EWTN: Fr. Larry Richards

[JRRTFAN]

I have formed opinions on Fr. Richards two ways, I have listened to his recorded conferences to youth and I have watched him on you tube give homilies.

After listening to him I decided to find out more about him so I went to youtube and saw him give homilies and messages in a Church, I noticed that the part of the Sanctuary had close to the tabernacle cut off colored hands that seem to make a trail all the way to the Tabernacle. Now I have seen him in two videos on different occasions.

I am still deciding weather or not he is worth listening to, I know he has a cd about the Mass in which he explains it, I would like to hear it and I think that would be deciding factor on weather or not he is heretical or not.

Fr.Larry Richards is straight down the lane and is absolutely worth listening to. He was on EWTN last week and has been on Catholic Answers Live many times. He is a paragon.

 

[Elzee]

I have mixed feelings about him. His CD on the Mass and Confession changed my life, but I’ve heard a few things that I think are wrong. He does a dramatic talk for Lent, I believe, where he talks about the last words of Jesus. And instead of holding to what I have been taught all my life that Jesus is quoting Psalm 22, Fr. Larry takes a very Protestant view that God had totally forsaken his Son on the cross, turned his back and poured his wrath and anger down on him, turned away from him because he became “sin”, and that is why Jesus cried out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Unless I"m wrong, the Church does not teach this interpretation. Am I wrong?
In one of his cd’s he also seems to, ever so subtly, make fun of the “old way” of receiving communion (on the tongue). Again, I wish I could remember it exactly, but I remember that was the start of my dis-enchantment with him. I also attended one of his Masses where he took liberty with quite a few of the words, which surprised me. I still like him, love his 45 minute homilies and most his cd’s, and think he is very orthodox, but he’s no replacement for Fr. Corapi when it comes to substance and trust, for me, at least. I think he’s a mixed bag, especially when it comes to the Liturgy.

 

[PatrickSebast]

Father Larry is my Priest, I have even attended and worked on retreats with him, and it is true that at times he makes mistakes in his talks. Thing is he has never really claimed to be a scholar on the Church’s teachings, in fact he was kicked out of seminary 3 times before finally being ordained, and admittedly will sometime make statements that come from a heart-felt response rather than a doctrinal one (ask him if his dog Rudy is in heaven). He does love the Church though and is very open to correcting himself if presented with a Church teaching that was contrary to what he said. He has actually made the comment many times in our parish that if we expect a perfect pastor then we had better go someplace else because he has a LONG way to go.

I think it is a little much to expect any of our priests to always speak perfectly in line with Church teachings, especially considering that there are 2000 year worth of them and at times those teachings can be very vaguely worded. If a man can go through a whole 45 minute lecture and you only catch one questionable thing during the whole talk why focus so much on that one thing?

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

I saw him in the program on EWTN and I agree he ROCKS.

He is of the Fr. Corapi “Tell it like it is” school which I’m in line with.

We need more like him speaking out.