In Support of Fr. Ed

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This website is dedicated to the support of FR. EDWARD FITZ-HENRY, beloved priest of Old Mission San Juan Bautista, whom we believe to be innocent of the charge currently levied against him.

Fr. Ed, if you are able to read this site, please know that we are praying for your return home.


The purpose of this website is to give parishioners and other supporters of Fr. Ed information that helps to understand what we are being told, as well as the dire effects of false accusations, the reason that we MUST speak out. We hope to:


Latest news:
(1) Fr. Ed has been exonerated! Now the issue goes to Rome; pray for a courageous commonsense, fair, and moral response from the Pope -- and pray that Bishop Garcia will have the courage ultimately to give Fr. Ed back to our parish.  
(2) The Faith Mission group raised enough money to pay all of Fr. Ed's defense costs. THANK YOU, Old Mission San Juan Bautista and Madonna del Sasso parishioners for your continued support over a difficult 18-month period.

One wonders why God allows these kinds of bad things to happen. One wonders, too, why God allows misguided and mean-spirited organizations such as SNAP to harm good people. We may never know the answers to such questions, but we can thank God for the opportunity to show Fr. Ed how much he is loved and we should know that we do have the ability -- and the responsibility -- to stop bad things in their tracks. If everyone were to do so, then false allegations would peter out. The parishioners of SJB and MdS took on that mission, as have some other parishes across the country. Let's pray that all will find the courage and will to do so.



For contact information and further details on any of the above, drop a note with address/phone to info@in-support-of-fr-ed.com. Someone will contact you/send the information.

A sprig of hope -- the following parishes have received their priests back after allegations against the priests have been shown to be false.

St. Ann's
Sacred Heart
St. Zepherin
St.Francis  Xavier
Church of the Nativity
St. John Vianney
St. Daniel the Prophet
St. Thomas More
St. Joaquim

When the time comes to return Fr. Ed to ministry, we beg the bishop to return him to us, pointing out the instances above in which other bishops have returned priests to their parishes post-trial. (These are only a handful of a large number that we have collected -- please be patient while we gather and post all the URLS. If you know of others, please send website/URL information to us, and we will post it.)

Response to SNAP

Background: On August 8, SNAP (see description of overzealous organizations) apparently discovered our website and wrote an indignant letter to our bishop, directing him to ask us to take down the website. Their concern: (1) we claim that Fr. Ed is innocent; (2) we are raising money for Fr. Ed; (3) priests should be supported quietly through only a kind word or a card.

In response: We will take down our website at such a time that SNAP removes its presence from the Internet; otherwise, the First Amendment (freedom of speech) applies, as the bishop indicated in a statement to KCBA. As for SNAP's concerns:
(1) Their literature states that parishioners should consider that all accused priests are likely guilty. That is nonsense. Commonsense (and US law) dictate consideration that accused priests might be innocent. In the USA, one is innocent until proved guilty. No one has proved Fr. Ed guilty; therefore, he isinnocent.
(2) There is no law -- civil or religious -- preventing anyone from raising money to assist a priest in need; therefore, we shall continue to raise funds.
(3) If accusers are being supported vocally (SNAP certainly supports accusers vocally even when the SNAP media representatives do not live in the area, do not know the priest, and, more important, do not know the accuser), then we have both a right and a duty to support Fr. Ed vocally.

For an interesting report, see SNAP Exposed, in which the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights concludes that SNAP's primary interest is not in victim support but in wreaking as much harm as possible to the Catholic Church, a motivation fueled by hatred, and shares SNAP's media techniques: sway public opinon through "feeling words," feigned sadness, and the showing of childhood pictures of the accuser in holy clothing (if none are available of the accuser, SNAP is willing to provide "photos of other kids that can be held up for the cameras").

Our humble website was mentioned anonymously in a recent post about civility in Internet discourse on These Stone Walls: Holy Hostility, Batman. The moderator encouraged us not to allow SNAP to bully us. Interestingly, about the same time, we received a piece of hate mail from someone self-identifying as a private citizen; however, when we googled him, we found that he was the director of a SNAP chapter on the East Coast. 

For an interesting report, see SNAP Exposed, in which the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights concludes that SNAP's primary interest is not in victim support (clearly so, given only $593 spent on victim support in one year and a whopping $92,000 spent on travel) but in wreaking as much harm as possible to the Catholic Church, a motivation fueled by hatred, and shares SNAP's media techniques: sway public opinion through "feeling words," feigned sadness, and the showing of childhood pictures of the accuser in holy clothing (if none are available of the accuser, SNAP is willing to provide "photos of other kids that can be held up for the cameras"). Not only that, but also at a court deposition in Missouri SNAP admitted to sending out press releases that contain false information and, while SNAP would not comment on the accusation that some of its funding comes from lawyers suing the Church during this particular deposition, it did acknowledge this in 2004. 

Note:
This site does not accept/post comments. There are other venues for that. We are unabashedly on the side of Fr. Ed and are prepared to stand together with him throughout the period of tribulation. If you would like to leave a comment for support, then the best venue to help Fr. Ed would be to send that in a letter of support for him to the bishop.


Details of the accusation have been widely reported in the press. We do not intend to add any credibility to it by repeating it here.

If you would like to request a prayer card or provide additional information, send a note with the pertinent information or your name and address for mailing a prayer card to info@in-support-of-fr-ed.com. We regret that we are unable at this time to respond personally to any communications at this time other than requests for information.
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