Las Lomas

It's one thing to hear that a Catholic has decided to go to a protestant church and quite another to find that some are being lead astray by people who pretend to be Catholic priests and bishops. There is not much shock - though there should be - when we hear that someone is leaving the Catholic Church to go to XYZ chapel or some community church but when people use the name Catholic in the name of their "church", dress like priests and present themselves as Catholic priests I...get...angry.

There is always the occasional story about a renegade priest who has left the priesthood and started his own church. They give it a nice name and they're on their way. However, when someone uses the name "Catholic" in the name of their church, says he's Catholic, and intentionally misleads people he commits a grave sin and deprives innocent and unexpecting people of the true Roman Catholic faith and the grace God offers us in the Sacraments.

From time to time someone would mention that there was a priest in the neighborhood who was teaching catechism to kids from the garage of a house on a street called Las Lomas. No one seemed to know the exact address. We put a notice in the bulletin to let people know that this man was not a valid priest and whatever "sacraments" he may be offering are not valid. As a result some parents approached me to ask me if it was alright for them to be sponsors for a child that was going to receive Confirmation from this priest. I informed them that, despite the ritual and the appearance of a Confirmation, it would not be valid and the child would be deprived of the true Sacrament. I insisted on knowing exactly address where this girl was taking classes. I was told he taught religious education classes on Wednesday nights and was finally given the address on Las Lomas street.

Determined to put an end to this I got in a car with the Director of Religious Education here at the parish and her assistant and we drove to Las Lomas on a Wednesday night. Our intention was to arrive there before classes begun at 6pm and talk to this "priest". Unfortunately when we arrived at 6 we saw the garage door of the house open and about 25 kids and many of their parents in folding chairs listening to a man teach in Spanish. I stood quietly in the back for a minute or two and listened. Though quiet, I was quickly noticed. The man, dressed in casual clothes, stopped, looked at me and said in English:

"Hi, can I help you."

"Yes", I said, "I am Father Brendan, who are you?"

He responded "I am Father Fernando."

"Oh you're a Catholic priest. What church are you from" I asked.

He said" St. Matthew's in Huntington Beach"

"There isn't a Catholic Church named St. Matthew in Huntington Beach" I informed him.

"Yes there is", he said"

The conversation continued civilly but the tension was obvious and the children, ranging from 6-16 years old and their parents could sense it. Many of them attend Sunday Mass at our parish and so they recognized me. And if not, the roman collar certainly helped. This man claimed to be a Catholic priest from a parish that doesn't exist. I pursued the issue and told him that he did not have the bishop's approval to be here and however good his intentions may be they were misguided. He wavered on the issue saying he was here by the authority of Bishop Mahonney. (Apparently he wasn't aware that that it's Cardinal Mahonney). I asked him again:

"Are you a Catholic priest and if so who is your bishop?"

"Yes", he said, "my bishop is Bishop Maximo."

"There is no Catholic bishop by the name of Maximo" I told him, a bit frustrated with his lack of honesty.

The parents and kids were becoming more uncomfortable with the situation.

Trying to get a straight answer I asked: "Are you in communion with Rome"?

"We are are an independent church", he told me.

Then I told him firmly, "then you're not Catholic.

Knowing that most of the parents there understood what was going but didn't understand everything that was being said I addressed the priest in Spanish and said "you are deceiving these people into believing you are a Catholic priest and you are not. If you wish to start your own church you have every right to do so but don't tell these people you are Catholic because you are not" I then addressed the parents and told them that I respected their decision to worship according to their beliefs and conscience but they should know that this man is not a Catholic priest. If they wished to receive a Catholic education and receive the Sacraments then they needed to come to Our Lady of Guadalupe or another Catholic parish.

To my great surprise, some of the parents were clearly upset with me that I had invited myself to this house and and felt that I was accusing them of doing something bad. This disheartened me. I assured them that, on the contrary, they were being great parents by wishing to educate their children in the faith and joining them for their classes. I felt that if, indeed, this man was Catholic I would surely be warmly welcomed whether or not I had been invited. My goal, I told them, was to let them know that if they were attending these classes in this garage thinking that they were receiving the Catholic faith or that the sacraments they were preparing for were valid then there were being gravely mislead by this man. If they were aware that this man was not truly a Catholic priest and wanted to follow his teachings that I respected their freedom to do so.

I asked the "priest" to be honest with the children and their parents and simply tell them that he was not a Catholic priest in good standing. He said that he explained the differences to them. I said "OK" I shook his hand, thanked him for his time and we left.

The 5 minute ride back to the parish was difficult. I was disheartened by the reaction of the parents and wondered if I had come across as the mean 'ol arrogant Catholic priest. Perhaps I should have tried to pull the "priest" aside and talk to him privately, I thought. The two women I went with assured me that we did the right thing, that they needed to be told that this was not a Catholic priest. I thought and prayed a lot about this during the night and the next morning. My intention was good but perhaps I had gone about it the wrong way. The visit seemed a failure.

When the three of us returned to the parish we checked the internet for a St. Matthew' Parish as well as the name of Fr. Fernando. Surprise, surprise. We found that St. Matthew's Old Catholic Church was started by some Catholic priests who left the priesthood and started their own church. The claim to believe in all the Catholic teachings of the Catholic Church until the first Vatican Council in 1870. However, when we read about their beliefs on their website we found that they approve of people having premarital sex, remarriage after divorce, women priests, contraception among other things. Now I was felling a little redeemed. This man had essentially lied to me and these families. What doesn't he just tell people the truth? He is intentionally misleading the people. Worse, he and others do so using names like Guadalupe Chapel as bait to attract Hispanics. We also read that this Fr. Fernando was, in fact, a Catholic priest who left the Catholic Church, got married and then joined this heretical community.

The following day I was busy with appointments up until 5:15 at which time I needed to head over to the church to celebrate the 5:30 Mass. As I opened the door I saw a group of people standing outside of the church which I presumed was a family waiting for a wedding rehearsal. As I left the rectory and headed towards the church this group of people pointed at me and approached me. Suddenly I recognized them as parents from the garage at Las Lomas the night before.

"We want to meet with you now", they said"

I told them I had Mass, paused for a minute and said "OK, 7pm tonight" I felt like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers came out to arrest him with torches and swords. What do they want, I wondered with an accelerated heartbeat as I continued toward the church to celebrate Mass. Why are they here? I celebrated Mass with my mind on Las Lomas, had dinner and wondered what might be waiting for me in one hour.

After dinner I spent 15 minutes praying and thinking about the things I should and shouldn't do and say. Prayer - we should start the meeting with prayer. I picked out the passage about the parable of the shepherd seeking out the lost sheep. I decided the most important thing for me to do was to simply listen to the parents and try to understand them.

At 7pm I welcomed this groups of parents. I was outnumbered 14 to 1 and forced to listen, understand and respond in a language I am comfortable with. Instead of using the scripture passage I had chosen I thanked the parents for coming and prayed that the Holy Spirit grant us humility, understanding and wisdom and then tried to tell them in Spanish "I'm all ears".

Some told me they were offended by my visit and all were troubled by it. However, they all realized that the parish cared about them. We sought them out and cared for them. The parents were full of complaints about their experience with religious education at the parish. It was too long, too expensive and they felt that they were treated rudely at at times. I apologized and told them that we could do things much better but I were willingly to listen and improve if they would help us. Much of the conversation was focused on misunderstandings: that religious education is only to receive sacraments, that easier and more convenient is always better, that cheaper is better, that the church turns children away if they can't pay. I shared the information we found from St. Matthew's website which clearly showed that this man was no longer a priest, not Catholic, and that many of their teachings are contrary to the Catholic faith

Clearing up many of their misunderstandings helped a lot and letting them vent was healthy for all of us. I told them that we would love to have the kids back in our religious education classes so that they could receive a Catholic education and receive the sacraments. I tried to make it clear that this was not a case territorialism: my church and his church but rather that God's one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church that he founded upon St. Peter and his successors. They told me that their children were scheduled to received their 1st Communion in a few weeks from the "priest" and had already paid $80 to the man and would not consider waiting another year for their kids to receive their 1st Communion. I invited them to meet with me again together with the staff of our Office of Faith Formation.

At the parish we were quite positive about the possibilities of this upcoming meeting. The thought of all these families coming back to the Catholic Church thrilled us. We were determined to do whatever was possible to accommodate these kids and their parents. The meeting wouldn't prove so successful.

We provided chips and sodas and tried to welcome these families. There were not convinced that there was any difference between our church and the other "priest's" church. I tried with all simplicity to explain but to little avail. The other guy sounds like a priest, teaches like one and hadn't preached anything different than the parents had received form their priests in Mexico, they told me. The priest who was teaching in the garage was helping the parents and their children learn about God and was doing it in a very convenient way. There was still some resentment at my uninvited visit to Las Lomas and one parent told me I should show up again and apologize to the "priest", the children and their parents. One person suggested that I and the other "priest" celebrate a Mass together. Many of them could not grasp the reality that this man was not a priest nor was his church Catholic. It was mindboggeling.

By the end of the meeting we offered the parents to set up a special class for the children to evaluate what the they already knew about the Eucharist to supplement what was lacking and make sure their children received their 1st Communion as soon as possible. The Director of Religious Education was wise enough to ask about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The kids had never been told about the Sacrament. Nonetheless, we assured the parents we would do whatever necessary to give their children a Catholic education for free during the summer and have a special Mass for their 1st Communion as soon as possible.

Although it was a lot work we got the feeling that the parents were surprised that we were bending over backwards to make things work for them while making sure that the children were properly prepared for Holy Communion. The four wonderful women who work in the Office of Faith Formation took on the added task of evaluating what these children knew and didn't know about the Eucharist and to prepare them accordingly. From the 25 children who we found in the garage that night at Las Lomas three parents decided to pull their children - six in all - out of Las Lomas and bring them to our parish.

As these personalized classes began for these six children it was found that two of the kids had never been baptized. So 1st Communion classes now became baptism, Reconciliation and 1st Communion classes. It was a lot of work for the parish Religious Education staff.

Like world diplomats the staff worked closely with the parents to find an agreeable date and time to receive all three sacraments while making sure the kids would be prepared in time.

Last week four of the children made their first Confession while the other two received a blessing in anticipation of their baptism. This Saturday we celebrated the baptism of Roxanna and Ernesto. It was great to see the staff of Religious Education who cared so well for these kids together with the 4 other children attending their baptism.

Today at the 1pm Mass in Spanish the six children received their First Communion in the presence of their families and about 900 parishioners. The children and their parents were so happy and we were too.

The Las Lomas saga ended with six children returning to the Catholic Church, two of them being baptised, four of them receiving the the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time and all of them receiving 1st Communion - God himself. If success is measured by mere numbers our visit to Las Lomas was a complete failure. However, I think there is more rejoicing in heaven over these six children who received Christ than than the 20 whose parents decided not to return to the Catholic Church.

Unfortunately the Las Lomas situation is now a common occurrence. We find these false prophets and ex-priests in many neighborhoods, in hospitals, and reception halls enticing families with convenient and cheap "sacraments" whenever and however they want them. One can even find a "priest" in a local paper offering to celebrate the Sacraments in homes and wherever else the family desires.

Today we celebrate that a few parents have chosen truth over convenience and most of all that 6 children received the greatest gift of all: God who is love and who has given himself to his children through baptism, Reconciliation and Eucharist.