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Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Happy St. Nicholas Day or Punch a Heretic Day

Coal and a switch for you, heretic!
Have you ever heard the story about St. Nicholas punching Arius during the council of Nicaea?
Archbishop Nicholas attended the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea (325), where he allegedly assailed the heretic Arius. In the middle of his hearing, Arius stood up on his seat in order to be better heard. Enraged by Arius’ denial that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, Archbishop Nicholas strode quickly over to Arius, pulled him down by his beard, and punched him in the face.
Now there's a man of action! You better watch out....


Thinking about St. Nicholas leads me to ponder our own modern shepherds, shrinking violets many who act more like politicians than persona Christis. Renowned German philosopher Robert Spaemann seems to agree. Commenting on the dubia (You've read it, right?), Spaemann calls it "deplorable" that only a handful of cardinals have signed on.  "With the dubia, the cardinals fulfill their own duty to support with their own counsel – as 'senators' – the Church in the person of the Holy Father."

So where are all the others? Wrapping Christmas presents? (Nothing to see here...just move on.)

Professor Spaemann and the cardinals see the dangerous potential of the ambiguities (deliberate?) in Amoris Laetitia. As Spaemann points out:
The chaos has been turned into a principle – with one stroke of a pen. The pope should have known that he will split the Church with such a step and that he leads her into the direction of a schism – a schism that would be not at the periphery, but in the middle of the Church. May God help us to avoid this.
Already out in loony-tune land, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego instructed his priests to allow sacrilegious Communions to the divorced and invalidly remarried in special circumstances. So much for Church doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage. Just follow your badly informed conscience and all will be a-okay. Why does this remind me of contraception? There's nothing new under the sun except for one thing. A pope has made it clear that he personally favors overturning Church doctrine by footnote and letter (to the Argentina bishops).

St. Nicholas, please help us fight modern day heresy in the heart of the Church!

1 comment:

  1. I think there are quite a few I would like to punch in the Vatican.

    The amoral use canon law to ignore obvious impediments for Ordination .Worse yet they pose as Christ's Ministers.

    Priest in child porn case had been vetted by Rome on prior sex abuse claim
    http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/priest_in_child_porn_case_had_prior_sex_abuse_alle.html
    "Thirteen years ago, amid allegations he molested a 16-year-old boy, the Rev. Kevin Gugliotta was suspended from ministry in New Jersey, his case referred to the Vatican for guidance because of an unusual circumstance.
    When the alleged sex assaults occurred in the mid-1980s, Gugliotta wasn't yet an ordained Catholic priest. He was a private-sector engineer and Boy Scout leader.
    In the eyes of the Vatican, the distinction appeared to be a critical one, regardless of the case's merit." Read the entire article
    In sum, basically because the abuse happened before he was Ordained it was not an impediment.
    "A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark told NJ Advance Media last week the Vatican ruled that church law, known as canon law, prevented Gugliotta from being punished for something he might have done as a layman. In December 2004, he was quietly reinstated, free of restrictions on his ministry, and served for years in various parishes, including a long stint as chaplain to a youth group.

    That decision, which was not widely disclosed, is now being questioned by his accuser and others in the wake of Gugliotta's arrest in October on 40 counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography.
    Gugliotta, 54, remains jailed in Pennsylvania in lieu of $1 million bail, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County District Attorney's Office said. He is accused of using a computer at his vacation home in Lehigh Township, Pa., to download and share images and videos of children involved in sex acts."

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