Posted on 06/22/2009 7:28:34 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
....From 999 to 1003 the first French pope, Sylvester II, was seated on the Chair of Peter. A dedicated reformer, he denounced simony (the buying and selling of spiritual goods and church offices), nepotism (favoring members of one's own family for appointment to church offices), and violations of clerical celibacy. He also insisted on the free election of abbots by monks. But in February of 1001 the Roman citizenry revolted against foreign domination. The French pope and his German friend and ally, Emperor Otto III, were forced to leave the city....
....A relative of the dominant Crescentii family succeeded Sylvester II in an election that was undoubtedly engineered by the family's leader. What was also remarkable, besides the decisive influence of a layman on a papal election, is the fact that the new pope, John XVII, had been married before ordination to the priesthood and was the father of three sons....John XVIII was cardinal-priest of St. Peter's Basilica when elected to the papacy on Christmas Day 1003 (the Vatican's official list begins his pontificate in January 1004). None of his accomplishments as pope have had any lasting historical significance beyond certain locales....John XVIII was probably forced to resign in late June or early July, 1009 -- almost exactly one thousand years ago.
Fr. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.
THANKS.
FASCINATING.
Shall we count the minutes until this thread is declared off limits to Roman Catholics?
I wouldn't believe a word this man says. He may still sport "father" before his name, but he's a heretic who is not worthy of the collar. No Catholic in their right mind has any use for him.
Fr. McBrien lives openly with a concubine just off campus at Notre Dame. It is a fact that cannot possibly be unknown to the local bishop.
MARKETING FAIL! Unless conversion to the Faith isn't what he's marketing.
/johnny
Posting ANYTHING from the National Catholic Reporter (notoriously liberal rag hell-bent on destroying Tradition), let alone by Richard McBrien of all people is like waving a red cape in front of a pasture full of bulls without Picadoros wearing them out first.
Since well-informed Catholics DON’T think of the Pope as a “quasi-divine” figure, the purpose of Fr. McBrien’s column is clear: Not to inform and enlighten, but only to vent his poisonous hatred of the Catholic Church, by dredging up some of the worse Popes in history, and perhaps upset some pious people.
Follow the money.
/johnny
He may well be a scoundral, alright.
However, Christ Himself was quite hostile to . . .
bureaucratic, political, pontifical religionists 2,000 years ago.
Fr. Richard McBrien
Claims that a future Pope must overturn the infallible document disallowing women "priests" (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).
Fr. Richard McBrien
Says, among other things, that Jesus did not establish the Catholic Church, and calls into question the virginal conception of Jesus and the perpetual virginity of Our Lady, and promotes dissent.
Maybe he has some other references for me to look at.
Ahhhhh . . .
However, hereon . . .
so is anything which challenges to the least degree any hint of idolatrous sensibilities toward persons, images, traditions, offices, customs, RELIGIOUS ASSUMPTIONS, structures etc. etc. etc.
Though, interestingly, The Bible doesn’t seem to ‘earn’ such fierce protective rants from the ‘faithful.’
Welllll . . . at least he got one right . . . that Mary was not a perpetual virgin.
Luther, Calvin, and Other Early Protestants on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary
Luther, Calvin, and Other Early Protestants on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary
I don’t care if Billy Graham testifies to the perpetual virginity of Mary. She was married to Joseph and she bore other children. This does not reflect badly on her or the Lord. She was a normal person but was given an extraordinary role.
Murph,
McBrien would not approve of being on FreeRepublic. Let’s allow the LIBS to monopolize his writings.
McBrien is a “modernist.” If you call yourself a “Christian.” know that he is not on your side.
You wrote:
“It is a fact that cannot possibly be unknown to the local bishop.”
The local bishop has no say over anything McBrien does really. McBrien is an order priest, if I recall correctly.
A lot of the comments in this article are to the effect that we don’t have a lot of details about history which occurred over 1000 years ago! What a shock!
he is paid by Notre Dame, n’est pas?
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