Whoever he is a priest of, it certainly isn’t Christ.
PopeWatch: Twofer
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Most misunderstand the promise; “the gates of Hell shall not “prevail”…” Prevail only means “final victory”, but in the meantime, Hell seems to be having a field day within God’s church.
Double down of your faith folks…it’s going to get much worse and soon.
What difference between this man and those listed in the
Saint of the day post.
Unfortunately, this man is no mere priest, warping Catholic teachings at some unfortunate parish. He’s the James and Nancy Buckman Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University, as well as the Senior Ethics Fellow at Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education. He also used to be a Professor of Theology at Marquette University.
America, The National Catholic Reporter, NPR, ABC News, etc. have all interviewed him and reported and broadcast his views. He is considered by them to be a mainstream Catholic— even though his views on homosexuality are anything but.
Since his Ordinary has not censured him (as far as I know), and his academic career goes from success to success, I suppose it is irrefutable that the man is mainstream indeed. But that simply underscores how decadent our nominally Catholic universities have become, and how depraved our nation’s media, and how indifferent our bishops are.
Don L : The widespread misunderstanding of the “gates of hell” passage is even worse than you think. Gates “prevail” by successfully resisting assault from some invading force. It is Christ and his church that is being portrayed as the aggressor here. They are storming the gates of death and liberating its prisoners. The passage in Matthew 16 is a promise of the resurrection, and that’s all it is. It has nothing to do with the internal problems of the church itself.
He’s an apostle to the Church from the end-stage bourgeois western world. There is nothing about him which would cause a Fortune 500 corporate executive, member of a network television newsroom or cozy suburban wine mom to do anything other than nod in approval. It is the wolves’ hour. And I can understand completely why Joseph Sciambra gave up in disgust and is now happily Russian Orthodox.
and is now happily Russian Orthodox.
At least until he understands a bit more about the Russian Orthodox.
“Peter, the least servant of monks, to the most blessed Pope Leo, the submission of due honor.
As the Apostolic See is known from the very mouth of the Truth to be the mother of all of the churches, it is proper to have recourse to it as a teacher and in a certain sense as the fount of heavenly wisdom, if some matter of doubt arises anywhere that seems related to the care of souls. Thus, from that one head of ecclesiastical discipline the light might show forth by which, the darkness of ambiguity having been expelled, the whole body of the Church will shine with the clear splendor of the truth. Moreover, a certain most abominable and exceedingly disgraceful vice has grown in our region, and unless it is quickly met with the hand of strict chastisement, it is certain that the sword of divine fury is looming to attack, to the destruction of many. Alas, it is shameful to speak of it! It is shameful to relate such a disgusting scandal to sacred ears! But if the doctor fears the virus of the plague, who will apply the cauterization? If he is nauseated by those whom he is to cure, who will lead sick souls back to the state of health?
The cancer of sodomitic impurity is thus creeping through the clerical order, and indeed is raging like a cruel beast within the sheepfold of Christ with the audacity of such liberty, that for many it would have been much more salutary to be oppressed by the yoke of worldly duties than to be surrendered so freely to the iron rule of diabolical tyranny under the pretense of religion. It would have been better to perish alone in secular dress than, having changed one’s clothes but not one’s heart, to also drag others to destruction, as the Truth testifies, saying, ‘He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it is expedient for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.’ And unless the force of the Apostolic See opposes it as quickly as possible, there is no doubt that when it finally wishes for the unbridled evil to be restrained, it may not be able to halt the fury of its advance.”
The beginning of “The Book Of Gomorrah” by the humble monk Peter Damian
I think that whatever else you can say about ROCOR (and there is good and bad), there aren’t Massingales and Martins holding forth from the pulpit to the applause of the world. Nor will you see the scandalous spectacle of the Religious Education Conference held under the auspices of an orthodox Catholic prelate who cringes before the ecclesial might of modernists and groomers.
I don’t applaud Joseph’s decision. But all things considered, in this present darkness I can’t bring myself to condemn it, either.
It was dispiriting reading about how often he got the brushoff from
the prelates like Gomez and Cordileone.
It appears that the only thing that is going to cure the Church is the chemotherapy of institutional collapse. When there is no longer any prestige edifice worth Gramsci-ing, the renewal can begin.
In Russia the Russian Orthodox Church has always functioned as an arm of the State. The Old Believer schism highlighted this. In America the Russian Orthodox Church has walled itself off from the other Orthodox Churches in this country. For a Catholic this is a big leap going from a Universal Church to a national Church, especially when you are not Russian. I recall an Irish writer who left the Church. He was asked by a woman at a party if that meant he was now a Protestant. His response has always stayed with me: “I’ve lost my faith, not my mind!’.
I wish Mr. Sciambra well, but I have noticed that many Orthodox coverts tend to be fairly short term.
“It appears that the only thing that is going to cure the Church is the chemotherapy of institutional collapse. When there is no longer any prestige edifice worth Gramsci-ing, the renewal can begin.”
Correct, absent a collapse of the secular world, or God grants us a miracle that no one can ignore.
Some time ago, BM was spewing about alleged “theological silence on racism.” Before I published the following, I wrote to him for comment. The non-reply: dead silence. https://abyssum.org/2015/12/08/the-sin-of-racism-is-most-clearly-shown-in-the-killing-of-black-and-brown-babies/. Guy, Texas
I follow Joseph Sciambra on FB. I have nothing bad to say about him, and whataver I write will be in his support. He has been visiously mal-treated. And what he posts seems to be genuinely and devoutly religious (in the best sense of the word). Yes, the Orthodox have their problems as the we Romans do ours. One day Christ is going to clean up both lungs of the Church (as Pope St. JP II described Orthodoxy & Rome). I don’t think the cleaning will be pleasant for either lung.
If it weren’t for Catholicism, I would have left the Catholic Church a long time ago.
Conversely, a few years ago, young [he was in the same HS with my youngest son] Father Sullivan on the Holy Family Sunday had the temerity to say from the pulpit, that marriage is between one man and one woman. At which point, one each woman stood up and walked out.
You know. I would not last two weeks in a Seminary. I’d have told that woman, “And, don’t come back.” That, and I’d beat up any guy that tried to grab my ass.
Greg, I would expeditiously abandon [and shake the dust from my shoes] the parish to which he was assigned.
Of course, Fordham U. I assume there’s an SJ behind his name.
BTW: This guy validates my theory that post-modernist theology is making up stuff about God and social ethics simply more stuff. “Stuff” is a euphemism for one of my over-used go-to [expletive-deleted]’s.
Can’t wait for the dawn, when these trolls turn to stone.Perhaps to be repurposed as gargoyles on proper churches.
This guy shybe defrocked and deballed. He is not a Catholic priest.