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A Timeline of the Heterodox Chaplains of the Cornell Catholic Community and the Catholic student response
NB: this history is sketchy, but is intended to be filled out by our readers who are Cornell alumni. We particularly would like to know when the confessional in the auditorium ceased to be used and when it was rented to the Jewish community. Items that appear italicized below are of less certain authenticity
1967: The largest Newman club in the United States restyles itself the Cornell Catholic Community. Neither this new entity nor the Newman Club before it are paragons of orthodoxy, but nevertheless Catholics at Cornell have the choice of three daily masses on campus, confession during 5PM mass every day of the week, five masses on Sundays and numerous visitors, classes, and social activities.
1983: Father Michael Mahler becomes chaplain of the CCC, ends practice of daily Mass with leavened bread around a coffee table by moving it into Anabel Taylor Chapel; later institutes regular Advent / Lent general absolution services.
1989-1991: Student group prays daily Rosary at 7:30 AM
1990: Students attempt parish council takeover, take 5 of the 10 elected seats; after the graduation of 4 of these council members, Fr. Mahler agrees to stay as chaplain provided he holds ultimate authority in the CCC.
1991: Departure of Fr. John Forni, a more orthodox chaplain / priest of the Diocese of Rochester. Donation of CCC monstrance by student group.
1994: Sr. Donna Fannon joins the CCC staff, brought in to organize a Catholic shared residence, a project that never begins. Among other noteworthy remarks, she referred to the late pontiff as a misogynist (for Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) and lamented that the Church is not doing enough for gays.
ca. 2000 Regular Tuesday / Thursday vespers, adoration with Fr. Ed Ondrako, OFM Conv., Simon (now a teacher in Singapore and aspiring seminarian?), Lori (Chemistry grad student), and other students.
1998-2001: Lone student protests liturgical abuses, other outrages.
2000-2003: Catholic undergraduates regularly told to consult psychiatrists because they protested abuses a little too much. What abuses? Lack of kneeling during the consecration, lay preaching, and crumbly “unleavened wheat bread” (baked as a fellowship activity) used as Eucharistic matter.
2001: Departure of Fr. Ed Ondrako, OFM Conv. A more orthodox chaplain who organized evening prayer, rosary groups, and Eucharistic adoration.
2001: Formation of Aquinas, an undergraduate group inspired by the Legionaries of Christ’s Compass apostolate, but not officially aligned with the LC because of chaplaincy worries that the Legionaries were too conservative and anti-gay; regular Friday Rosary at 5PM begun.
Reports that the CCC’s RCIA, under Sr. Donna Fannon, uses Richard McBrien’s condemned-by-the-USCCB book, Catholicism as a principal, “mainstream” text; RCIA for non-baptized persons takes two years (!).
2002: Arrival of Msgr. Robert Smith as assistant chaplain and Phil “Pax” Fiadino as lay peace and social justice “chaplain” to oppose the death penalty and war … but not actively to oppose abortion. Never mind that the CCC invited a speaker at this time who gave human cloning a thumbs up!
2003:Occasional Eucharistic Adoration begins with Ambrosius, Sean Breheny (president of Cornell’s pro-life group
who later moved on to seminary), Margaret (another big pro-lifer), Geoffrey Mull (Cornell Review), John DeBarbieri, and Catharina Senensis. This later splits into normal adoration and also “XLT” (exult) under the leadership, at first, of a protestant music director
Departure of the best music director the CCC ever had after he became disgusted with the chaplaincy’s unCatholic atmosphere and its effect on his soul. He had tried to reintroduce good hymns and Gregorian chant. The chaplains said they wanted more of the hippie stuff. It is because of him that weekly Vespers took off, as he led it in english / latin gregorian chant.
Departure of Fr. Mahler from CCC; Fr. Smith takes over as interim chaplain, discontinues general absolution services, though the previous invalid absolutions go unmentioned and unapologized.
CCC invites convicted felon Daniel Berrigan, SJ, to campus.
Fall: Aquinas ceases to be independent of CCC.
2004: Formation of Cornell Catholic Circle, 9 PM daily Rosary begun.
2004 Spring: Traditional Mass celebrated for Cornell students through Catholic Circle planning.
2005 Spring : Tuesday/Thursday Eucharistic Adoration in the Blessed Sacrament closet and on First Fridays.
2005: Arrival of Fr. Daniel McMulllin as head chaplain; Adoration discontinued without explanation.
2006: Phil Fiadino and Theresa Miller dismissed for budgetary reasons.
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St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
1989-1991: Student group prays daily Rosary at 7:30 AM
Yes to this! Catholic students at Cornell can group and pray. No matter what happens around you….keep on praying together.
Fr. McMullin discontinued Eucharistic Adoration at his previous location. Supposedly the reason was not enough committed parishioners. I was well aware of enough people willing to commit to an hour of weekly prayer. It is difficult to argue with a priest that says no to Adoring Our Lord.
I visited Boston University several times with my daughter. I spoke at length with the staff at the Newman Center on two different occasions. They are very, very orthodox. I’ve visited a lot of Catholic colleges (I currently have kids at Providence and Fordham), but I haven’t seen a faith environment as good as BU’s. It is staffed by the Brotherhood of Hope. Sad to say, BU’s Newman center is more Catholic than Boston College, three miles up Commonwealth Avenue.
Frank Gibbons
Seekonk, MA
Nice blog!
Ambrosius, how about saying something about sources. I’m rather curious.
“CCC invites convicted felon Daniel Berrigan, SJ, to campus”
I’m not sure that’s really the best justification to oppose him. Felons: Chuck Colson, Thomas More, Carmelite Martyrs of Paris, Carthusian Martyrs of Britain, St. John Fischer of Rochester, Jesus…
SJH,
good point. We’ll change it to “notorious heretic and enemy of the truth”
Nice post. I see I made it, too. However, I must add that I unfortunately was not at Cornell in 2003 with Ambrosius, Catharina Senensis, and the others to do adoration since I graduated in Spring of 2002…which I suppose is actually a good thing. I’ve changed my little CC(?)C website (Watch out for the Cornell Catholic Community) to include the Catholic Circle group.
The thing that really is interesting is that if you were to talk with some of those Chaplains (and to this term I include non-priests even though they should not be called that) and open them up to what they actually believed it was even more disturbing. If anyone would like references as to where the info on my CC(?)C website came from, just ask me and I’ll tell you. And just to let you all know all but a few abuses were from direct confrontation by yours truly. It’s great you all have a group. Thanks Ambrosius and Catharina Senensis for being there at Cornell when I was there. Also, what a truly beautiful website.
Sincerely,
John DeBarbieri
Wow you guys don’t hold back. Isn’t their any backlash for this unceasing speaking out?
By the way I’m not complaining, its in the tradation of John the Baptist as far as I can tell!
A funny story about general absolutions services. I went to Mass at Immaculate Conception one week before Christmas, and was by the end almost ready to be impressed with Fr. Leo for once. In his homily he mentioned having told a couple requesting a sacrament (he didn’t say which one, presumably either matrimony or baptism for a child) that they needed to start coming to Mass regularly. That may seem small, but coming from Fr. Leo, I thought it was a positive sign. Then, at the end of Mass, he mentioned that they were having some sort of reconciliation service during the following week and that people were encouraged to come. But, he warned, it was “no longer” sufficient to merely come to the service. The Church has declared that all Catholics must confess their sins *individually* to a priest in order to be absolved of mortal sins (except in cases of extreme emergency), and so extra priests would be coming in for the purpose and everyone was urged to go individually to confession at some point in the service.
“Wow!” I thought. “Orthodoxy from Fr. Leo!” I’d never been so impressed at Immaculate Conception Church before. But my joy was premature, because immediately after giving the above explanation, he ruined it.
“I don’t really know what the Vatican is thinking,” he continued bitterly. “I sometimes think that all they want is to make more work for priests. It’s like they’re afraid someone will slip through the cracks, not really be sorry, and so they insist that priests have to listen to every single sin, it’s just…”
He paused, perhaps realizing that it looks a bit bad to tell your congregation point-blank that you are bored by their sins. He amended, “It’s just that sometimes you get a person coming back to the Church after twenty or thirty years and you can’t spend any time with them because you have to be thinking about the line. It’s just terrible.”
My happy mood was spoiled, but it’s nice to see that that even Fr. Leo has been put under pressure to start actually hearing confessions.
On a happier note, we are indeed blessed to have a student group like this at Cornell. Thanks to the efforts of Ambrosius, Iosephus and others, I entered the Church in an FSSP parish and not under the instruction of either Sister Donna or the folks at the parish mentioned above, and from the time of my arrival at Cornell I’ve been immersed in Rosary-praying and other wholesome Catholic activities instead of the heterodox writings of Richard McBrian. And the CCC chaplains don’t even know who I am. Groups like the SGT may not be able to fix everything, but in the lives of a few of us they can make a tremendous difference.
I have been prompted to make to amendments to the above post. First, while the words I attributed to Fr. Leo of Immaculate Conception are at least very close to what he said, I did not write them down and so cannot vouch for them actually being a precise quotation.
Secondly, there was some other guy who also had a lot to do with my being received into the Church at the FSSP parish… I can’t quite remember his name though…
Fidei Defensori: backlash?? The semiviri who run the chaplaincy at Cornell can’t handle open conflict; they only understand dialogue. So if you asked them, they’d probably tell you that we’ve been in serious “dialogue” for a long time.
Moreover, there greatest aspiration in life is to be inclusive. For them this is the summum bonum, the end of human existence, the toleration of all. Some liberals of course, fail miserably on this point, but our chaplains are actually pretty good at being inclusive: they want to welcome Catholics of all stripes, even sede vacantists like us.
With that policy of toleration in place, we get along with them fairly well and for the rest, they forgive us out of their deep Christian charity.
Clara, and no thanks to the efforts of the good Doctor Asinorum??
Ambrosius and I (not to mention One Step) stormed heaven for your sake, but the Doctor did drive you. :)
“even sede vacantists like us”
Subtle irony may yet be your undoing. If/when liberal — and “conservative”! — detractors find this site, this is the sort of thing they will latch onto. If you’d written “ultramontanists,” there’d be no occasion for objection.
Susque deque habeo. We’re not writing this blog for neo-cons and JPII worshippers. At least one of the “chaplains” at Cornell thinks that we’re sede vacantists as well, that’s why I said it.
Yes, well, I was scolded for my ingratitude, as my second post suggests. I just figured that the Doctor needed no public thanks, since his efforts have been rewarded in a different way.
For the sake of anyone who feels left out by this “insider” exchange… the Doctor Asinorum is a member of our group who has now graduated and moved on. His efforts on my behalf were nothing short of Herculean but may not have been entirely disinterested; we’re now engaged to be married.
So, you see, the SGT really does accomplish great things. Even beyond saving souls, it has managed to find a wife for a poor doctoral student who had almost given up hope. :)
Iosephus - I agree with anonymous that subtle humor is unhelpful. Certainly at a superficial glance, we seem more in line with sede vacantists than with your typical AmCatholic. Neither do derisional comments like “JP2 worshippers” help.
Iosephus,
I have to agree: comments that work in conversation can fall flat and cause false impressions in print.
Clara,
I believe I was at the Mass you mentioned…and I remember thinking after the Mass how solid the homily was. I remember Fr. Leo speaking of a parishoner telling him that “he doesn’t need to come to Mass to meet God…he can meet him fishing on his boat.” Fr. Leo then added that it is true that God will meet us while fishing…but God tells us to come to Mass on sunday. I had never imagined Fr. Leo would promote people to come to Mass on Sunday but it was very nice to hear!
Fr. Philip,
I am glad you are praying for us here at Cornell. Can you pull some strings to have a few solid Dominicans take over the campus ministry here at Cornell in the St. Joseph Province as well? I have this wild imagination that once one becomes a priest he can not only pray for people but also pull strings!! Thanks for the prayers!
Just a quickie about Fr. Dan and Fr. Bob not wearing the Roman collar around campus. I attended Mass here at home over this break at Franciscan University and the priest during his daily Mass homily mentioned that:
A priest or religous without their habit or collar is like a blank billboard…you don’t know what they are advertising.
One of many solid daily Mass homilies at Franciscan!
“Can you pull some strings to have a few solid Dominicans take over the campus ministry here at Cornell in the St. Joseph Province as well?”
I’m afraid for now that my prayers will have to suffice. I don’t have any strings to pull in my own province much less the Eastern Province! I’ve only been solemnly professed for two years and ordained a priest for seven months. Campus ministries are tricky b/c bishops like to keep them around for vocations. However, they can budget-problems if the diocese is picking up the tab. My guess is that your bishop would not easily surrender a prestigous campus like Cornell to a religious order. But if you want to try, write to the EDP Provincial, Fr. Dominic Izzo, in NYC and ask for a friar or two. You might get lucky.
Fr. Philip, OP
Vocations? In the Diocese of Rochester? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Well, if that’s the bishop’s plan, to draw vocations for the diocese from the campus of Cornell, I’m afraid he’ll be sorely disappointed.
As it turns out, there are a number of people at Cornell seriously considering vocations, and not one of them has been fostered or encouraged by the chaplaincy, and each one of them is in horror of Bishop Clark.
Vocations from the Diocese of Rochester…hmm.
I met a fellow at Juventutem/WYD 2005 who survived similar campus ministry antics at Ithaca College (class of ‘03 if I remember correctly).
He’s currently in the middle of his first year at the FSSP seminary in Nebraska.
Very cool.
Another guy it would have been nice to have met, though I guess he left the area before I got to Cornell.
Great History Folks!
BTW, where the heck were you guys back in ‘02? I ended up getting involved in a prot group on campus because they were less of a danger to my soul than the CCC! lol
God Bless,
Maria
Hello! My posting deals not so much with the history of the Cornell Society for a Good Time, but rather with the whereabouts of one of the more orthodox chaplains who had left Cornell University. I thought that the Cornell SGT members would appreciate an update, especially when it reminds us that there are no coincidences.
After leaving Cornell, Fr. Ed Ondrako, OFM, went on sabbatical at a seminary in Staten Island. During that time, he served as a visiting priest at the Church of Notre Dame in Manhattan (114th and Morningside Drive). More significantly, at least from my point of view, he served as the chaplain to the undergraduates at Columbia University (Columbia Catholic Campus Ministry). I remember interacting with him on several occasions during my first two years as an undergrad at Columbia. I also remember his eloquent, poignant, and truly Catholic homilies.
Upon discovering Fr. Ed Ondrako had left my sister’s (Catharina Senensis) university only to appear at mine, my sister and I lamented that he had left a place that was truly in need of him. However, the Lord does have His reasons, and I am thankful that He blessed Cornell with several devout and strong laity :)
-Michaela (younger sister of Catharina Senensis)
http://aberdeenymn.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=59397
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