Priest warns:
What do we find on the Archdiocesan website?
A recommendation for Father Diarmuid Ó
Murchú’s 2005 book, The Consecrated Life: The Changing
Paradigms.
This seems to rehash the same ideas he presented in his 1995 book, Reframing Religious Life - itself seemingly an updating of his 1980 book, The Seed Must Die - Survival or Extinction.
The 1995 book merited a Doctrinal Statement by the Spanish Bishops' Conference, which was subsequently published in L'Osservatore Romano in March 2006.
Summary: The Doctrinal Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Spain presents this Doctrinal Note in order to bring to public attention the seriously erroneous affirmations found in the book "Reframing Religious Life. An Expanded Vision for the Future," by Father Diarmuid O'Murchu, M.S.C. According to Father O'Murchu, religious men and women "should leave the Church and take on a non-canonical status" since "the values of the Religious life belong to a more ancient pre-religious tradition."
He therefore marginalizes Christian revelation and its ecclesial transmission, abolishes the need for redemption and proposes a non-Christian vision where the "Kingdom" or the "Reign" is a substitute for Jesus Christ and his Church.
And we wonder why "lay ministers" in the Catholic Church seem not to understand - let alone affirm - the Catholic faith?Father O'Murchu also disfigures the sense and significance of the religious vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. In the final analysis, the proposals made in his book, far from promoting a renewal of religious life, will rather bring about its destruction.
7 comments:
Thanks for the warning regarding this evil book apparently recommended by the Archdiocese. I won't be buying the book and I am now sceptical about the Archdiocese's "What's New on the Bookshelf ?" column recommendations. I thank the priest for his holy boldness in bringing it to your attention.
This is the warning? This is a surprise? This is the big shocker? Because it's easy to point to a book already condemned, especially point anonymously.
If you want a shock, open your eyes (and ears, sadly) at almost any typical Sunday Mass in this archdiocese. You really wonder if you have mistakenly wandered into a protestant church. I cannot find a solid Catholic Mass absent of heresy, banal music, insults to the liturgy, politicizing, and misbehaving lay and clerical people. Why go, is what I'm beginning to ask myself?
The downfall of religious orders is coming from WITHIN, not from obscure books almost no one cares about (hence publishing 3 times in 3 decades). Wake up, the problem is lying at your own feet, Christian brothers and sisters.
You think that's bad you ought to visit the Trappist's Abbey bookstore: shelves of Richard Rohr books.
Love ya.
Catherine.
I think of life as a "ladder". Some people are on the bottom rung and look at the Heaven's from that vantage point. Others are up higher and "see" more and can be more offended by what's going on.
It seems many haven't found the ladder or have fallen off.
There is no reason to ignore that Holy Ladder..He has given us many avenues to give us a break from the egos of song and liturgy. Look up this in the archives...just google it on the website.
God Bless.
OMG I had heard nothing of this man or his writings.
Thank you, Carolyn for keeping us informed.
What a war we are in, eh?
We certainly are in a war...one for eternal souls: bottom line.
That's why we're the Church Militant on earth. "Onward Christian Soldiers Marching on to war, with the Cross of Jesus going on before...." My protestant slip is showing.
From the review on the Archdiocese's website, that book looks like the usual drivel about "expanding beyond tradition" that one would expect. What I find even more distressing though is that the Archdiocese apparently has a "Ministry Formation Program" for "Lay ecclesial Ministers" who want to get "degrees" and become professional "Parish Liturgists" or "Pastoral Associates." The woman who runs this program is pictured wearing psuedo-clerical garb. It looks like they are trying to replace priests with a new army of lay leaders, all trained "in the spirit of Vatican II" to have no clue about the real sacraments, of course.
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