Rev. Kathleen Jess of Bermuda Dunes dances with Father Ned Reidy
Member of Ecumenical Catholic Communion
Posted on 12/14/2005 5:58:02 AM PST by NYer
In a rare move reminiscent of medieval times, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino convened a secret tribunal against a Riverside priest Tuesday after charging him with heresy and schism.
Meeting at diocesan headquarters in San Bernardino, the tribunal took up the case against the Rev. Ned Reidy, 69, who said he left the Roman Catholic Church five years ago and formed his own parish near Palm Desert. The parish later affiliated with a new denomination that holds services resembling those of the Roman Catholic Church but rejects the authority of the pope, mandatory priestly celibacy, and prohibitions against blessing same-sex unions and ordaining women.
The San Bernardino Diocese confirmed the heresy and schism charges against Reidy and said a decision was expected within two weeks. But the diocese said the tribunal was not an artifact of ancient times.
"What this is not is a Galileo trial of 1633. This is based on revised canon law of 1983," said Father Howard Lincoln, diocesan spokesman. "No one's going to be burned at the stake."
Lincoln said the intent was to defrock Reidy, removing him officially from the clerical state if found guilty, so that ordinary Roman Catholics would not be led astray by the priest's assertion that he remained a "Catholic."
A guilty finding also could serve to formally acknowledge Reidy's automatic excommunication, which the church said took place when Reidy renounced his ordination vows.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ahhh..what a glorious, wonderful, opening sentence. I think I'm going to bask in it a bit. :)
Member of Ecumenical Catholic Communion
More use of this procedure could cleanse the Catholic Church of its "abomination".
Lol ... bask away.
It's real simple for Father Ned and his followere: you ARE NOT Catholics anymore, go elsewhere and pick a name for your heresy: you are breaking Canon Law.
They'd be welcomed with open arms. After all, Bishop Vicki said so . . . < shudder >
GMTA
Ah, yes...the wind has indeed turned! May God grace us with hundreds, if not thousands, of similar ecclesiastical trials like this one across our benighted land. Maybe we WILL have the oft-promised Restoration afterall...
As the bumper stickers used to say a few years back: "Let the Schism Begin!"
Wow! The faster we cut the moorings on this ship of fools and cast it adrift, the better! The website says it all.
We both thought "episcopalian". I think it's the right destination for these loonies.
We're now happy Catholics (we were so High Church our noses bled anyhow.)
Hey, Bishop Vikki Gene was the last straw for us too. Safe across the Tiber at last.
I probably have been a crypto-Catholic for a dozen years or more, but my husband was raised Methodist and it took awhile to get him even into the Episcopal church (his grandfather was a Methodist preacher). Much to my surprise he announced right before that fateful General Convention that if the GC authorized same-sex marriage, he was becoming Catholic.
. . . his mom was raised Catholic but married the preacher's son, so I guess it's not too surprising. But I was surprised.
Damn! And here I had my blessed matches all ready to go. "Ab illo benedicaris, in cujus honore cremaberis."
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