[Bishop Thomas Olmsted], the bishop of Phoenix has excommunicated another priest.Pray for the conversion of the heretics who repudiate Christ and His Church.
The Rev. Vernon Meyer, who had submitted his resignation to the bishop earlier this summer, becomes at least the fifth priest to be ousted from the church under Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. He was not defrocked, which is a separate penalty...
Last week at the annual fall assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, archdiocesan administrator Bishop Robert J. Hermann stated that for any bishop, it would be a "privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion."Kudos to Bishop Hermann to speak so boldly in a culture infatuated with self and which denies the most innocent the inalienable right to life. The fact that some "shepherds" are unwilling to speak the truth of this evil of abortion, to say nothing of them willing to lay down their lives for the sake of Christ and His littles ones, speaks volumes about the state of the Church in Amerika today.
His comments were picked up by media outlets across the country and have been touted in the blogosphere as a courageous statement in the defense of unborn human life.
Review staff writer Jennifer Brinker recently met with Bishop Hermann, where he reflected on his statement and also answered several other questions relating to the issue of abortion, the bishops’ meeting and the recent presidential election.
Let’s delve right into the issue at hand. At the recent bishops’ meeting in Baltimore, you said this:
"We have lost 50 times as many children in the last 35 years as we have lost soldiers in all the wars since the Revolution.
"I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion.
"If we are willing to die tomorrow, then we should be willing to, until the end of our lives, to take all kinds of criticism for opposing this horrible infanticide."...
"This is Bishop Rene H. Gracida, reminding all Catholics that they must vote in this election with an informed conscience. A Catholic cannot be said to have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate."Due to time limits, this is in 3 parts.
By Stephanie BlockThe problems are manifest and deeply rooted:
For nearly forty years, The Wanderer has followed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development's funding of radical, left-wing political organizations, many of them carrying the brand of Saul Alinsky. The Wanderer also covered the first Call to Action conference - the months of "hearings" leading up to it, its orchestrated structure and contrived demands - and our reporters commented on the Alinskyian nature of it, not merely in its tactics but in its outcomes. In hindsight, we can see that organized dissent in the Church was a product of organized parishes, filled with Alinskyian-trained laity.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is responsible for that. [my emphasis]
It is also responsible, in some part, for the fact that forty years later, we have a virulently pro-abortion, pro-homosexual presidential candidate whose principle political training has been in Alinskyian organizing. While he - Barak Obama - was lead organizer in Chicago for the Developing Communities Project, it received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and a $33,000 grant in 1986.
While he was in Chicago Obama was trained by the top Alinskyian organizers. One mentor was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel....
....millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades going into Alinskyian community organizing....
Relatively little from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection goes to "help the poor." .... [Even though Catholics were led to believe that they were "helping the poor"]
...The Catholics involved in the extensive trainings these networks offer are not catechized in Catholic principles of social activism or political analysis but in Marxist analysis and praxis.....
Catholics trained in Alinskyian thought become confused about the comparative moral weight of the issues they encounter in the public arena. They also become confused about the legitimate authority of the Church....It is not authentic "Catholic Action" for Catholics to engage in such Alinskyian-trained "community organizing." It is antithetical to true social justice and Catholic teaching.
Even the politically naïve are fascinated by the pejorative dismissal of Obama as a "community organizer" and his campaign's rebuttal that to disrespect community organizers is to disrespect Catholic Action.
After 40 years of funding the bad guys, it's time to stop.NB: In the epigraph of his book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky notes
__________________
"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins -- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer." [Source]
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two more bishops have released statements condemning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's widely publicized claim that the Catholic faith could support abortion.September 5? Why the rush?
Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs and Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh join the other six Catholic bishops who have already corrected Pelosi's false claims, made during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, that when life begins has been "an issue of controversy" throughout the history of the Church and that, therefore, the Catholic faith can support abortion.
Bishop Sheridan warned Catholics in his statement Tuesday that Pelosi's picture of Church history and teaching is categorically false....
Pelosi's own bishop, Archbishop George Hugh Niederauer, has thus far made no comment. His spokesman Maurice Healy told LifeSiteNews.com that the Archbishop would be publishing something on the matter in his regular column in the diocesan newspaper on September 5.
at LifeSiteNews/
Call to Action AlertWould it not be fitting, given this recent "call to action" by an openly dissenting group, for faithful Catholics to charitably write these same Marykoll superiors?
Fr. Roy Bourgeois of the School of the America's Watch (SOA Watch) has been called to a meeting of his superiors after he co-celebrated and gave the homily at a woman's ordination in Lexington, Kentucky. It is likely to be a "disciplinary" meeting.
Call To Action has always supported Fr. Roy and his work in closing down the SOA that trains soldiers in human rights abuses. Today, we stand again in solidarity with Fr. Roy as he seeks to end discrimination against women in the church.
Write Fr. Roy's superiors now and urge them to support Fr. Roy and women's equality in our church:
Email: Superior General John Sivalon -- jsivalon@maryknoll.org
Email: The Maryknoll Council -- mklcouncil@maryknoll.org
Or send a letter to:
Maryknoll Council
P.O. Box 303
Maryknoll, NY 10545
When we spoke with Fr. Roy this afternoon he said that the priests of Maryknoll "have been working for many years on these issues of justice and this is another issue of justice."
Support Fr. Roy and the movement for women's equality in the church. Email or write his superiors today.
Peace activist priest assists at women's ordination ceremonyThe title tells us what's coming, doesn't it?
Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, long associated with the cause of Christian non-violence and attempts to close the international school for military training at Fort Benning, Ga., today staked his conscience to a different cause: the ordination of women in the Catholic church.If one makes the claim to "conscience," then one is bound to properly form that "conscience." Apparently, in this case, "conscience" has been deprived of proper formation.
Bourgeois was a concelebrant and homilist at the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a longtime peace activist and advocate of women’s ordination. The ordination occurred Aug. 9 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington, Ky.A "concelebrant"? With fake priestettes? If past experience is any indication, there would have been no Mass and no consecration because of invalid matter...the "bread" normally used at these events is not valid matter. And one might argue that this priest did not really intend to do what the Church intends, but that is a matter for another debate.
"...I felt in conscience -- this matter of conscience keeps coming up and I don’t know what other word to use -- if I didn’t attend her ordination, I would have to stop addressing this issue as I do...”This so-called "conscience" is nothing more than at attitude of pride and rebellion. He has willfully chosen scandal over obedience, arrogance over humility. He has scandalized the Church and the faithful - and the Maryknoll order and his brother priests - all because of a defective attitude fed by dissent and insolence.
When questioned, Bourgeois said he knew there could be “serious implications” if he openly participated in a women’s ordination ceremony.Serious implications? Automatic excommunication? And laicization?
“For me it seems very right,” he said in the interview. “I would have a problem sleeping at night in the future if I didn’t put my body where my words are.”Well, maybe after he is booted from the priesthood for rejecting a definitive truth of the Church (the priesthood is reserved to men alone), he can join up with the priestettes or some other heretical sect. We'll have to watch what actions, if any, his Maryknoll superiors take regarding this matter.
“We cannot justify discrimination no matter how hard the bishops may try. In the end, it is wrong. It is a sin. That’s how I see it and that’s why I am going to be there Saturday.”Some might wonder how it is possible that such a man was ever ordained? He understanding of the Church, the sacraments, sin and probably everything else appears to be severely flawed. This matter has been settled for all time, everywhere, in every age yet to come. yet he claims, in effect, that Jesus erred by excluding women from the priesthood and the Holy Spirit erred in guiding the Church for the past nearly 2000 years for guiding the Church in following Jesus' example.
Dear Friends,
We now launch phase two of HLI’s Humanae Vitae Initiative!
As you know, in 1968 there were demonstrations by theologians and students against Humanae Vitae. Imagine taking to the streets against the Magisterium. Clergy also signed petitions objecting to the document, as if petitions could alter the Truth!
Now HLI is offering an opportunity to right that disgrace by offering clergy the opportunity to sign their names to a pledge in support of Humanae vitae. A generation later time has vindicated the truth of Humanae Vitae in the destruction we have brought upon our heads by rejecting God’s prophet Pope Paul VI when he uttered the warning of the disaster that would ensue if contraception became widespread. Foolish theologians mocked the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human sexuality as “pelvic issues.”
Today almost every major issue confronting the Church could have been avoided by adherence to Humanae Vitae: Abortion, widespread promiscuity, abuse of woman and children, skyrocketing divorce, a decline in religious vocations, bioethical nightmares, coercive population control, widespread homosexuality (owing to the separation of sex from procreation) and even excessive female hormones in the water supply affecting fish altering males so they can’t reproduce.
All from sniffing at “pelvic issues.”
Here is this week’s announcement of this petition with an introduction by Father Tom Euteneuer. To download the pledge in PDF form click on the “Sign the Pledge” button.
http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/
Or you can access the pledge here:
http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/hv_clergy_pledge_assent.pdf
The permanent link is here:
http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/hv_2008-06-11.html
Tell your bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians! See that they receive a copy of the pledge
God bless you!
John Mallon
Project Director,
Humanae Vitae priests
http://johnmallon.net
WASHINGTON—Reports on research on the Catholic Church from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life will be presented at the June meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Orlando, Florida....This is the week following Gay Days in Orlando...
[snip]
The bishops’ spring meeting will be June 12-14 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida....
May 3rd: Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT is Fr. John Corapi's alma mater.I know nothing else at the time. Perhaps others might know. It looked like his travels have been put on hold for the time being. Our prayers continue for his full recovery.
Father was a seminarian at Holy Apostles from 1987-1990, including summer sessions. This year, May of 2008, Holy Apostles College and Seminary held its 50th Commencement Exercises.
Father was invited to speak at the Commencement ceremony and receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree.
Due to serious health problems he was unable to travel to the Seminary. However, desiring to address the faculty, seminarians, and other students, Father recorded a special address from his television studio in northwest Montana.
More than anything, it is a heartfelt thank you to Holy Apostles for the excellent priestly formation and education he received there.
In April, the Immaculate Heart Community in Los Angeles will host a lecture by a woman religious who, seven years ago, publicly ignored a Vatican disciplinary order.The Benedictines of Erie - just another dying order?
Sister Christine Vladimiroff, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, will deliver an Anita Caspary Lecture in Los Angeles on April 13, reported the March 19 “Justice and Peace Newsblast” of the Los Angeles archdiocese’s Office of Justice and Peace.
[...]
In a 2001 letter to the Holy See, Vladimiroff noted that the Vatican saw Sister Joan Chittester’s attendance at the Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference “to be in opposition to its decree (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) that priestly ordination will never be conferred on women in the Roman Catholic Church and must therefore not be discussed.” Vladimiroff said that “after much deliberation and prayer” she decided to “decline the request of the Vatican” to forbid Sister Joan to attend. She did so “out of the Benedictine, or monastic, tradition of obedience.” .....
VATICAN CITY, 31 JAN 2008 (VIS) - This morning, Benedict XVI received participants in the plenary session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is being held this week in the Vatican.
The Pope recalled how last year the congregation published "two important documents presenting ... certain clarifications necessary for the correct functioning of ecumenical dialogue, and of dialogue with the religions and cultures of the world".
The first of these documents, "Responses to some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church", confirms that "the one and only Church of Christ has subsistence, permanence and stability in the Catholic Church and, consequently, that the unity, indivisibility and indestructibility of the Church of Christ is not invalidated by separations and divisions among Christians"....
Benedict XVI invited the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to give particular attention to "the difficult and complex problems of bioethics". In this context, he indicated that the "Church's Magisterium certainly cannot and should not intervene on every scientific innovation. Rather, it has the task of reiterating the great values at stake, and providing the faithful, and all men and women of good will, with ethical-moral principals and guidelines for these new and important questions.
"The two fundamental criteria for moral discernment in this field", he added, "are: unconditional respect for the human being as a person, from conception to natural death; and respect for the origin of the transmission of human life through the acts of the spouses".....
• Theology is to be reformed, based on modern philosophy.Modernism is alive and well today.
• Historical methods are to be reformed consonant with modern methods and principles.
• Dogmas are to be harmonized with science and history.
• Regarding worship, the number of external devotions are to be reduced.
• Church authority must be decentralized and democratized.
• In morals the principles of “Americanism” must be adopted; i.e., the active virtues are more important than the passive (action more important than contemplation).
• Ecclesiastical celibacy must be suppressed.
...[Pope] Benedict XVI indicated that the doctrine on natural law "achieves two essential aims: on the one hand, it makes it clear that the ethical content of Christian faith is not an imposition dictated from outside man's conscience, but a norm that has its basis in human nature itself; and on the other hand, by starting from the basis of natural law - which of itself is accessible to all rational creatures - it lays the foundations for dialogue with all men and women of good will, and with civil society more generally."
The Pope then highlighted the fact that nowadays "the original evidence for the foundations of human beings and of their ethical behavior has been lost, and the doctrine of natural moral law clashes with other concepts which run directly contrary to it. All this has enormous consequences on civil and social order." . . .
"If," he added, "by reason of a tragic clouding of the collective conscience, skepticism and ethical relativism managed to annul the fundamental principles of natural moral law, the very democratic order itself would be profoundly undermined at its foundations. Against such clouding - which is a crisis for human, even more than for Christian, civilization - the consciences of all men and women of good will must be mobilized, both lay people and followers of religions other than Christianity, so that together they may make an effective commitment to creating ... the conditions necessary for a full awareness of the inalienable value of natural moral law."
[Castaneda] wrote a series of books that describe his training in traditional Mesoamerican shamanism, which he referred to as "sorcery" while admitting that this term does not appropriately describe the experience...Mesmerized by the first book, I went on to read others in the series. I suppose I quit because I was unable to achieve the results that Castaneda had aquired. But then, I did not have a nagual to teach and guide me in the Toltec path.
He was identified by don Juan Matus to have the energetic configuration of a "nagual", who, if the spirit chose may become a leader of a party of seers. He also used the term "nagual" to signify that part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man, implying that, for his party of seers, don Juan was a connection in some way to that unknown...
Castaneda wrote twelve books and several academic articles detailing his experiences with a Yaqui Indian from Central Mexico. His first three books, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality and Journey to Ixtlan were written while Castaneda was an anthropology student at UCLA. Castaneda wrote these books as if they were his research log describing his apprenticeship with a traditional "Man of Knowledge" identified as don Juan Matus...
In Castaneda's first two books, he describes the Yaqui way of knowledge using for asistance the use of powerful indigenous plants, such as peyote and datura. In his third book, Journey to Ixtlan, he makes clear that the use of psychotropic plants 'power plants' or substances was not necessary to achieve heightened awareness although his teacher advised its use was beneficial in helping to free the stubborn mind of some persons. He states that Don Juan used them on Castaneda to demonstrate that experiences outside those known in day-to-day life are real and tangible...
His fourth book, Tales of Power, ended with Castaneda leaping from a cliff into an abyss, marking his graduation from disciple to man of knowledge.
The intent of this website is to offer guidance on the Toltec Path of Direct Knowledge. Carlos Castaneda first brought the Toltec knowledge of nagualism out of secrecy in the late 1960s and '70s. In the past few years, guides such as the nagual don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements) and the nagual Theun Mares have brought it further into accessibility.So accessible as to be a primary "resource" for Catholic freshman?
...as with any spiritual endeavor the only way to make movement on the path is through consistent application of the tools. Because of the prevalence of book learning verses application, there are considerable misperceptions as to what the path is.I'll say there are! Perhaps students will become intrigued with this "spiritual endeavor"? If so, there are many more resources to point them on a path away from the Church. Let's have a look, shall we?
Toltec Teachings. Warrior. Carlos Castaneda. Magical Passes. Theun Mares. Karlos Kastaneda. Nagual. Don Juan Matus. Magic. don Miguel Ruiz. Personal growth, consciousness, awareness, awakening, spiritual teachings, book store, music, dvd video store, spiritual gift shopApparently, Catholic freshmen must be bereft of truly Catholic materials on spirituality and therefore, must rely on pagan/gnostic spirituality resources. Perhaps we should be thankful that Catholic religion teachers are on top of these problems!
After all, He is "the Way, the Truth and the Life.""At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father. . .who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever." To catechize is "to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfillment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions and words and of the signs worked by him."' Catechesis aims at putting "people . . . in communion . . . with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity."
In catechesis "Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God,. . . is taught - everything else is taught with reference to him - and it is Christ alone who teaches - anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. . . Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus: 'My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.'" [CCC 426-427]
...for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. [2 Timothy 4:3,4]and may our Lord give grace and light to all so that His will may be done!
The Enneagram and Catholic personalismThis is a long and detailed article and provides more than the necessary documentation to refute proponents of the enneagram.
Unlike some personality-type indices the Enneagram remains untested by any scientific study
By Christopher Rees
Further, in Section 6.2, Practical Steps, we read in the same document:1.4. The New Age and Catholic Faith
Even if it can be admitted that New Age religiosity in some way responds to the legitimate spiritual longing of human nature, it must be acknowledged that its attempts to do so run counter to Christian revelation...
An adequate Christian discernment of New Age thought and practice cannot fail to recognize that, like second and third century gnosticism, it represents something of a compendium of positions that the Church has identified as heterodox.
John Paul II warns with regard to the“return of ancient gnostic ideas under the guise of the so-called New Age: We cannot delude ourselves that this will lead toward a renewal of religion. It is only a new way of practising gnosticism – that attitude of the spirit that, in the name of a profound knowledge of God, results in distorting His Word and replacing it with purely human words. Gnosticism never completely abandoned the realm of Christianity. Instead, it has always existed side by side with Christianity, sometimes taking the shape of a philosophical movement, but more often assuming the characteristics of a religion or a para-religion in distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian”.An example of this can be seen in the enneagram, the nine-type tool for character analysis, which when used as a means of spiritual growth introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of the Christian faith.[emphasis added]
And Pope John Paul II, in his address to the United States Bishops of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska on their “Ad Limina” visit, 28 May 1993 has stated:It must unfortunately be admitted that there are too many cases where Catholic centres of spirituality are actively involved in diffusing New Age religiosity in the Church. This would of course have to be corrected, not only to stop the spread of confusion and error, but also so that they might be effective in promoting true Christian spirituality.
Moral theologian Msgr. William B. Smith has also cautioned Catholics about the dangers of the enneagram. Writing in the March, 1993 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Msgr. Smith said:Many of you have written Pastoral Letters on the problems presented by pseudo–religious movements and sects, including the so–called "New Age Movement". New Age ideas sometimes find their way into preaching, catechesis, workshops and retreats, and thus influence even practising Catholics, who perhaps are unaware of the incompatibility of those ideas with the Church’s faith. In their syncretistic and immanent outlook, these parareligious movements pay little heed to Revelation, and instead try to come to God through knowledge and experience based on elements borrowed from Eastern spirituality or from psychological techniques. They tend to relativize religious doctrine, in favor of a vague world–view expressed as a system of myths and symbols dressed in religious language. Moreover, they often propose a pantheistic concept of God which is incompatible with Sacred Scripture and Christian Tradition. They replace personal responsibility to God for our actions with a sense of duty to the cosmos, thus overturning the true concept of sin and the need for redemption through Christ. [emphasis added]
Yet, in the midst of this spiritual confusion, the Church’s Pastors...should insist on the spiritual dimension of the faith, on the perennial freshness of the Gospel message and its capacity to transform and renew those who accept it...
To preach a version of Christianity which benignly ignores, when it does not explicitly deny, that our ultimate hope is the "resurrection of the body and life everlasting" ("Symbolum Apostolorum") runs counter to Revelation and the whole of Catholic tradition. More vigorous preaching and catechesis on eschatological themes is needed in order to eliminate confusion regarding the true nature of Christian life and of the Church’s unfailing hope in her Lord who is "the resurrection and the life" (Jn. 11: 25).
The source for this excerpt is here."The enneagram is a circular diagram on which nine personality types are systematically represented at nine equidistant points on the circumference. Lines connect various points to each other. It is this diagram itself which is the enneagram, and it is used as a psychological tool of self-discovery. Each of the nine personality types (numbered 1 through 9) is described negatively by some compulsion, fixation, or basic driving force to avoid something unpleasant. This compulsion is seen as one's basic psychological orientation. To discover your number, you have to realize what you seek to avoid, what your compulsion is....
"The basic premise of the enneagram is that there are nine and only nine personality types; this is simply given as true, it is nowhere demonstrated as proven. To my knowledge, there are no scientific studies to determine whether enneagram theory can be integrated with other typologies; but that would not really bother some advocates one way or the other.... The more you read about it, the more it begins to resemble a college-educated horoscope; and that is not compatible with Catholic doctrine or practice....
"As a tool for spiritual direction, it seems to me most deficient, even dangerous. The enneagram is really built on a theology (?)-perhaps ideology-of self-renewal and self- regeneration that is a far cry from (perhaps contradiction of) the Gospel teaching: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit' (John 12:24)....
"Pope John Paul II said on Nov. 1st, 1982:'Any method of prayer is valid insofar as it is inspired by Christ and leads to Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).'The enneagram is not the Way, nor is it the Truth, and on those bases not truly compatible with-much less essential to-the Life in Christ."
Click here for the entire article: http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/ZNACHALL.HTMWhy New Age Is a Challenge for Christianity
Father Alessandro Olivieri Pennesi Responds
VATICAN CITY, 30 JUNE 2004 (ZENIT)
The spread of New Age and its use and abuse of Christian elements make of the movement a challenge for the baptized, says a specialist at the Lateran University.
Father Alessandro Olivieri Pennesi, a professor at the Mater Ecclesiae Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the Lateran, gave that warning in an interview with ZENIT.
. . .
The 1989 document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on certain aspects of Christian meditation, is a reference text on the attention that must be given to updating the ancient Gnosis, in which salvation takes place through the conscience, [and is] esoteric, for the few.
In regard to New Age — or Gnostic, which is to say more or less the same thing — practices, there are at the basic level, numerous examples.
To mention one: the last Vatican text on New Age refers to the use — expanding alarmingly — of the enneagram: a symbol originally of an initiation character developed in an esoteric context, syncretist, which has subsequently been transformed to a system of classification of the personality of nine psychological types, which serves for the search for self-fulfillment by an esoteric or magical way.
This is pure Gnosis.
Despite its vast popularity in certain sectors, a recent Vatican document on the new age noted the enneagram is a form of Gnosticism, a formally declared heresy, which says Pope John Paul II is in “distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian."So now, understanding that the enneagram is a New Age tool, having no scientific validity in helping one to discern his behavior patterns coupled with the fact that it's pure gnosis as stated by Father Alessandro Olivieri Pennesi and "is conflict with all that is essentially Christian" as the late Holy Father said, how is it possible for a faithful and devout Catholic to support its inclusion in a high school theology curriculum?
Catholic teaching does not recognise civil divorce as dissolving a marriage, and considers that a person who remarries without a declaration of nullity...from the Church is committing adultery.The story, which can also be read on the Des Moines Register web site (here), notes that the school board had originally declined in July to accept the the resignation of Tom Girsch, age 59, a Catholic who has been a longtime social studies teacher and coach at the high school.
When school officials told Girsch this was grounds for immediate dismissal, he hired [Attorney Mark] Zaiger and an amended contract was negotiated. That contract required Girsch to initiate the annulment process and to submit his resignation if it was denied. The CVCS board would decide whether to accept his resignation, according to the contract.Fortunately, as the subsequent unaminous 12-0 vote indicates, a Catholic "identity" and fidelity to the teachings of the Church are matters which the board members appear to value, having been reminded of their obligations by the Archbishop.
As the board prepared to reconsider that decision Monday, they heard from Archbishop Jerome Hanus through a letter read by Jeff Henderson, the archdiocese superintendent of schools.It's sad that, after 32 years teaching at the school, Girsch chose the path he did. Certainly, one can sympathize with his desire for love and companionship in marriage. But one must always strive to do that which is in accord with the will of God, as revealed in the teachings of our Lord and of His Church - despite how one feels.
Hanus declared the "sacredness and indissolubility of Christian marriage" in the letter. "Teachers play a key role in the teaching of the faith," Henderson read, both through their instruction and how they live. The board is required by its constitution to be in agreement with Catholic doctrine, the letter said.
Henderson read that the board "has attempted to act contrary to" church doctrine, jeopardizing the school system's Catholic identity. "This is unacceptable and requires correction by the CVCS board," he read.
Patricia Fresen again pretends to be something which can never be - a Catholic bishop...yet dozens if not hundreds of confused, ignornant, or obstinately rebellious join in the charade.
“Is the candidate worthy?” intoned Bishop Patricia Fresen ceremonially, as lifelong Catholic Juanita Cordero stood before her in a pure white gown, about to be ordained as a priest.
The question was asked three times during the ordination ceremony on Sunday, July 22, as one female priest and two female deacons were invested with the power to perform sacraments — a function forbidden to women under canon law.The "Power to perform sacraments"? The people refuse to accept objective reality. They live in a dream world, a fantasy land.
They are part of a movement from within the Roman Catholic Church thatActually, this is not a "movement from within the Roman Catholic Church" but it exists outside the CHurch as these people have efffectively separated themselves from the Church. Not only do they exhibit a distorted understanding of history, they presume to decide, on their own authority, what the Church has done and what she must do.
has been ordaining female priests since 2002, though those involved say that the tradition of women priests and bishops dates as far back as Mary Magdalene, whom they consider an apostle of Jesus.
From the beginning, the unity of the Church has been severely tested by those who have wanted to form and lead the Church in a direction that suited their ideas and preferences but was not the mind of Christ...Sometimes, most sadly, groups of the faithful have refused to accept the decisions of the Roman Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him, and have broken communion with the Church.This is precisely what we see here.
The participants in this movement fervently hope to be embraced by the Vatican, as other splinter groups have been before them.Splinter groups? Well, it's apparent that they "hope" for the theologically impossible - so they hope in vain. Poor souls, deceived by the evil one and blinded by pride, they have set themselves adrift in a sea of confusion and sin.
