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| Fr Steven Fisher, Twitter profile picture: taken a few years ago. |
Many Rorate Caeli readers will associate the name of the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, with the Traditional Mass. Over a decade, Fr Timothy Finigan introduced and nurtured the ancient Mass at the parish, and it was home to a good-sized congregation with a deep committment to the parish.
Last September Fr Finigan was moved to another parish, in Margate. The subsequent story was told on Rorate Caeli here.
Fr Finigan's replacement, Fr Steven Fisher, had a history of saying the Traditional Mass. The photographs in the post tell their own story.
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| Fr Steven Fisher, an old Facebook profile picture, more recent. |
There is no way to tell how far along this story the diocesan authorities had caught up with when they made the appointment.
Please pray for Fr Fisher, for Fr Finigan, and for the parish of Blackfen.
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| Fr Steven Fisher, his FB profile picture at the time of his appointment to Blackfen. |
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| Fr Steven Fisher interacts with friends on Facebook. His is the rainbow cat third from the top of the discussion. |
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| Fr Steven Fisher's FB profile picture now. |
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Well at least, as with Kieran Conry, we know where we are and our previous doubts are confirmed. We should pray for all concerned, in particular for Archbishop Smith who will have to clear up the mess - lio? But what a bleak future is in store for Father Fisher.
ReplyDeleteIs that last picture (and the associated Tweets) the same Stephen Fisher? I would like to think not!
ReplyDeleteRainbow photo, eh? Hmm ... Cherchez l'homme?
ReplyDeleteThe rainbow photo is his friend. Fr. Steven is commenting on it. If you look though Fr. Steven claims to be in the same place at this man at 10pm where he claims his friend is wearing a cerise tutu.
DeleteHe also is commenting with a picture of a cat with a rainbow as his own avatar.
Yeah, I'm a little confused as well. Has Fr. Steven given any reason for his departure from the priesthood? That's a pretty monumental decision to make, and hard to believe it's one that would be made without comment.
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ReplyDeleteI don't know exactly what course he was doing, but I understand that he was doing it with the knowledge and consent of the Archdiocese.
DeleteWhich leaves me struggling to get my head around any scenario where they wouldn't have been aware when he was appointed to Blackfen.
DeleteThis all reflects very badly on his Bishop and I really can't imagine this being simply ecclesiastical incompetence.
The cynic in me wonders if Fr Fisher wasn't sent in knowing he had one foot out the door, letting him do the dirty work of cleaning the trads out of OLOTR, making way for some other priest to take over on more favorable terrain the following year or so, and underestimating how much damage could be done in the process. But I am not a cynic.
DeletePerhaps ++Smith allowed Fisher to proceed reluctantly, still hoping his priesthood could be salvaged - after all, Southwark does not exactly have an excess of non-retired secular priests on hand. But that would still have been a high risk gambit, given how sensitive his new assignment was going to be.
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DeleteFr. Fisher has clearly lost his faith and we should pray for him.
ReplyDeleteWe should also pray for the people of Blackfen who have been let down by their Bishop in this case.
I think there are some hard questions for the archdiocese to answer, and parishioners at both his past parish and his present one have the right to ask them: How much did the bishop and his staff know, and when did they know it?
ReplyDeleteBecause the end result is that a thriving parish has been badly weakened - first with the controversies of last fall, and now this. It didn't have to be this way. It is a very sad affair all around, and my heart goes out to the parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary.
I understand that Fr. Fisher was appointed as PP of Holy Cross, Plumstead Common in 2012. Then he moved to Blackfen in 2014, at which point Holy Cross became a satellite church of another parish. An unusual trajectory.
ReplyDeleteAs for teacher training, I have direct experience of the lead time involved as I am starting PGCE training myself in September. My application and references were submitted in February, and interviews and offers were in May. The CRB check is an independent process and does not involve contacting third parties.
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DeleteHow desperately sad.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that he is resigning wef from mid-August. If he has indeed 'resigned' from the priesthood, why hasn't he gone immediately? Surely he isn't still saying Mass? Tragic.
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DeletePlanned 'withdrawal' of priests leaving active ministry seems to be quite the fashion in some parts these days - with 'farewell Masses' and even presentations / celebrations.
DeleteI favour the more 'traditional' approach - once the final decision is made, go quickly (within a few days) and quietly (stop celebrating Mass etc. immediately), preferably well away from the areas where you ministered.
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DeleteI dare say, having covered the first part of this story last autumn, it would have looked odd had you not followed-up on this depressingly inevitable sequel. That’s understood.
ReplyDeleteMight I now ask, then, what was your original motivation for publicising this matter last year?
Was it that you always suspected that there was an extra edge to this story?
Or was it solely, and rightly, to publicise the lamentable treatment of the desperate Blackfen faithful i.e. having lost the (non-LMS arranged) Mass they had cherished for so long under Fr Finigan; a nightmare become reality – within a blur of a matter of weeks – that they were utterly helpless to prevent, especially given the timescales involved (and any other, shall we say, “aspects" to this sad story were somewhat secondary but naturally needed to be alluded to)?
I’d be interested to know. I know of about 49 others who would be also.
AMDG -
Gregory W.A. Murphy
Latin Mass Society, Life Member. Liverpool
If I understand your question, it is the second option.
DeleteI had no idea this would happen.
Thank you. I thought as much.
DeleteI wonder why there was an expectation Fr Fisher would continue with the Traditional Mass. Wishful thinking more than anything? It is clear from the Rorate Caeli account at any rate, that he was of the “Spirit” camp as from the start. Whatever Fr Fisher was in the past, he has clearly changed, and perhaps it is better that he should now leave the priesthood.
ReplyDeleteAs a priest, he will be a great loss, but such is the continuing collapse on the priesthood in the Church throughout Europe, his departure will be but part of a very much greater problem which Church has simply not yet begun to grasp.
I have had the impression for some time now that Fr Finigan has been “nobbled” although I suspect he personally has in no way changed. I hope he re-establishes himself again. The Church truly needs his impact!
He said he would continue it in a comment left on the late Mr. Richard Collins’s “Linen on the Hedgerow” blog.
DeleteSo is he still being "lent" upon? I take it Richard Collins is dead. May he rest in peace.
DeleteHorrible.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me he should have never been assigned there in the first place or any parish for that matter.
Southwark Symphony Number 6 for Pink Oboe and String Vests.
ReplyDeleteIs he leaving in order to get himself "married" with a rainbow cat ?
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ReplyDeleteYou'd think that if you were going to post the same comment three times you'd correct 'lig', but I take this as an emotional effusion not to be taken too seriously.
ReplyDeleteI don't hate anyone. I feel sorry for this priest and I am asking for prayers for him.
Anselm old son,
ReplyDeleteDo I detect an element of judgement here ?
Tut, tut.
Maybe Anselm has in mind the comments of Andrew WS, the response to it by Petrus, as well as the comments by Jabba Papa and Frere Rabit. Many of the other comments admit to confusion and ignorance about the situation. Wouldn't it be better to say nothing, rather than speculate?
ReplyDeleteAt the time of writing, this will be the 33rd comment. The previous helpful and fascinating, post, raising universal questions about what happens in the Mass, and how we behave and respond has attracted no comments at all!
Such is social media...
DeleteThe page views tell a similar story.
Anselm: I think you mean libel rather than slander as these are written statements about Father Fisher. For the statements to be libellous they have to be untrue. Which statements do you claim to be untrue?
ReplyDeleteI wondered whether we are into detraction here - the sin of revealing another person's faults to a third person without a valid reason. However it is clear that in view of Father Fisher's public position as Parish Priest and his announced resignation there is surely valid reason for publishing this and for fair comments on a matter of public interest. People are profoundly shocked and immense damage has been done.
Anselm does seem to have a lig in his eye and a chop on his shoulder about this affair.
ReplyDeleteThe person who should be making a public statement is Archbishop Smith, who owes a sincere apology to the faithful of Blackfen.
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ReplyDeleteComplete nonsense. He went into Blackfen and treated many parishioners like dirt. Unfortunately, there were some of the Blackfen faithful who had it in for Fr. Tim and were only too happy to see someone "twist the knife".
DeleteFr. Steven's conduct upon taking on Blackfen has been nothing short of scandalous and the one thing it has most certainly not been is pastoral. The only people who seem to have been happy with him as PP are those who take issue with what the Church teaches.
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DeleteNow now, Patrick, I've deleted your comment because it was 'flaming' and actually libellous.
DeletePlease don't come onto my blog just to vent spleen. (You've got a blog of your own if you want to do that.)
You should have left it, Dr S, it was very revealing in that it showed hatred for the traditionalists who had supported the parish so well with their generosity and their hard work in the past.
DeleteAlso, it referred to the priesthood as a "profession", rather than a "vocation"; that sort of attitude is part of the problem.
Patrick, I am unaware as to what you wrote. What I am puzzled at is why someone who doesn't appear to even be a Catholic is commenting on this story?
DeleteYou write the following on your own blog :
"At first, like any other reader, I let through his comments. I disagreed with them, and made plain my disgust with any person who tried to drag me back into the Papal communion, but it transpired that his long-winded tangents degenerated into insults and personal abuse when it was made aware that I would not tread the Romeward path. "
http://liturgiae-causa.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/trolls.html
I pray that he does not surrender his priesthood, but takes up his cross and ministry as Christ intended. I pray also that the flock at Blackfen are not abandoned.
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ReplyDeleteChurch Militant have picked up the story and their reporter Christine Niles is working on it now. It will be headlined in their show tomorrow. If you have anything useful to pass on, please do so now. christineniles@churchmilitant.com
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ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that this good man has had to leave the priesthood, and just as he seemed to be disassociating himself with the traditionalist movement too. His story reminds me of the character of the young curate in Jimmy McGovern's film "Priest". He starts out as a cassock-wearing, sin-preaching figure who baulks at his mentor: the guardianista parish priest who peddles the liberation theologies he picked up in Latin America. Escaping his narrow-mindedness, the curate comes to a crisis in faith.
ReplyDeleteSally C good men do not break their vows. Anyway Fr. Fisher seems to have taken the step to leave the priesthood, looking at the company he keeps I am not surprised.
ReplyDeleteI met Fr. Fisher just under a year ago, and I suspected that he would leave the priesthood. A little sooner than I expected. I was a member of the famous visiting schola, and my wife a member of the large and active homeschool group that flourished under Fr. Finigan, Don't worry nothing has been lost we have only shaken the dust off our shoes and moved on...
Anyone worried about Fr. Finigan should really make a visit to Margate you will be sure of a warm welcome, or for those of you that cannot at least look at the parish website and newsletter.
N.B. I know some people are worried about certain blogs not being updated as much as usual. Well writing a blog takes time, that could be better spent elsewhere. If you have nothing constructive to say, or are only going to repeat what was written a few blog posts ago, may explain the lack of posts.
Dominic's reference to the last post has pushed me into making a brief comment there.
ReplyDeleteIt was the bit about Aristotle that put me off. Not really my subject, normally.
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ReplyDeleteWe are all partly to blame for this. Fr Ray Blake has a very interesting post about Fasting ( http://marymagdalen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/fasting-did-it.html ) in which he quotes a Greek Monk preaching: 'For a life of prayer, three things are necessary, control of the tongue, control of the genitals, control of the stomach'.
ReplyDeleteWe have all pretty well abandoned the first and third, and most the second. In a climate like that we can hardly expect to be taken seriously by someone to who we say "As your temptations are different to ours, you still have to exercise this control among us who no longer do exercise this control, to the extent that even if you show the temptations that you are vulnerable to by outward signs it will be frowned upon."
No I am not joking, I am deadly serious. But I was talking, as a reasonable reader would discern, about Catholics in the West in general, not the congregation of Blackfen.
DeleteYou would be better off finishing your message with "Lord help us make the Laity holy", because without that He won't have the means for sending us more than a handful of good and holy priests.
We might also reflect on the governments/societies hostility to large families. A priest can have a lonely life once he reaches 40-50 and his family pass away which leaves him vulnerable to all sorts of misery and temptations. On the other hand if he is one of five or six children and has lots of brothers and sisters with their own families and children he will always have family nearby and never be lonely in that way. I am convinced the collapse of large families is inextricably linked with the collapse in numbers of priests, and the collapse of large families is inextricably linked with the collapse of catholic spiritual values (as well as the general decadence of western society)
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Delete"Another aspect of Neo-Conservatism which is closely linked to this is the emphasis on discipline. There is a tendency for them to say, on the one hand, that obedience should be exercised without any discernment of whether what we are being asked to do is just - what Aquinas called 'indiscreet obedience' - and on the other, that all problems can be solved by the exercise of discipline. How many times have Neo-Cons told us that if only priests could be taken outside and shot for liturgical abuses and doctrinal indiscretions, all our problems would go away? As if the collapse of Catholic spirituality was really a minor detail in the overall scheme of things, and all that mattered was outward conformity to the Rules."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lmschairman.org/2013/10/mystical-not-aescetic-response-to-pope.html
You hit the core problem. In all too many places in Europe in the first five decades of the 20th century (although not so much Catholic England - but certainly C of E England which in turn made life more difficult for Catholics) the spirituality had collapsed and the outward conformity to the rules was all that was left. After a period in the 30-50s of ferocious application of the outward rules (as anyone in a seminary in the 50s could testify) the edifice collapsed in Vatican 2.
DeleteToo many hanker after what is basically the fascist solution. Appoint hardmen who will force everyone else to comply with the rules and alll will be well. It won't work and is dreadfully counterproductive.
The only solution is inner conversion and openness to Gods will. Whether this is actually possible on a large scale in a wealthy decadent society, which is the one thing that would save that society, before that society finally collapses is a point for debate. The historic precedents, from Rome to the USSR are not good. The astonishing progress of the Church/Orthodox Church after the collapse of both Rome and the USSR is a precedent that gives more comfort.
Very glad to see you clearly state that the destruction of the Catholic Church predates Vatican 2. In the 1950's only one of my parent's siblings was a practising Catholic, the others nine, although sending their children to Catholic schools, Mass, Sacraments, were angry with a Church dominated by fascists, and policed (in Scotland) by ignorant, brutal Irish priests and nuns.
DeleteNeither reason nor spirituality stood a chance, and those who were estranged from their Catholic religion suffered just as much as those who are making a big fuss now. Its not only the Modernists who have a case to answer.
The Church Militant story puts too much emphasis on the unfortunate lifestyle of Steven Fisher. Nevertheless, it does put the ball squarely in the court of Archbishop Smith. When he emerges from his cloud of smoke it will be good to hear his explanation.
ReplyDeleteThe link provided by brownscapular1977 above was to yesterday's headlines. The full story published by CM's Christine Niles is here: http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/uk-priest-goes-gay
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that the diocese being aware that one of their priests was undertaking a pgce (teacher training) one year course may not be as significant as some are making out.
DeleteMany priests have exercised their vocation through teaching in schools in the past, and still do and a PGCE is a necessary step, even for people with degrees or doctorates, so it is not necessarily an indicator of someone wishing to leave the priesthood (although would indicate that the PP appoinment was liable to be short lived)
I await the response from Southwark Towers with interest.
Some new pieces of information I had not yet seen regarding this story appear in the CM article: 1) [Fr. Fisher] "informed families that weren't within parish boundaries that they did not properly belong at Our Lady of the Rosary, and that they should return to their regular parish;" and 2) "Making his disapproval [of homeschooling] clear, he told her he believed government schools and not parents should be the primary educators of children."
DeleteAnyone able to cast light on whether these allegations have merit?
The first, in as many words, was in a parish newsletter when he first arrived, which I saw at the time. The second, or something like it, is confirmed by eyewitnesses. The phrase was 'children belong in school'.
DeletePerhaps he was driven mad by homo-hypocrisy in the clergy. This is particularly sad for Blackfen when you consider the objective results of Fr Tim's survey (made during the time before "The Tablet Troubles":
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ReplyDeleteI knew Fr Fisher when he was a very good priest. What has happened is incredibly sad. However, we are clearly living through the dying years of the Novus Ordo sect, and must expect many more similar tragedies.
ReplyDeleteI have never met Fr Fisher so cannot comment on his reported behaviour, but I did have some experience of Blackfen parish when it was under Fr Finigan. It is quite true that a number of his supporters came from outside the parish, and talking to parishioners, it appears that the parish was then divided and many considered it unreasonable for example to insist that the main Sunday Mass be celebrated according to the Tridentine Rite. I also know from previous experience that if you dare to utter the slightest criticism of the traditionalist lobby you often unleash a torrent of unpleasant replies. Oh how those Christians love one another.
ReplyDeleteOne Mass out of 4 according to the Tridentine Rite? How shocking. Only 3 opportunities each weekend for Latinophobes to have a bit of the "good old Vernacular"? And a good attendance for the 10.30 Mass? Shame on those traddies... they actually turned up for church! It was just making the rest of us look bad.
DeletePeterH: it was NOT the 'principal Mass'. Beware of repeating othe people's lies.
Deletehttp://www.lmschairman.org/2011/04/paul-inwood-on-persecution-of-goliath.html
I have been a parishioner at OLOR from Fr Koch through to present date. So much incorrect reporting has occurred. Fr Steve had the congregation in tears when he informed them. The majority support and will continue to support him. He has brought life back to a parish divided by Fr Tim and his era. Many comments here and on the other CM thread are wholly unchristian and despicable. May God have mercy on your souls.
ReplyDeleteI have been a parishioner at OLOR from Fr Koch through to present date. So much incorrect reporting has occurred. Fr Steve had the congregation in tears when he informed them. The majority support and will continue to support him. He has brought life back to a parish divided by Fr Tim and his era. Many comments here and on the other CM thread are wholly unchristian and despicable. May God have mercy on your souls.
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ReplyDelete"wholly unchristian and despicable May God have mercy on your souls" does seem a rather OTT remark.
ReplyDeleteNobody is wishing Fr Steven ill they are, at worst, disagreeing with how he dealt with things in the Parish. If anyonis being "unchristian and despicable" it is you in your criticism of Fr Tim and what you call "his era" !
I am not, of course, a parishioner of OLOR but when I was a visitor there (for an OF Mass) I was impressed by the signs of an active involved Parish with affection and respect for Fr Tim which affection and respect was returned by him. He deserved better than your unpleasant remarks.