Live from Los Angeles Religious Congress!

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scylla

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Hello, I am here in my hotel room after a day at the famous Los Angeles Religious Congress and I felt for those who have never attended that I should give a report.

This is held at the convention center in Anaheim across from Disneyland, where there are plenty of hotels, the perfect place for throngs of people to gather. So picture throngs of Catholics, lay and religious all crowded together, going to workshops, checking out the religious booths and spending time together. I see many Priests and others spending time together, it is a very social atmosphere. I enjoy spending time around other Catholics it is very nice and we can talk\hang out.

There were the usual protestors outside, two fundamentalist Christians telling us how wrong the Catholic Church was. (it was fun to talk to them, until my wife made me leave, we had to get to a workshop) there was several people from CRCOA handing out fliers about the dissenters and problematic liturgies. They gave me a free rosary, (very nice people), there was 2 protestors supporting divorced fathers rights and that is about all I saw today. I might check out if there are others later.

I went to three workshops today and heard some good things, some denial of the sacraments, some denial of God and then a decent talk to round it all out. I left the liturgy as it started as I can’t handle that anymore. I will go to a local parish tomorrow, but I do plan on going back and spending a bit more time to see a bit more.

Any questions or anyone else around at LA Congress?

God Bless
Scylla
 
I would second James’ question. Of course, my pastor is over there as well. It’s rather scary because, although I really like my pastor, I’m leery as to what “itis” he might pick up during the congress.

Scylla, is this conference your Lenten penance?
 
I am required to go here, as I teach in my parish.

It is quite a penance and it does inspire me to pray, as it is very hard to stomach at points.

I deliberately picked a controversial talk to go to at mid-day. It was quite insulting to the faith, but I was able to suffer through it so I could record it. This way I can critique it and use it to help people in my parish spot the errors of dissent.

I can also denounce it and have more credibility by having been here. Thank you for your concern, there is a good basis for it as faith and fidelity is very much under attack here.

God Bless
Scylla
 
Here is a quick synopsis of three talks I went to.

The first was about prayer and methods to help foster your prayer life. It was given by a Priest and overall was pretty good, except for one part where he suggested that we confess to each other our sins, if we are uncomfortable with confession. He did say later we should go to confession, but if someone was avoiding confession it could be very misleading. Other than that it was pretty good, it surprised me and I looked forward to the rest of the day.

The next talk I decided to give the congress a chance and chose a more contraversial speaker. Maybe the people protesting outside were not really 100% spot on… The speaker was Edwina Gately, and she does speak well. Very entertaining, a good speaker. She can tell a story and engage the audience. Other than insulting my faith\God and seeming to reject the divinity of Jesus, the sinlessness of Mary and then supporting feminist theology, she did speak well. I recorded her on my mp3 player to study better.

The last talk I heard was one on Hispanic Catholics in the Church today. This was faithful to the Church and was informative. It was kinda long and wasn’t as dynamic as the other speakers so it probably wont engage the audience like the others.

So being a mixed bag, I can say there are some faithful speakers and some pretty unfaithful ones. As most people can agree truth mixed with lies is a not good, as it misleads people and misrepresents out faith. I hope to get a bit more info today, then go to Mass, where it is offered faithfully, far away from here.

God Bless
Scylla
 
scylla said:
I deliberately picked a controversial talk to go to at mid-day. It was quite insulting to the faith, but I was able to suffer through it so I could record it. This way I can critique it and use it to help people in my parish spot the errors of dissent.
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God bless your efforts. You deserve a day at Disney to unwind after the event.
 
I had a pastor at a parish I worked at once who was also a very good friend. We always maintained proper titles and formalities in the office, but were really informal outside of the office. So, when I called him by his first name, it was either serious or informal.

One day, as I walked out of his office he said “Hey, one of these years you should come to the LA religious education conference with me.”

I turned around and said “John, you don’t want me there…I’d just make a scene…”

And he laughed…but never spoke of it again…because he knew I was right.
 
Much like college, ANY conference like this will be a “market place of ideas”.

No need for making scenes or feeling insulted. Just test every idea in light of your own faith and beliefs, and in light of Church teaching and you will be fine.

These conferences are usually great - agree with all or disagree, they inspire conversation and thought, which are always good things.
 
I’m confused… Is this a conference just for Catholics, lay & religious, or is it something for people of all religious faiths? If it is just for Catholics, I would think it’s justified to speak out against things that went against Church teachings.
 
PaixGioiaAmor said:
Much like college, ANY conference like this will be a “market place of ideas”.

No need for making scenes or feeling insulted. Just test every idea in light of your own faith and beliefs, and in light of Church teaching and you will be fine.

These conferences are usually great - agree with all or disagree, they inspire conversation and thought, which are always good things.
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I’d have to dispute you on the “market place of ideas” theory. First of all, this isn’t a cafeteria we’re talking about where you can pick and choose. This is the Catholic Church. If something is billed as a Catholic event, it must support everything that the Church teaches.

Unfortunately, what scylla has been describing falls in line with Pope Benedict’s concept of a dictatorship of relativism.
We should not remain infants in faith, in a state of minority. And what does it mean to be an infant in faith? Saint Paul answers: it means “tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery” (Eph 4, 14). This description is very relevant today!
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How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves * thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Eph 4, 14). ***Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and “swept along by every wind of teaching”, looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today’s standards. ***We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.
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However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an “Adult” means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth. We must become mature in this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith * only faith * which creates unity and takes form in love.
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The ideas that scylla listed certainly don’t fall in line with what the Church teaches and preaches. They are following the ones following “the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties.” Such speakers shouldn’t even be allowed to participate. It is certainly most troubling that parishes are requiring their Religious Ed staff to attend these things, given what is being promoted at this particular Congress.
 
benedictgal said:
I’d have to dispute you on the “market place of ideas” theory. First of all, this isn’t a cafeteria we’re talking about where you can pick and choose. This is the Catholic Church. If something is billed as a Catholic event, it must support everything that the Church teaches.

Unfortunately, what scylla has been describing falls in line with Pope Benedict’s concept of a dictatorship of relativism.

The ideas that scylla listed certainly don’t fall in line with what the Church teaches and preaches. They are following the ones following “the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties.” Such speakers shouldn’t even be allowed to participate. It is certainly most troubling that parishes are requiring their Religious Ed staff to attend these things, given what is being promoted at this particular Congress.
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So it is a purely Catholic thing, not an inter-faith gathering?! Yikes!
 
Yes, this is sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, it is specifically designed to teach those who educate others in the Catholic faith. It is quite shameful and an insult to the Catholic faith.

Right now I am editing the audio from my recordings, I am making it louder to make it easer to understand and getting rid of the extra noises.

I did make it to Mass at my parish, it was nice to be far away from the LA Congress, like Lot and his family I went in haste and didn’t turn back.

God Bless
Scylla
 
scylla said:
Yes, this is sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, it is specifically designed to teach those who educate others in the Catholic faith. It is quite shameful and an insult to the Catholic faith.

Right now I am editing the audio from my recordings, I am making it louder to make it easer to understand and getting rid of the extra noises.

I did make it to Mass at my parish, it was nice to be far away from the LA Congress, like Lot and his family I went in haste and didn’t turn back.

God Bless
Scylla
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That’s very scary. It’s almost like the Old Testament Hebrews going to Babylon to learn about the Torah.

Why don’t participants raise concerns about the Congress? Surely if enough people legitimately complain, maybe something can be done about the lack of sound doctrinal instruction y’all are supposed to be getting.
 
There are several protesters who stand outside giving out fliers, they are associated with CRCOA. The problems with the conference is well documented and I hope to do my part and raise awareness.
This has been going on for many years and people have been educated to not notice. Many parishes take learn from this type thing and dissent is widespread throughout the dioceses here in Southern California. This stuff is thought of as normal, and those who complain are thought of as troublemakers.
Just posting on Catholic Answers would make you seem to strict, “not mainstream”.

This is why I posted this thread and I started a similar one last year, people do need to know about these problems and the best way to fix them is exposure. Most dissent likes to hide just underneath, so that it can spread.

God Bless
Scylla
 
Lepanto said:
:confused:
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Having good speaking skills is great for getting others to follow you, I can compliment her speaking skills, even though she was espousing evil. A pornographer could have good computer skills(this is useful for his habits), a murderer could have great punctuality, (it is useful to be on time to kill someone)

Many dissenters have great speaking skills, they use it to mislead people and to get them to follow their views.

The one talk that was faithful, the presenter had the worst speaking skills of the day. He was the most faithful, but did not really engage the audience at all.

Unfortunately the Congress is a lot of flash, not much faithfulness or substance.

God Bless
Scylla
 
scylla said:
Many dissenters have great speaking skills, they use it to mislead people and to get them to follow their views.

God Bless
Scylla
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Thomas Groome (sp?) I heard a talk given by him and I must admit…he is a superb speaker. One thing though…it is hard not to catch his false pride though…he seems to relish people attending to his talk…he sprinkles quite a bit of humor into his presentations…However his material comes from the dark side.
 
Is this the venue from whence comes the YouTube video of Mass presided by Cardinal Mahoney, featuring liturgical dancers and other “oddities?”
 
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