ARTICLES

Dogma Distorted

Complaints Compound Over North County Catechist

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

Sharon Lee, a licensed catechist for the Diocese of San Diego, wasn't always a faithful Catholic. She spent five years in the New Age movement, first dabbling in Religious Science and, finally following a medium who "channeled" the spirit of "Abraham" (Lee maintains that it was not the Abraham of the Bible.) After what she describes as a "powerful conversion experience" in 2001, Lee wanted not only to be fully Catholic, she was determined to share her faith as widely as possible, which would include teaching others about the faith. In order to teach CCD and RCIA, Lee needed to get certified by the diocese. On September 19, 2001, Lee attended a basic catechist formation class at St. James parish in Solana Beach.

The Basic Formation Course at St. James was taught by the parish's Director of Catechetical Ministry, Robb Kidd, and co-taught by a woman whose name Lee cannot recall. "It was my very first class and they ask you to introduce yourself and say a little bit about where you come from. I told them that this was my first Catholic catechism class after coming back to the faith. I said I had been gone for 20 years and had fallen terribly into the New Age movement. I told them that I had witnessed everything from adultery to murder to divorce, abortion, and drug overdoses. I wanted them to know where I had come from and that I had renounced the New Age. I said I was taking the class because I wanted to get out there and tell my story and teach people the dangers of the New Age and the truths of the Catholic Church. I stated my intent to become a speaker and author."

Polite applause followed Lee's introduction and the class began. Emotions were still running high from the World Trade Center attacks eight days earlier, and one student, a woman, raised her hand and told the instructors that she was having a crisis in her faith, wondering why God would allow such an evil tragedy to strike America. Kidd and and his female co-instructor looked at each other and told her to "hold it right there." He informed the woman that they must be careful when talking about evil, Satan, or the devil. He explained that the Catholic Church had "come a long way from the days when every wrong thing done was because of the devil."

Lee could not believe what she was hearing. "It shook me to the very core of my being," she recalls. "I tried hard not to cry. I raised my hand and said, 'It sounds like you are saying that evil had nothing to do with the World Trade Center bombing. It sounds like you're saying the Catholic Church doesn't believe in the devil anymore. I have to say from just coming out of evil, and from what I know of the Catholic faith, that the devil does exist and evil does exist and evil did have a hand in the twin towers falling. Kidd looked at me and said, 'Why don't we discuss this after class? We have a lot to cover."

When the class was over, Lee stayed behind to talk with Kidd who repeated his belief the the Church "no longer thinks that every single bad thing that happens is because of the devil.... God created the world and created everything that is good. Why would God create the devil?'

When Lee explained the including the fall of Lucifer and the triumph of St. Michael. "When I said, 'Evil is real. And the effect of the devil is sin' the lady jumped in and said, 'Yes, evil is real, but only in our minds!' They made me feel like I was a fanatic who was totally wrong. By this time, we were out in the parking lot. I was crying and trying to explain about my New Age experiences that were definitely influenced by evil spirits and following spirits that were 'channeled.' I told him how everything the 'channeled' spirit said sounded wonderful, except when you applied it to your life it ended in disaster. As I said all of that, she looked at Kidd and said sarcastically, 'Yeah, the devil made me do it.'"

Disturbed by the discussion, Lee called Catholic Answers. After telling them the whole story, the apologist on the phone said, 'You are not wrong. He is very misguided.' I asked her what I should do, since this man should not be teaching this stuff. She said, 'Why don't we do the most charitable, merciful, Christian thing? Jesus would give him a chance.' I thought he should be fired right away, because I thought what he was teaching was dangerous. But I wanted to be Christ-like, so I followed her advice. She told me to consult the Catechism of the Catholic Church and bring it back to him."

Lee followed the advice, called Kidd, and presented him with what she believed were air-tight arguments from the Catechism. His response offered her little consolation. "I read to him where the devil is called 'he' and that 'he is a Spirit.' I quoted to him, 'Through temptations and inspirations, he tries to associate men in his revolt against God.' I read a lot of other quotes too and he was very patient. When I was done, there was this big silence. I finally said, 'Now Rob, now do you understand that this is the teaching of the Catholic Church on the subject of evil and the devil?' He said, 'Well, you've certainly done your homework. I have to tell you I guess I have not read that in a long time. Thank you for telling me.'"

Lee told Kidd she wouldn't be returning to the class. She regrets now that she didn't also report Kidd's erroneous teachings to the diocese. "It has bothered me for four years. But I just didn't know enough about the faith at the time to know that I should have gone to the diocese."

Lee is not the only local Catholic who has experienced problems with the content of Kidd's catechism classes. At least three North County Catholics have complained that Kidd has a habit of denying Catholic truths and traditions and will not tolerate any challenges to his pronouncements.

When Kidd was presented with some of the complaints of his former students, he denied everything, defending himself with words of self-promotion. "You should talk to some of the Chinese Catholics who have taken my course. I've gotten rave reviews. Listen to what they have to say and how they've grown. I haven't said any of those things. I think I know whom you've been talking to and I hope you're not taking this person seriously. That person is no longer in our parish, and there are some good reasons why. This is a pretty disgruntled person. I've been teaching for a long time and I would never say any of those things."

But none of the four people interviewed for this story was ever a member of St. James' parish. Helen Bronson (not her real name) was incredulous at his denials. "I still remember at his first class in 2004, he opened by saying, 'Some of you are going to be shocked by what I say and you will have your faith shaken.' The problem is, if you want to teach Sunday School, CCD, RCIA or any religious education and you live anywhere from Pacific Beach to Oceanside, you have to go through Kidd's class. And he is powerful. He can end your teaching assignment with a phone call. I know because he's done it to friends of mine."

Artie Polanco (not his real name) also remembers some of Kidd's strange assertions. "One time someone presented him with a question about a Bible verse, and he held up the Catechism and said, 'If you have the Catechism, then you have no need for the Bible, because the Catechism and the Bible are equivalent.' He was always talking about his family too but it was really off the wall. He was always telling us how important Mass was, but then he would say how it was okay for his family not to go. He'd say, 'Oh, my daughter doesn't go to Mass anymore' or 'My wife doesn't go to Mass anymore' or 'Oh, it's okay for them not to go, but it's okay for you to go.' I went to that parish for six years and I never saw any of his family around the church once."

Bronson also found his family situation odd, in light of the fact that he talked about them so much. "I know others in that parish and nobody has ever seen the guy's family. How can somebody be a paid employee in a Catholic Church, running its religious education, where people are trained for first communion, reconciliation, all their sacraments and adults becoming Catholic, yet he tells us that his family doesn't even attend Mass? I don't think his daughter has even been confirmed. I'm pretty sure he said that his kids never went further than their first communion. He's responsible, to the horror of the RCIA team, for the formation of adult Catholics too."

Another problem with Kidd's denials is that some of his most vocal critics are the very Chinese alumni that he claims approve of his work. Andy Yu lives in St. William of York parish in Carmel Valley. After growing up in Taiwan, Yu has lived for the past six years in the U.S. He attended Kidd's basic catechist course during the 2004-2005 year, along with several friends who had lived under the communist government in mainland China, and was quite disturbed by what he heard in class. "One of the Chinese in my group asked him how she should approach her Buddhist relatives to convert them, and he said, 'There's no need to convert them. We're all under the same God.' Another friend from my group said that the missionaries had taught them that missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin and he said, 'My daughter no longer goes to Sunday Mass and I don't think she's in a state of mortal sin. Do you?' He told us that people took mortal sin too seriously."

Yu doesn't believe Kidd had much influence on his fellow Chinese. "In China, he says, "the Church is under pressure and controlled by the government. Consequently, I think those people are more faithful, and when Rob said those shocking things, they all kind of looked at each other. But we are very quiet. We don't act out and let people know that we don't agree, but in our heartswe're thinking, 'Oh, this guy is crazy!' Some of us would meet after class and say, 'I can't believe that he doesn't believe that.' The things we turned to the most, he treated like garbage. For example, in Taiwan, we prayed the Rosary. We thought it was the kind of habit to have, but then we come here and [Kidd] says, 'Oh, that's O.K. if you have the time for that kind of thing.'"

One North County priest, Fr. Sergio Sanchez, (not his real name) says that he has been getting complaints about the catechetics program at St. James for some time. "At least two people have complained to me about Kidd. One person told me that she was almost thrown out of the class for disputing some of the things he was teaching. She said he was very much on the left. This is a person who is very well educated and knows what she is talking about."

Father Sanchez thinks that the best thing the laity can do when faced with a catechist who is obstinate in teaching error is to notify his superiors. "First of all, they should have discussed this with their director or religious education and the pastor himself. Presuming that that didn't do any good, they should take it to the bishop and notify him."

Fr. Sanchez's presumption seems correct. When Bronson was asked why she didn't approach Monsignor Duncanson, she said others had already tried. "When people complained to Monsignor Duncanson about anyone, including Kidd, all he would say was, 'I have an excellent staff to run the church.'"

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