Rabbi Takes Over Priest's Role at Midwestern Basilica's Good Friday Prayer Service

Lucinda Naylor is the former "artist in residence" who was fired from her position at the Basilica of St. Mary's in Minneapolis  for opposing  Archbishop John Nienstedt's pastoral CD regarding the defense of marriage. For a time, her paintings disappeared from the Basilica's walls where the homosexual painter's works are said to be stations of the Cross. They have since returned, as the Basilica itself plays host to a man who does not hold the Catholic Faith, but is tolerated to preach.

"Painting" of Judas' Betrayal

As a reform rabbi took over the prayer service from the pastor of the parish, Father John Bauer, a wooden cross was passed around over the heads of the crowd like at a rock concert. Doctor van Parys, who's responsible for that spectacle, contrasts his good Friday Liturgy and celebration with those which came before, by saying that before, it was an opportunity for Christians to persecute the Jews,

“Prior to the Second Vatican Coun­cil, Good Friday was seen as a day when Catholics would traditionally persecute the Jewish people, blaming them for the death of Christ. Jews would literally hide from Catholics on that day,” said van Parys. “We thought it would be a jarring yet enlightening experience to invite a rabbi to speak to our congregation during Tenebrae.”[Tenebrae is what they referred to as their Good Friday Service]

The Diocesan newspaper is unconcerned and unmoved by the strange oddities taking place at this prayer service, with rose petals falling from the ceiling and a moment when there is a whimsical and cultic bedlam as the lights are turned down and the laity bang their pews for about five minutes in the darkness, as if to waken things below that would be better left asleep.

Laymen may not preach, may certainly not preach vague humanistic messages having nothing to do with the Gospel.