A Clerical Abuse Victim's Father is Excommunicated; Rumors of the Vatican Cooking Up a "New Theology" to Address the fact "that we are not alone in the Universe"
The story on the excommunication of the deacon in the Diocese of Lafayette really hurts. The bishop was my parish priest years ago. Maybe we don't know all the details, but this seems very unjust. Could the Bishop's response have been different? Something along the lines of "I am praying for you in this difficult time you are experiencing. I respect you decision to step away from the ministry of the deaconate, and will consider your ministry suspended for now. However, you are a child of God and a disciple of Christ. You are a member of the Body of Christ. I cannot give you any answers at this time to heal your wounds, but I will continue to pray for you. Your wounds are very real. I desire to help you find healing. My door is always open. Please feel free to visit with me at any time. Your brother in Christ."
Correct me if I'm wrong (please!), but my understanding is no members of the Nazi regime in Germany were excommunicated. For better or worse, you don't get excommunicated for sin, no matter how awful, but read the wrong books and you're in trouble.
>> So, if we at least grant the possibility that this story is true — and Grusch has proven himself by every measure to be a credible guy with standup bona fides
Every measure? I think you're being more than a little kind to the man. At the least you're ignoring the mental illness (he's been committed twice, according to Wikipedia).
Grusch has, as far as I know, produced not a single piece of actual evidence to support his story. And let's remember this guy claimed alien spaceships might come from "other dimensions", which definitely moves him out of the "credible" category for me. I mean, what the hell does that even mean?
9 months ago, in a previous article on Grusch, I said "By next year, there will be no results whatsoever from this kerfuffle, except for the usual grifters looking for a few dollars, or maybe a book and/or a movie deal, based on their claims that the nefarious "they" are concealing the overwhelming evidence of space aliens."
It's tempting to congratulate myself pretty hard, except, well, it's like predicting that water will wet.
Steve,
The story on the excommunication of the deacon in the Diocese of Lafayette really hurts. The bishop was my parish priest years ago. Maybe we don't know all the details, but this seems very unjust. Could the Bishop's response have been different? Something along the lines of "I am praying for you in this difficult time you are experiencing. I respect you decision to step away from the ministry of the deaconate, and will consider your ministry suspended for now. However, you are a child of God and a disciple of Christ. You are a member of the Body of Christ. I cannot give you any answers at this time to heal your wounds, but I will continue to pray for you. Your wounds are very real. I desire to help you find healing. My door is always open. Please feel free to visit with me at any time. Your brother in Christ."
Correct me if I'm wrong (please!), but my understanding is no members of the Nazi regime in Germany were excommunicated. For better or worse, you don't get excommunicated for sin, no matter how awful, but read the wrong books and you're in trouble.
>> So, if we at least grant the possibility that this story is true — and Grusch has proven himself by every measure to be a credible guy with standup bona fides
Every measure? I think you're being more than a little kind to the man. At the least you're ignoring the mental illness (he's been committed twice, according to Wikipedia).
Grusch has, as far as I know, produced not a single piece of actual evidence to support his story. And let's remember this guy claimed alien spaceships might come from "other dimensions", which definitely moves him out of the "credible" category for me. I mean, what the hell does that even mean?
9 months ago, in a previous article on Grusch, I said "By next year, there will be no results whatsoever from this kerfuffle, except for the usual grifters looking for a few dollars, or maybe a book and/or a movie deal, based on their claims that the nefarious "they" are concealing the overwhelming evidence of space aliens."
It's tempting to congratulate myself pretty hard, except, well, it's like predicting that water will wet.