The Modern Face Of Heresy

Church row escalates as priest denies Jesus was God

THE controversy surrounding one of Australia's most radical Catholic churches, St Mary's South Brisbane, has escalated into a wider debate over bedrock Christian beliefs.

On the line for parishioners of St Mary's and several other parishes in Queensland and NSW are fundamental church doctrines such as who can celebrate Mass, whether Jesus Christ was God, whether Mary had as many as six children, the bodily Resurrection, and the need for sacramental celebrations for same-sex marriages.

In a booklet being sold for $20, a NSW priest, Peter Dresser of Coonamble in the Diocese of Bathurst, insists Jesus was not God and did not think he was God. The booklet is on sale at two Brisbane parishes: St Mary's and the Wooloowin/Windsor/Kalinga Parish of outspoken Brisbane priest Richard Pascoe.

In God is Big. Real Big! Father Dresser -- who prefers to be known as Peter -- says: "This whole matter regarding Jesus being God ... not only does violence to my own intelligence, but must be a sticking point for millions of people trying to make some kind of sense of the Christian religion ... No human being can ever be God, and Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that."

Father Dresser said he found his own rural flock "very conservative" and admitted that many of them found his theology difficult to accept. He said he had rethought his approach after taking an interest in science. "I'm delighted they're opening up the debate at St Mary's," he said.

In his book, Father Dresser claims Mary had as many as six children, Joseph was the father of Jesus and the bodily Resurrection is not to be taken literally.

Sydney lecturer in church history, Anthony Robbie, said Father Dresser's claims defied all scriptural evidence.

"What a breathtaking know-all, to claim he knows the mind of Christ contrary to scripture and tradition. His words rob Christianity entirely of its meaning and purpose," Father Robbie said.

"The Council of Nicaea settled the question that Christ was God in 325, so he is 1700 years out of date. The rest is a regurgitation of every discredited 19th-century liberal Protestant German cliche in the book."

Recently, the priests at St Mary's -- Peter Kennedy and Terry Fitzpatrick -- also canvassed the idea of Catholics celebrating the Eucharist in their homes, without a priest.

A discussion paper handed to parishioners by Father Kennedy and written by Charles Kelliher said the lack of priests in the 21st century should prompt the faithful to look back to the first 200 years of the church, before the priesthood and the church hierarchy came into existence.

"Like the house church of the first 200 years, it is the community of believers who can concelebrate and bring about the presence of Christ in the eucharistic celebration. Let us embark on the journey as a community of believers in the modern day house church.

"The community of believers would call forth one of its members to preside at this memorial service. This person could be either man or woman, married or single ... with no special designation except being chosen or called forth to leadership by the community."

The director of adult education in the Archdiocese of Sydney, Opus Dei priest John Flader, said the earliest celebrants of the Eucharist were called presbyters, a Greek word meaning elders, but they had been appointed by the laying-on of hands by a bishop, and there was no evidence that women took such roles. "Even as early as around 100AD, Pope Clement I wrote to the church in Corinth setting out the authority of Rome over the local church, including the presbyters," Father Flader said. "Suggesting that lay people gather in homes today and pick someone to celebrate the Eucharist is absurd. It would never be valid."

St Mary's has continued with Eucharistic prayers celebrated by the congregation with women leading much of the mass. Recent preachers have included "community jester" and activist Tony Robertson.

While some argue that St Mary's should be closed, some priests say this would drive the teachers who attend the church towards informal services at home, which could influence the children they teach. "They say they regard themselves as Catholic so it would be better to ensure they conform to the Church's teachings and practice. These are not optional," said one.

Link (here)

Photo is of St. Mary's in Brisbane

Read Fr. Z's frank commentary on the subject (here)

Interview With Film Star Eduardo Verastegui About His McCain Endorsement

By Anita Crane

October 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Eduardo Verastegui, producer and lead actor of the 2007 American film Bella, met with Senator John McCain on October 17 in Miami, where they discussed the human rights at stake in this presidential election. Now Verastegui is using his star power – and more – to help McCain and Governor Sarah Palin win the votes of Latinos.

Verastegui said, “I am endorsing Sen. McCain for president because of his commitments to end abortion, protect traditional marriage and fix immigration law."

On Gov. Palin’s leadership, he said, “I love her. She’s a great role model for women.”

Verastegui has spoken at several McCain-Palin rallies. In Miami, the capital of Latin America and the first U.S. city where Verastegui lived, he campaigned for John McCain with McCain’s Senate allies Joe Lieberman and Mel Martinez, as well as Florida’s former governor, Jeb Bush and Governor Charlie Crist.

Verastegui said, “There I was, just an actor from Hollywood, not even a politician.

“I said more than 45 million babies have been killed by abortion in America and more than 200,000 Latino babies are killed by abortion each year. I told everyone that we need to put an end to this and, when I finished, I went to John McCain and I said, ‘Senator, thank you for your commitment to life. I’d like to give you something.’ I gave him a Miraculous Medal blessed by Pope Benedict XVI and he was amazing. He said, ‘Thank you so much! Look what I have here in my pocket.’ Then Sen. McCain took a medal out of his pocket that he carries everywhere and it was a Blessed Mother Teresa medal. He said, ‘Eduardo, now I am going to keep both.’

Verastegui also gave McCain’s wife, Cindy, a Miraculous Medal. He said, “I was touched when I found out that the McCains adopted one of their daughters from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in India. There is nothing more beautiful than to give children homes with families who will love them. I hope that one day that I can do the same.”

Verastegui gives out Miraculous Medals because, as a practicing Catholic, he believes the Blessed Mother promised Saint Catherine Labouré that “all who wear it will receive great graces.”

As Americans prepare to vote, many think their country is in crisis and Verastegui agrees. Therefore, he said, “It would be a disaster if Senator Barack Obama is elected president.”

Verastegui believes that unless Americans elect a president who will defend fundamental human rights, no one can expect a sound economy, health care or national security, including immigration reform.

“Obama speaks about ‘change,’ but what change are we talking about?” he asked. “Fidel Castro spoke about change in Cuba. Hugo Chavez talks about change in Venezuela. A lot of other charismatic dictators promised change, but look what happened to their countries.”

Verastegui explained, “Obama’s change agenda is very, very dangerous. This is a historic moment. Whoever wins the presidential election will affect this country and the world for decades.

“Obama doesn’t represent the values of our Latino community. He has never done anything for us. He doesn’t know who we are.”

Referring to his filmmaking partners Alejandro Monteverde and Leo Severino, Verastegui said, “Alejandro, Leo and I can make hundreds movies like Bella and they will save many babies, but it’s never going to be as powerful as a president nominating judges who observe constitutional law.” McCain is committed to nominating constructionist judges, and Verastegui emphasized that “we are just one Supreme Court justice away from overturning Roe v. Wade.”

However, Verastegui warned that Obama threatens to codify the Roe v. Wade decision by signing the proposed Freedom of Choice Act, which would strip Americans of their right to protect innocent human lives, even from the savagery of partial-birth abortion. In a partial birth abortion the abortionist pulls a baby from his mother’s womb, stabs his skull and vacuums out his brains.

Verastegui is also pleased that McCain supports the protection of traditional marriage through state amendments legally defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Obama, on the other hand, told LGBT activists, “But my job, as president, is going to be to make sure that the legal rights that have consequences, on a day-to-day basis, for loving same-sex couples all across the country, that those rights are recognized and enforced by my White House and by my Justice Department.” Obama wants to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act and this implies that he intends to override the traditional marriage laws passed by numerous states.

On immigration, Verastegui tells voters that McCain took a big risk in Congress for Latinos while Obama abandoned them. Due to popular demand, McCain revised his reform policy. His presidential proposal includes security for U.S. citizens and innovations that would allow migrant workers to legally enter America according to market demands for their skills. Knowing the concerns of Latinos, Verastegui said, “McCain told me that he will reform the law so that it upholds human dignity of all immigrants and protects their families.”

Verastegui concluded, “The right to life is the most important thing to me, so I want to do whatever I can to support the best candidates. That’s why I support McCain-Palin.”

Eduardo Verastegui produced videos about Obama’s policies in English and Spanish. They are online at http://www.ObamaMustSee.com and http://www.DuraRealidad.com.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, "No Intrinsic Evil Can Ever Be Supported In Any Way"

The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion. We wish with all our hearts that no candidate and no party were advocating this heinous act against the human person. However, since it is a transcending issue, and even supported in its most extreme and horrific forms, we must proclaim time and time again that no intrinsic evil can ever be supported in any way, most especially when it concerns the gravest of all intrinsic evils: the taking of an innocent life.

We bishops of Pennsylvania quoted from the late Pope John Paul II’s Post Synodal Exhortation on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful and I quote him again here: “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination” (Christifideles Laici, 38).

Link (here) to Cardinal Justin Rigali's full article.

McCain Surges Ahead By 20% Among Catholic Voters

McCain has also gone from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead among Catholics, with only days remaining before the November 4 election.
Link (here)

Catholic Monarchy Still Means Something

Open letter asks King of Spain not to sign decree allowing aborted babies to be ground up

Madrid, Oct 7, 2008 / 06:35 am (CNA).-

Father Joan Manuel Serra, a priest of the Diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, has asked King Juan Carlos of Spain not to sign a royal decree that would modify mortuary policies and would make it legal to use “baby crushing machines” that would be used on the remains of babies aborted up to the seventh month of pregnancy in abortion clinics.

In an open letter, Father Serra recalled that current policy “obliges abortion ‘clinics’ to consider the remains of an abortion as cadavers, when they are human remains ‘of a sufficient entity,’ that is, at eleven or twelve weeks of pregnancy, and transfer them to a cemetery for their posterior dignified incineration or burial.”

However, after the scandal of the Ginemedex Clinic, where it was discovered that blenders were being used to cover up illegal late-term abortions, the government, “with the supposed support of the main opposition party,” has proposed changing the norms for mortuaries “so that the ‘remains’ of an abortion not be considered ‘human remains of sufficient entity’ until after the 28^th week of gestation,” that is, nearly the seventh month of pregnancy.

“Your majesty, we are reaching levels of inhumanity that are completely inadmissible and that are putting the very foundation of our society at risk,” Father Serra said. “If we do not protect the right to life of all,” even those who are weakest, we are laying “the foundations of a very violent society that will end up destroying itself.”

Father Serra told King Juan Carlos that if the current policy is kept in place, “of properly burying or incinerating the human remains of abortions during the first few weeks, at least we would be giving a humane message to society. This will make many people think again about the value of human life from the moment of conception.”

Link (here)

Archbishop Chaput On "Little Muders"

In an address delivered to the Witherspoon Institute on October 17, in Denver Colorado Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has made an historic political address. His newly famous "Little Murders" speech is resetting the Catholic social agenda in America. I have pulled together some of the highlights.

Speaking for myself, I do not know any proportionate reason that could outweigh more than

40 million unborn children killed by abortion

and the many millions of women deeply wounded by the loss and regret abortion creates.......... Arguments advanced in favor of Senator Obama are new. They've been around, in one form or another, for more than 25 years.

All of them seek to ''get beyond'' abortion, or economically reduce the number of abortions, or create a better society where abortion won't be necessary. All of them involve a misuse of the seamless garment imagery in Catholic social teaching. And all of them, in practice, seek to contextualize, demote and then counterbalance the evil of abortion with other important but less foundational social issues.

This is a great sadness. As Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said recently, too many Americans have

''no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood.

.......Meanwhile, the basic human rights violation at the heart of abortion - the intentional destruction of an innocent, developing human life - is wordsmithed away as a terrible crime that just can't be fixed by the law. I don't believe that. I think that argument is a fraud. And I don't think any serious believer can accept that argument without damaging his or her credibility.

We still have more than a million abortions a year, and we can't blame them all on Republican social policies. After all, it was a Democratic president, not a Republican, who vetoed the partial birth abortion ban - twice.

The truth is that for some Catholics, the abortion issue has never been a comfortable cause. It's embarrassing. It's not the kind of social justice they like to talk about.

It interferes with their natural political alliances. And because the homicides involved in abortion are ''little murders'' - the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives - it's easy to look the other way.

The abortion lobby has fought every compromise and every legal restriction on abortion, every step of the way. Apparently they believe in their convictions more than some of us Catholics believe in ours. And I think that's an indictment of an entire generation of American Catholic leadership.

Link (here)

"In Love, Nothing Must Be Held Back."

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

(here)

Academic Priests Can Forget Ordinary Ministry

Too many priests are missing out on ordinary ministry, cardinal warns

Vatican City, Oct 13, 2008
(CNA).- The prefect for the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, warned this week that many priests dedicated to teaching forget or abandon ordinary ministry, in which the Word of God should be at the center.
Link (here) to the full article

Democrats Are Loosing The Catholic Battle

A Fight Among Catholics Over Which Party Best Reflects Church Teachings

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

As the Roman Catholic Church observes its annual “respect life” Sunday in this heated presidential election season, the unusually pitched competition for Catholic voters is setting off a round of skirmishes over how to apply the church’s teachings not only on abortion but also on the war in Iraq, immigration and racism.

In a departure from previous elections, Democrats and liberal Catholic groups are waging a fight within the church, arguing that the Democratic Party better reflects the full spectrum of church teachings.

It is a contest for credibility among observant Catholics, with each faction describing itself as a defender of “life.” The two sides disagree over how to address the “intrinsic evil” of abortion.

The escalating efforts by more-liberal Catholics are provoking a vigorous backlash from some bishops and the right.

In Scranton, Pa., every Catholic attending Mass this weekend will hear a special homily about the election next month: Bishop Joseph Martino has ordered every priest in the diocese to read a letter warning that voting for a supporter of abortion rights amounts to endorsing “homicide.”

Read the full piece in the NY Times (here) .

Priests For Life (here)

Destructive Influence Of A Certain Modern Culture

Pope decries godless nature of modern societies

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

WriterSun Oct 5, 6:54 AM ET

Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Benedict celebrated a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to open a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.

"Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture," said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society.

The meeting of 253 bishops, known as a synod of bishops, will run from Monday through Oct. 26. The Vatican said that despite Benedict's efforts to improve relations with Communist China, no bishops have come from the mainland, although there are prelates from Macau and Hong Kong.

"Surely they tried, I mean the Holy See tried but obviously they could not make agreement," Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen told AP Television News as he entered the basilica.

"Maybe the Holy See welcomes someone that they (the Chinese) would not allow," he said, adding that China might try to send a bishop who is not acceptable to the Holy See.

Chinese bishops have not been allowed to travel to similar meetings in the past.

Ties between the Vatican and China's communist government have long been strained. Beijing objects to the Vatican's tradition of having the pope name his own bishops, calling it interference in China.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. In recent years, some of those bishops have received the Vatican's tacit approval.

Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church with bishops loyal to the pope.

A document prepared for the meeting rejects a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge was to clarify for the faithful the relationship of scripture to science. A rabbi will address the conference on Monday in what is believed to be the first time a Jew has participated in such a meeting.

Link (here)

Read and down load the PDF (here)

The Culture Of Death: The Politics Of Death

Vatican officials seldom single out political leaders who differ with the Church on issues like abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research. But now that the Vatican’s highest court is led by an American, the former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, we can expect things to get more explicit in Vatican City — at least when when it comes to U.S. politics.

Burke, who was named prefect of the Vatican’s Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in June, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the U.S. Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues.” He then attacked two of the party’s most high profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.

He said Biden and Pelosi, “while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and tendentious way.”

Pelosi drew U.S. bishops’ scorn for saying in a television interview last month that the Church itself had long debated when human life begins. Biden is a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights and analysts have said he could help woo wavering Catholics into Obama’s fold. Both argue that they cannot impose their religious views on others.

Burke said pro-life Democrats were “rare” and that it saddened him that the party that helped “our immigrant parents and grandparents” prosper in America had changed so much over the years.

Burke made headlines as archbishop of St. Louis for his public attacks on public figures who strayed from Catholic teaching. He suggested during the 2004 presidential campaign that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic, should be denied communion because of his views on abortion. Several bishops said at the time they would not give him communion and the media staked out churches where he attended Mass to see if he received it.

“Lately, I’ve noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” Burke told Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a letter in 2004 to American bishops restating the Church position that a priest must refuse to distribute communion to a Catholic politician who supported abortion rights. But Burke lamented that the letter was never distributed.

Burke’s criticism isn’t limited to Democrats. Last year, he accused singer Sheryl Crow of being “a high profile proponent of the destruction of innocent lives” for defending a woman’s right to have an abortion and for being a proponent of stem cell research. He resigned as head of a children’s medical charity that featured the singer for a benefit concert.

Pope Benedict has been encouraging Catholic bishops to speak out more openly on public policy issues to make the Church’s voice heard. Any bets on when we’ll hear from Burke next?

Link (here)