The subject of Monday’s The Catholic Brand, the Real Gospel, the minister recently let go by a Catholic college after they discovered, they said, that he was both openly homosexual and a minister in a pseudo-Catholic group called the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, has, as they say, a past. Today’s Philadelphia Daily News reports that in 1992 he served ten months in federal prison for three counts of felony mail fraud.
It also reports that “The Rev. Kera Hamilton, of Norristown, wrote that St. George ‘has no business teaching theology in a Roman Catholic institution’ and ‘has overstepped his bounds, trampled propriety, and shown an arrogance that is beyond all comprehension’.” This was the article’s closing paragraph, suggesting the newspaper is going off a man one of their writers was trying to turn into a celebrity victim of Catholic oppression and prejudice.
March 4th, 2011 | 10:45 am
Well, the first time around, I did ask who had vetted him.
March 4th, 2011 | 11:18 am
Did a web search and came across this from a 2008 press release from THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH OF ANTIOCH – MALABAR RITE:
“FATHER JIM ST. GEORGE as reported by Bishop Kera Hamilton, was nominated for the Einstein “Albert” award for his work with the family of slain Philadelphia police officer Charles Cassidy in November 2007. The “Albert” is given each year to a hospital staff person who has shown a unique blend of skills, compassion, and creativity that reflects excellence. Father Jim is a Trauma Chaplain at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA Congratulations Father Jim.”
Maybe Father Jim should have stayed with his denomination.
March 4th, 2011 | 11:20 am
Let’s just forget the gay issue and even the mail fraud and the fact the now justly fired minister in question ran a successful discount coffin business and is also running a funeral home while running a church and was teaching theology at a Roman Catholic college (I’m sorry. I have to laugh- this story is a humdinger)
Let’s focus on article saying Cardinal Rigali called the minister a heretic.
The minister according to the same article was ordained by a woman.
That fits the textbook definition of a heretic.
Bravo Cardinal Rigali.
Awesome, really.
March 4th, 2011 | 4:17 pm
It’s good to question tradition.
As long as we recognize that sometimes the answer is, “yes.”
Sometimes traditions should be affirmed, rather than thrown out.
March 11th, 2011 | 12:24 am
In reference to James M. St. George consider the following:
St. George taught religion at Chestnut Hill College for less than 18 months not 15 years.
Chestnut Hill College is a Roman Catholic College administered by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
St. George “is not” a Roman Catholic priest. In 2006, he was ordained a by the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of the Americas which is not affiliated with the Vatican.
St. George never disclosed in his application to teach religion at Chestnut Hill College that he had a criminal past .
In 1992, St. George who was running a fifth-generation family funeral home in Erie, Pennsylvania, pleaded no contest to three federal felony counts of mail fraud on charges he had misused money from prepaid funeral accounts.
St. George served a 10-month sentence in the federal prison in Morgantown, W. Va., and was ordered by the court to pay more than $90,000 in restitution fees.
St. George never disclosed in his application to teach religion at Chestnut Hill College that he had and continues to have a homosexual relationship with another man during the past 15 years.
St. George has been running adds and giving interviews in the local newspapers in the Philadelphia area disparaging Roman Catholic priests, their celibacy and the Catholic Church for the purpose of attracting members to his congregation.
Recently, St. George claimed in a newspaper interview that a women spit on him and called him a pedophile because he looked like a Roman Catholic priest. St. George never reported the incident to the police which could be classified as a felony assault depending on the spitting circumstances if the woman he claimed spit on him was infected with a contagious decease.
If the spitting incidence really happened, perhaps the woman who spit on St. George was from Erie Pennsylvania and recognized St. George to be the Funeral Director who served 10 months in federal prison for stealing money from her deceased husband’s prepaid funeral account.
In addition to news of St. George’s brush with the law, the now-retired bishop who in 2006 ordained St. George into what was then known as the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch blasted the priest in a mass e-mail.
The Rev. Kera Hamilton, wrote that St. George “has no business teaching theology in a Roman Catholic institution” and “has overstepped his bounds, trampled propriety, and shown an arrogance that is beyond all comprehension.”
I agree with the Rev. Kera Hamilton that James Michael St. George “has no business teaching theology in a Roman Catholic institution” and “has overstepped his bounds, trampled propriety, and shown an arrogance that is beyond all comprehension.”
March 12th, 2011 | 12:03 pm
There are several failures here:
The ordaining bishop didn’t complete a background check;
His current bishop, who has been a bishop a very short period of time, didn’t do a background check;
The college didn’t do a background check;
The college didn’t check the Annuaro to see if this man was a Roman Catholic priest;
If the college was told or otherwise believed he was a Roman Catholic priest, they should have asked for a letter of permission from St. George’s bishop to accept the teaching assignment. Roman Catholic clergy are not allowed to engage in any work in the church without permission from their bishop/ordinary/superior.
It really isn’t about what flavor of Catholic he is or not… a lot of theological classes in seminaries are taught by lay people and non-Catholics.. they are just required to sign an agreement that they will teach on the magisterial beliefs of the church.
It also isn’t about his sexuality… he wasn’t teaching a sexual morality course, a course on priestly celibacy, or apparently anything that went against the magisterial beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.
What is is about is institutional failure on both sides of the church catholic… both Roman and Old… God knows that institutional failure in the church catholic has been a problem these last ten years.. we need to learn from that and move forward to restore trust to the church.
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