Fr. Francis Mary leaves to discern vocation

[StrictCatholicGirl]

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Fr. Francis Mary Stone of EWTN needs our prayers

I was shocked to hear this letter read on "Life on the Rock" on EWTN tonight. Fr Francis Mary Stone, the host of my daughters' and my favorite show, wrote the following letter, transcribed by Wisconsin Catholic.

Dear Family,
Regretfully, I have a message that does not come without significant pain to both you and me. I have to tell you in all honesty and truth, that I have been personally involved with helping a widow and her struggling family. Over the course of time, the mother and I have grown very close. As a result, I am compelled to take some time off to prayerfully and honestly discern my future.

I am truly sorry of the impact this may have on so many. I am not unaware of the gravity and magnitude of the situation, yet after much wise counsel, it is really something that I must deal with now for the good of all. With that said, it is best that I deal with it away from EWTN.

Therefore, I have asked for and graciously been granted some extended time to prayerfully discern my vocation. To those who are part of the EWTN family locally, and others throughout the world, especially all those who have supported me so faithfully in my priestly vocation and ministry here on Life on the Rock, I sincerely apologize. I ask for your prayers and understanding during this time that is so very difficult, but yet so very necessary.

Please lift me up in your humble prayers to Jesus through Mary, our Mother, in Grace and Mercy.

Fr Francis Mary, MFVA

Fr Anthony Mary then said "Brothers and Sisters of our EWTN family, this is a time in which Fr Francis and all involved are in great need of your prayers and your support as our family. Always remember that no one is beyond the power of God's Mercy or Redemption. And on Fr's behalf, I humbly ask that you pray for him. God bless you."

Fr Anthony Mary looked very shaken, and it felt like a body blow to hear this news.
We'll be praying for the priesthood of Fr. Francis Mary.

EWTN handled this the best they could. No sense keeping it secret or delaying the announcement when it's going to come out eventually.  That said, let's keep this friar in our prayers. He needs them desperately. So sad. - Lisa

 

EDITED

[neel]

What a sad state of affairs!

[JesusFreak84]

@_@

But no religious order priest, brother or monk should be in the position of "helping" a widow.

I get the feeling from the " " marks that you're suspicious.  It does no one any good to speculate on what's been going on.  Father deserves better than that.

[StrictCatholicGirl]

Father deserves better than that.

I was not my intention to insinuate anything. The article itself said helping so I put the word in quotes. But I can see how my quotes would be misinterpreted, so I deleted that part of my original message so that hopefully no more attention will be paid to it.
 
Lisa

[BlessedKarl]

I admired this guy! I don't know what to think about this! This is so sad.

[VetusOrdo]

I'm not in his shoes, really, so all I can say is that I hope he can overcome this passion or these feelings he has towards the widow. Passions and feelings are something we humans feel quite inapt dealing with most of the times and it can be, and often is when we're dealing with romance, quite overwhelming.

That being said, I hope he stays loyal to his priesthood in the Church.

[Hope]

All we can do is pray for Father & all priests.  Our priests need our prayers every day for protection, they do so much for us and how much do we really appreciate them?

[Dewi]

Discern? How long do these priests need to discern? If I decided to take some time away from my wife and kids to "discern" my vocation, I seriously doubt all these bleeding hearts would have the same amount of sympathy for me as they do for Fr. Stone abandoning the vocation he has already discerned, chosen and to which he is now committed.

But can anyone who watched this show be surprised? His behavior on air was pathetic! He bought into the notion that the best way to reach teens was to act like one. His acting like a child on national television was embarrassing, not just for him, but for all of us. There’s something not right about grown adults trying to act like kids. And this just proves the point!

Amerio called it juvenilism. It doesn’t work for youth ministry, and its one of the primary reasons why most youth ministry programs fail to instill teens with a love for the Catholic faith. Christianity is an adult faith, and the goal of youth is not to stay "youthful", but to grow up so the person can become a better Christian. Too many youth ministers adopt Stone’s approach. What it amounts to is an unnatural love affair with youthfulness. But youthfulness is nothing more than unrealized maturity. It is not a good. It is something that is unfinished, that needs to be overcome. That’s why Fr. Stone was so embarrassing: he delights in failing to overcome youth. He needs to grow up. "Youth ministers" like Stone, who obviously have an unnatural love for "youthfulness", usually end up like this. Thankfully, he didn’t run off with a teenager!

He should have never put himself in such a position, but given his juvenilism, it’s not really much of a surprise. What is a surprise is that his community allowed him to put himself in this situation. The friars need to tighten their shot group. Did they fail in their responsibility to fraternal correction? Most certainly! Are they still failing? Most certainly!

They didn’t keep vigilance over how Fr. Stone was acting on his show, and they obviously failed in their due diligence in how he was acting with and around a certain widow. Now after the fact, they are still failing their brother. If the good father wants to discern his vocation, the friars should flip the bill for this irresponsible child to go to a monastery for a year or ten and do all the discerning he deems necessary, as far away as possible from an equally irresponsible and childish widow.

And if Stone gave one wit about his ordination and the ontological change it entails, then he would willing agree to put himself away in a monastery. But, you know? I can just hear Stone now: "Well, hey man, that just wouldn’t be the hip thing to do."

I will say a prayer for Fr. Stone, but I'll say a whole rosary for all the people, especially the little ones, who have been afflicted by yet another scandal.

[loggats]

I watched the station when it was available, before I starting using youtube. The programme he co-hosted is one I remember. This news comes as a shock, but I don't suppose he began his priestly life with anything but the best of intentions.

It is a shame he may not follow through... what could be better than that sort of single minded service to God. But then again (as somebody's said) it's not too good an idea to judge another person's decisions, no matter how strange they might seem. I've not helped many widows.

In fact, one of the only widows I know anything about is the wife of Bath.

[StrictCatholicGirl]

I liked LOTR much better in the 90s when it was hosted by layman Jeff Cavins, that's for sure. In the past year I didn't tune in as much because I felt the show was focusing too much on sports and sports celebrities. Of course, I don't like sports.  

 

Again, without insinuating any blame or accusing anyone of breaking vows, I think it's fair to ask where the superior was in all this. Fr. Francis is a monastic, isn't he? How could he be away from the monastery so much? A diocesan priest can't avoid personal friendships, but is this no longer the case for religious order priests?

 

I'm asking.

 

- Lisa