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LOMBARD, Illinois, July 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A new lay-led organization, the Coalition for Canceled Priests, has been formed to support “canceled” priests who boldly proclaim the Catholic faith, and in an attempt to resist the “abuse of power by errant bishops and provide much needed financial support to innocent, faithful priestly servants of Holy Mother Church.”

The Coalition for Canceled Priests (CFCP) has come about in response to “one too many instances of persecution or betrayal.” Composed of both laity and clerical members, the CFCP has at its core the traditional teachings of the Catholic faith. 

“We believe in the Catholic Church’s traditional teachings on faith and morals and acknowledge that the Catholic Church has, since its founding by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, had a universal mission to bring each individual to sanctity and ultimate salvation,” reads the site. 

As part of that “universal mission,” the CFCP notes that all Catholic priests have the “responsibility to preach and practice traditional Catholic morality.”

However, the CFCP writes that this mission has not been followed, referencing an “aberrant, non-Catholic element” that has crept into the “priesthood and hierarchy.” As an example of this, the CFCP pointed to the over 60 U.S. bishops who expressed their opposition to the formation of a Eucharistic document that would deal with banning pro-abortion politicians from receiving Holy Communion. 

Despite this, there are still faithful members of the clergy who proclaim the Catholic faith, and it is these who the CFCP wishes to support, noting that such priests and bishops are “persecuted or insufficiently defended.”

A mission of ‘action’

In order to support these faithful priests, the CFCP is seeking to highlight the scale of the problem and alert the wider Church to the fact that faithful priests are being “canceled and warehoused by bishops who are preaching heresy.”

While initially creating a “platform” for the persecuted priests to “share their story,” the CFCP is also looking to temporarily alter the manner in which priests and dioceses are funded, by “creating an ‘Adopt a Canceled Priest’ mind-set.” 

“This mission needs to replace the mind-set of Tithing to a Church that allowed for ‘Catholics for Biden’ to exist. We the (Laity) will ‘temporarily’ be acting as the ‘gate keepers’ until justice is served,” states the CFCP.

The organization’s mission includes prayer and fasting as a bedrock for its endeavors. Building on this will be fundraising conferences, opportunities for the “canceled” priests to offer the sacraments, and social media promotion to create awareness of the issue.

Donations are called for to support “every priest abused by the tyrants,” said Father James Altman, who has himself been asked to resign from his parish in the Diocese of La Crosse after he criticized the U.S. bishops closure of churches during COVID-19, and regularly proclaimed traditional Catholic moral teaching from the pulpit. 

Fr. Altman pledged to match the first $100,000 donated to the CFCP, availing of the “generosity” of the laity who have raised money for his own canonical battle. “That is how important it is to defend the holy priests,” he declared.

Indeed, following its launch event, the “Breaking the Silence” discussion that was attended by around 1,000 people, the CFCP has already been able to donate $20,000 to one such “canceled” priest, Father James Parker of the Diocese of Rockford. The Coalition described Fr. Parker as “the most recent example of Rockford Bishop David J. Malloy’s unrelenting crusade to cancel faithful priests who are steadfast in their loyalty to Church teaching.”

Archbishop Viganò: ‘ the commitment of lay people is essential and very important’

In its mission to support priests who have faced persecution for speaking the Catholic faith, the CFCP has garnered the support of former Papal Nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who wrote a letter of strong support to the group that was read at the launch event.

Archbishop Viganò wrote that in the face of “grave deviations in the Hierarchy, the commitment of lay people is essential and very important.”

During these times of apostasy, in which the de facto schism of the rebellious German pastors and many others in the world not only is not punished but even appears almost to be encouraged by the mercenaries who occupy the highest levels of the Church, it is a great consolation to witness this awakening of those who are good, who are ready to assist the material needs of persecuted priests and support them with prayer and tangible gestures of that Charity which always, in the course of history, has given unequivocal proof of the newness of the Gospel.

Encouraging the laity in the “corporal and spiritual work of mercy,” Archbishop Viganò also urged them to “pray and offer penance and sacrifices for the conversion of the evil Shepherds,” as well as for those who abuse their authority and “persecute those who do good and preach the Catholic truth.”

‘The laity is done’

Speaking at the CFCP’s launch event on June 24, Yvonne Seeman, a member of the CFCP’s committee, warned that the Coalition is “a movement that is just beginning.” 

“The laity is done, and a message is being sent,” she stated. “We have entered into a season of time where we can see that the earth is trembling and judgment is coming. We are sending a loud message to all Catholic bishops, starting with Cardinal [Blase] Cupich.”

“Cardinal Cupich, we will never forget that you were the first one, on the holiest week of the year a year ago, you allowed for our beautiful Catholic Church to become non-essential,” said Seeman.

Speaking on Steve Bannon’s War Room show, the child advocate attorney and host of the “Breaking the Silence” event, Elizabeth Yore, echoed Seeman’s words. Yore described the formation of the CFCP as a “watershed moment in the Catholic Church.” 

“This is where the laity have just drawn the line. ‘You’re not going to take away our good, holy priests,’” she stated.