jesuit liturgist and here’s his bio. “J Glenn” specializes in African-American worship, and like everyone else ”J Bryan” hangs out with, seems to have had his share of ‘swings at the bat’ to undermine the Church.
He was Director for the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Cleveland from 1995 to 2007. That’s the same diocese where the bishop (Bishop Pilla) resigned in the wake of an embezzlement scandal, where the rainbow flag/colors have adorned their Gay & Lesbian Family Ministry website and where they supported dissident organizations like Future Church with office space in a rectory basement through 2006. But I digress… Fr. Murray himself created a stir in 2003 by issuing new directives in the Cleveland diocese for how Catholics were to receive communion. An article in the August 24, 2003 Cleveland Plain Dealer that extensively quoted Fr. Murray said, “American Catholics are about to experience major changes in the Communion rite as dioceses begin implementing updated General Instruction of the Roman Missal.” The only problem is that Fr. Murray’s changes were NOT actually what the GIRM called for. Among his changes were:
- the congregation using the “orans” posture during the Lord’s prayer (this means hands raised as only the priest does)
- embracing fellow worshippers during the exchange of the sign of peace
- “ undoing a lifetime of tradition by not kneeling in prayer after Communion. Instead, in a sign of the communal nature of the sacrament, worshippers will stand and sing until each person has received Communion.”
Fr. Murray acknowledged the changes would “unsettle many Catholics” but said, “”I think it’s a vast improvement.”
Adoremus summarizes the situation and response. Here are a few excerpts:
These changes were advocated by some liturgists a few years ago — a revision that was eventually rejected by the Holy See….[and] never approved by the bishops. And they were neither included in the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the universal Church, nor in the ‘American adaptations’ of the GIRM.
Cardinal Arinze, then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, even was asked to weigh-in, and he said:
Earlier, similar responses from the Vatican made it clear that changing customary kneeling to standing was not intended; indeed was ‘laudably retained’.
Adoremus concluded:
The liturgy office in the Cleveland diocese (and several others) is mandating changes that are neither specified nor mandated in the norms for the universal Church or for the US Church. Far from promoting unity, the effect of mandating these deviations from the customary practice in the Catholic Church in the United States is literally divisive — dividing one diocese from another, one parish from another, one Catholic from another.
Besides having no basis whatsoever to change the Cleveland liturgy, he is also a fan of liturgical dance. In this 2004 report, Fr. Murray was seen “accompanied by scantily clad liturgical dancers in black skimpy costumes dancing with their smoking bowls of incense during a children’s grade school Mass.” He was at the same Religious Ed conference in Los Angeles where Fr. Tim Radcliffe talked about gay novels and movies. Fr. Murray led a “Black Culture” liturgy:
Beginning with a bongo drum sequence and featuring black Gospel singers dressed in native African costumes, the event featured Jesuit Father J. Glenn Murray…He concluded his homily by leading a hand-clapping rendition of “Can’t Nobody Do Ya Like Jesus,” and dancing all around the stage, with Cardinal Mahony, from his presider’s chair, clapping along with the crowd.
Murray left Cleveland in 2007 after Bishop Richard Lennon arrived in 2006 and started cleaning house. But Murray is nothing compared to Bishop Lynch, who we get to in Part 3. In the meantime, first-time site visitors should check out Part 1, about the other keynote speaker on the podium, Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. who advocates for gay priests, celebrates Mass for openly dissenting homosexual groups, and tells his audiences to let their imaginations be “stretched open” by watching Brokeback Mountain and reading gay novels. If you’re outraged by all this, drop a dime to the Papal Nuncio in Washington, DC:
3339 Massachusetts Avenue NW
This brings to mind our need as lay Catholics to pray harder for our bishops; pray for the faithful ones to be supported and encouraged by God’s grace, and for the rest to grow an orthodox spine for the sake of their own souls and those they shepherd.
Here’s a good episode of RealCatholicTV.com that brings home the point succinctly:
Amen
I am a parishioner in the Cleveland Diocese and I wanted, for the sake of accuracy, to point out that “embracing fellow worshippers during the exchange of the sign of peace” was NOT one of the changes that occurred in our diocese. Using the orans posture and standing both before and after communion were changes introduced in the name of revisions to the GIRM, even though the GIRM does not recommend those changes. I remember weekly handouts regarding the changes implied that the rest of the dioceses in the U.S. would be adopting the same changes, even though occasional visits to churches outside of Cleveland proved this to be wrong.
TomM, thank you for your comment. We shared what was reported and ordered by Fr. Murray upon the diocese at the time. As you mentioned, Fr. Murray did indeed order changes in the name of revisions to the GIRM when no such recommendations or changes were actually called for in the GIRM. It sounds like they misled parishioners by making it sound like this was happening across the country when he knew that was not the case. And from the news article, Fr. Murray was clearly backing the move of the hug at the sign of peace saying the new rite (which did not exist at all) encouraged people to embrace one or two people in a serious, sober gesture of reconciliation. “The meaning of the sign of peace is not hail fellow, well met,”Murray said. “It is a rite of reconciliation, of unions of minds and hearts.” Obviously, no such changes were in reality encouraged in the “new rite” at all, so this was a fabrication. Maybe the people in the pews resisted the hug, for understandable reason. We are glad to hear that at least one of those moves didn’t stick, even if Fr. Murray requested/ordered it.
Thanks you again for writing.
shoot cool story bro.
Here in St. Louis, there was a grave sex abuse scandal somewhere around 1985. The individual was a Brother of Mary who was charged with something like 40 counts of sodomy in three different states. He worked at three different high schools in Missouri, Texas, and Colorado. Here in St. Louis, he was tied in with reform of the Catholic Schools with Archbishoip John May whose first act was to make contact and hold a conference with Dignity. The loyal Catholic priest superintendent was canned (later Bishop John Leibrecht of Springfield) who had doctorates in Education and Theology and replaced with a nun who never got her doctorate over ten years. The object was for this brother to come in and phase out the dying out Brothers of Mary and impliment a newer, friendlier version of Christianity. He made alliances with all of the “scum bags” of the school. They were then allowed to run the school through the National Catholic Education Association which was founded by active gays. This entire issue continues to be a mess. Did I forget to mention that Archbishop May also reformed many Catholic parishes by replacing older conservative priests with younger gay friendly individuals as pastors? The Pope sent in Cardinal Rigali from Rome and then visited himself to stem the tide. How did this end up? This evolved into Cardinal Burke and he was “run out of town on a rail”. JPII is dead and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has asserted its control to the detriment of the Vatican. Semper Fi.
Gee, I why are we worrying about such nonscense. I pray to God each night, in the dark, while laying in bed. I talk to Jesus while I’m driving to work. I attend Mass and I’m just praying and talking to God while I’m there. I sometimes hold my wife’s hand, I give her and my kids and close friends a hug as a sign of peace. I listen to the readings. The Gospels take me back to the time of Jesus and the first Christians. I imagine being with them, with the diciples. I don’t care if the priest is wearing a date outfit from the renaissance periord, I’m with Jesus – baroque architecture or Italian images don’t help me to pray. The Roman rubics remind me more of a middle age pagentry – and if the priest “presider” takes himself too seriously, with his dress and middle age pagentry, again I don’t care. I’m holding my wife’s hand and we’re both Americans. We don’t bow or knell, because for us, it’s bowing to old world tradition and people who just take it all a little to seriously. We don’t bow to the Queen and love the fact we live in a country that got away from foreigh powers telling us how to pray. I love the Catholic church and it’s history. I appreciate the tradition. But I don’t get all worked up about it. My grandmother used to wear gloves to church. She wore gloves to lunch or shopping. My father always wore a suit and tie. That was another day. God’s still here and he listens. Having someone body tell me how I’m supposed to worship is nonescense. We’re all saints and the Eucharist belongs to the faithful. It’s a free gift to those who follow and are in love with Jesus. I go to Mass to recieve the Eucharist which is already mine, weather I skip, kneel or hold my wife’s hand. My heart is good and no one is going to give me conditions to recieve what is mine.
News of the day:
The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus has removed Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J. from ministry following an allegation of the improper touching of a minor that occurred in 1981-1982 while he was in Baltimore, Maryland. This is the only allegation the Society has received involving Fr. Murray.
Provincial of the Maryland Province, Rev, James Shea, S.J. permanently removed Fr. Murray from all ministry. He now resides in a monitored residence with his Jesuit community.
You failed to mention in your post that the allegation was dismissed and the case closed after the alleged victim refused to talk to the police. The Jesuits hired an independent invetigator who reported that the allegation was unfounded.
According to the release that you are quoting, the new superior decided to re-ivestigate the case because he was considering a new assignment for Fr. Murray. This new investigation determined that the allegation may have merit.
To date the alleged victim still has not come forward and there are no other allegations against Fr. Murray.
Makes one wonder who did Fr. Murray “piss off.”
What a stuff of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious know-how
on the topic of unexpected emotions.