PARISHIONERS PROTEST PARISH PRIEST’S POLICIES DURING MASS
Parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in the
Archdiocese of Portland took their grievances to the next stage when they staged
a protest against their Parish Priest during Mass.In an uploaded video, elderly parishioners dressed in white, carried signs into the assembly during the Eucharistic consecration, and attempting to shout down the priest, Fr. George Kuforiji, during the Mass. Other parishioners were shown looking visibly uncomfortable at the disturbance.
The protests reportedly concern Fr. Kuforiji’s decision to remove unauthorized changes to the liturgy which had become common in the parish over previous years, and to take down a sign at the entrance to the church saying “Immigrants & Refugees welcome.”
Surprisingly, Fr. Kuforiji, himself is a Nigerian immigrant who was ordained in 2015 and installed as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in 2018.
Prior to his arrival, St. Francis was known for “progressive liturgy” that “embraced folk music” during Mass.
After arriving at the parish, Fr. Kuforiji reportedly insisted on using only Church-approved liturgical texts during the Mass. The texts refer to God as “He,” “Lord,” or “King,” instead of the gender neutral terms “God,” and “Creator” that had become customary replacements during parish liturgies.
Kuforiji also stopped the practice of reading a “community commitment” after the recitation of the Nicene Creed.
Some parishioners have also reportedly refused to kneel during the Eucharistic consecration, in defiance of a recent instruction from Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample.
The protests began in late June, when some of the parish’s handmade vestments were found in a trailer slated for the dump. According to sources, Fr. Kuforiji insisted that he had not intended to throw away the rainbow-bordered chasuble and other liturgical garb, but had intended that the vestments be placed in a storage box.
A parishioner, Albert Alter, found the vestments and accused Fr. Kuforiji of “trying to destroy the parish.”
“I don’t know anyone that would come to a parish and go to the vestment closet and take all the vestments, still on hangers, and throw them into a trailer without somebody of authority having instructed them to do so,” Alter told sources.
“We have been wanting real dialogue. I said that we are being abused. We are being abused in the Catholic Church by this priest, and by this archbishop,” said Melinda Pittman, a 30-year parishioner of St. Francis, filmed speaking at the lectern after the Mass.
The demonstrators linked arms and sang “We Shall Overcome,” a Gospel song typically associated with the civil rights movement in the U.S., in protest of the African-born priest.
Tom Hogan, a 76-year-old parishioner of St. Francis and one of the few remaining parishioners who attended its grade school, told The Oregonian that many of the liturgical deviations at the parish were instituted by former pastor Fr. Donald Durand.
Durand’s priestly faculties were withdrawn shortly after his retirement from active ministry in 2001.
Our sources also report that since late June, Mass attendance at St. Francis has dropped, and the entire choir quit and that Catholic Charities of Oregon took control of the parish’s St. Francis Dining Hall, which feeds local homeless people, in early August for a temporary, three-month period.
© Catholic Youth Portal
August 18, 2019
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