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CROSS PLAINS, Wisconsin, May 28, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Popular priest Fr. Richard Heilman, who is heavily involved in men’s faith formation, praised Fr. James Altman for standing up for the faith: “He is getting persecuted, and so will we.”
Altman, who rose to national fame when he declared last fall, “You can’t be a Catholic and a Democrat,” was asked to resign by his Bishop William P. Callahan.
“The guy is incredibly loving,” Heilman said in his Wednesday homily. “He has risked his priesthood because of the depths of his love. Incredible love. A love I’ve rarely experienced from anyone.”
He praised Altman for taking a stand when others give in to fear.
In addition to his viral video on Catholics and Democrats, Altman has spoken out against the Joe Biden presidency, and criticized the cowardice of bishops in their response to the coronavirus.
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On Pentecost Sunday, Altman announced that his bishop has asked him to resign for being “divisive and ineffective.” Bishop Callahan had begun threatening the outspoken priest with “canonical penalties” in September, even as public support for the priest surged among rank-and-file Catholics around the country and the world.
Altman is now working with a canon lawyer to resolve the matter.
Heilman said in his sermon, “[Altman] was saying, ‘Look what they are trying to do to us?’ Virtually the rest of us priests were going, ‘Yikes! We better not say anything or we might upset the cabal or they might come after us.’ And they did with Fr. Altman. And unfortunately, the leaders of our church are kowtowing and appeasing the cabal.”
In his May 8 reflection, Heilman had explained, “And, it seems, the evangelization efforts of this radical secular religion [have] never been more aggressive. In the midst of this historic level of indoctrination, any threat to the radical secular dogma is receiving censorship and punishment from not just the adherents of this secular anti-God religion but from the superiors of any cleric who dares to ‘offend the world.’”
This, he said in his sermon, is exactly what Altman did.
“But what is [Altman] doing? He is [saying], ‘Listen, I know I am putting my neck out there, but you need to understand what is going on right now in the world.’ Now that is love.”
“He is getting persecuted, and so will we,” Heilman continued. “Up and until … the real Christians who actually have the life of Christ in them start to take back control of our country. We let them come in, and they’re ruling us. They let their authority be known. We will censor you. We will punish you. We will write your bishop and get you out of your parish if you don’t obey.”
Heilman is no stranger to speaking up against atrocities himself. In a Facebook post on April 18, he, like Altman, challenged his brother priests, as well as bishops, to take a stand:
Here we are. We priests and bishops thought we could just keep the perfunctory programs and mandatory sacramental preparations going, along with the standard amount of Mass offerings, with a half hour of Confessions each week, while we made sure we never offended anyone, for fear of keeping the offertory collection at an acceptable level, or losing cred among their fellow clerics.
All while we watched the wolves of this world devour our sheep.
“It seems we priests and bishops avoid speaking against this current culture and the new super-flood of ‘normalizing evil,’ for fear of appearing to ‘take sides,’” Heilman pointed out. “This would ‘cause division,’ and we’d prefer to welcome everyone, so we avoid ‘triggering’ anyone.”
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