by Hilary White and Steve Jalsevac
COBOURG, April 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fr. Ed Cachia’s breakaway “Christ the Servant Catholic Church” was declared schismatic by his bishop, Nicola De Angelis, resulting in theÂpriest of the diocese of Peterborough, Ontario being formally excommunicated.
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“The Christian faithful should not frequent this breakaway church, nor support the disobedience of Fr. Cachia,” said a letter from Bishop De Angelis read out in Catholic Churches at Palm Sunday services this past weekend.
Cachia told a Canadian paper, “I never in my whole lifetime ever dreamt it would come to this.” But during their training, priests are well versed in what offenses will bring on the formal penalty of excommunication. The penalty is extremely rare in the Catholic Church and is required by Canon law for cases where a priest sets up his own church in opposition to Catholic teaching.
The National Post reports that about 300 followers joined Cachia at his Sunday service at a memorial hall near Cobourg, Ont. for the past two Sundays. Cachia was formerly the parish priest at St. Michael’s Parish in Cobourg.
Excommunication is understood by the Church to be more than a punitive measure, but one that is meant as a last resort meant to jar the person into re-considering his position and to prevent confusion among the faithful. Rev. Tom Lynch, diocesan spokesman said in a statement Monday, “The bishop had to respond lest there be more confusion on the part of the people.”
Cachia’s conflict with the Peterborough diocese dates from his support for a group of women calling themselves priests, as Lynch called them, members of “invalidly ordained communities.” The group made international headlines in the secular press when they staged a publicity stunt in the St. Lawrence River claiming to have ordained themselves as Catholic priests.
What is usually not reported is that this and most other women’s ordination groups also openly support homosexuality, abortion and contraception and oppose many of the Church’s moral and other core teachings. AÂsubstantial number of participants at the St. Lawrence River event were gay, lesbian orÂhomosexual supporters.
LifeSiteNews.com was advised by a church source that there is much more to the Cachia story than women’s ordination as evidenced by Cachia’s regular attendance atÂsuch anti-Catholic, if not anti-Christian, women’s ordination events.
In 2005, Cachia wrote a letter to the local paper supporting the ordination of women, an idea that Church leaders have said has no theological basis and was eventually declared a closed issue by John Paul II after decades of dialogue. Cachia wrote, “I feel a deep sense of respect and admiration towards these brave women. I would like to congratulate them for following their conscience and responding to the call of becoming priests and deacons.”
In October, Bishop De Angelis ruled that Cachia’s continued support of the ordination of women rendered him “unfit to serve the Catholic people in the leadership role of priest.” The bishop’s statement said the diocese “regrets” that Cachia had “chosen to remain attached to positions contrary to the teachings of the church,” despite his public profession of adherence to the teaching of the Church at his ordination.
The Fr. Cachia situation is only one of many serious issues that Bishop De Angelis hasÂbeen confronted with in a diocese that was for many years headed by his now deceased extremely liberal predecessor, Bishop James Doyle. Among other things Bishop Doyle was known to welcome into the diocese priests who had been expelled from other dioceses for dissent, homosexual behaviourÂand/or sexual abuse charges.
Canadian Catholic Priest Defies Church and Defends “Ordination” of Women “Priests”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/05081106.html
Nine Women Activists Fantasize they will Ordain Themselves in “International Waters” of the St. Lawrence
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jun/05060911.html
Women’s Ordination Groups All About Power, Free Sex, Abortion, New Age Religion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05100708.html