The poster you quoted was talking about all religious, as she said. There are different kinds of religious groups. Some are orders, some are congregations, some are other things. You implied that they are all congregations. That is not true.Which orders?
No. She said, and I quote, “Dozens of orders have abandoned those charisms, to the detriment of the entire Body of Christ.”The poster you quoted was talking about all religious, as she said. There are different kinds of religious groups. Some are orders, some are congregations, some are other things. You implied that they are all congregations. That is not true.
Our main concern is to pray for him, that no matter what his opinions he can have a happy and holy life from here on. Really? Then this is no big deal, according to you, right?One purpose of disciplining priests who dissent from Christian teaching is for their own spiritual benefit. It’s like a doctor who tells the patient his overweight problem has now passed over into morbid obesity. The doctor has a responsibility to communicate, for the benefit of the patient, who may still modify his behavior.
Fr. Roy constantly waved his Roman collar to give more weight to his political opinions. He bullied Catholic laity who happened to be politically conservative. He used - sometimes abused - clerical authority all the time. In effect, he implicitly excommunicated
Republicans from the Body of Christ, in his writings and speeches. It is ironic that someone who used religious authority so much, would now object to the Vatican using religious authority.
Our main concern is to pray for him, that no matter what his opinions he can have a happy and holy life from here on. He never passes beyond our love.
If you’re saying that we’re not totally writing this guy off, then I agree, but only because we never totally write anybody off. People can come to their senses before they die and occasionally they do.No, I think it is a “big deal”, first of all for him. My hope for him and for everyone on this forum is that he, and we, become saints. I hope this action helps toward that. But it also is a “big deal” in that the Church needs to affirm that there are absolutes of true and false, right and wrong, but always doing that in the spirit of charity. The ancient formula was “In the essentials, unity; in doubtful areas, liberty; in all things, charity”. In his early priesthood, Fr. Roy tended to support unpopular ideas against the establishment. In his later years, he tended to follow the teachings of the establishment, for instance the NY Times, so his ministry became much less effective. But none of this places him outside the bounds of my prayers and concern, even if I see the need for the Vatican to take this action at this time. It is a big deal.