Fr. James Altman, a controversial priest of the Diocese of La Crosse who published a viral video statement last year that Catholics cannot be Democrats, said on Sunday that his bishop has asked him to resign as pastor.
“For the record, dear family, Bishop [William Patrick] Callahan has asked me to resign as pastor, as of this past Friday, two days ago, because I am divisive and ineffective,” Fr. Altman, pastor of St. James the Less parish in La Crosse, Wisconsin, said in his homily posted online for May 23, Pentecost Sunday.
“They want my head on a platter,” he said of bishops. “They want my head now, for speaking the truth.”
Fr. Altman said that his canon lawyer asked the diocese to justify the request for resignation, as well as a review of his file at the chancery. He said that he is contesting the request.
Neither the La Crosse diocese nor Fr. Altman’s parish responded to requests for comment by CNA on Monday.
Fr. Altman stirred controversy for numerous public statements he made in 2020 and 2021 on politics, racism, feminism, and the coronavirus pandemic.
In viral video that was posted online Aug. 20, 2020, Fr. Altman said that no Catholic can be a Democrat because of the party leadership’s support for abortion.
In the ten-minute video viewed more than 1.2 million times on YouTube, Fr. Altman said, “There will be 60 million aborted babies standing at the gates of heaven barring your Democrat entrance.” He noted the Democratic Party platform’s commitment to legal protection for abortion, but also decried the “climate change hoax,” and lamented “DACA- which means criminal illegal aliens.”
Following the video, Bishop Callahan said that Fr. Altman had inflicted a “wound” upon the Church and said he would correct him privately.
“I have begun this process, not in the bright light of the public arena, but as the Gospel dictates, in private,” he said on Sept. 9.
“Canon law indicates that before penalties are imposed, we need to ensure that fraternal correction, rebuke or other means of pastoral solicitude will not be sufficient to repair the scandal,” Bishop Callahan said, in reference to canon 1341 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, however, endorsed Fr. Altman’s video in a Sept. 5 tweet. On Monday, he tweeted his continued support for Fr. Altman.
“Fr James Altman is in trouble for speaking the truth. I originally supported him when he spoke bold truth during the election. I continue to support him for speaking the truth in Jesus Christ. He inspires many to keep the faith during these dark days. Let us pray for him,” Bishop Strickland stated.
In a homily posted online on July 2, 2020, Fr. Altman criticized use of the terms “systemic racism” and “white privilege” as “left-wing media buzzwords,” and claimed that the “disproportionate incarceration” of Black men today is due to the “disproportionate amount of crime committed by Blacks.” While calling lynchings “capital punishment, carried out by a mob, never a good thing,” he said that top “causes” of lynchings were rape and homicide.
He said that 360,000 “white men” died fighting in the Union army during the Civil War in an effort to end slavery, while not citing that nearly 40,000 Black Union soldiers died during the war.
According to the Wisconsin Examiner, Fr. Altman appeared on the podcast “U.S. Grace Force” in January where he referred to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as a “false flag.”
In the podcast, he appeared to blame the killing of Breonna Taylor on her “hanging around” bad company. Taylor was a 26 year-old Black woman who was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13, 2020, during a raid of her apartment. Taylor was shot five times by police, after her boyfriend – present with her – initially fired at officers who had breached the apartment door to execute an arrest warrant.
A grand jury in September indicted one of the officers involved with three counts of “wanton endangerment,” for firing three shots into and near Taylor’s apartment.
“They fired all of those police that were involved in that,” Altman said, as reported by the Wisconsin Examiner. “Listen, nobody’s got the guts to say, ‘Hey sweetheart, you were hanging around a bad guy to begin with, that’s why the police were coming over there.’ And now you kick him out, you’ve got another bad guy in there who’s shooting back at the police. Okay, you brought that on yourself.”
In an interview with Cream City Catholic, posted online April 6, 2021 under the title “God damns communism and feminism,” Fr. Altman used offensive feminine stereotypes to explain why women cannot be ordained priests.
“Women can’t preach, because we need the truth when listening to what matters for eternal salvation. We don’t need you to say ‘does my dress make me look fat,’ as the joke goes,” he said. He went on to criticize “the ambiguity” of women preaching, “and it’s like they [women] expect you to read their minds.”
In that same interview, Fr. Altman called President Joe Biden “kind of demented.”
In a radio interview that aired March 24 on The Station of the Cross program “The Simple Truth,” Fr. Altman referred to supporters of abortion as “vermin baby-killers.”
He claimed that abortions were common in the Jewish community in Warsaw, Poland before World War II. He implied that the eventual destruction of the city – which included mass deportations of the city’s Jewish population to Nazi concentration camps as part of the Holocaust – was punishment for abortion.
“[St.] Faustina warned Warsaw. The Jews in Warsaw, the doctors there, were having people coming in from all over – it was all for money – from Europe to have abortions. And she warned them, you see that in her diary, she says ‘listen, you guys, knock that stuff off.’ And then of course, they didn’t, and then in World War II, Warsaw was leveled,” he said.
The parish bulletin at St. James the Less has also called COVID-19 vaccines “experimental” and warned parishioners not to be a “guinea pig.”
A message to parishioners, published in the parish bulletin on April 18 and reported by Madison.com on April 26, called each of the three COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States “experimental” and “NOT a vaccine.”
The “injections,” as the vaccines were referred to in the bulletin, are “an experimental use of a genetic altering substance that modifies YOUR BODY – YOUR Temple of the Holy Spirit. It is NOT a vaccine.” At the end, the message was displayed, “God is still the best doctor and prayer is still the best medicine.”
In his homily on Pentecost Sunday, Fr. Altman criticized “so many” bishops who “have abandoned Catholics wholesale” during the pandemic by closing down churches due to health concerns or under state orders.
“I’ve had it with anyone who says to me, ‘oh, you have to have respect for the office’ [of bishop], like as if we cannot complain about bad management – or in the case of the rampant fear-demic Church lockouts, godless management,” he said.
“It’s not you or I who are disrespecting the office. The shepherds who locked the people out of the churches and denied access to the sacraments have disrespected their office more than we possibly could,” he said, “and we need not sit idly by as they do.”
He cited St. Maximilian Kolbe to call for disobedience to bishops if they give commands that “contravene God’s law.”
“Infinitely worse, many of them [bishops] have jumped on the injection bandwagon, daring to call it our moral duty to take the experimental injection,” he said. Neither the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops nor the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have said that Catholics have a moral obligation to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Dear family, their statement, from the Bishop of Rome on down, is not infallible,” he said, claiming that popes have made infallible statements “maybe four-to-seven times” in the Church’s history, and that “anything else” is “an opinion.”
“’It’s our moral duty to take an injection into our temples of the Holy Spirit’ is not an infallible statement,” he said.
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Sure wish this article was written without a slant to it.
CNA pulls off the difficult feat of being biased and boring at the same time. Although Flynn and Condon can be just as tendentiously liberal and are notorious lapdogs for the USCCB and Francis, CNA has deteriorated since their departure.
Perhaps his bishop got confused…it is HE who should resign for trying to suppress the Truth from being proclaimed. Perhaps the bishop of LaCrosse ought to be admonishing his fellow bishops (like Cupich, McElroy, Tobin et al).
Suppress what “Truth”??? Please provide examples of what you perceive as “Truth” then let’s discuss why you feel that way. 🙂
You’d have difficulty grasping the truth even if we spotted you nine fingers.
And Pilate scoffed at Jesus, “Truth??? What is THAT?”
Well for starters, it is TRUE that it is INTRINSICALLY EVIL to aid and abet ABORTION, always and everywhere, even when a bishop characterizes that pointing out this self-evident TRUTH constitutes being “divisive,” a silly cliche accusation that treats a virtue as a vice and contradicts the very attitude of militancy Our Lord commanded of his followers.
They have to appease their masters, and assuage the egos of their elderly right-wing readers. Look at how many people here (and how many idiotic bishops like Strickland) praise the ravings of some deluded midwestern nut whose ‘claim to fame’ is a video with one million views on youtube and has since continued to rival Fr. Coughlin in conspiracy theories and anti-semitism… Except even Fr. Coughlin had the decency to advocate for a few things that positively impacted decent folks, like the new deal… AND he had the decency to shut his mouth when folks realized he was doing more harm than good.
By contrast this clown will float around the Republican dinner-talk circuit for years, preaching the New Catholicism, ie American Politics, for others who’ve lost their beliefs in everything except in who to hate.
You hit the nail squarely on the head, Joe. Altman is a total nut job. I’m a traditionalist priest bit even I can see he’s an embarrassment to the priesthood and the Church. The only truth he preaches is his own. It’s time to be rid of him.
Fr. B
You are supposed to be “your brother’s keeper”. You should be praying for Father Altman, not ridiculing him. To call him an “embarrassment” is not appropriate for a man whom I as an 83 year old Catholic should look up to. Back in the day, you and others like you would have considered st. John the baptist”, (The Voice in the Wilderness} an embarrassment, no doubt. Be careful that your Bishop doesn’t kick you out. God bless all our Priests, especially those who take a stand and speak up. respects father.
What’s wrong with Democrat Bishops? Maybe they embrace several issues but not abortion. If your so concerned about aborted babies go save them all from the deranged mom’s who choose murdering the unborn. Feed them. Raise them properly.
Like “Controversial Jewish man gets death penalty for calling Himself the Son of God”
Seriously!!!! Faithful priest is persecuted by modernist Democrat bishops is more like it
Agreed
We stand with Fr Altman and support his truthful witness to the Catholic Church.
I am done with this news agency. Fr. Altman is speaking the truth and is not afraid to do so. His parish is full and not in the red, and is growing each day. People are hungering for real evangelization not the pap that comes from the USCCB.This news agency should be supporting him not making him seem like he is doing harm. This news agency is doing the harm by trying to smear Fr. Altman and other courageous priests like him. We stand with Fr. Altman!
Well stated. Jesus was not timid when he preached. Neither is Fr. Altman. Fr. Altman is saying what the Church itself needs to say.
He’s not truthful. He’s a racist, homophobic, anti-science nut job and his Bishop is right for outing him.
Melissa, you do know that a ‘homophobe’ is a woman who is repulsed by the ‘man parts’. She sadly has a ‘man-parts fear’. Homo Phobic.
A phobia is an irrational fear. You use a word that is designed to insult and silence anyone who judges perversion to be immoral.
“for outing him.”
Goodness, you’re really hitting on all cylinders when it comes to spouting neologisms used largely by leftist “nut jobs.”
Indeed. “Outing” is a tactic originated by the radical Lavender Mafia group ACT-UP, one of calling out allegedly “closeted” men and women supposedly afflicted with same-sex attraction, but who refused to publicly throw that in all of our faces – as if it was the “duty” of all queers to publicly celebrate their particular cross. In so doing, ACT-UP was engaging in irresponsible and vicious acts of defamation of character, slander, and libel.
So is “Jodi” saying that Bishop Callahan called Father Altman a “queer”?
I have a doctoral degree in science. And nothing Father Altman said is “anti-science.” You on the other hand are being very chastiphobic to promote the fiction that there can be such a thing as what an idiotic culture has come to refer to as “homophobia.” It is possible to have a fear of chastity, give the hostility towards virtue, but it is impossible to have a fear of homosexuality. It is possible and virtuous to have disgust for the social damage done by homosexuals and those who choose to support the damage they do through their cowardly indifference.
Misty and others, I think you should stand with Christ. Why would you want to hear the truth from a mere man when Christ is the truth? Not all who preach about Christ are chosen. Follow Christ, He is the the way the truth and the life.Do you not know the song? Or your Scriptures? Fr Altman lacks humility. He is proud and disobedient. St Joseph was asked by God to take our Mother Mary as his wife. He could have refused because it was a big ask.St Joseph was obedient. Father Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son. He could have refused because he waited for a hundred years to have a son. He did not refuse. Your Fr Altman is being asked to resign and perhaps pursue a career in Politics. That’s is not a big ask as the Bishop is setting him free to preach. His followers, like you can still stay with him. At the moment the Catholic Church needs obedient Priests. It is a vow they took before God. Does he not know that the stone that was rejected became the cornerstone? Not all rejection is a humiliation. Sometimes God sets people aside for Blessings. As for calling others sinners, well why do we have St Paul, David, Moses? Were they not murderers? Our God is merciful. St Augustine (another famous sinner) wrote that everyone has the opportunity to repent and we should not stop people from doing so by denying them conversion. Jesus died for all of while we were still sinners. Let God be the judge. My fear is that ex Fr Altman is focusing on the wrong people. We should always, I mean always focus on Jesus Christ. Christ is the MAN, the Truth, the only Truth. He said so and I believe in Him.
He is being chastised for being truthful. He is being chastised for being faithful to Christ. He doesn’t water down the Faith for the sake of optics. God bless him and sustain him through this trial. I hope he realizes he is in the best of company.
Fr. Altman loves every single soul and it is evident by him teaching the truth and leading people to Truth(Jesus). Sometimes we don’t want to hear truth and want to live in the relativism that is of the secular world. Thank you Fr. Altman for your courage and witness of proclaiming the truth!
Excellent! He’s Right of course!
This is indeed a priest who needs to resign from the pastorate and be sent back to the seminary. Priests are trained to be moral – in that sense, can be political – but not to be partisan when they preach and teach. This priest does not know this fine distinction, so its best he be retrained to get back to his senses.
So he can learn that the message of the Gospel is indistinguishable from Marxism!
You should be re-evangelized / re-catechized and reread the Bible. Take for example: Luke 1:52-53; Luke 4:18-19; and Acts 2:44-45. Yes, please take your Bible and read and pray over these passages from the Word of God. And try the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1928-1948 for a starter and proceed to the magisterium’s Social Teachings of the Church. Read and follow these not the political and ideological pundits and propagandists.
So true. The Marxists have infiltrated and taken over the church…. Biden, Pelosi are not Catholic when they condone abortion…the majority of Catholics who say Biden should receive communion are just saying they want a relaxed, sinful atmosphere to loll around in.
Andrew Peeters. Is your comment satire or meant to be sarcastic. If not, curious how do you ignore the butchering of millions of babies, which is primarily supported by one party. Would you apply your logic to not opposing Hitler to avoid being political.
Read again what I differentiated: “political” and “partisan”
Agree 100%. He has stumbled down the rabbit hole, which is a very dangerous place with misinformation.
Says the individual whose posts demonstrate the very characteristics she is accusing other people of having. I guess irony is lost on leftists.
There is absolutely nothing “partisan” in his public statements. Pointing out that a Catholic can not be a Democrat is not significantly different that saying a Catholic can not be a Communist or a Nazi. And there is nothing in his public statements, were they to be quoted accurately, which the trashy article did not, that is at odds with Catholic social teaching. If you believe they are, then you are misinformed and you are in need to relearn the faith.
Perhaps he can go to the same seminary where Fr. James Martin is being retrained. What’s that you say? He isn’t?
How I wish we had thousands more like Father Altman. He speaks truth and follows the traditional Catholic teachings, not the watered down pablum so many other priests do to please all because of the fear of losing money. Father Altman has caused his parish and diocese funds to multiply. Much like Jesus with the loaves of bread and fishes. People are hungry for truth. God bless Father Altman and others like him.
WHAT “TRUTH”???
That feminism is antithetical to Christianity. That State control of health care is fascistic. That the Church has prostituted itself to the principalities of the Culture of Death. That homosexuality is a willful moral perverse mindset, certainly evidenced at the least by the indisputable fact that 98 percent of gays are pro-aborts. That the Church’s social doctrine of subsidiarity has not been replaced by the cold-bloodedness of socialist doctrines. I could go on and on, but you are really not interested in learing, are you?
I stand with Fr. Altman. This article heaps aspersions on a good man. It even faults him for not mentioning that black people also gave their lives in the Civil War. Yet it fails to mention that he was a lone voice prophetically warning the country about the regime now at the helm. Are their 15 prelates in the United States still defending the faith with his zeal? Now more than ever, we need to be interceding for our priests in this battle for souls. May God be praised!
What a biased article: so disappointing that whoever wrote it is has picked a few comments and tried to make this noble and holy Priest out to be someone who should be removed from his office. I am disgusted. Sarah Schmidt
Just because you don’t agree with the article doesn’t make it “biased”. It’s the TRUTH.
Just because you agree with the article doesn’t make it “the TRUTH.”
Sounds like your attempting to infer and imply an awful lot from various detached statements he’s made. Why not focus on the issues that have caused him to speak up, such as the violent deaths of millions of unborn children each year? Or does that pale into insignificance because Father Altman used some hurty words?
Bishop Callahan has stated that Father Altman is divisive and ineffective.
Divisive?
Matthew 10:34-36:
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.
Ineffective?
He has received responses from as far away as Borneo.
“We shall find out at the day of judgment that the greater number of Christians who are lost were damned because they did not know their own religion.” – St. Jean-Marie Vianney
‘I do not speak rashly, but as I feel and think. I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous.’ – St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church
Im4truth4all, my sentiments exactly!
Most of what Fr. Altman says is basically true, even though prudence might have dictated that he choose his words more carefully and pick his fights more judiciously. Yet, I am supposed to condemn him for simply doing what leftwing clerics have been doing for decades with few or no consequences. Far from suffering any penalties, some of them have ascended to the highest positions in the Church. In fact, Bergoglio, Cupich, Tobin, and all the rest are nothing but Marxist operatives who abuse the positions they unworthily occupy to brazenly advance a political agenda directly opposed to everything I believe. It is not hard to decide whose side I take.
Fr. Altman is an awesome preacher who feeds his parishioners with the truth!
His “truth” equates to misinformation.
Misinformation. You mean like all of your posts today? Sorry, but no genuine Christian can be a Democrat or support the Democratic party. That should be quite obvious.
Jody, you’re obviously not a Catholic! Oh, wait…Biden, Pelosi, Jody…CINO, Catholic in name only, pronounced Sin-oh!
Fr. Altman loves his family like a perfect father. He speaks truth that many including bishops do not want to hear. God bless this most holy and courageous priest. If only all shepherds loved their flock like him. St. Michael, defend us in battle.
What “truth”?
Fr. Altman is bold and wise as well as unafraid to speak truth. The Catholic Church needs MORE of priests like him. Certainly not less. If calling out those who back vile policy offends some, good. When dealing with our faith, this is not the time to coddle or condone the wrong path. God Bless Fr. Altman. Shame on anyone calling for his resignation. They themselves need to step away from leadership roles and, frankly, stop calling themselves Cathoilic.
CAREFUL CNA…. we can always go to 100 other biased liberal news outlets to hear this garbage. Who do you think donates to your site?
The Vatican supports them so your “threats” are useless.
Absolutely agree. All they need to do is pick up their bibles if they need verification of what Father Altman says.
As Cupich re-instates Fr Pfluger.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Nothing Fr. Altman said was untrue so why in the world would he resign? Thank you for this article, I shall follow Fr. Altman more closely now.
Follow him down that rabbit hole….
BUT IS Fr Altman ‘SPEAKING HE TRUTH IN LOVE?'(St. Paul)
Father Altman : Speaks the truth! The comments about B. Taylor are slanted in article. If she were my daughter I would have told her long before her tragic death that her behavior and company would lead her to trouble. Our problem today is the lack of courage by our priest and Bishops. Wake up ! The BVM will help you if you ask her. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continues to trust her to intercede on our behalf.
His “truth” is found deep in the rabbit hole. Don’t stumble down there too!
If I were in his diocese, I would definitely want to visit his parish. He sounds interesting.
Father Altman is great. This CNA article is very negatively biased toward him, but I am not surprised.
The bishops are going to “dialogue” in June. Father Altman does not dialogue – he teaches and preaches truth, something the bishops are supposed to do.
As Father Altman said, his statement that you can’t be a Catholic and a democrat really stung the bishops, because so many of them are democrats (my own bishop is, as are 3 of the 4 bishops in my state). They belong to the party of death, and it cannot be justified. Just as the giving of the Eucharist to militantly pro-abortion politicians is a scandal, so is the membership of bishops in the party of death a scandal.
Crusader, what you say is spot on about this so called “dialogue” stuff. After 40 days in the desert, our Lord was tempted three times by Satan. Not once, not once, did our Lord dialogue with Satan. His replies (and not dialogue) to Lucifer were succinct and to the point. Period. This priest, Fr. Altman, is true to the form of Christ about succinctly speaking the truth. His spirit is akin to St. John the Baptist, and he is right in the figurative sense that, like Herod, there are very misguided and compromised souls who want his head on a platter. Yes, Fr. Altman is being true to the calling of Jesus our Lord, and what the hierarchy in Jesus time did to him, so too are some of the hierarchy in our time doing the same to Fr. Altman (and others like him). But then, Our beloved Jesus foretold us that “if they do this to the master, so also will they do it to the servants” and “in the end, black will become white and white become black” and “be prepared because there will become a time when men will persecute you and think that they are doing a good deed in doing so…”
This is written like a ham-fisted”hit-job” by Mr. Hadro.
Mr. Hadro’s implications suggest that Hadro wants people to believe that Fr. Altman is a krypto-racist. Hadro writes:
A – He said that 360,000 “white men” died fighting in the Union army during the Civil War in an effort to end slavery, while not citing that nearly 40,000 Black Union soldiers died during the war.
B – In a homily posted online on July 2, 2020, Fr. Altman criticized use of the terms “systemic racism” and “white privilege” as “left-wing media buzzwords,” and claimed that the “disproportionate incarceration” of Black men today is due to the “disproportionate amount of crime committed by Blacks.”
The evidence given by Fr. Altman in both A and B are facts that support his claims that America is faundamentally a just nation, with respect to racial justice, that is:
A – the self-sacrifice of life by 360,000 white soldiers in the Civil War is evidence of a just war waged against racist slavery; and
B – it is a sheer statistical fact that if any section of the population performs any behavior, good or bad, of out-sized proportion compared to the general population, that the ensuing consequences will likewise be of out-sized proportion.
Perhaps Fr. Altman might temper his own speech and refrain from somewhat too-deep excursions into politics.
But it is sobering, in the worst sense of the word, to see Mr. Hadro’s flimsy and cavalier attempt to smear a man of being a krypto racist, on the basis of what Hadro worote above.
It makes it clear that Hadro doesn’t think that the other “offensives” attributed to Fr. Altman are sufficient to “take him down.”
With this piece, Mr. Hadro, wittingly or unwittingly, has indicted himself.
Fr. Altman may be controversial and “in your face”, but nothing he has said contradicts Church doctrine. His criticism of Bishops is harsh but he didn’t slander any particular one by name, nor did he reject their authority.
I agree with much of what Father Altman says, but he needs to understand that faith and the ability to share it isn’t a gift given on the basis of gender. Women can preach, and thank God they do every day — just not from the ambo. Not all men are good at preaching, and I know priests who don’t follow Church teaching when it comes to sharing the faith with the congregation. One might suspect that some priests have never seen the Catechism of the Catholic Church or have given it a cursory reading without understanding much of it. Women are just as capable (some more so) of sharing the faith that leads us to eternal life. Stating that they are deficient because of some age-old worn out joke is disrespectful. Try to remember, Father Altman, that it was a woman who “preached” the resurrection to the male disciples who were hiding in fear of the authorities.
Women can witness or share with others but they should not preach.
Holy Mary Magdala did not preach but talked with the apostles.
Preaching, whether it be in a temple or outside, is a specific charism just like ordained ministry.
It’s sex, not gender.
1) Canon law obliges Fr. Altman to speak up. See Canon 212.3.
2) His bishop is yet another avoid-unpleasant-confrontation-to-advance-your-ecclesial-career churchman.
With all due respect, and prayerfully toward all, Father Altman sounds more than a bit over-the-top. Do we really think he is an expert on the number of abortionists in pre-war Warsaw who happened to be Jewish?
He’s not truthful. He’s a racist, homophobic, anti-science nut job and his Bishop is right for outing him.
The bishop has to make the best decision he thinks he can make. Based on what is in the article, I would have reservations about Father Altman. (Acknowledging that there may well be more to the story than could be fit into this article.) But I am not willing to go anywhere near as far as you do.
That certainly comes off as a very strange thing for a Catholic priest to discuss. Even if his information was correct some conversations are meant to be private. And intention is always key. We just don’t know.
I think these kinds of cases should be excruciating for everybody. And frankly, if anybody says they are not, I don’t think the person is taking the matter seriously enough.
How is it that the majority of Bishops come from among evil, lukewarm priests? With Francis, he makes it his priority that only the vilest of priests are elected Bishops. But this all started before Francis. So something is not correct, when will this be reformed? Reformed? I’ve heard this, but of course, only good is reformed, never the bad. The Apostolic succession must be from among holy men like the Apostles, but they have been more like successors of Judas Iscariot. One thing is for sure, Fr. Altman will never be a Bishop, he’s holy, and that disqualifies him.
There’s a situation in Detroit where a suspended priest is suing the Archbishop. It would be interesting to see how that plays out because there needs to be some clarification about the relationship between priests and their bishops – that is, if priests are considered employees with certain rights. should priests seek to form a labor union?
The whole relationship between presbyters and bishops needs to be reconsidered.
Cbalducc, I know of a situation where the people gave their money to a priest for safekeeping. They wanted to build a Chapel for the Traditional Mass according to Summorum Pontificum. The people did not trust the Diocese with their money, so they entrusted it to their priest, whom they trusted. The priest put it into a bank account. The Bishop demanded the money, and the priest said no as it belonged solely to the people. The Bishop took this priest to civil court and sued him for embezzlement. The people who owned the money retaliated and pressed charges against the Bishop in civil court as well. Pope Benedict XVl transferred this Bishop, but sadly to my Diocese. My point is that I didn’t believe Church matters should be taken to a civil court. But I’m starting to see it happen, and I see it as a good remedy for now.
You mention Labor Unions for priests. I had never heard that suggested before. I think it’s a great idea. I wish priests had thought of it 55 years ago. It would have been a protection from the Modernist heresy that crushed countless priests. It’s a sad day when Catholics must settle Church matters in a civil court. But with the Bishops of the last 60 years, it’s necessary.
Readers- go to churchmilitant.com for authentic Catholic news reporting
God bless Father James Altman, a fearless Catholic priest who unequivocally speaks truth to power. Thanks be to God for his evangelization and leadership in perilous times. I stand with him.
Wonderful Priest who is being targeted for speaking the truth. Just listened to his interview with Taylor Marshall. Praying for Fr.Altman
God bless good and holy priests priests like Fr. Altman. After the past year, it has become abundantly clear they are few are far between. I live in a diocese where the people were abandoned. I attended a funeral where mourners were turned away from mass. I pray Fr. Altman and the other faithful clergy continue to be brave for the sake of Jesus Christ. Lord have mercy on those who have denied their flock pastoral care and the sacraments. Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us!
Very sad!
Fr. Altman speaks the truth and this hurts many tepid catholics with power.
Fr. Altman, a lawyer, knows very well he cannot keep silent when confronted with pro-abortion “catholics” and with all distortions of the truth meant to deviate us from the path to God.
He is aware this has made corrupt bishops his enemies.
So one as catholic must now choose a side: with the pro-abortion, pro-racism, pro-feminism, pro-genetic testing vaxxs “catholics”? Or with the Word of God?
I stand with Fr. Altman because he is following Jesus.
Fr. Altman is not controversial, he is truthful!
Father Altman is being persecuted for preaching the truth. May God guide him.
Fr. Altman preaches far-right politics from the pulpit, and if the church wishes to maintain it’s tax-exempt status, he has to stop. If he was to be a politician, he should run for office. He’s basically Trump’s catholic megaphone. Fr. Altman accuses anyone to his left of being a socialist, but he’s so far to the authoritarian right, that he’s actually a fascist [Fact]. He does nothing but blame others and encourage hate, I will pray that he reads the gospels with an open heart, and begins to act with more kindness and generosity and less judgment.
You sound like the typical leftist “Catholic ” that Altman is exposing. People who think like you have done untold amounts of damage to the church’s witness. I will pray that you read the gospels with an eye toward what Jesus had to say to those who reject the truth and refuse to repent. “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Get your own heart and spiritual house in order.
Athanasius, have you noticed that leftists have absolutely no sense of irony (and not much of a sense of humor)?
Francis Swift appears not to have noticed the many, many times that Catholic bishops have preached far-left politics. And what about Frs. Pfleger and James Martin? Strange that Swift doesn’t seem to be insisting that they shut up.
Well said. It’s a matter of self-deception, unfortunately. People get so locked into their worldviews, so deeply invested in political ideologies and personal stories, that they can’t see the truth anymore. They don’t realize that they have become the very thing they claim to oppose. People are in a dangerous place spiritually when they actually believe their own lies and see them as truth. Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 1.
I will pray that he reads the gospels with an open heart, and begins to act with more kindness and generosity and less judgment.(sic)
You yourself should take your own advice and brush up on the Gospel of Luke, for starters, Francis. Unless of course you enjoy publicly exposing your ignorance.
“And why even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just?” Jesus Christ, Luke 12:57
Father Altman is being persecuted for telling the truth, the greatest threat to the Catholic church are the bishops who have sold their souls for the attainment of worldly goods and power, God have mercy on them when they have have all their sins illuminated before God when they die.
I tell my guys in homiletics class: “You can say most anything in a homily. It’s HOW you say it that matters.”
And, “Ordination doesn’t mean you don’t have to suffer the consequences of your choices.”
I appreciate the uncompromising and straight forward style of preaching engaged by Fr. James Altman. He is blunt and direct and preaches the Word of God without fear of offending sinners….just as another devoted and holy priest did in the past, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
Father Altman doesn’t dance around, bow down to, or soft peddle, sin, or the consequences of sin, in order to defer to the easily offended sentiments of pro-contraception and pro-abortion Catholics sitting in the pews on Sunday.
He preaches the Truth uncompromisingly just as Our Lord Jesus did when He walked the earth…the same Jesus who picked up a rope and drove out the money changers from His Father’s temple and who chastised Peter, our first Pope, with the rebuke “Get thee behind me Satan”.
Father Powell, would you have cautioned Jesus that He erred in His undiplomatic homiletic style? Or the manner in which He drove out the money changers from the temple? Or his rebuke of the first Bishop of Rome?
Jesus wasn’t politically correct and He didn’t acquiesce to the spirit of this world or those who aligned with it.
That said, Father Altman, with the permission and gracious consent of Bishop Callahan, kept Saint James Catholic Church in LaCrosse, Wisconsin open during the entirety of the Covid-19 pandemic to feed God’s sheep with the Word and with the real presence of God’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist.
For many of us who live far beyond the boundaries of Father Altman’s parish, he sustained us with the Word through social media. We were blessed by his dynamism.
Father rightly called out those bishops who kept the doors of the Catholic Churches closed and locked long after it was necessary in deference to fear of sickness and/or the arbitrary demands of politicians.
If Holy Eucharist is indeed the bread of Life, and it is, what message do you think the Bishops were sending to the faithful by denying them access to Christ? What about the faithful who died without access to Eucharist or Last Rites?
I regret that by your comment, you appear to chastise and decline support for Fr. Altman, who is your brother in Christ.
Father Altman, in my opinion, is a true servant of Christ and deserves the support of all his brother priests.
I will pray for you and for the well being of Fr. Altman.
I see there are a lot of holocaust and lynching fans among the readers of CWR! Who would have thought there was such a fruitful intersection of believers!
Repent of your calumny.
Joe, I think I see the opposite here. Perhaps you could point out what you see?
Joe K, by arbitrarily making a Nazi comparison without rational basis, you have violated Godwin’s Law. This discussion is now over, and you have lost.
Do any of you belong to St James the Less parish?
The telling thing here is had Father Altman preached the opposite position on these social and moral issues, nary a peep would be heard from the woke-soaked hierarchy and others who demand he be removed.
Catholic cancel culture is alive and well, but thanking God for courageous priests like Father Altman who preach the truth in season and out.
The Pope, bishops and priests are constantly offering their half-baked political opinions for our derision (I mean, consideration) on every topic imaginable. They, of course, are never divisive when they spout off stupidly and maliciously. Let a priest or layman respond with a perfectly legitimate, but contrary perspective, and punishment is swift and severe. The system is rigged and deserves no respect.
I have only seen Father Altman on youtube a fee times. He has strong opinions but nothing he said seemed off kilter or racist to me. He spoke mightlitu about sin and the need for repentance and the neand the need to follow Gods word. The Bishops did indeed capitulate to the state. In California they continue to go so with ad hoc Masses conducted outside and govt regulations forbidding singing. I think question 7 of the Baltimore Catechism talks about the soul being more important than the body. The Bishops need to brush up in this, as they succeeded in shutting the church down at Easter, at which even the Romans failed. I wonder if these Bishops have issued any statements of disapproval about what their fellow Bishops are peddling in Germany. Let me guess. No they have not. Their concern about divisiveness seems very selective.
Being a Catholic and being a properly catechized Catholic are two completely different things. If you wonder why Fr. Altman is so controversial take a long hard look at the catechism. You will quickly understand that he is preaching the traditional Catholic Faith that has been taught unchanged for 2,000 years….prior to the catastrophe of Vatican II. It is controversial because the traditional Catholic doctrine is directly opposed to the modernist views so many have adopted these days, including many Catholics (regretfully) who are not properly catechized.
My family will always stand with you Fr. Altman. Continued prayers for you every day.
Fr Altman is/was right most of the time. i wish we had more like him.
Hadro, as one Christendom graduate to another, keep up the good work. I do not understand the salivating idolization of this clerical cretin by so many commenters, he is a pompous, preening little creep who seems to specialize in insulting his enemies, infantilizing and whipping up a frenzy among his parishioners. #StandwithCNA
Okay, dear family, you want proof of what the laity thinks of Fr. Altman? Here it is: as of today, the fund-raiser, initiated by John Henry Westen to cover the good father’s legal expenses, has reached $299,580, far beyond the goal of $20,000. In a video, he got teary-eyed as he thanked all his supporters for their unbelievable generosity. He’s the real thing, I am behind him, let us pray for him.
Isn’t it great Jess? The brave are willing to fight for truth.
” Fr. Altman said that no Catholic can be a Democrat because of the party leadership’s support for abortion.”
The issue is not abortion alone. Read the Democrat platform, as homosexuality, gay marriage, and transgenderism are all part of the Democrat agenda. It is very anti-Catholic in nature. By the way, the chairman of the Democrat Party has made it public that pro-lifers are not welcome in the Party. Also, while Father Altman is asked to resign for telling the truth, although rather hardly at times,, a. Chicago priest is still making headlines as a heretic, without any kind of sanctioning.
Let’s continue to pray for a dear Priest, who dared (against evil cancel culture) to put his love of Christ, vocation and home (he shares with his elderly parents) at risk, in order to preach the truth. It was heartening to hear how much has been raised by faithful catholic supporters.
Let us also support Fr. James Parker. And how many other faithful Priest’s are being treated poorly because everyone is afraid to allow freedom of religious speech?
Just like everything that is fact checked or censored from YouTube and Facebook you know is the truth, so with priests who are censored and persecuted. You know they are speaking truth if they’re punished for it. And of course the pandemic is a scamDemic and Fr. Altman is one of the only priests to tell the truth about it and to try to save lives and souls. The “vaccinations” are poisonous injections.
Fr Altman is John the Baptist LISTEN UP PEOPLE!
Some of these comments are too vitriolic. Vitriol undermines any legitimate, constructive criticism. Just saying.
If the Church diocese does not get rid of Altman for pure politicking from the pulpit, then the IRS should revoke the diocese’s tax-exempt status. Let his loyal parishioners start paying the Church’s taxes for spewing his nonsense.
The Catholic church has got to handle them selves. Fr James Altman is only telling the TRUTH IN JESUS Christ,
The one thing I see is that Fr. Altman is hugely successful at creating division within the Catholic Church. I think every Catholic is genuinely sorrowful for all the wrongs initiated by Priests, and even the Catholic hierarchy. Ok, Fr. Altman, we hear you and on that we agree. You language comes straight from conservative news sources. Rush Limbaugh coined the word “democrat” instead of using the proper word, “Democratic.” After I actually listened to his infamous homily, I wrote the guy off. Love is gentle, love is kind, I see no kindness in Fr. Altman. He is a bully. He projects the greatest threat to our nation, and our Catholic faith. Separation of us into splinter groups that cannot even stand the sight of each other. A house always falls from within. Catholics are in a smoldering blaze situation. Add more heat, and the smolder will turn into a wildfire. If people truly believe that we Catholics are an Apostolic Church, we must believe that the majority of our leaders are acting in the best interest of everyone. Fr. Altman would tear down a good building, with no real plan on how to rebuild it. We must be careful to listen not only to what he is saying, but how he is saying it. Is his mission inspired, or is it only about himself, and gaining followers and notoriety. I think we all agree, we know we are in trouble, but taking the wrong approach to correct our troubles is a very dangerous thing to do. I see the article’s slant, but I can also glean there are things he says, that are extremely harmful. Do no harm is the essence of all those who care for people spiritually, as well as physically. Altman is doing real harm, not so much as what he is saying, but how he is saying it.