David Konstant, ex-Bishop of Leeds, remembered for a school sex program so foul it was banned in the Birmingham Archdiocese!
Also famous for delaying the printing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to suck up to feminism’s gender equality agenda.
David Konstant MA was born 16 June 1930. He was ordained a priest 12 June 1954 by Cardinal Bernard Griffen. Predictable, in the present climate of episcopal subversion of the faith of the Church, he was raised to the episcopacy by Cardinal Basil Hume, being appointed an auxiliary bishop of Westminster on the 25 April 1977, and then the 8th bishop of Leeds on 23 July 1985.
He is yet another Modernist thoroughbred from the Hume stables. Many have asked, as the late saintly Father Paul Crane often did of David Konstant: "How did that man ever become a bishop?"
Before the Second Vatican Council Bishop Konstant, as Father Konstant, worked as a teacher of English in a Catholic boys school. After the Council, when the upheaval in religious instruction started, he was appointed to one of the new posts, Diocesan Catechetical Director for the Archdiocese of Westminster.
Father Konstant had an office in the building which housed the infamous Corpus Christi College of Religious Education, which was later closed down by Cardinal Heenan. He became close friends with the Principal of Corpus Christi, Father Hubert Richards, and later, when Fr Richards quit the priesthood to marry, with his wife Clare. Frs Richards and Konstant were also very close to Cardinal Heenan’s secretary, Mgr Worlock, later Archbishop of Liverpool. As the saying goes: birds of a feather. One can also see here the working of the old boys' network, where prime English sees are parceled out amongst ones chums.
He took over from Archbishop Michael Bowen of Southwark as Chairman of the Department for Catholic Education until replaced by Bishop Vincent Nichols in November 1998, in addition, he served as Episcopal representative for the Catholic Media Trust and Episcopal Liaison for the National Conference of Priests. Bishop Konstant’s record in all three important and very influential posts, like his connection with The Catechism of the Catholic Church, has been, in a word, dire.
A Catholic bishop unable to answer simple questions on the Catholic faith.It may seem astonishing but Bishop Konstant was unable to give a simple affirmation of Catholic faith when confronted by a series of simple questions posed by the BBC's Today programme in 1998, which included: "Do you believe in the literal fact of the Resurrection of Christ?" "Do you believe there will be a second coming of Christ?" "Do you believe Adam and Eve literally existed?" "Is there a purgatory?" "Are all of the Ten Commandments applicable today?" About such basics of the Catholic faith, the Bishop of Leeds replied: "None of the questions is capable of a one-word answer, which means that, for most people, any answer given.. is not merely inadequate, but simply untrue."!
Bishop responsible for sex-ed program, considered so "foul" that it is banned from the Birmingham Archdiocese!While in charge of catechetics in Westminster, Father Konstant introduced a very explicit sex education programme which parents did not like. They eventually persuaded Rome to instruct Cardinal Heenan to withdraw it and to remove his Imprimatur. Konstant has zealously provided our children with the most explicit material on sex ensuring that although they would grow up totally ignorant of the Faith they would be well informed on sexual matters from an early age. His book, Education in Sexuality, was so bad that in addition to the outcry from angry parents, Archbishop Couve de Murville considered it so foul he banned it from his Archdiocese. It was later re-issued with some of the offending material removed, and this time Bishop Konstant’s name had been dropped from the front cover, though it was still published by his Catholic Education Service.
Bully Boy BishopThe Catholic Herald (7/4/00), reported that parishioners of St Michael’s, Knottingley, had ended their three-year campaign to have the tabernacle behind the high altar in their new church. They did so after a personal appeal from their parish priest, who had clashed with Bishop David Konstant over the Bishop’s whim to put the tabernacle, where the body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Blessed Lord is kept, somewhere else. Like most mainstream Modernists, bishop Konstant prefers that in the house of God, the presence of God, at least in the manner in which He chose to dwell among men, is not too obvious.
It seems the good parish priest, a Father David Smith, had received a letter from Bishop Konstant "calling for an end to the dispute". He was ordered to cease his opposition. Our bully boy Bishop had Fr Smith in a head-lock because he had refused to consecrate the church until his will be done. A parishioner told The Catholic Herald: "Fr David has asked us to put it all behind us and move forward. We’ve agreed to do it mainly because we are concerned for him, for his career and his health. We will just have to comply with the Bishop’s wishes. But we will never agree with it. We are more concerned for Father David".
Welcoming "the end of the dispute," one of Konstant spin doctors followed up with the following sanctimonious garbage: "It is good to see that Fr. Smith and the parishioners of St Michael’s parish have felt able to make this move. Everyone in the diocese is now looking forward to working together to achieve the best for the parish as it sets out on its journey of faith. The fire has left deep marks on the parish. The future must be a time of healing and further growth with the support of all the diocese. The Bishop is looking forward to celebrating the opening of this church with Father Smith and the parish on Pentecost Sunday." Come back Uriah Heep, all is forgiven!
While you shake your head in disbelief at these events, let me explain that St Michael’s, the church in question, was burnt down by an arsonist in 1997. The parishioners raised one hundred thousand pounds to repair the gutted building, and now the Bishop’s determination that his will be done and the Blessed Sacrament be relegated from the main altar will cost them an extra.....sixty thousand pounds!
Bishop Konstant's "Developing Theology"An example of the manner in which ‘development of doctrine’ can be abused is found in an article by Fr. D Konstant, when Westminster Catechetical Director, in The Universe, July 10, 1970. In an article aptly entitled 'Revolution in the R.E. Class', he stated: "Once the religion teacher can accept the notion of a developing theology his biggest hurdle (which is one of attitude rather than knowledge) is crossed."
The then Father Konstant was taken severely to task on this point by Fr Romuald Horn O.P. (The Universe, July 24,1970) who put it this way: "If a lecturer in a teachers’ training college were to say: 'Christ achieved divinity' would Fr. Konstant call that a development? Perhaps the words of another teacher may be quoted: ‘The greatest care must be taken that the important duty of research does not involve the undermining of the truths of Christian doctrine. If this happens, and we have unfortunately seen it happen in these days, the result is perplexity and confusion in the minds of many of the faithful’ (Pope Paul VI)...what teaching has Fr Konstant in mind: divine revelation to be believed or human science which can be understood? Who are his "pupils", theological students or schoolchildren? That he is interested in theological development is obvious in his article; there is less evidence of his interest in catechetics, or of his understanding of it."
Fr. Romuald Horn O.P. rebuking the youthful Fr. Konstant way back in July 1970. Thirty years later the rebuked priest had become the bully boy bishop of Leeds still pursuing his "developing theology" and forcing the good parishioners of St Michael’s, Knottingley, to refuse Our Lord His rightful place in the new church. Some "development"........ some "theology"!
Bishop delays the printing of the Catechism for a year.Bishop Konstant claims on his CV that he was involved with the preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This claim reminds me of an amusing custom a friend stumbled upon while teaching in India of job applicants putting the initials "BA (Failed)" after their names.Bishop Konstant was invited to contribute to the section on morals and took the material he had prepared with his team - Mgr Kevin Nichols and Sister Cecily Boulding O.P. - to Rome. The general understanding is that it contained the classic subjective morality of the Modernists and Rome was therefore left with no alternative but to reject it.
When the time came for the English Translation to be made, Bishop Konstant and Cardinal Law of Boston made Fr Douglas Clark a convert from Georgia the sole translator, though they supervised his work themselves. When completed the translation was not approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because it was a revised version of the Catechism not a translation. Mgr Michael Wrenn of new York, himself an experienced translator, wrote of it, "Hundreds of examples of error in the translation could be cited, some of them do not represent small points.. .they possess doctrinal and theological significance, sometimes major doctrinal significance."
In the meantime Bishop Konstant had assumed approval and already arranged for the printing of his revised Catechism in England, so this flawed translation not only put back the Catechism for English speaking people for a year, it also wasted a significant amount of money.After he had realized that an accurate translation of the Catechism would be available to English speaking people, he spoke to the dioceses of Southwark, Arundel and Brighton and Portsmouth at Guildford on 6th June 1993 in the presence of a large audience including the then bishop Cormac Murphy O’Connor. Bishop Konstant’s message was that when the Catechism was ready we should not buy it as it would be too difficult for us to understand. No-one of course took any notice. When at last the Catechism was ready it became a best-seller (100,000 copies sold in England in the first two weeks alone).
Bishop embraces feminism cultIn addition to the "Hundreds of examples of error in the translation" bishop Konstant's revised and rejected version of the Catechism had adopted inclusive language throughout. Inclusive language, or Fem Speak, is a language manufactured by radical secular feminists to advance their agenda, but spoken by no people on the face of the earth. The same feminist cult also embraces liberal abortion and artificial contraception, is anti-chastity (and therefore anti-celibacy), against the indissolubility of marriage and pro-sodomy. Not exactly the most obvious bed-fellows for a Catholic bishop, one might be excused for thinking.
Such feminists argue that we should not use words like "man" or "mankind", because these words exclude, so they allege, "women". Ninety-nine percent of women naturally reject this twaddle out of hand, and even feminists don't actually believe it, not one of them for example would dive into shark infested waters, on the grounds that man-eating sharks excluded women from their diet.
The new catechism was already available in France (one million copies sold) and Spain and Italy (500,000 each). To say l’homme in the French edition was fine, but "man" in English has become an offense apparently serious enough to warrant suppression. So even the catechism must undergo torture by the ideologically infected. If the proposed new language had been accepted by Rome, the Catechism of the Catholic Church would have made some very sad reading indeed. It takes some doing to make the Scriptures seem wooden and pedestrian, but the inclusive language enforcers had managed.
In their proposed translation; the lines from Luke 17:33, for instance, would no longer have been, "He who seeks to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life will save it." The new version would have read, "Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it." Or take the original from Genesis 9:5-6, which reads: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For God made man in his own image." This would have read: "Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind." Stranger still is what would have happened to the lyric beauty of Matthew 25:40. It used to read: "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." In bishop Konstant's translation the ideologically cleansed line reads: "What you do to the least of my family members you do to me."
The laity, as usual, had been expected to genuflect compliantly before yet another episcopal fait accompli, but many Catholics were up in arms. According to Father Joseph Fessio SJ of the Ignatius Press, these changes, "are shocking to people who have heard and prayed these passages their whole lives." One might of course add that these changes would have been shocking to anyone with a shred of sanity.
Bishop in charge of Catechetics.During the twenty plus years Bishop Konstant supervised the religious instruction in Catholic schools and parishes in England and Wales, the books used and the Diocesan teams chosen have consistently failed to teach the Catholic faith. He rushed out a Scheme for Senior schools, Weaving the Web and a scheme for Primary schools, Here I Am into the schools before the Catechism was completed. The National statistics clearly show just how successfully Bishop Konstant’s policy has been at driving young people out of the Church.
Liaison with the National Conference of PriestsWhile Bishop Konstant has held this position this group have become more and more rebellious and less representative of the majority of Catholic priests in the country. For example, in 1995 they invited Archbishop Rembert Weakland* to address their Annual General meeting, in 1998 they scolded the Holy Father for writing Ad Tuendam Fidem and in 1999 they demanded frequent General Absolution and Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. Bishop Konstant’s encouragement is a matter of public record.
(The forum for dissenting priests left over from the sixties and seventies)
*Archbishop Rembert Weakland has subsequent resigned his office after it was revealed that this disgraceful prelate had paid out of Church funds some $450,000 in hush money to a man he was accused of sexually molesting. Amazing what these Modernist prelates spend the faithful's money on isn't it? He apparently had kissed the man erotically on the mouth and pulled his trousers down. The young man in question had visited him to enquire about the priesthood! After some Clinton style theatricals before a small congregation of around 400 die-hard liberals in his Cathedral, in which he sank to his knees and begged forgiveness, he quit the scene. Yet another proof that there is a God - Halleluiah! Weakland was also notorious for showing seminarians pornographic films. For more information on this corrupt prelate and darling of the liberal establishment, see the Weakland File
Episcopal Representative to the Catholic Media Trust.Although not Chairman, Bishop Konstant is a very influential voice on this Trust. The sorry state of the Catholic papers in this country bear testimony to his views. Editors who are too Catholic or who allow the shortcomings in R.E. to be exposed do not last long, and it is understood that he would like the slogan "Follow Peter" removed from the front page of The Catholic Times. The Trust fails consistently to defend the Catholic faith in the media, leaving this to concerned lay people. His record may seem unbelievably bad, but it is all factual and can be checked.
Christ's body hemorrhages awayDuring the regime of this hireling every indicator of the health of the body of Christ in his diocese has nose-dived. Indeed, David Konstant has managed to exceed the national average decline (itself abysmal) on every count, sometimes by a substantial margin: baptism for example down nationally 11%, down 30% in the diocese of Leeds.
Decline between 1984 and 2002
AveragePriests Down 11% Down 12% *Mass attendance Down 36% Down 42% Baptisms Down 30% Catholic Marriages Down 53% Down 56% Converts Down 20% Down 28%
One should also note from the above table that while our Modernist bishops bleat on about the shortage of priests that they themselves have engineered, David Konstant has been losing his laity almost three times as fast! So he now paradoxically has substantially more priests pro-rata then when he took office: approximate one priest for every 251 Mass going Catholics when he took office, against one priests for every 164 Mass going Catholics in 2002!
As if these figures were not awful enough, Konstant, his health now failing, is working on placing his own cronies in influential positions so as to ensure a seamless transition to the next generation of Modernists. Thus there can be no doubt that the devastation of the vineyard will continues long after the Godfather has left the scene. Father Andrew Summersgill (Secretary to the Bishops Conference) and Mgr Peter Grant (Private Secretary to the Nuncio) are two examples of Konstant's appointments.
* The figures for Mass attendance were not published in the 1984 directory, so we have had to compute this decline from the 1990 figures, so it is almost certainly an underestimate.David Konstant's distaste for the Catholic Faith would appear to be an ingrained family trait!
Since publishing the above article, I have received the following email from David Konstants sister-in-law and another from his sister. Neither of these missives dispute any of the facts related in the above article, so need no comment from me. Note the suggestion that I should go to confession to a lesbian bishop! David Konstant's distaste for the Catholic Faith would appear to be an ingrained family trait!
From: Eli Konstant myjabulani@vodamail.co.za
To: don-mcgovern@cathud.com
Cc: Caroline <caroamber@mweb.co.za>, saohill@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Subject: David Konstant
David Konstant happens to be my brother in law, a respected and much loved man.Whoever is responsible for the article I have read is full of vitriolic jealousy and frustration. Such deep hatred coming from people who supposedly preach faith, hope and charity, has entirely sickened me. If this is an example of the Faith, then it is not David Konstant that has depleted the congregations, and subsequently the collection plate, but the attitudes and banal opinions expressed in this diatribe.To highlight just one extract from your vacuous article would indicate a person terrified of women and their abilities and arrogant enough to believe he speaks for 99% of them!
Inclusive language, or Fem Speak, is a language manufactured by radical secular feminists to advance their agenda, but spoken by no people on the face of the earth ....... Ninety-nine percent of women naturally reject this twaddle out of hand, and even feminists don't actually believe it,You are clearly unable to accept, being stuck in your own tiny world and time warp, that there are people out there, including Catholic Bishops, who are not sheep. Are brave and committed enough to their Faith and the people they guide, to see that in order to progress attitudes need to change. Which Pope was it that was ‘done away with’ for his forward thinking? Let not David visit the Vatican lest he too meets the same fate by the hand of you and your ilk. Are you afraid that with progress, you would be out of a comfortable job?
Whoever you are, you are bitter and sad. No doubt having not achieved much in your life, and quite devastated by somebody who has. I think you should lock yourself in the confessional box for quite a long time (perhaps with a Lady Bishop and, shock/horror, she might have Lesbian tendencies !!), with a good and strong string of rosary beads that will withstand the saying of countless Hail Mary’s. Having said those Hail Mary’s, perhaps, just perhaps, the God to whom you pray (or do you just complain?), will forgive you.
To go through life with such hate and misery in your heart ...... you should be ashamed to wear the cloth and even more to preach the Faith.Eli Konstant (Ms)
2 Republic Street
Alicedale 6135
South Africa
Cell: 0724558184
Landline: 042 2311464
www.addoreach.co.za
From: Caroline caroamber@mweb.co.za
To: Don McGovern <don-mcgovern@cathud.com>
Cc: Rory Johnston <saohill@hotmail.com>,Eli Konstant <myjabulani@vodamail.co.za>
Date: Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Subject: RE: David Konstant
Dear Mr McGovern
Your correspondence is interesting – here’s more for your blog – please publish it in full.
Kindly do not tarnish my family with your sweeping, negative judgment – you have not the first inkling about us. Furthermore, what makes you spokesman and judge for the Catholic Church?
Our Lord said: ‘judge not and thou shall not be judged’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. He was the bringer of kindness and compassion after the harsh, unforgiving God of the Jews. Jesus was a visionary ahead of His time, He challenged the ‘old’ ways – which is why he was crucified by people with much the same fearful mind-set you seem to have. Your correspondence is opinionated, patronizing and deeply unkind. Everything Our Lord is not.
Think humbly, if you can, about the attributes the Catholic Church wishes to represent. Are those: judgment, ridicule, personality assassination, sarcasm, narrow-mindness, fear, rigidity, coldness, aloofness, harshness, cruelty? If so, you are the perfect representative of the Church. If not, think carefully about the way you portray yourself and the way you judge people.
Here’s hoping Our Lord will find a way to fill your heart with His love,
God bless,
Caroline Konstant
