Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

DIscussion and News concerning Orthodox Churches in communion with those who have fallen into the heresies of Ecumenism, Renovationism, Sergianism, and Modernism, or those Traditional Orthodox Churches who are now involved with Name-Worshiping, or vagante jurisdictions. All Forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.


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Barbara
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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Example of where Fr Parr let it be known that he became Orthodox 17 years BEFORE he actually did :

Interviewer in Russia : You accepted Orthodoxy in 1970. What was the main reason for your decision?

[Fr Parr: ] "There’s no main reason, there’s only one reason—it’s a development. With Orthodoxy I found the early Apostolic Church ..."

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/68135.htm


I didn't bother to include the rest because the sentences rang false to me. A bunch of words strung together with no umph or caring from Fr Parr. He produced only stereotypical ideas. Nothing at all original.

Look, however, at this short excerpt. What does it really MEAN, 'no main reason, one reason - it's a development".
That strikes me as vague mumbo jumbo.

Many people with personality disorders which include compulsive lying resort to this technique of 'word salad' to distract the listener or reader. They speak fluff but often dispense that fluff in an authoritative tone. Thus listeners or readers who are not too discerning can be taken in, especially when familiar concepts such as 'Orthodoxy is the Apostolic Church' are tossed in here and there as an anchor for the drivel the person issues. Unless one is aware to listen for this, one's mind tends to discount or even cancel out the vacuous statements while focusing only on the recognizably correct elements. I have not read this latter idea anywhere, but I feel that is what happens to permit the leader to keep his followers in thrall.

Note how Fr Parr fails to correct the interviewer. The date given in the video for his reception into the Orthodox Church was July 20, 1987. Ahem. Probably the former Oakland resident had written the year as 1970 in his autobiography which the video points out was published without any verification of facts by a few respectable publishing houses [ in Russia only, it seems ]. Well, who would imagine someone who reached the high dignity of Archimandrite would be an inveterate liar ?

Notice, too, that Fr Parr does not say anything revelatory. Someone who had had a major conversion might have a dramatic tale or a heartfelt feeling that came over them making them choose the Orthodox Church. His reply is dry and boring. One becomes suspicious that the so-called elder was play-acting as a believer in Orthodoxy this entire time. It will be 30 years next year since his chrismation at the OCA cathedral in New York City.

People are who not personality-disordered exhibit enthusiasm, vitality and verve. He shows none that I can see in these pictures and clips. As I said earlier, neither do his eyes have the slightest expression to them. These are ALL 'red flags' to help identify which spiritual father is authentic and which clergyman is an imposter. Though these criteria can apply to anyone.

At one point in the video, I recall that Fr Parr is shown with a bizarre grimace while raising an arm in an over-theatrical manner. This awkwardness in relating to his audience can not be construed as enthusiasm. Such a goofy look, often momentary, is common with personality-disordered people. Because it's passing, the audience often blocks it out since this is not how they see the spiritual father most of the time.
I believe this crazy look on the face is the telltale sign that the person has a demon in them at that moment. The demon is showing its 'face' which is why the host person looks repellent.

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Barbara
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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Fr Parr coughed up still different answers to the questions of when he converted and when he was ordained to the holy priesthood in this court deposition from 10 years ago, 2006. We all know that one is not allowed to tell lies when being deposed or giving testimony in a court of law.

Here Fr Parr asserts he converted in 1982, and was ordained in 1985.

The "Q"'s below are the questions put to Fr Parr in the deposition. The "A"'s are Fr Parr's responses.

2 And at some point did you have a conversion to
3 a different, for lack of a better term, denomination or
4 faith system?

5 A. Yes, I did.

6 Q. And when was that?

7 A. It was in 198 -- well, the process was in the
8 seventies, but I actually became orthodox in '82.

9 Q. And you said you went to Holy Cross?

10 A. Yes. Greek orthodox seminary.

11 Q. Okay. So that's not the college? It's a
12 Greek Orthodox seminary?

13 A. There is a college and there is a theologic
14 seminary at Holy Cross in Boston.

15 Q. Okay. That is a Greek Orthodox?

16 A. It's a Greek orthodox, yes.

17 Q. Alright. And when were you ordained?

18 A. I was ordained in '85.


http://www.pokrov.org/wp-content/upload ... sition.pdf


Additionally, Fr Parr has invented a different seminary story ! Now he attended the GOA's Holy Cross. Nowhere is St Tikhon's [ OCA ] Seminary mentioned. Could this be because he figures the Catholic lawyer or lawyers will be more comfortable with Greek Orthodoxy than Russian Orthodoxy ?

What could explain his endless changes of story about the most simple details of his past ?

It is said that when confronted, compulsive liars will laugh off the accusation, heaping ridicule on the accusing party or some other distracting mechanism.

Appallingly, they absolutely don't care that they have been found out.

The other way that habitual liars react is to work themselves into a rage, thus silencing their accuser by intimidation.

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Today is the Vigil of the repose of St Sergius. It was to St Sergius of Radonezh that the chapel beneath the main Church at Rocor Headquarters in Manhattan was dedicated. I assume that this Saint was chosen because of the invaluable assistance of a wealthy banker, Sergei Semenenko, in purchasing this former mansion to become the world headquarters of the Russian Church Abroad. This help was extended due to an old debt of his family to the current Rocor Metropolitan Anastassy [Gribanovsky]. The St Sergius Church was the former main dining room of the fashionable red brick mansion.

Somehow or another, then-Abbot Joachim was given the responsibility for this parish which must have been mainly English-speaking. The large group photo in the MercyHouseAbuse English video was not identified as far as I remember except to point out which persons have left Fr Parr. The picture was taken in this chapel with the smiling parish group.

To me, the video's continued listing of clergy and laity who are no longer affiliated with Mercy House and Fr Parr became boring. Clergy and laity do leave jurisdictions all the time. Sometimes parishioners move away from the area or have other circumstances why they no longer attend services at a parish, in this case Mercy House. That focus distracted from the video's message if one didn't know any of the people involved.

The impact would be stronger on the viewing audience if subsequent clips address the exact problems emanating from Fr Parr. In this, perhaps the first of a series, a priest angrily says he was lied to from start to finish. Giving false information is certainly a manipulation and is classified as a type of abuse. Beyond the deception-laden atmosphere, however, the outsider is left to wonder what specifically went on at Mercy House to harm the participants.

One gets a hint from the following remark about a possible financial victim of Fr Parr named Stephanie that more concrete revelations will indeed be forthcoming :

"Yes, we know about her and how her parents' money were [sic] taken away.... But we have not touched the financial side of Mercy House activities yet."

https://www.facebook.com/mercyhousehistory/#

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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It seems that Fr Parr had quite some influence over Rocor Priests during the time he was in that jurisdiction.

We find that he was able to perhaps do some good in getting relics such as that of St Irene transferred over to St Basil's Rocor Church in St Louis, Missouri. But I suspect a lie in the narrative told by a prominent scholar, David E Cassens. Currently, this member of Rocor-MP is Dean of Libraries at St Louis University. Probably he is a parishioner at this impressive looking Church.


"The story of how the sacred relics of the fourth century Orthodox Great Martyr, St. Irene, (read here the Life of St. Irene) came to St. Basil the Great Orthodox Church in St. Louis, Missouri, is as interesting as it is a blessing. During the summer of 1997 the Archpriest, Very Reverend Martin Swanson, of St. Basil the Great Orthodox Church in St. Louis, Missouri, which is a parish in the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), was being visited by his long time friend and spiritual advisor, Father Joachim Parr.

:During his visit to St. Louis, Fr. Joachim informed Fr. Martin that he wanted to visit the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Fr. Martin was curious about this request, owing to the fact that the Sisters of St. Joseph are a Roman Catholic Order, and asked, “Why would you want to do that?” Fr. Joachim replied that he wanted to visit the Sisters because they have our relics. He explained that as a young man he had relatives who were Roman Catholic that lived in St. Louis and his family had visited the Motherhouse and chapel with them. There he saw hundreds of holy relics. Fr. Joachim said he remembered that many of the relics were from the east and many were Eastern Orthodox. In particular, he recalled, that the Sisters had the relics of fourth century saints, including those of the Great Martyr Irene."

http://stbasilthegreat.org/about/relics ... -st-irene/


Sorry, I am not sure how the smiling face arrived to the second paragraph of the narrative. Maybe an Angel is enjoying this.
All seems normal to me until the story reaches the part about relatives of Fr Parr who were from St Louis who had taken the young man with them to see the chapel and relics. Realistically, I feel Parr heard somehow about the existence of this treasure trove of relics but made up the story to give it more authenticity and himself more importance by means of a direct connection to the Sisters of St Joseph. Realistically, a young Catholic man who was visiting a chapel with relics in it would not pay that close attention. Especially as when John Parr was teaching at the Salesian High School in Richmond, CA [ 1974 or 5 to 1980 ], he seems not to have been a particularly pious Catholic. Perhaps not really at all, but there is not enough information to assess his spiritual leanings in those years. One only knows he was impatient with the liberal views of the incoming head of the school. Parr claimed in that deposition quoted a few posts above that he disliked the Vatican II liberal atmosphere and thus was asked to leave his teaching position by the new director. Perhaps the decision to go elsewhere was as much Parr's : it's not clear from the brief exchange recorded in that deposition.

Lay Catholics were hardly aware of early Martyrs' relics during this era, 20 years after Vatican II. If Parr had been so interested in holy relics, it seems there would be more supportive evidence. He would have tried out a vocation for monasticism, for example. Instead of pretending to have been a Benedictine monk for decades when he never darkened the door of a single Catholic monastery as far as one is aware.
The tale Parr told Fr Martin Swanson about having relatives in St Louis can be checked out. If indeed Parr had invented that as he invented so many other details of his life, this easily consigns Parr's account to the pathological liars' dust bin.

Next, we read from Mr Cassens' account of a visit in April 1997 to the Convent :

"Later an elderly, nun who was praying in the chapel, noticed that Fr. Joachim was wearing his chotki (Eastern Orthodox prayer rope—similar in appearance to a Roman Catholic rosary) and asked what it was. Fr. Joachim removed his chotki and wrapped it around the nun’s wrist, saying “it was his prayer rope and that we use it to say the Jesus prayer e.g. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” I am now giving it to you and I want you to pray that we receive the Orthodox relics held by your Order." The elderly nun was a little surprised at this, but agreed to do so."

To me, this sounds wildly improbable. Why would an old nun be so forward as to ask - if she noticed at all - what the prayer rope was which Fr Parr wore ? Usually nuns of that age, brought up in the pre-Vatican II era, would practice strict ''custody of the eyes'. Surely, such a venerable figure would not be surveying a visiting Orthodox monk's outfit. Let alone asking a question like a child.

Then : why would Fr Parr ask that nun to pray about his intention ? Presumably the Convent would want to KEEP their relics rather than give them away. Why would Fr Parr dictate to the nun about what to pray this way ??
Then, why would he fasten the prayer rope around her wrist ? That seems too forward on Fr Parr's part.

The whole interaction does not ring true. Perhaps this is the version Fr Parr gave out to Fr Martin Swanson, who repeated it to the author, Mr Cassens, in an interview 11 years later.

I hear plenty of embellishment if not outright fabrication.

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Barbara
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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Further, the narrative above continues :

"[Fr Martin Swanson] and Matushka Katherine made an appointment to visit the Sisters and receive the relics. During their visit they obtained several hundred relics. They brought them in a station wagon to Fr. Martin’s home and inventoried the relics with documents of authenticity that had been provided by the Sisters of Carondelet. A large number of the relics were dated after the year 1054, when the Roman and Orthodox Church divided in the Great Schism. Since the relics that were dated after 1054 would not be venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, they were packaged separately and Father Joachim donated them to a Roman Catholic Order on the east coast"

I highly suspect this last statement ! Perhaps Fr Parr sold them somewhere ? If it were just a little later than 1999, one might wonder whether he put them on Ebay or a similar site. That doesn't sound right to me that Fr Parr gave them freely to a Catholic order. Which one ? Of nuns or monks ? Why is it not stated ?

Something is strange here. If there were several hundred relics and the vast majority were post-Schism that would still leave
200 - 250 relics of use for Catholics. Why to supposedly donate them all to one monastery or Church ?

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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An article about the Sisters of St Joseph appeared this week in the Boston Globe. Predictably, it turns the Sisters into leftists and
rabblerousers who are to be admired for their rebellion against religious strictures.

If the group profiled is any indication, the Sisters of St Joseph attracted liberal younger nuns, many of whom angrily tossed out their membership in the order. Some got involved in radical activities of the later 1960s:

"Life changed quickly for those who left, including Munoz, Anne Walsh, Sally Kelly, and others.....Walsh quickly fell in with a group of priests in Roxbury who were breaking into draft offices and helped them burn records, risking jail to protect working-class and poor men from being sent to fight in Vietnam. “It was like Woodstock without the drugs,’’ she says."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/20 ... story.html

If the St Louis branch was anything like the Boston area Framingham community, one can see WHY they were indifferent to the relics in their chapel and easily relinquished them to the - at the time - Rocor clergymen, Fr Martin and Fr Parr.

P.S. The article is oriented toward 'women's solidarity' while tearing down belief in religion and monasticism. It ends :

"Not one says she regrets her time in the convent....

“God knows it influenced my whole life,’’ says Andrea Munoz. “They’re still my best friends."

Nothing about her spiritual growth : only that she acquired life-long friends from her years with the Sisters of St Joseph !

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Future productions should delve more into Fr Parr's time at "the legendary Jordanville Monastery", as described in this clip.
Only a vague picture is presented here of why Fr Parr didn't remain there. One gathers that Fr Parr was no ascetic and could not 'hack it' at the ultra-traditional monastic institution. BUT WHY, the audience wonders ? What bothered Fr Parr ? Did he attempt to adjust or never even tried to fit in with the monastic routine there ? If the latter, this would suggest a certain arrogance, a universal quality of sociopaths. Many times the disdain for others is well hidden, even for decades, behind a mask of congeniality. What was it that made Fr Parr unable to remain ?

After all, we know the great ascetic, St John Maximovitch, visited Jordanville whenever he came to America from his Western European Diocese. Archbishop John would arrive, and despite the tiring 4 hour drive from New York City, head right to the Church for prayer. The Saintly hierarch would then spend the entire night pacing the halls and praying for each seminarian and brother. He would even walk in winter snow - wearing sandals - out to the farthest barns and outbuildings to bless them. So what was it that made the elder-in-the making Fr Parr unable to forego a few luxuries ? Did he get along with the fathers and brothers there ? Investigation needs to be done by interviewing monastics and staff from that era if at all possible to locate them.

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