I have known Father Alejandro Gwerder for many years, and I can testify that he was always a priest completely dedicated to the service of Christ and his Church. And what I say is not a cliché; it is the purest reality. And I emphasize the key word: dedication , and it has been so in all aspects of his life. And since I have known him, he has had the constant virtue of resisting the attacks he periodically received for his dedication. And the worst of all is that those who attacked him were the “good guys.”
There is one detail that is constant in his apostolic life. With his gentleness and humility, and with his fidelity to the teachings of the Church, he always attracted many faithful. Always. His masses, his missions, his schools, his youth groups, were always the most populated, the most enthusiastic, those that brought together the best of each of the destinations to which he was sent. And that arouses envy, especially in bishops and priests whose ideological ministry barely brings together a handful of seventy-somethings or politicians.
Father Alejandro Gwerder was for many years the parish priest of the Immaculate Conception in Rawson, a small town in the heart of the humid pampas of Buenos Aires. In its small neo-Gothic church he restored the beauty of the liturgy, also celebrating the traditional mass. It is from this temple that the pilgrimage of Our Lady of Christianity departs annually.
But when in 2019, Archbishop Jorge Scheinig was appointed Archbishop of Mercedes-Luján, one of the worst things that Francis' pontificate has produced, the persecution began and, a few years later, Father Gwerder was expelled from his parish and left without a pastoral office, initiating a canonical process for disobeying "the new ecclesial current" inaugurated in the last pontificate. Meanwhile, he continued to exercise his ministry and gather crowds at his Sunday masses, which he celebrates in a country house provided by a family. Because, unlike what happens in most parishes in the archdiocese, Father Gwerder's masses are attended by a large number of faithful, of all ages and social classes. And that infuriates his colleagues, and arouses envy.
Finally, yesterday the archbishopric announced in an unsigned document – they are cowards even in this – that the Dicastery for the Clergy has dismissed Father Gwerder from the clerical state for crimes against “obedience and communion.” Yes, the same dicastery that takes decades to condemn sexual abusers or that, once condemned, forgives them ; the same dicastery that remains impassive while priests commit the most flagrant acts against the obedience and communion of the Church, which is twenty centuries old, and preach heresies, celebrate the most absurd liturgies, bless homosexual couples and commit inconceivable abuses against the unity of the Church, which is Catholic even in time, dares to condemn a priest who has remained faithful to the teaching that the Church has always taught. I am not a canonist and I am not a positivist either; for this very reason, I wonder what validity this type of decision can have.
Meanwhile, a letter from Father Alejandro Gwerder was released today ( here ), in which he explains his reasons . And frankly, there will be few sincere Catholics who do not recognize the voice of a Catholic priest and pastor, and do not agree with the reasons he sets forth there.
I cannot believe that the example of Father Gwerder, like that of many other priests who have been defrocked like him, will end up bearing much fruit; fruit that his persecutors, condemned to failure, are incapable of even desiring.
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