Father Mark White: cancelled and then more than cancelled

The picture above: who in Richmond Diocese is encouraging vocations?

The video below was from July 21, 2020.

The interview above was uploaded by Church Militant on 12 November, 2020.

Meanwhile, Fr Z has this update: https://wdtprs.com/2021/07/d-richmond-another-cancelled-priest/

Some points [with my own AriseLetUsBeGoing.com comments]:

• “Bishop Knestout [Theodore McCarrick’s former secretary and roommate, now in Richmond VA diocese] suddenly showed up at St. Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount and took over mass. [Though from the video of a local news station it appears that the bishop took the chasuble from Father Mark just before Mass.] Father Mark White was the pastor at the Church. He also served as Pastor at St. Joseph’s in Rocky Mount. [And now totally suspended and on his way to being dismissed from the clerical state, “laicized.”]
• “During the televised service Bishop Knestout told viewers, ‘Father White and I are at odds.’ In the video shared with 8News, you see Pastor White is forced to stand in the background. [So, concelebration; therefore, no crime in secular or eccelesiastical law has been committed by Father White, certainly absolutely nothing deserving of censure of any kind. But the public reprimand of the Bishop against Father White during a concelebration is a terrible scandal, as it’s a clear statement by the bishop that the Holy Sacrifice is not at all about Jesus, but about grandstanding from a truly bully pulpit.]
• “[…] Shortly after that mass, White was locked out of the churches, his apartments, and essentially kicked to the curb. ‘Thanks be to God I had a parishioner that was able to provide me with a place to live,’ White said.”
• From a comment there, followed by my own comment further below:

“Emilio says: 15 July 2021 at 8:39 PM — The Archdiocese of Washington is my home diocese, and I am a former chancery employee. I got to know Fr. White when he was a seminarian and was assigned to my suburban parish for a summer. I also knew then-Father Knestout well, when he was priest-secretary to the saintly and last Catholic Archbishop of Washington, the late Cardinal Hickey. The key to understanding the situation between Knestout/White is to understand that the paths of both men began and had already crossed in the DC Archdiocese, and then both men wound up in the Richmond Diocese, each for different reasons. A much better way of saying that was that Fr. White had the incredible bad luck of having the former vicar general and auxiliary bishop (who didn’t like him already in his old Archdiocese), become his new Ordinary in the Diocese he managed to transfer to. Why was Fr. White disliked? He was thought of as “too traditional”… one of his first assignments was an über-rich, liberal suburban Maryland parish that complained about Fr. White wearing his cassock and birreta. It supposedly “weirded out” the parents of the parish school… or so they said. Knestout is a company man, a bureaucrat with no pastoral experience or backbone. He will change his stripes for whomever is in power, for whomever might promote him further. He will throw you under the bus, no questions asked, if you are a problem for him. Perhaps some of you will recall a sad episode where a faithful priest, on loan from a Russian Diocese, refused to give Communion to a lesbian woman who presented herself with her lover at her mother’s funeral (St John Neumann Church, Gaithersburg Maryland). Cardinal Wuerl mercilessly threw that priest under the bus, while apologizing to the mainstream Media. Knestout was his vicar general, and Wuerl had him do the dirty work of “cancelling” that priest. Many in the DC archdiocese will do the same, in order to climb. I didn’t know the incredible development that Knestout now wants White to be laicized. How outrageous. There are Richmond Diocese priests that have been spewing heresy from the pulpit for decades, but it’s Father White who has to be laicized? That confirms in my mind that Knestout knows that there is still ALOT of bad stuff that could still come out from McCarrick and Wuerl’s tenures, and is terrified of White…in addition to hating him. How ugly and how dark. My heart goes out to Father Mark White. Can laicization be undone by a future Pope?”

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Wow. Within hours. The Bishop had the locks changed on Father Mark’s rectory with no warning, you know, because Father Mark was guiding people through the abuse crisis. Changing the locks certainly steps up the game, doesn’t it?

As I always say, I’m in the best diocese with the best bishop. But that can change. Bishops come and go, for instance. But 99% of other priests in these USA are at risk of being unjustly and instantaneously homeless. What are they to do? Literally get rid of personal libraries and a lifetime of research, all clothing and personal effects, you know, to be ready to zip up just a couple pieces of luggage as they are being home-invaded by “locksmiths”, only, you know, to have those couple of items knocked from their hands as they try to leave in a decorous manner instead being thrown through a picture window?

And in answer to commenter’s question above, the answer is “Yes!” Another Pope can undo any dismissal from the clerical state. It ain’t easy in times of unbelief, but we’re talking “all things being equal.”