Thank God for Courageous Priests Like Fr. George Kuforiji, by C. C. Pecknold

When parishes as extreme as St Francis, Portland come along, bishops and priests must act decisively

The Lutheran pastor and humorist Hans Fiene recently remarked “the most obnoxious Protestants in the world are liberal boomer Catholics.”

The comment, both funny and true, was prompted by a video which surfaced of a June 30th protest at a Mass celebrated at St Francis Church in Portland, Oregon. The sparsely attended parish was filled mostly with older progressives who were angry that their new Nigerian priest, Fr George Kuforiji, had been steadily introducing liturgical reforms aimed at restoring their liturgy to be in conformity with the Catholic Faith.

Most of the protesters were women who shouted at this gentle priest from Africa because he had removed their own supplement to the recitation of the Creed, and because he had removed political statements from the front of their parish. The conclusion that these “liberal boomer Catholics” had drawn was that Father must be against love! “We are following the voice of Jesus, of love,” one woman chanted. “The Jesus of inclusion. The Jesus of resisting the authorities because when we resist the law, we are in the Spirit of God.” Another woman shouted out the Amen!

One of the protesters asked Fr George, “How can you be a priest?” Suggesting he did not have the authority to change their local customs of worship, she asserted her own authority: “I’ve been here for over 15 years. You’ve been here a year.” ….