Heresies

Early Heresies
Here is a list of heresies that I started putting together. It's interesting that some of these heresies still exist just under different forms of Ecclesial Christian communities and quasi-Christian sects.

Pelagianism:
It is the belief that original sin did not taint Human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not have the other consequences imputed to Original Sin. Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a good example" for the rest of humanity (thus counteracting Adam's bad example) as well as providing an atonement for our sins. In short, humanity has full control, and thus full responsibility, for obeying the Gospel in addition to full responsibility for every sin (the latter insisted upon by both proponents and opponents of Pelagianism). According to Pelagian doctrine, because men are sinners by choice, they are therefore criminals who need the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sinners are not victims, they are criminals who need pardon.

Pantheism:
Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are synonymous, or that the Universe is the only thing deserving the deepest kind of reverence. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Ancient Greek: πᾶν (pan) meaning "all" and θεός (theos) meaning "belief that God is all". As such Pantheism promotes the idea that "God" is better understood as a way of relating reverentially to Nature and the Universe. Although there are divergences within Pantheism, the central ideas found in almost all versions are the Cosmos as an all-encompassing unity and the "sacredness" of Nature.

Arianism:
Not to be confused with "Aryanism" which formed the core of Nazi racial ideology. Arianism is the theological teaching of Arius (ca. AD 250–336), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity ('God the Father', 'God the Son' and 'God the Holy Spirit') and the precise nature of the Son of God. Deemed a heretic by the First Council of Nicaea of 325, Arius was later exonerated in 335 at the First Synod of Tyre, and then pronounced a heretic again after his death at the First Council of Constantinople of 381. The Roman Emperors Constantius II (337–361) and Valens (364–378) were Arians or Semi-Arians. The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by—and is therefore distinct from and inferior to—God the Father.
Arianism is defined as those teachings attributed to Arius which are in opposition to mainstream Trinitarian Christological dogma, as determined by the first two Ecumenical Councils and currently maintained by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and most Protestant Churches. "Arianism" is also often used to refer to other nontrinitarian theological systems of the 4th century, which regarded Jesus Christ—the Son of God, the Logos—as either a created being (as in Arianism proper and Anomoeanism), or as neither uncreated nor created in the sense other beings are created (as in Semi-Arianism).

Arius taught that God the Father and the Son did not exist together eternally. He taught that the pre-incarnate Jesus was a divine being created by (and therefore inferior to) God the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a "creature"; in the sense of "created being". Arius and his followers appealed to Bible verses such as John 14:28 where Jesus says that the father is "greater than I", and to Proverbs 8:22 which states "The Lord created me at the beginning of his work" although this verse is now generally held to refer to some concept of "wisdom" rather than to the Son of God.

Donatist:
The primary disagreement between Donatists and the rest of the early Christian Church was over the treatment of those who renounced their faith during the persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian (303–305), a disagreement that had implications both for the Church's understanding of the Sacrament of Penance and of the other sacraments in general.
The rest of the Church was far more forgiving of these people than the Donatists. The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of the priests and bishops who had fallen away from the faith during the persecution. During the persecution some Church leaders had gone so far as to turn Christians over to Roman authorities and had handed over religious texts to authorities to be publicly burned. These people were called traditors ("people who had handed over"). These traditors had returned to positions of authority under Constantine I, and the Donatists proclaimed that any sacraments celebrated by these priests and bishops were invalid.
The first question, therefore, was whether the Sacrament of Penance can effect a reconciliation whereby the apostate, or in some cases specifically the traditor, may be returned to full communion. The orthodox Catholic position was that the sacrament was for precisely such cases, though at the time the Church still followed the discipline of public penance.
The second question was the validity of sacraments celebrated by priests and bishops who had been apostates under the persecution. The Donatists held that all such sacraments were invalid; by their sinful act, such clerics had rendered themselves incapable of celebrating valid sacraments.

Montanism:
Montanism was an early Christian movement of the early 2nd century, named after its founder Montanus. He claimed to have received a series of direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. Montanus was accompanied by two women, Prisca, sometimes called Priscilla, and Maximilla, who likewise claimed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As they went, "the Three" as they were called, spoke in ecstatic visions and urged their followers to fast and pray, so that they might share these personal revelations. His preachings spread from his native Phrygia (where he proclaimed the village of Pepuza as the site of the New Jerusalem) across the contemporary Christian world, to Africa and Gaul. Prisca claimed that Christ had appeared to her in female form. When she was excommunicated, she exclaimed "I am driven away like the wolf from the sheep. I am no wolf: I am word and spirit and power."
Eusebius of Caesarea quotes Apolinarius of Hierapolis, who spoke of the deaths of Montanus and Maximilla: "But by another kind of death Montanus and Maximilla are said to have died. For the report is that, incited by the spirit of frenzy, they both hung themselves; not at the same time, but at the time which common report gives for the death of each. And thus they died, and ended their lives like the traitor Judas."
The beliefs of Montanism are presented by an Orthodox historian as follows:
The belief that the prophecies of the Montanists superseded and fulfilled the doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles.
The encouragement of ecstatic prophesying, contrasting with the more sober and disciplined approach to theology dominant in Orthodox Christianity at the time and since.
The view that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed, also in contrast to the orthodox Christian view that contrition could lead to a sinner's restoration to the church.
A stronger emphasis on the avoidance of sin and church discipline than in Orthodox Christianity. They emphasized chastity, including forbidding remarriage, and even the dissolution of some marriages, in particular, their prophetesses abandoned their husbands.
Some of the Montanists were also "Quartodeciman" ("fourteeners"), preferring to celebrate Easter on the Hebrew calendar date of 14 Nisan, regardless of what day of the week it landed on. Orthodox Christians held that Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following 14 Nisan. (Trevett 1996:202)
Montanus provided salaries for those who preached his doctrine, which orthodox Christianity forbids.
Their prophets dyed their hair, stained their eyelids, and were allowed to play with tables and dice and lend on usury.
Modalism, the teaching that God was not a Trinity but was a single God of three modes or manifestations, was a doctrine adhered to by a sect of the Montanists.
Sabellianism, (also known as Modalism, Modalistic Monarchianism, or Modal Monarchism)
It is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or manifestations of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.
The term Sabellianism comes from Sabellius, a theologian and priest from the third century.
God was said to have three "faces" or "masks" (Grk. prosopa), (Latin persona)[1]. The question is: "is God's threeness a matter of our falsely seeing it to be so (Sabellianism/modalism), or a matter of God's own essence revealed as three-in-one (trinitarianism)?"

Gnosticism:
(Greek: γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge) refers to diverse, syncretistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that the cosmos was created by an imperfect god, the demiurge with some of the supreme God's pneuma; this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, (as opposed to the Gospel according to the Hebrews) and is contrasted with a superior entity, referred to by several terms including Pleroma and Godhead. Depictions of the demiurge—the term originates with Plato's Timaeus—vary from being as an embodiment of evil, to being merely imperfect and as benevolent as its inadequacy permits. Gnosticism was a dualistic religion, influenced by and influencing Hellenic philosophy, Judaism (see Notzrim), and Christianity; however, by contrast, later strands of the movement, such as the Valentinians, held a monistic world-view. This, along with the varying treatments of the demiurge, may be seen as indicative of the variety of positions held within the category.
Gnostics believe that salvation achieved through knowledge. They beleve that there is a hidden knowledge only given to a select few. Gnosticism pre-dates Christianity. They believe in two gods, a supreme god and a creator god. The supreme god is good and the creator god is bad because creation is bad.

I am becoming a fan of George Weigel. The more I read the more I like this guy.

Papal Kudos for the Fourth Estate?
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, July 14, 2010


THE CATHOLIC DIFFERENCE

Publication Date: July 7, 2010


That Pope Benedict XVI is Catholicism's most effective spokesman and navigator through the rocks and shoals of Scandal Time II was demonstrated yet again in May, during a flying papal press conference en route to Portugal. Discussing the enduring meaning of the "message of Fatima," the Pope said the following:

"As for the new things we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from sin existing within the Church. This, too, is something we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without but arises from sin within the Church, and thus the Church has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice."

Beautiful, profound, unexceptionable: yet this lesson in theology and piety was interpreted by virtually the entire press corps as a papal blessing on the way Scandal Time II had been covered since March -- and an implicit criticism of those who had suggested that recent reporting and commentary on priestly sexual abuse and episcopal misgovernance had been, at times, shoddy and agenda-driven (the agenda being the disempowerment of both pope and Church). There is nothing in the Pope's actual words, however, that supports that little bit of auto-absolution by the brethren of the fourth estate.

Thus "...attacks on the pope and the Church come not only from without": what can that mean other than that there have, in fact, been attacks from the Church "from without"?

That "the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without but arises from sin within the Church" is certainly true (and has been said repeatedly by both John Paul II and Benedict XVI). But that doesn't mean that there are aren't persecutors "from without." Measured against the Evil One and the damage he can cause, those outsiders may be pretty small beer; but they're persecutors nonetheless.

The Pope was entirely right to remind everyone of what he called, in his Good Friday meditations in 2005, the "filth" in the Church: infidelity is the cause of Scandal Time II, as it was the cause of the Long Lent of 2002. Dealing with that infidelity, as the Holy Father continued, requires "conversion, prayer, penance, and the theological virtues" [of faith, hope, and love]. Here are the essentials in the Church's response to evil, which "attacks from within and without."

These are ancient truths. Recognizing their contemporary salience does not, however, require us to stand mute on the occasions when the press manifestly gets it wrong. Charity does require us to acknowledge that, in most cases -- not all, but most -- getting-it-wrong is the result of ignorance rather than malice. Still, one significant difference between 2002 and 2010 has been that the malice of some newspapers and magazines has been clear to anyone with a critical eye.

That unhappy fact underscores the necessity of reforming the Holy See's communications operation, which has retreated from the advances made under John Paul II's longtime spokesman, the Spanish layman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. As John Paul and Navarro-Valls demonstrated, the pope-press spokesman relationship works well when the spokesman is well-established in the confidence and confidences of the pontiff, and has ready access to the man he's interpreting to the world. Building such a relationship with a spokesman may require a pope to alter his habitual patterns of work, but the effort seems worth it, judging by the results.

The ingrained media defensiveness of the Roman Curia must also change: the attitude, entrenched over centuries, that the best story is no story. No, the best story is a good story that presents facts accurately and does so in such a way that the essentials of the Church's evangelical message get communicated. That takes work, but again, the effort is worth it.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.


http://www.eppc.org/scholars/view.abstract,recNo.1,scholarID.14,type.1/pub_list.asp

Editorial Jihad

This is really getting old. I have long been tired of inaccurate and lazy reporting. How can the NY Times continuously get away with this? They never get it right.

Patrick Coffin with Catholic Answers makes a very good point when he says, "If I am a sports reporter for the NY Times, and I don't know anything about sports, I would get fired. How is it that "Religion reporters" who don't know anything about religion or even the Catholic Church, still have a job?"

It doesn't always help when you are on the outside looking in. You shouldn't knock down a fence if you do not know why it was put up in the first place.

Another vicious, inaccurate, and contradictory New York Times attack on Pope Benedict
By Philip F. Lawler
Philip F. Lawler is editor emeritus of CWR.

The New York Times, with another front-page attack on Pope Benedict XVI, erases any possible doubt that America’s most influential newspaper has declared an editorial jihad against this pontificate. Abandoning any sense of editorial balance, journalistic integrity, or even elementary logic, the Times looses a 4,000-word barrage against the Pope: an indictment that is not supported even by the content of this appalling story. Apparently the editors are relying on sheer volume of words, and repetition of ugly details, to substitute for logical argumentation.
The thrust of the argument presented by the Times is that prior to his election as Pontiff, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger did not take decisive action to punish priests who abused children. Despite its exhaustive length, the story does not present a single new case to support that argument. The authors claim, at several points in their presentation, that as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Ratzinger had the authority to take action. But then, again and again, they quote knowledgeable Church officials saying precisely the opposite.
The confusion over lines of authority at the Vatican was so acute, the Times reports, that in the year 2000 a group of bishops met in Rome to present their concerns. That meeting led eventually to the change in policy announced by Pope John Paul II the following year, giving the CDF sole authority over disciplinary action against priests involved in sexual abuse. By general consensus the 2001 policy represented an important step forward in the Vatican’s handling of the problem, and it was Cardinal Ratzinger who pressed for that policy change. How does that sequence of events justify criticism of the future Pope? It doesn’t. But the facts do not deter the Times.

Read more: http://www.catholicworldreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195:editorial-jihad&catid=53:cwr2010&Itemid=70

No future for Europe without return to Christian roots, says Cardinal Kasper

Vatican City, May 20, 2010 / 10:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During a recent symposium in Rome on the Orthodox and Catholic Churches of Europe, the no-nonsense president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, reflected briefly on the future of Europe. With his characteristic frankness, he said, "If Europe wants to have a future again, it must first and foremost renew its Christian roots."

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/no-future-for-europe-without-return-to-christian-roots-says-cardinal-kasper/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29

I totally agree. Two great books delve into this subject more in depth. They are Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures - Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) and Without Roots by Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)and Marcello Perra. Anyone who is serious about there faith and the crisis facing Christianity should read these books over and over again.

Bloody Money - The Business of Abortion

http://www.bloodmoneyfilm.com/

Dr. Scott Hahn & Fr. Barron Bible & Liturgy

Journalists abandon standards to attack the Pope

We're off and running once again, with another completely phony story that purports to implicate Pope Benedict XVI in the protection of abusive priests.
The "exclusive" story released by AP yesterday, which has been dutifully passed along now by scores of major media outlets, would never have seen the light of day if normal journalistic standards had been in place. Careful editors should have asked a series of probing questions, and in every case the answer to those questions would have shown that the story had no "legs."
First to repeat the bare-bones version of the story: in November 1985, then-Cardinal Ratzinger signed a letter deferring a decision on the laicization of Father Stephen Kiesle, a California priest who had been accused of molesting boys.

Read more hear: http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=632

Scripture and Tradition

Protestants claim the Bible is the only rule of faith, meaning that it contains all of the material one needs for theology and that this material is sufficiently clear that one does not need apostolic tradition or the Church’s magisterium (teaching authority) to help one understand it. In the Protestant view, the whole of Christian truth is found within the Bible’s pages. Anything extraneous to the Bible is simply non-authoritative, unnecessary, or wrong—and may well hinder one in coming to God. Catholics, on the other hand, recognize that the Bible does not endorse this view and that, in fact, it is repudiated in Scripture. The true "rule of faith"—as expressed in the Bible itself—is Scripture plus apostolic tradition, as manifested in the living teaching authority of the Catholic Church, to which were entrusted the oral teachings of Jesus and the apostles, along with the authority to interpret Scripture correctly.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Scripture_and_Tradition.asp

Support The Pope

This website is a humble gesture of reassurance for Pope Benedict XVI. This site provides individuals with a way to pledge their love, prayers, and support for Pope Benedict XVI, as well as our bishops and priests, in the hopes that if it gains enough momentum, he will hear of our sentiments.
http://www.supportthepope.com/

Economics and Fertility Rates

A 2.1% fertility rate is what a society needs to maintain to support the economy. So essentially this means that we need two working productive children to replace two retired parents who do not contribute to the work force anymore. The US has been able to maintain this rate because of immigration and other factors. Legal and illegal immigrants bring a lot to the table when it comes to supporting our economy. In my opinion, if they were to all of the sudden disappear our economy would be in shambles. If the US continues its policy of deporting illegal immigrants at these rates they should encourage Americans to have larger families so that their children can help support our economy in the future. How many are in your family?

For the first time in 35 years, the U.S. fertility rate has climbed high enough to sustain a stable population, solidifying the nation's unique status among industrialized countries.

The overall fertility rate increased 2 percent between 2005 and 2006, nudging the average number of babies being born to each woman to 2.1, according to the latest federal statistics. That marks the first time since 1971 that the rate has reached a crucial benchmark of population growth: the ability of each generation to replace itself.

"It's been quite a long time since we've had a rate this high," said Stephanie J. Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics. "It's a milestone."

I hope this trend continues for the sake of families and our economy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002725.html

The Godless Delusion

I was very impressed by Patrick Madrid's book called Pope Fiction that I am ecstatic that his new book called "The Godless Delusion" is coming soon. This is a refutation of the arguments of modern "atheists".

This will be the next book I buy, along with Peter Kreeft's "Handbook of Christian Apologetics" and "Without Roots" by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger & Marcello Pera. So if anyone is feeling generous....

(I love the cover).

Why be Catholic?

This is a DVD for sale from Tim Staples. I meet Tim a while back when he came to speak at our parish, St. Mary's about "The Five Non-negotiables". Anything put out from Tim Staples is worth every cent.

He explains everything in great detail without losing the audience.

Fr. Robert Barron's Catholicism project.

Can we really trust the secular media for "fair and balanced" reporting?

In a harsh indictment of The New York Times, the former Judicial Vicar for the archdiocese of Milwaukee has accused the newspaper of using “sloppy and inaccurate reporting” to wrongly link Pope Benedict XVI to the scandal of priest abuser Fr. Lawrence Murphy.

Fr. Thomas Brundage, who presided over the canonical proceeding against Murphy in the 1990s, released a letter March 29 in which he states The Times never contacted him for comment and that documents allegedly authored by him and quoted in newspaper articles were not his.

“The documents were not written by me and do not resemble my handwriting,” wrote Brundage. “The syntax is similar to what I might have said but I have no idea who wrote these statements, yet I am credited as stating them. http://www.catholicregister.org/content/view/4031/849/

Every Catholic Church should have this sign.

I am going to talk to my parish priest to see if we could have one posted in the narthex.

Lent & Suffering

When I began preparing myself for Lent this year I spent some time reflecting what my sacrifices were going to be, what charitable acts I was going to do, and what I hope to gain spiritually in 40 days. Some of those sacrifices by some standards are petty but nevertheless when confronted with temptation it can really be a challenge. In addition to giving support to the Church as a part of my acts of charity, I would fast and pray for my Christian and non-Christian brothers. But in the end I had to benefit spiritually in my journey. If I did not resemble Christ at the end, Lent would have been a waste of time.

So I started Lent by finishing a book I started back in October and I figured it would be great Lenten reading. This book was called “Come Be My Light, The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta”. As you might have guessed by the title, these were letters by Mother Teresa to various correspondences. I always remember seeing the public image of Mother Teresa as a joyful little woman. But what was revealed in her writings was different. Mother Teresa suffered spiritually for the majority of her life and her suffering only intensified as she grew older. But it is what she did with her suffering that really surprised me.

The issue of suffering has plagued me for quite some time. I have come to grasp why and how suffering had entered into this world via the original sin of Adam and Eve. But suffering must have a meaning I told myself. There is meaning to life and since suffering is a part of life it must have meaning. But what perplexed me the most is, what are we to do with our suffering? St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians (Col 1:24), “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church…”

What really through me for a loop was what could possibly be lacking in the suffering of Christ that St. Paul can somehow fill up? In reading Mothers letters I saw that she too was filling up what was lacking in Christ suffering.

Then it dawned on me. Our participation is what is lacking in the suffering of Christ.

In Matthews Gospel (Matt 27:32) we read about a prime example of sharing in Christ suffering. It was by a Cyrenian named Simon whom the Romans pressed into service to help carry His cross. What Simon did was help Jesus to Golgotha so Christ can save the world. In essence Simon assisted in the salvation of the world and even helped save himself by participating in Christ suffering. Simon’s experience is at the very essence of redeeming souls by his participation in our Lord’s suffering. This is our mission too. We must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34-35) for own sake and the sake of our brothers.

But suffering is hard. No one wants to suffer. And in fact in seems that once we do follow Christ, our suffering intensifies 10 fold. I am again reminded of another passage in scripture, Matt 8:24-26. Jesus and His disciples clamber into a boat and set sail in the Sea of Galilee and… “Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he (Jesus) was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ He said to them, ‘Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?’ Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”

It seems that in this passage and among others that Jesus even attracts trouble. But there is a very important message here for us and it is that although perhaps we can’t pay the bills, or we lost our job, the kids are sick or what have you, it is for a greater purpose and that God is in control even though all seems lost. We need not fear and we must have faith. Trust in God for he is good and if he wasn’t good, we wouldn’t be here.

Understanding suffering and all its intents and purposes this Lent was hard enough. But putting this understanding into action is going to take a lifetime.

Aaron.
St. Joseph - Ora Pro Nobis

"This is a dark hour in the history of our republic"

"This is a dark hour in the history of our republic"

I got this from one of my personal heroes blog: http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com.

God bless this priest. He hits a homerun with this homily!

An interesting stat from an unflattering article

Public or Catholic education?
Now, on the heels of the Catholic abuse scandal comes another of historic proportions—one that has the potential to be much greater and far-reaching. According to a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, in compliance with the 2002 "No Child Left Behind" act signed into law by President Bush, between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.

Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report, said the number of abuse cases—which range from unwanted sexual comments to rape—could be much higher.

"So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?" she told industry newspaper Education Week in a March 10 interview.

To support her contention, Shakeshaft compared the priest abuse data with data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000. Extrapolating data from the latter, she estimated roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade—1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests.

Such figures led her to contend "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/4/5/01552.shtml