Posted on 10/13/2006 4:59:56 PM PDT by NYer
Dead wrong: he goes for '"a family", collectivism [thus Orthodoxy]. A "church of one" mentioned in your post is a place for extreme individualists only.
There's no excuse for leaving the Church but I believe every bishop will suffer for driving Catholics away from their home.
"There's no excuse for leaving the Church...."
He didn't leave "The Church", P, just the particular Latin Church. I had thought by now that +BXVI's definition of The Church, the particular churches within The Church and "eccelesial assemblies" would have made it down to the level of the laity.
This is yet another occasion where I disagree with the blogster. Augustinus is a convert and unfamiliar with Rod Dreher's catholic experience. Worse yet, are the comments to his blog by 49+ commentators who also have a poor understanding of where Rod Dreher is coming from.
At the time of 9/11, Rod Dreher was living in Brooklyn NY and attending Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral. Following the collapse of the Twin Towers, Dreher wrote an editorial for the National Review in which he reflected on the actions of his pastor, Monsignor Ignace Sadek.
Monsignor Ignace Sadek, the elderly pastor of the Maronite cathedral near the Brooklyn waterfront, went to the promenade park overlooking lower Manhattan and prayed for absolution for the dying as the towers burned. When the first building crumbled, and the terrible cloud of smoke, debris, and incinerated human remains began its grim march across the harbor, Monsignor Sadek remained at his post praying. The falling ash turned him into a ghost. Still, he stayed as long as he could. This is a man who came through the civil war in Lebanon, and he doesn’t run."People could see I was a priest," he told me later (he is my pastor). "They ran to me and knelt at my feet, and begged for absolution." Think of that: The people of this proud, defiantly secular city, driven to their knees in prayer, begging for mercy in a hot, gray fog. That is what purgatory must be like.
Shortly thereafter, Dreher was hired by The Dallas Morning News and relocated his family to Dallas, TX. The family settled in and found a most orthodox priest in a local RC parish. When a good friend approached Dreher seeking to convert to catholicism, she expressed skepticism, especially given the recent history of priestly sex abuse. Rod told her about this wonderful priest and arranged for her to meet with him. Several weeks into the program, she thanked Rod and complimented him on finding such an orthodox pastor. Almost as an aside, she mentioned having asked the priest where he was from. He told her had originally come from MA. Curious as to why he would relocate to TX, she inquired further. He simply explained that the previous parishioners were not attuned to his 'orthodox' homilies.
Because of his access to media records, Dreher, out of sheer curiousity, checked out the priest, only to discover that he had been banished from his former diocese, as a result of priestly sex abuse. Dreher suddenly found himself in a conundrum. On the one hand, he thought so highly of this priest's orthodoxy; on the other, he was totally scandalized by the priest's history. As a journalist, after much internal deliberation, he decided to 'out' the priest in an editorial. This was a very painful decision, given the trust he had not only placed in him but also in referring a convert to him, as well. He apologized to the woman who was most empathetic and pursued RCIA through another parish.
I emailed Dreher back then, suggesting he look into an Eastern Catholic Church. He then told me the story of OLOL in Brooklyn, his great admiration for Msg. Sadek and the fact that there were no Eastern Catholic Churches in the DFW area.
I believe all of this has led Dreher to make the decision to go East, but to the Orthodox Church. Personally, I pray that Rod Dreher and his family will finally find the reverence they so desperately sought and safe refuge in their new Church. It is not for us to judge; that belongs to God. May He richly bless this young family on their faith journey.
As a Catholic, I am ashamed at the response so many Neo-Con Catholic bloggers and box commenters have had to Rod Drehers convserion to Orthodoxy. While its a step I would not have certainly taken, so many Neo-Con Catholics like the owner of the Closed Cafateria blog simpily discount the damage done to not only the Drehers faith, but countless millions of Catholics by poorly formed Bishop afraid of the truth if not in outright hetrodoxy, at least two generations of poorly formed priests who preach hetrodoxy/heresy from the pulpits, the destruction of the liturgy and so on. All of these items have destroyed the faith of millions upon millions of Catholics.
PS - if anyone can find Dreher's editorial on the Dallas priest and post it to this thread, I would be most appreciative.
That's about as far as I was willing to read. It's liek an Orthodox saying "personal take: for me it'd be absurd to join, say, the Latin Church without being Latin." What a block head.
"Augustinus is a convert...."
THAT would explain a great deal! We've got them too; more Orthodox than the Patriarch of Moscow!
Bears repeating!
Augustinus is unnecessarily snarky, and I'm not sure he really understands what he's talking about. I do understand that he is doing direct harm to the delicate state of affairs between East and West, when he should be praying instead for understanding and unity. And that's a sin against charity.
Becoming Orthodox is not leaving the Church. Last time I checked, Rod Dreher's Church has (using Catholic terminology) Apostolic authority through Apostolic Succession, valid priesthood, valid sacraments, valid Eucharist, Holy Tradition, and everything The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church always had and believed. Sounds like a "valid" Church to me.
Should have at least tried the SSPX before going over to schism.
That's about as far as I was willing to read.
You should have read further to the point that Gerald Augustinus is a convert.
Rod Dreher has taken abuse from all directions. When his book, 'Crunchy Cons' was released, another conservative journalist, Maggie Gallagher, chided him for having previously attended an Eastern Catholic Church. She commented:
There is something movingly pathetic in watching the Drehers drive through different religious identities, for example, searching for one that "fits." Worshipping at a Lebanese Maronite (Catholic) Church, for example, because they like the taste of ancient tradition, even if they are neither Lebanese nor Maronite. Tradition itself becomes a kind of consumption item, to be produced and consumed by crunchy cons.
Ouch! That elicited an email to Maggie Gallagher, cc to Rod Dreher, in which I took her to task over her poor understanding of the Catholic Church, especially the 'other' (Eastern) lung. She never did reply but Rod Dreher was very appreciative.
There's a lot of ignorance out there, even (especially?) amongst our conservative allies.
Please take note: The Orthodox Church is not in schism.
Isn't that the truth!
"Becoming Orthodox is not leaving the Church. Last time I checked, Rod Dreher's Church has (using Catholic terminology) Apostolic authority through Apostolic Succession, valid priesthood, valid sacraments, valid Eucharist, Holy Tradition, and everything The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church always had and believed. Sounds like a "valid" Church to me."
I'm curious kosta: by this post do you mean to say that Catholics (in communion with Rome) should view with indifference the conversion of a Catholic to Orthodoxy? Or am I missing something here?
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