Are you Rohr-man Catholic?

Questions about Fr. Richard Rohr... again.

I know some California mystics and contemplatives in the Southwest, and probably many others in the business of religious education, spiritual formation and the retreat industry, love, love, love Fr. Richard Rohr.  I know!  That's cool.  It's a free country.

I've written about Rohr before - but who am I?  Nobody.

Which is why I'm grateful for this post from Dan Burke of Spiritual Direction blog:

Can I trust Richard Rohr?

Fr. Rohr is deeply involved in the New Age. On the website for his Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC), a “training and formation center” based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that he founded in 1987, he says the purpose of his work is to provide “a faith alternative to the dominant consciousness” (whatever that means). 

The CAC was a well-known hub for the Church’s premier dissent group in the U.S., better known as Call to Action (endorses women’s ordination, homosexuality, goddess worship, etc.). 

Fr. Rohr has also been a long-time teacher of the Enneagram, an enormously popular New Age gimmick used for discerning one’s personality type. A specific warning against the use of the Enneagram for spiritual direction is included in the pontifical document, Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life. - Spiritual Direction - Originally published by Women of Grace

 

Agents for Change: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Religious Education Congress

"The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church."

Amazing.  The agenda and speakers at the the religious ed congress I mean.  So a new Archbishop of Los Angeles doesn't guarantee orthodoxy I guess.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, March 22, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Religious Education Congress bills itself as an “opportunity to hear God’s voice in their own lives.” However, some of the featured speakers at the March 22-25 event, said to be the largest of its kind in the world, have described Barack Obama as “pro-life,” longed for “public models of gay priests,” opposed marriage protection legislation, and encouraged children to engage in “genital self-touch.”

Fr. Bryan Massingale, a priest with the archdiocese of Milwaukee and an associate professor of moral theology at Marquette University, spoke last March before the group “Equally Blessed,” which describes itself as “a coalition of faithful Catholics who support full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people both in the church and in civil society.” The professor, who has said he wants the Church to be “more sensuous and feminine,” publicly opposed Wisconsin’s Marriage Protection Act last year. His recorded talk, “Whatever Happened to the Common Good,” laments “the challenges of living this conviction in a fragmented and divided society.”

Fr. James Martin of America magazine participated in a workshop at the 2005 Religious Education Congress, where he told the faithful: “[I]f only there were more public models of gay priests. In the absence of any healthy gay priests for Catholics to reflect on publicly, and with the only examples being notorious pedophiles, the stereotype of the gay priest as child abuser only deepens.”

Sister Fran Ferder, a Franciscan nun, has said the Church needs a “theology of body touch, body exploration,” especially for children. “Ordinary genital self-touch can be very important and can help children come to reverence their bodies, to know them,” she said.
Sr. Ferder has stated Catholic bishops shame sexual sins in order to control their flock. Such “negative messages” about “sexual mistakes,” she said,“have to do with control and maintaining power. The patriarchal dominance in the hierarchy is incredibly strong, and sexual mandates are a good way to scare and control people.”

She and Fr. John Heagle from the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, direct the Therapy and Renewal Associates, based in Seattle. Fr. Heagle has stated the Church needs to listen to the “love stories of the gay and lesbian community.” - Source

Yes, this is definitely a WTF? moment if there ever was one.

Image:  SB the logo for the Religious Ed Conference 

"Don’t change your life to fit the teaching; change the teaching to fit your life."

"Don't go changin' to try to please me..."

Remember that lyric from the Billy Joel song?  I was actually given that song to 'meditate' as my penance in confession once - many years ago now.  I'll bet penitents sometimes still get such penances from some priests who will also tell you: "Don't change your life to fit Church teaching; we've interpreted the teaching to fit your life."  Or something like that - you get what I'm saying.  If not, Larry pretty much nails it with his post: "Sex Sells, Even For a Bishop" (I might have said, "especially for a bishop").  Now I kinda sorta posted on this the other day - giving the "benefit of a doubt" to the retired Bishop, but Larry went ahead and exposed the man's work for what it is, Take a look:

... leave it to a retired bishop to champion the cause to completely turn upside down and inside out Church teaching regarding sexual acts, and in particular, homosexual acts. - Read more.

It is nice to have some one else point out the errors these churchmen foist upon others these days.  These priests are like shamans, preaching gnosticism and theosophical fantasies to people who want their sins affirmed and approved... I'm okay... you're okay.  Christ speaks about them in today's Gospel:

"How can you believe, when you accept praise (affirmation and approval) from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?" - John 5: 31-47

If they do not accept the teaching of Moses and the Scriptures, how can they accept the teaching of Christ and the Church?  Priest and prophet really do 'forage in a land they know not'.