Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Gaillardetz to address Canadian bishops

From LifeSiteNews.com ...

Dr. Richard Gaillardetz, professor of Catholic studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio, is scheduled to present a set of talks at the annual plenary assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in Cornwall from October 19-23.

Marking the Year for Priests, Dr. Gaillardetz will speak to the bishops about the priesthood and the relationship of bishops to priests.

The article goes on to say that "Gaillardetz may strike some as a surprising choice for the job, however, since he is an open dissenter from Church teaching," including her teaching on women's ordination.  As a reference the article cites SoCon or Bust blogger John Pacheco's thorough post on the subject.

Pacheco cites so many of of Gaillardetz' "nuances" of  - or outright departures from - authentic Catholic teaching that it is amazing that the man considers himself a Catholic, considering his myriad problems with Church teaching.

Darling of the DOR ministerium

Professor Gaillardetz is no stranger to DOR, having given talks here at least 3 times within the last 5 years, including presentations to the DOR ministerium (i.e., priests, deacons and lay people involved in ministry in some way).

This isn't very surprising, given John Allen's comments in a 2007 NCR piece.

Gaillardetz argued that in the United States, liberal Catholicism is less an ideology than a “pastoral phenomenon … alive in parishes that have a flourishing catechumenate, vibrant liturgies, thoughtful and relevant preaching, and multiple lay ministerial opportunities,” as well as “in a growing number of intentional Christian communities that are determined to keep alive a vision of the church that they associate with Vatican II.”

Looking around, observers such as Gaillardetz say that the moderate-to-liberal camp probably represents a disproportionate share of the church’s ministerial workforce, meaning priests, deacons, religious, and laity, as well as the theological guild.

What Gaillardetz (and Allen) fail to note is that, at least in DOR, liberal Catholicism is driving the faithful right out of the pews:  Fully 25% of DOR's Mass-attending Catholics have called it quits in just the last 8 years, "vibrant liturgies" and "thoughtful and relevant preaching" notwithstanding.

11 comments:

Wither Goest Thou Right said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Wither is Irondequoit Catholic, the loser posting at the various orthodox blogs his negativity and attacks against whom he disagrees.

Davide said...

One will note that we don't spam progressive blogs. Nor will we ever.

This cretin was banned from Cleansing Fire on his home (?) computer, so now he's using the library computers.

Now isn't that just pathetic?

Cretin said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

"Also, can you tell me what "progressive" Catholic blogs there are in Rochester? I'm not aware of any."

Grosswirth's site and Maccarone's site come to mind. Maybe if you weren't wasting all your time stalking and harassing orthodox Catholics you'd know this.

Matt said...

there's also laydorcatholic, which is at times absolutely brutal

Anonymous said...

I was considering going to the Ministerium meeting until I saw that he was giving a talk locally about the Trinity called, "Getting Beyond Three Men and a Bird." Nothing like a little blasphemy to discourage attendance.

Mike Shea said...

Anon. 9:42,

Yeah, I noticed that one.

I was toying with the idea of attending "Getting Beyond Dominating Hierarchy: Recovering an Authentic Vision of Teaching Authority in the Church." I wanted to see if he would set theologians on a par with the Magisterium or above it.

I was also curious about "Getting Beyond ‘Pay, Pray and Obey’: Reflections on the Vocation of the Laity." Here I was curious about what he might say about orthodox lay bloggers.

Anonymous said...

Of course, we were all taught that the Trinity was three men and a bird. Amazing

Mike Shea said...

Anon. 11:12,

To be fair to the good doctor, his talk was entitled "Getting Beyond 'Two Men and a Bird'." (See here.)

And Gaillardetz didn't coin the "two men and a bird" phrase. It dates back at least to a 1990 US Catholic article by feminist theologian/scripture scholar Sister Sandra Schneiders.

Schneiders is, herself, an interesting character, as attested to in an article by Mary Jo Anderson reporting on the 1995 Call To Action Conference in Chicago:

The final plenary session speaker was Sister Sandra Schneiders. Best described as a post-Christian with a Catholic veneer, Sister Sandra espouses a "pluriform" Christianity. Schneiders, a professor of New Testament Studies at Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, authored New Wineskins: Re-Imagining Religious Life Today.Her address, entitled "How Feminist Interpretation of Scripture Is Helping to Renew the Church" is an alarming display of intelligence gone awry.

If she, or her confederates, were made a popess of The American Catholic Church, whole chapters of "problematical texts" would be jettisoned. If what you feel conflicts with what you know, your thinking is adjusted to fit your feelings - just invent a new body of "knowledge."

All of Scripture is recast to fit feminist theology, complete with sacred sodomy, in a bare hour's time. Some samples: "God is more than two men and a bird"; "Not only Christ the King, but Jesus the Mother hen"; "Scripture is violently sexist - the problem is in the texts"; "we reject a woman made from man, subject to man, responsible for his sin"; "terror texts (Judges 19) paralyze women"; "the Bible becomes its own critic disallowing all texts that contradict the message of liberation"; "Jesus is a Sophia Incarnation." The concluding "mass" is too painful for these pages. It is enough to report that only at the words of consecration did a man appear on the "altar." Bishop Gumbleton strode to the table in his street clothes and spoke the words to The Ultimate One. Only women were vested. Peasant bread was blessed and made available at the isle terminus for communicants to break off and pass back to the next in line.

Anonymous said...

Just imagine an organization like General Motors keeping employees on the payroll who were openly trying to sell Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota products while slamming GM products. But, on the other hand, the Church is a loving mother. But, a loving other corrects her children.

Mea culpa on the "three" men error. Even I'm mixed up now.