The video above is one of many Life Teen videos on You Tube. It's titled "Life Teen Praise & Worship Fall 2003". The About This Video section says, "Our Lady of Lourdes Life Teen Praise & Worship lead by the Life Teen Band".
This type of Life Teen liturgy, designed to bring lots of teenagers to Mass and involve them in other types of ministries, was the fruit of Monsignor Dale Fushek's priestly ministry.
From Wikipedia:
Life Teen is a Catholic youth ministry organization and movement originating in the United States. It was established in 1985 at St. Timothy's Parish in Mesa, Arizona. Pastor Fr. Dale Fushek, Youth Minister Phil Baniewicz, and Music Minister Tom Booth came up with the plan aimed to revolutionize youth ministry and bring the message of Jesus Christ to teenagers in a way they could understand it. It was decided that a new approach was needed to evangelize the Catholic youth in their area. According to Life Teen sources, they now have over 1000 individual programs in the United States and around the world. Life Teen programs are typically established in individual parishes.
Here's the story: Indicted Mesa priest starts new worship center
Quote:
The former pastor at a Mesa Catholic church who faces seven misdemeanor charges of sexual misconduct has started a new worship center and conducted his first services.More than 500 worshippers gathered to hear Dale Fushek conduct a service at a Mesa hotel Thursday.
Known as "Monsignor Dale" during his 20 years at St. Timothy's, Fushek co-founded the national Life Teen program and served as vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
But all that came tumbling down in late 2005, when he was arrested on one count of assault, five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one count of indecent exposure. He is accused of engaging in sexually related discussions with teenagers during confessions and exposing himself to teens as he got into his hot tub.
Fushek was suspended by the diocese and is now resigning from the priesthood. He is tying to win the right to a jury trial on the charges and a hearing is pending on that issue before the Arizona Supreme Court.
On Thanksgiving Day, he said he was happy to be back before a group of worshippers.
"I feel alive again," he said after the two-hour morning service. "This was inspiring and beautiful. I thought there was a really good spirit among the people here."
Fushek said he started the nondenominational Praise and Worship Center as a place where people can come to worship between regular services, not as competition for the Catholic Church.
Another quote comes to mind:
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits."Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'" (Matthew 7:15-23)
This has been a bad week for liturgical innovators and people with appalling musical taste.
First we get this news: Pope To Purge The Vatican of Modern Music
Now we learn that Dale Fushek, the founder of Life Teen, who has been indicted for predatory homosexual acts with minors, thinks it's okay for priests who resign in disgrace to officiate at non-denominational worship services.
It's another blow to insipid liturgies everywhere.
If you aren't familiar with the details of the case against Fushek, you can read them here: For 20 Years Dale Fushek Was the Golden Boy of the Phoenix Catholic Diocese. Now, His Golden Boys Are Talking
Any thoughts?
I remember when we had Lifeteen Masses at our church. The teenagers got so out of control. Dancing, doing the bump, swaying in the aisles, hootin and hollerin. The Life Teen Mass was just a big party for the teens as well as the adults. The teens and adults dressed very immodestly at this Mass. The kids used to stand around the altar during the conscration, many of the kids used to chew on gum even while receiving communion. So glad Life Teen Mass was canceled.
Posted by: Mariana | Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 05:07 AM
Didn't Christ say something like, "Upon this rock I will build my worship center?"
Posted by: carolg | Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 11:00 AM
I believe the accusations against Fr. Fushek and I'll tell you why. Two years ago about half of the Life Teen website had something to do with sex. On the homepage of the website there were three columns/categories were about sex. I remember one of the categories was titled: Sex, Sex and more sex. Teens would write in questions about their sexual encounters or fantasies and Fr. Fushek would answer the questions. All of the questions and answers were made public online. Many of the questions were too sexually graphic, I thought especially for a Catholic website for teenagers. Lifeteen website had a photo of the Pope John Paul II with the caption underneath that said King of Sex. What kind of priest would allow that stuff to go on?
Posted by: Mona Alona | Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 01:39 PM
I'm here in Phoenix but am a bit old far too traditional for the whole Life Teen thing. I definitely see the dangers that style of worship can lead to. That said, I've met too many devote Catholics who have benn discipled in Life Teen to discount the good that was done. My heart breaks to see the enemy take out one of our priests. Let's storm Heaven for him and for those whose faith will be rocked by this scandal. As Catholics we don't believe in once saved always saved so we can bless the good done and curse the pride and wickedness that Fushek has fallen into.
May the Lord have mercy on his soul.
Posted by: Matthew Weston | Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 11:11 PM
"What kind of priest would allow that stuff to go on?"
lol. The all-too-common sexually deviant variety? One just needs look at http://www.conservapedia.com/Special:Statistics to see evidence of the obsession that the religiously repressed / delusional have.
If priests and pastors don't have their hands in your wallet, they're in your kids' underwear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_religion
Posted by: Mono Ape | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 09:31 AM
Hey Ape -
Your comment is disgusting, out of line and wrong. Most priests are holy courageous hard-working people. What this idiot is doing is wrong and it would be just as wrong to characterize all priests in the light of this bad apple.
"If priests and pastors don't have their hands in your wallet, they're in your kids' underwear."
PLA-LEEASE! You obviously haven't BEEN in a Catholic Church if you really believe that! I won’t sit back and let you bag on the Catholic priesthood with your goofy nonsense. Take your nonsense elsewhere.
Posted by: carolg | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 10:19 AM
carolg, I don't need to go to a KKK meeting to know it ain't right ... just as I don't need to set foot in a church or read 'the good book' cover-to-cover to know it's a load of dangerous and damaging superstitious nonsense (http://www.skeptic.com/the_magazine/featured_articles/v12n03_are_religious_societies_healthier.html).
I suspect there are thousands of children who might not agree with your assessment that abuse by priests and the systematic cover-up provided by their church is "goofy nonsense": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases.
However, I guess if you can delude yourself that there's any value or truth in the bible, then any other delusion is gonna be easy.
Posted by: Mono Ape | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 10:40 AM
Ape? Sounds like an apt name for now. Let's pray for a name change, and maybe sound reasoning will follow.
Posted by: joanne | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 02:32 PM
That's the best you can do, joanne? A childish jibe at my screen name and conveniently ignoring the facts put in front of you.
As for "sound reasoning" - that's always conspicuous by its absence in the religious and why should we expect any different? If you can convince yourself that an error-filled and contradictory book, stuffed with Bronze Age superstitious nonsense is the inspired (or literal) word of a god, then you have no need for sound reasoning.
Posted by: Mono Ape | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 03:23 PM
What is goofy nonsense is your characterization that ALL (or even MOST) priests are either greedy or perverts.
You claim to be interested in facts. Your assertion has no basis in fact. The facts clearly show that the opposite is true.
My post is clear so you may need to re-read it.
Clearly, you also hate the Church and hate anything associated with God so I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you how very wrong you are.
Posted by: carolg | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 04:18 PM
Well, Mono Ape, did you or did you not barge into this site with all the sensitivity of an ape? It does no good to argue with you; you will make offensive noises in any case. In order for any effective communication to take place, there must be truths commonly held. What you hold toward Christians is disdain for the Truth.
You call yourself 'Ape' and you have acted like one in this case. If you want the respect due to you as a thinking person, it would help if you treated others with respect.
I would say the same to my son if he were acting like an ape.
Posted by: joanne | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 05:33 PM
I have an aquaintance who is a church pianist in a diocese were Life Teen is popular. She was heavily involved with it for years.
Frank and honest discussion has lead us to the conclusion our liturgical sensibilities are very different. She insists this sort of worship gets the kids interested, involved, and then directs them to the regular Masses...
I am a little nonplussed by rock & modern "praise and worship" music in the context of a Mass to begin with. In turn she is generally dismissive of chant or organ music (bear in mind, she is the one collecting a paycheck as a "music minister"; I am just the ex-seminarian liturgical trogladyte who claims no ministry title. I digress)...
She claims that many orthodox vocations have come out of LT. I certainly hope that in the seminary, liturgical tastes changed a bit.
I'd like to be positive about anything that gets kids interested in their Catholic faith... But at a number of levels, this sort of service really bothers me. Maybe it is the sort of "least common denominator" low church stylings of it. While not heterodox, I find some of the "I've-got-my-doctrine-to-keep-me-warm" low-church sensibilities odd.
Like "Catholic-lite" there have arisen parties that embrace the Magisterium and forms of traditional Theology, but beyond NOT abusing the Novus Ordo Mass and tossing in the Rosary and Eucharistic adoration (both good starts), interest in forms (traditional forms!) don't seem present.
Next time such a type is waxing poetic about "really exploring new things in the liturgy and being open to the Spirit" invite them to attend an Eastern Catholic Eucharistic liturgy if they have never done so. In my experiences, 9x out of 10, explorers of liturgy decline to explore that option. Once its established there will be chant & incense the interest wanes...
So I am left to wonder, when does "Jesus on my terms, keeping Him cool" just turn into "my terms"???
Hard to say, but when a suspended priest starts his own extra-Eucharistic "worship center" you can feel pretty certain, he has already passed that point.
Posted by: ASimpleSinner | Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 11:34 PM
I appreciate that being religious involves a great deal of denial, delusion and cognitive dissonance, but to deny that the Holy Roman Catholic Church is not a breeding ground for paedophiles is just ludicrous.
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/sexabuse.htm
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/priests/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3872499.stm
[etc.]
If you read something other than the christian fairytale, it's amazing what you can learn.
P.S. I never noticed that apes were particularly insensitive, in fact probably more sensitive than 'human apes' on the whole ... or do y'all believe the earth is 6000 years old and your god waved his magic wand to create us all? lol.
Posted by: Mono Ape | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 10:58 AM
I think a simple sinner makes a good point. I've always been a little more "nuts and bolts" about my faith since I re-discovered it as an adult.
I became one in search of truth at the expense of everything else - including my own preferences.
I think trying to "sell" the Catholic faith to teens with a flashy presentation cheats them out of the beautiful realities that are taking place during a mass.
Even Christ refused to be "The bread King".
Posted by: carolg | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 12:57 PM
Mono Ape,
It was some of the seminaries and dioceses in the U.S. that were breeding grounds for homosexuals and pederasts. There were and probably still are more pederasts than paedophiles in the U.S. Catholic priesthood. Most of the abuse victims were teenage boys. The problem is we have too many homosexual priests and bishops.
Posted by: Mona Alona | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 03:01 PM
carolg,
"I think trying to "sell" the Catholic faith to teens with a flashy presentation cheats them out of the beautiful realities that are taking place during a mass."
Well said! I agree 100%. I have never been to a lifeteen mass, but it sounds a little creepy from what I've read. I don't see how it would draw anyone to the Catholic faith anyway. I think inviting them to a tridentine mass would be more beneficial, educational and meaningful for them.
Posted by: Beth | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 07:33 PM
There is a "Life Teen" Mass in this town. Eighty percent of the people who attend the Mass have gray hair.
Posted by: Patrick | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 08:39 PM
The Catholic Church breeds paedophiles? Only the closet Protestants!
http://reformation.com/
Posted by: Tom | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 09:13 PM
Eighty percent of the people at Teen Masses have gray hair?
Must be the same people who go home and watch "Life on the Rock" and imagine that these are the grandchildren who should be visiting them at Happy Acres Nursing Home!
Posted by: Dan the Man | Monday, November 26, 2007 at 09:23 PM
Mono Trog, you do very little "due dilligence" do you?
In fact less than 1% of the Catholic clergy of the past 4 decades have even been so much as accused. The vast majority of accusations have been against men committing homosexual rape of teenage boys - and many of the accused were accused by multiple vicitims. In other words, a miniscule percentage of homo-rapists were merrily brought through the ranks.
This is comparable to or better than the same sorts of abuses seen in Protestant ecclesial communities.
It has been FAR BETTER than the public school systems in the US, in some places 1 in 10 students report sexual advances or otherwise inappropriate and lude behaviors from faculty & staff in their school experience.
The crack about "6000 year old earth" kinda speaks to your general ignorance about the Catholic Church and your inability to differentiate between us and various and sundry other Christian sects... "Those people all look alike to you" I guess.
But why feed the trolls? I hope there is something in your soul that is leading you to seek out and then return to Catholic blogs that is questioning. But if it is just spiteful hatred and a desire to spend your time provoking people of faith with statements meant to offend, outrage & incesnse... So be it. Everyone needs a hobby - yours just happens to be exceedingly sad.
Posted by: ASimpleSinner | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 07:49 AM
Salutations Fatres,
I have read your articles. I am interested in your site writing something of the Mercy of God as it relates to the Phoenix Diocese, and Father Henry Perez, who was also accused of sexual impropriety.
Please contact me at your leisure.
In the interests of fairness and justice, this story should be told by a first hand witness; me.
A Roman Catholic story must be told, but not as a footnote
Posted by: Pablo | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Tha last time (and the only time) I went to a Life Teen Mass, I was so disturbed by what I saw that I almost lost my Faith over the following few days. During the Mass I was so distraught that I almost said something out loud to the priest in the middle of it all... it was sheer lunacy and irreverence and made a mockery of the Catholic Faith.
Thanks be to God for the freeing of the Traditional Mass accomplished by our Holy Father, because its re-emergence will begin to wipe out blasphemies such as Life Teen Masses. The Traditional Mass will eventually supplant the Novus Ordo, which will implode of its own unworthiness and disappear into the dustbin of history. Pray for this to happen soon, that many souls may be recued from the Evil One. The seeds of the Restoration have been sown - let us support this great endeavour with our prayers, sacrifices and actions!
Posted by: Mark Jacobson | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 11:25 AM
He Mono Ape! Did the Church ever say the earth WASN'T young?
I think you'd be surpised how hard the PBC came down on the evolutionists when it was still an arm of the Magisterium.
www.kolbecenter.org
Posted by: Dan the Man with the Plan | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 01:55 PM
It's all so strange. When I was converting to Protestantism, the youth pastor didn't hold quasi-religious, modified religious/worship services.
We actually talked about things that mattered: what actually Jesus taught, whether what he taught was true or compelling, and that a decision had to be made about Jesus irrespective of what family/friends/society said about him.
I'm all for showing how/why Jesus is universally relevant to all of us, but care must be shown when "relevance" becomes a code word for accomodating worldy influences and styles of appeal. The Church does not need to go MTV to show its relevance to youth; in fact, not doing so would be more effective and apt. Adolescents are struggling and confronting many more important, impactful things than just those things mentioned.
Posted by: Jimbo | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 02:04 PM
back and forth, back and forth is the witty or not so witty banter back and forth. i will graciously say now that i love my roman catholic faith far too much to argue about it.
I believe that there is truth in the catholic tradition. I believe that the tradition Jesus started is perfect. but from thence on man has done his best to rule it. and man is flawed. yet that is why there is their is forgiveness. yes we may look on the outside say tisk tisk shame on you. but can you say you've never suffered from temptations and vices? we can pray for those who suffer with greater addictions. when the roman asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment, he said "to love God, then love your neighbor as much as you love yourself." --one could spend a whole lifetime pondering "what is love." why waste your time on hate and spite? You may not believe that God created the world in 6 days. but why are you so bent on dismantling it for those who do believe in it. all religions have the purpose of teaching you to become a better religion. and for all the website references, don't believe all that you read. wiki, is after all written by people like you and I. I can't say i know if Father Dale is guilty or not. but i can say that it saddens me. and i will strive to forgive him. i just hope that those who were hurt by it can forgive him as well and go on to live life. I know it seems light to just say, "lets move on." but what other suggestion would there be? Even if you don't believe in God. Jesus was real, he was witnessed, just like any historical person. therefore, can you deny that he was a Good man? We look up to sports athletes, and movie stars. I look up to Jesus. is that bad? I hope that you all you who feel so negative can accept that at the end of the day we are all human with carnal desires. and we all have the freedom to either build up or tear down. which will you do today?
Posted by: eyesofgod | Sunday, March 02, 2008 at 11:28 PM