Tag Archives: Christianity

Theological Triage

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This National Catholic Reporter opinion piece really got me hot under the collar. Here’s how CathNews sums it up:

The recent Vatican censure of US Jesuit theologian Roger Haight for his attempt to reformulate doctrines about Christ for a postmodern world highlights a disturbing theme of John Paul II’s pontificate. Instead of the ban on teaching, however, a more imaginative response might have been to convene a summit on Christology. A lively debate over Haight’s work already existed, and many of the reactions in serious theological journals were negative.

What possible purpose would a summit on Christology serve? Newsflash, NCR, we’ve already had all the summits we need; they’re called ecumenical councils!!!

The time for polite discussion is over. If a patient comes into an ER with a gunshot wound, the doctors don’t sit around contemplating their navels as they discuss the moral and ethical implications of the Second Amendment. They remove the bullet, stop the bleeding, and dress the wound. Likewise, rather than allow Haight to continue teaching rubbish and risk a gangrenous infection developing at his university, Church officials have removed him for the good of the Body of Christ.

"Convene a summit" indeed. I’m reminded of a scene from The Life of Brian, in which People’s Front of Judea resolve to discuss rescuing Brian from crucifixion, thus wasting precious time that could be spent actually rescuing him.

JUDITH: They’ve arrested Brian!
REG: What?
COMMANDOS: What?
JUDITH: They’ve dragged him off! They’re going to crucify him!
REG: Right! This calls for immediate discussion!

My Two Cents About Our Ailing Pope

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The following is my ranking, from best to worst, of scenarios for the end of Pope
John Paul II’s pontificate.

  1. He is strong and active until the day he dies quietly in his sleep.
  2. He is bedridden, but he is in good spirits and able to conduct work until the
    day he dies in his sleep.
  3. either of the above, except he dies painfully.
  4. He becomes incapacitated and

    1. a letter written by him is used to specify how to proceed.
    2. there is no letter, but he is not replaced until his death.
  5. He resigns and is replaced.
  6. He does not resign and is forcefully replaced.

Seven Heresies For Seven Errors

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As many are already aware, in December Rev. Roger Haight, S.J. was notified by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that his book Jesus: Symbol of God contained errors contrary to the faith. The notification contained seven propositions concerning which Fr. Haight’s book was judged to be in error. These errors, however, were not original with Haight, nor should the Vatican’s reaction be surprising. All are in contradiction with Ecumenical Councils and other infallible teachings of the Church. Below are found the systems to which these propositions belong, and the infallible teaching which refutes them. Citations are given by the Denzinger Enchiridion Symbolorum as edited by Rev. Karl Rahner, S.J. Full discussion of these matters, and quotes with complete citations to the individual documents can be found here.

  1. Theological Method: Modernism. Proposition condemned at I Vatican in 1870 (DR 1811, 1813)
  2. Pre-existence of the Word: Arianism. Proposition condemned at I Nicea in 325 (DR 54)
  3. Divinity of Jesus: Nestorianism. Proposition condemned at Ephesus in 431 (DR 111a, 114)
  4. The Holy Trinity: Sabellianism. Proposition condemned at I Constantinople in 381 (DR 85); explicitly condemned at Florence in 1442 (DR 705)
  5. The salvific death of Christ: Pelagianism (and others). Proposition condemned officially at the Synod of Orange in 529 (DR 194; not an ecumenical council, but usually considered infallible) and at IV Lateran in 1215 (DR 429)
  6. The unity and unicity of the saving mediation of Jesus Christ and His Church: Religious Pluralism. Proposition condemned at IV Lateran in 1215 (DR 430)
  7. The resurrection of Christ: Rationalism. Proposition condemned at I Nicea in 325 (DR 54)

I’ve Been Workin’ on the Wiki..

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…all the live-long day 🙂

Remember
my WikiIndex idea? Well, somebody saw it and asked me to participate in a private
beta for a wiki site he’s developing. I accepted and have begun work on a wiki for
Catholic books. There’s much work left to do, but if
you take a look, you’ll get the basic idea of what it’s about.

Update:

The index no longer exists because nobody had time or energy enough to maintain it. Here’s what it looked like.

Photo Op

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Here’s a picture of me with the St. Paul Cathedral and Pittsburgh Oratory combined RCIA class of 2005 and Bishop Donald Wuerl. The angle isn’t so great, but there were other pictures taken from the direction everyone is looking. As soon as I have one of those, I’ll post it, too. 🙂