The following comes from a mid-March column by Pia de Solenni on CatholicVote.com. De Solenni is a graduate of California’s Thomas Aquinas College and the Angelicum in Rome.
Ok, at this point in Lent, our resolutions are not unlike our New Year’s resolutions.
We start out with good intentions and, well, you know the rest. But I’m offering two that each one of us can embrace and which will serve the Church and the world.
Hold on. I’m getting ahead of myself.
This past weekend, I attended the LA Religious Ed Congress. I know, many of you thought people like me should either not attend the REC or would not survive the REC. Here’s my advice: attend the REC next year.
Did I agree with all of the content offered? Nope. But people are allowed to have different opinions, even in the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless, there was a lot of really good content. And the exhibit hall is a must for anyone involved in anything Catholic.
But the strongest take away came from a place that I wasn’t expecting: John Allen’s talk, “The Francis Revolution: The Papacy at the One-Year Mark.” Don’t get me wrong, I admire John Allen’s expertise immensely. In fact, that’s why I went to the talk. I was looking for his analysis of the Francis papacy. He gave that. Superbly. But his analysis provided the basis for two Lenten resolutions that we can all take to heart. [Full disclosure – I know John and really appreciate his description of me in his book Opus Dei, which was something like, “an intelligent, sometimes brash, young woman.”]….
To read the original posting, click here.
Thanks for posting this. Click the link to watch Bob Newhart skit.
Dr. Pia de Solenni writes an excellent article here!
Dr. Pia is absolutely wrong here! Such a Congress should not have even one heretical spreader of error present and giving lectures.
Her statements make me wonder where she got her religious education!
“Error Has No Rights”!
There is truth in what Pia has written, but remember this regarding the CCD congress: the Koran has some truth in it, but should it be accepted as doctrinal? Some of the things that Buddists believe are good, but are they genuine? A little bit of poison contaminates the rest of the other substance. Are you going to put poison in your coffee,, or in your favorite meal? Just as your body can get used to the poison, so too we Catholics can get used to un orthodox beliefs. Stay away from so-called Catholic things that are not truly Catholic. After all, you have you soul to look after, and once it has been lost after death, there is no chance of salvation. Ave Maria Purissima!
Granted, it is not always proper to resort to criticism, but sometimes it is morally necessary. If you see your brother in error, you must correct him. St. Paul reprimanded St. Peter when he was wrong. It must always be corrective criticism, done in a spirit of Christian charity and not done out of pride or self righteousness.
More and more mixed messages. Whether they come from those in the religious life or from the laity, there still mixed messages. With that being said, the L.A. “REC” should have been shut down long ago.
Never support REC or any other organization that promtes any heresy and/or schism.
By paying the fees you support the continuance of REC; and by attending it appears to others that you support all that is being said and causes confusion.
This is a bad example for uneducated others.
Any contradictions of the teaching of JESUS (God) in the Bible, or contradictions of Christ’s Church (as taught in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”) by Catholics are heresy and/or schism.
REC should be banned by Archbishop Gomez in the LA Diocese.
We all are required to spread the Faith according to the Gospel, not be silent. Truth is important.
Code of Canon Law – under OBLIGATIONS and RIGHTS of ALL the Christian Faithful –
” 212 §3. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church
and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful,
without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.
Regarding SCANDAL (using accurate Church teaching) Bishops have the responsibility for public correction within their own Diocese. Ask your Bishop to do his job – if necessary.
Thank you! Absolutely agree. No one is immune to contamination, especially in this day and age. There is no room for “a little of this” in the Faith. It is either we Catholics defend it, or we allow it to fall. Where there is confusion, contamination grows.
Ted,
We, CRCOA, Inc. have tried to educate some “bishops”, you would be disgusted at some of the replies we have received.
They seem to have no real idea that they are responsible for the sheep God has given them, and they just pass the buck off! Boy are they in for a shock when they stand before the Judgement Seat!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
NO ONE could go to all the seminars/talks to give a full opinion of everything said…..however everyone of us can watch the videos of the various liturgies (they are never called Masses and maybe the is an accurate use of language) – go ahead and watch…. then try and support her argument…..if all the Masses are disrespectful examples of “liturgy as entertainment” (with the Archbishop present), how can anything good come of this Congres.
Just because ANYONE is popular in the secular media because of a few misunderstandings of the journalists or readers, that does not mean we should let the misunderstanding of our Faith stand.
John Allen (until very recently) was a journalist for the heretical and schismatic (and banned) ‘National Catholic REPORTER’ since 1968 through the present day.
Further Catholics are not allowed to have differences of opinions on ‘Doctrine of the Faith’ (contained in the CCC) or they are heretics or schismatics.
De Solenni needs to read or reread the CCC and then do an examination of conscience. Her public encouragement to attend a conference that can confuse the less educated in the Faith can send Souls to Hell or cause more heresy and schism.
What is Ms. de Solenni saying? No true and valid Catholic should attend the REC. John Allen is an apologist for Liberalism as the lens by which to [wrongly] understand the Church, coming as he does from his many writings in the “Catholic fishwrap” (aka, National Catholic Reporter). Of course Ms. de Solenni is happy at the REC, she is among her kind. But didn’t Christ demand more, such as “love your neighbor,” something revolutionary like that? And, isn’t this love often the basis for saying the truth to your brothers, say, men engaged in homosexual sexual relationships, even if you are reviled? Jesus warned against doing what the Liberals do these days — particular in their miscontruction of Pope Francis — patting themselves on the back, while demanding that no one question their apostacy. What was it now . . ., “For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? (Matt. 5:46) (DRV) The media should ring out with a cacaphony of challenge, and of correction, from the top on down in the Church, and among the laity. Nope, the silence thing is demanded in totalitarian dictatorships, not the Church of God. Demands for “obedience” are heard too often these days, to justify so many awful things (e.g., no kneeling or genuflectingat communion, or taking communion on the tongue , no building altar rails in new churches, no Latin being taught in seminaries, no Mass in the Extraordinary Form being “permitted” here and there for this and that reasons — all of that).
Some things in the Catholic Church are never going to change. But, the leaders of this yearly congress still keeps on trying to destroy the faith. For over 40 years this annual meeting of dissidents has taken place, and what has been accomplished? Just an undermining of the faith. The youth are ignorant of God and the faith, and go on to other false religions in order to seek out the truth. The teachers are brainwashed, burned out hippies who still think in revolutionary ways. If it smells bad, looks bad, acts bad, and has bad results, it must be bad. If there were one ounce of good coming from the CCD congress, it still must be avoided, because it is not leading souls to Christ, but driving them away.
Father Karl,
Each of us has a responsibility to encourage all literate people to read a Catholic Bible, and the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” at home.
It is sad that more Diocese Bishops and Priests do not do so.
The CCC (including footnotes relating to Bible passages) is the only insurance we have against human error – whether those errors are accidental or purposeful.
“….. let us ask ourselves if we have actually taken a few steps to get to know Christ and the truths of faith more, by reading and meditating on the Scriptures, studying the Catechism, steadily approaching the Sacraments.” Pope Francis, May 15, 2013.