Heresy In The Hearing of The Faithful

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This seems like a good spot to ask a question that has been eating at me for a few weeks now, and possibly ask for some guidance on what to do. A priest in my parish gave a homily about angels. He called all the young children up and recited the Guardian Angel prayer with them (Feast of the Angels). Father told the kids that it is very important to always pray to their guardian angel out loud because angels cannot hear their thoughts, only spoken words. He added that the same goes for Saints, only God the Father can hear mental prayers because only He can read our hearts. He went on to say that the children must be sure to prayer every day for their angel to stay good, because Guardian Angel can become fallen angels since they have free will. Father also remarked that despite parents telling their children that their angel prays with them and will finish their rosary if they fall asleep that the parents are very wrong about that. Angels can not pray the Hail Mary because they don’t have a body and can never die. This was the oddest experience I have ever had at Mass.

I teach Sunday school and several of the teachers went on to repeat these same things to the students in their classes (class is right after Mass). Was I taught incorrectly or is this all confusing to other cradle Catholics as well? I am asking partly because I had a few moms bring this up in the weeks since it occurred. One is considering going to the Archbishop about this. She has several children, including two that are deaf. They cannot speak out loud and now the kids are unsure their prayers are being heard.
 
13pollitos said:
Angels can not pray the Hail Mary because they don’t have a body and can never die.
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Good point. I guess they also don’t need to ask prayer for ‘us sinners’ because they are not in that group.
 
Heresy? Probably, but nothing specific comes to mind.

A few years ago we had a very elderly priest living out his retirement attached to our parish. He certainly preached some questionable things and I would not be surprised if some were heretical. For example he would preach bits of what I am pretty sure was Poem of the Man God as if church doctrine.

(I know the good sisters stopped attending the early morning Mass which he inevitably celebrated – As one put it to me “My conscience would not permit me to remain”)
 
Also, I have been told that many priests dread Trinity Sunday because 90% of them will wind up accidentally preaching heresy 😮 😜
 
I’ve heard a priest preach that hell is symbolic and that God will ultimately save everyone, even those “in hell”.

I’ve also heard priests express heretical views in private that they don’t preach publicly. Instead they insinuate into their homilies without actually preaching heresy. This was while living in a religious house.
 
I went to a parish from middle school through college who would say the following.
  1. You did not have to go to confession. You’re forgiven by the confiteor. Also by the Eucharist.
  2. no one should abstain from the Eucharist ever because of the above, even if you missed mass or never went to confession.
I didn’t go to confession from my first confession until 25 because of that. Even then until this year I didn’t go on a regular and would never abstain from communion, even if I skipped mass for months.

My parents still regard him very highly for this teaching and use it as a bragging right. I did too.
 
So are you saying that the priest is correct? What about the other parts of what he was saying?
 
Thrstypirate said:
I went to a parish from middle school through college who would say the following.
  1. You did not have to go to confession. You’re forgiven by the confiteor. Also by the Eucharist.
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But that is true, as long as the sins involved are not mortal sins.
 
For God there is no option to sin. Jesus has two natures united in One Divine Person. His human will was united to His divine will in One Divine Person. Because of this Union the is no option to sin. He is Himself the Supreme Good. This is true Freedom. Sin is slavery. God can not be not-God. Freedom can not be conflated with the option to sin. God is absolutely free and can not sin.
 
The priest is in error. That he transmitted these falsehoods to children should be confronted followed by Church texts like Aquinas’s teaching on Angels. If he won’t listen, he should be reported to the bishop.Angels are spirits and they exercise their will once. The exercise of there will is forever fixed for or against God. This happens at their creation. Angels and saints are privy to silent appeals for their assistance.
 
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That priest is in error. Similarly , I heard Cardinal Cupich in an interview with the secular media say that The Eucharist takes away sin. Very bad teaching. The Eucharist as any other act of charity or piety remits venial sin, but not mortal. The Cardinal was seriously misleading. One might approach the Eucharist if having been in mortal sin and unable to confess to a priest, makes a PERFECT act of contrition which remits all sin prior to receiving the Eucharist. There must be a promise to confess any mortal as soon as possible even though the perfect act of contrition remitted all sin.Such a scenario can only be contemplated in extremis, eg battlefield conditions, danger of eminent death.
 
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I wouldn’t say I’ve heard priests preach heresy, no, not if I take “preaching” to mean the intentional promotion of a certain point of view. However, I have heard plenty of interpretations of scripture, dogma, etc., given during homilies that would easily qualify as heretical when judged theologically. The priests in question did not understand and did not intend to be heretical, of course, but they were anyway.

How did I handle it? Well in those specific moments I did nothing of course. On a few occassions I approached the priest after Mass to discuss his homily with him, gently pointing out what I though was wrong with it. Whether this had any effect I do not know, but I doubt it.
 
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edward_george1 said:
But that doesn’t answer my question. I know why he didn’t sin. I’m asking why saying he could have but chose not to is heretical.
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It is one of those “constant teachings of the Church” that doesn’t get taught in theology school. One needs to google it to learn it. :roll_eyes:

There was a thread on this (temptation in the desert event) a few weeks back.
 
You are in error, at least in regard to 1, 3 and 4.
 
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Fr. David. Google can send you to the appropriate Church texts. Easy reference tool. You can find the Fathers, Council decrees, Papal documents, etc. deprecating Google as you did was not helpful.
 
Yeah I remember that thread. I’ve read up since then. It is a bit of a lacuna in how Christology is taught. But I was mainly asking to see why the OP was asking the question.
 
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