One of Denver Fr. Nolan’s parishioners writes to say that their FSSP parish is ‘bursting at the seems’ while the VirusChurch withers, and that they love and appreciate their retired Marine Vicar. Some have noticed recent visitors who are unfamiliar with the Ancient Liturgy and seem to make little effort to follow along.
I share here his letter written to Archbishop Aquila on Father’s behalf.
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Your Excellency-
We were most distressed to learn the archdiocese is investigating Father Daniel Nolan, a good and holy priest of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and a Marine officer, for the crimes of telling the truth and defending our 1st Amendment rights to freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. These are crimes which Your Excellency has proven to be in no danger of committing, so rigorously you have sought to demonstrate obedience to our governor as he laid aside The Constitution and imposed unprecedented restrictions on our religious rights, up to and including the banning of public Masses in some locations and at some times. When the State demanded the removal of holy water from the sanctuary, the limiting of the numbers of parishioners allowed to attend Mass together, and the tracking of those who did, Your Excellency epitomized absolute obedience. As the Governor proved to be arbitrary, tyrannical, irrational, and devious in the execution of his office, and as he made clear that Coloradans would be oppressed in inverse proportion to the death rate of the virus, Your Excellency kept faith with him.
Despite this, Father Jackson, Father Nolan, and the rest kept faith with you, uttering not so much as a word of criticism in public or private. Indeed, I was instructed at one point that I had no right whatsoever to be critical of your obsequiousness to Governor Polis, which I found (and find) unbecoming of a man of God, or any American for that natter. I was told repeatedly you were “one of the good bishops”, that “we are blessed to have” you. They clearly believed it. Perhaps it was even true.
We are now six months into the global oppression of the Church, six months wherein the faithful have been denied access to the sacraments, to the peril of our souls. Unlike during the Black Plague, you and your brothers have been largeky invisible during this pandemic. Many have fallen away, as Our Lady warned us would be the case. Mass attendance weekly is now 1/3 its anemic level of 22% pre-pandemic; unsurprisingly the more liberal Novus Ordo parishes have been hardest hit. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, however, continues to grow, which ought to be a source of pride for the archdiocese but which I fear has proven to be an embarrassment. Many in the Church hate and fear Traditional Catholics; indeed, we are the only people the esteemed Bishop Barron will publicly criticize, exceeding the bounds of even his tolerance as we do. We are not tolerated because we do not believe lies, no matter who the liar is, and because we bend the knee to God alone, whom we love and fear. Such people are impossible. It is a miracle we exist at all.
The dismal state of the Church leads me, an engineer by training, to an equally dismal hypothesis: that our leaders are as they are because the wicked have driven out the holy and courageous before the rank of bishop. This explains McCarrick in a way the Holy Father has thus far refused to. It explains what happened to that red dossier Pope Benedict XVI left behind. It explains why the Church, with its thousands upon thousands of martyrs, could find itself with not one bishop willing to risk imprisonment (much less martyrdom) to stand between the princely rulers of this world and Jesus Christ, and why, just as in the Garden, He has found Himself alone at the very hour of His greatest need.
Will you stand now for truth and right, Your Excellency? Or will you sacrifice a good and faithful priest to maintain the favor of a wicked and hellbound tyrant? I pray we have indeed “one of the good bishops”, but will be awaiting the evidence with trepidation given just how many bad and weak bishops there are in the Church of our era.
May God bless Father Nolan, Father Jackson, and Your Excellency.
