Trinity and Richard Rohr: A Union of Heretics

Thanks to my friends at Restore D.C. Catholicsim, I found this announcement that Richard Rohr will speak at Trinity University in Washington, D.C. on October 23rd. It was listed on the Archdiocese of Baltimore's website. 

Franciscan Mission Service 20th Anniversary with Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM

October 23, 2010, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Trinity College Center, 125 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20017

Please join us in celebrating Franciscan Mission Service’s 20 years of training and supporting lay missioners throughout the world. The event will feature a keynote address by Father Richard Rohr, OFM, a Franciscan priest, author, teacher, and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Franciscan Mission Service trains and supports lay missioners who serve for three years in Franciscan placements around the world. The missioners live in impoverished communities, working with the poor and marginalized for the improvement of conditions. Upon returning to North America, lay missioners continue to answer the call to lifelong mission by working to transform North American people and society.

Event details:

Saturday October 23, 2010 at 7:00 pm, Trinity College Center, Washington, DC

$75 per ticket

Franciscan Mission Service.

PO Box 29034. Washington, DC 20017. http://www.franciscanmissionservice.org/

Laura Perez - laura@franciscanmissionservice.org or 202-832-1762

You may not know much about Richard Rohr who was ordained a Catholic priest even though he doesn't act like one,(Well, maybe like Martin Luther.) so here's the scoop. Los Pequenos de Cristo of New Mexico, where the padre runs his new age Center for Action and Contemplation, has a dossier a mile long on his heretical actions which include blessing same sex unions and endorsing Soulforce, a homosexual advocacy group that works for same sex marriage. Rohr is a new age apologist who promotes the Enneagram and the idea of the "Cosmic Christ" first popularized by Dominican Matthew Fox who worked with a witch named Starhawk. (This stuff is so goofy, you'd think it was a spoof. Really, you can't make it up!) In the latest issue of Los Pequenos' newsletter, The Pepper, Stephanie Block wrote an event taking place in Albuquerque at a local Catholic parish:

Rohr's next major CAC-sponsored event, the Creation as the Body of God Conference  advertised in the July Sunday bulletin of Albuquerque's Sacred Heart Roman Catholic parish, appears to be a development of Rohr's Cosmic Christ ideas, adopted from the terminology of Matthew Fox.

The term "creation as the body of God" has also been floating around eco-theology circles for awhile. Hyun-Chul Cho, author of An ecological vision of the world: toward a Christian ecological theology, writes, '[C]reation may be conceived as a cosmic body, which is penetrated by and steeped in the spirit. In this perception of creation as the body of God and God as the spirit of this body, the whole creation is viewed as an organic body in which all creatures form a web of relationships in virtue of the spirit. [Can't you see all creation pulsing like an amoeba with blobs stretching out to enfold every form of life into one body? Sounds like a scene from a bad science fiction flick!] At the same time, the spirit preserves the body by infusing it with life-sustaining breath. This body-spirit perception of the world and God works as an antidote against the strong dualistic and anthropcentric tendency toward nature which is still predominant in us." [Hmm...Dualistic? You mean like realizing that people are people and rocks are rocks?]

That is more or less Rohr's theology, what he calls "an expanded view of the mystery of Incarnation in the cosmos" [Wow! That's deep! The Incarnation means God became universe.] and claims, "What the Christ means is the confluence of divinity and physicality, spirit and matter. When the material and spiritual worlds coexist, we have Christ." [Hey...If you hug a tree really tight will you and the tree become Christ.] [Rich Heffer, "The eternal christ [sic] in the cosmic story," National Catholic Reporter, 12/11/09. Interview with Richard Rohr]

As further insight in what Rohr would be presenting, Creation as the Body of God Conference materials say, "The whole of Creation, the Body of God, is suffering from oppression and disease. [No, we're suffering from sin, not "ecological sin, but personal sin.] We, as Christians, are called to participate in the liberation and healing of the Earth and ourselves [So go to Confession!], we:

• Honor and experience the Oneness of ALL God's Creation [This is the heresy of pantheism: We are called to be good stewards of creation not to become one with creation.]
• Enter with the Earth into the transformative space of suffering [Huh? Does that mean if I prune a tree I should feel its pain?]
• Work toward restoring right relationship with Creation and the Creator through the exploration of environmental ethics [Ah yes, like the ethics of the global warming crowd who lie about science to accumulate power. Exactly what Jesus was about, eh? Power Politics!]
• Develop and strengthen our own prophetic voices to bring about the renewal of the face of the Earh through compassionate action [I don't think he means the corporal works of mercy.]
• Live from the eco-centric, rather than the ego-centric [Recycle, use one sheet in the bathroom, take a shower once a week, throw away your electric appliances, turn off your air conditioner, and trade your car for a bicycle. Hmm...Do you think Richard Rohr is doing that?]

It's not surprising that Trinity University is hosting this scandalous event. They stopped being Catholic years ago. In fact, we did a lead article on Trinity in the Spring 2010 issue of the Les Femmes newsletter, THE TRUTH, titled, Trinity: the Catholic School Pat McGuire Killed. This is one more stab wound in the corpse.

As for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, why in the name of all that's holy are they promoting this heretic? This is one more example of what's wrong with the world.