INDIANAPOLIS (LifeSiteNews) — The most notorious group of heterodox Catholic clergy in the United States has been denied a place at the upcoming July 17-21 Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
On Tuesday, the ultra-liberal Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) announced that they have repeatedly asked for a table at the event since last summer but that they were recently told there is no room remaining.
“A month ago, we were assured that display space was available if we acted swiftly — and we responded immediately. One week ago (June 25) … we were informed that all display spaces had been taken, even the one that had been assured,” the group said in a press release.
READ: Lay-driven coalition launched to help ‘restore belief’ in the Real Presence of the Eucharist
The AUSCP was founded in 2011. Claiming to draw inspiration from the Second Vatican Council, it supports married clergy, “women priests,” the normalization of homosexuality in the Church, pro-LGBT political policies, and numerous other positions at odds with immutable Catholic teaching.
Last month, from June 24-27, the AUSCP held its 13th annual meeting in Lexington, Kentucky. Local ordinary Bishop John Stowe served as retreat director. The renegade group’s website lists as one of Stowe’s so-called past accomplishments his “criticism” of Nick Sandmann and other pro-life students from Covington Catholic High School who wore “Make America Great Again” hats at the 2019 March for Life.
At the time, scores of mainstream media outlets falsely depicted Sandmann as mocking left-wing Native American activist Nathan Phillips. Parents were furious with Catholic clergy for throwing Sandmann and his friends under the bus in order to curry favor with the press.
READ: Dissident priest group backed by prominent bishops demands Catholic ‘priestesses’
Attendees at this year’s AUSCP assembly were mostly white elderly men and women. Photographs of the event indicate almost none of them wore religious attire. Former LifeSite video reporter Jim Hale confronted several of the group’s members at its 2021 meeting in Minneapolis in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which is run by Bernard Hebda.
Instead of answering Hale’s simple questions about homosexual “marriage,” they lashed out and berated him.
Left-wing Jesuit priest Thomas Reese, who is 78, delivered a keynote address on synodality at this year’s gathering. Reese attended a brunch at the White House with pro-abortion Joe Biden on St. Patrick’s Day in March. He has previously expressed support for homosexual clergy, married priests, and “women deacons.” In May, he promoted a video that insinuated Biden was handpicked by God to serve as the president.
The group also screened a documentary about heterodox 20th century priest Teilhard de Chardin and honored pro-LGBT Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester with its John XXIII Award. Wester serves as the group’s liaison to the U.S. bishops’ conference. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, and San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy, among others, have spoken at its events previously.
Stowe was widely criticized by faithful Catholics last month for doubling down on his support for a gender-confused 39-year-old woman named Nicole Matson who is living as a “diocesan hermit” in his diocese under the name “Brother Christian Matson.”
“Bishop John Stowe … accepted his profession and is grateful to Brother Christian for his witness of discipleship, integrity and contemplative prayer for the Church,” the Lexington diocese said in a statement that referred to the bearded and balding Nicole as a man, using male pronouns for the woman in contradiction to Catholic teaching.
As reported by LifeSite, Mother Therese Ivers, a canon lawyer, has confirmed that it is canonically impossible for a “transsexual” person to live as a religious or in any ecclesial state.
According to Ivers, a transsexual commits a “very grave violation” against chastity, as such persons “act against biological reality” and “against the type of human person that God intended that person to be.”
The National Eucharistic Congress is backed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. On Friday, July 19, LifeSiteNews is sponsoring a Traditional Eucharistic Revival at Victory Field also in Indianapolis, with speakers including John-Henry Westen, Michael Hichborn, Father James Altman, and canceled priest Father Jeffrey Fasching. The event will feature the Traditional Latin Mass at 11:30 a.m. Click here to learn more.