Still Running Off at the Keyboard

FR. ROHR AND FR. ROLHEISER

Fr. Rohr and Fr. Ron Rolheiser were both on the program at a conference for rectors and key seminary personnel on "Affective Conversion" last July according to "Tower Topics":

Father Benedict Neenan, president-rector, Father Peter Ullrich, chaplain, and
Father Duane Reinert, director of counseling services, participated in a special
conference for rectors and key seminary personnel on “Affective Conversion” July
11-16 at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, Ill. The event, sponsored by the
Cardinal Suenens Center at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, included
among its presenters, Father Robert Barron, Father Richard Rohr, and Father Ron Rolheiser, whose columns are featured in Tower Topics.

"Tower Topics" is a publication of Conception Abbey, a Benedictine seminary and retreat center. Fr. Rolheiser is a regular contributor. There is a picture of him on their website. As with Fr. Rohr, it would be difficult to connect him with the Catholic priesthood by any clues in the picture.

This is not the only place to read Fr. Rolheiser's writings. New Oxford Notes reviewed an article of his which appeared in Catholic San Francisco (Dec. 7, 2001). The review says in part:

Bishops are busy men, and no doubt sometimes so busy that they aren't
aware
of what's being published in their own diocesan papers. We hope that
explains
the hideous column that appeared in Catholic San Francisco (Dec. 7,
2001), the
paper of Archbishop William Levada of the San Francisco
Archdiocese.

The column is about the "cosmic Christ." It's by Fr.
Ron Rolheiser, who takes his inspiration from Teilhard de Chardin, who went out
of fashion a couple decades ago but is now, with the popularity of the New Age
movement, making a comeback. Now, Rolheiser is no flaky Frisco priest, let that
be clear. Flaky, yes, but he's billed as a "theologian" and "award-winning
author" who "serves in Rome as general councilor for Canada for the Oblates of
Mary Immaculate."

Rolheiser tells us that the cosmic Christ means that
"the mystical and the hormonal, and the religious and the pagan are part of one
thing, one pattern, all infused by one spirit, all drawn to the same end, with
the same goodness and meaning."

Getting more specific, Rolheiser tells
us that "everything — be it…the instinctual hunt for blood by a mosquito…or the
genuflection in prayer or altruism of a saint — is ultimately part of one and
the same thing, the unfolding of creation as made in the image of Christ and as
revealing the invisible God," adding that "God's face is manifest everywhere."
...

Really catching his bliss now, Rolheiser says that "what's inside of
God is also manifest in the…morally ambivalent, but undeniable, beauty manifest
in…the colorful and lively sexual energy that bubbles inside the culture."

One would be hard pressed to differentiate between Fr. Rolheiser's theology and the theology of Pantheism.

Fr. Rolheiser has his own website. Some of the articles there are interesting. "The Descent Into Hell" speaks of Christ's descent after He died on the cross. He uses these images to romanticize suicide:

I am sure that when the young woman, whose suicide I mention, woke up on the
other side, she found Jesus standing inside her fear and sickness, breathing out
peace, love, and forgiveness, just as he did in the darkness and chaos that he
descended into in his death. I am sure too that she, sensitive young woman that
she was, found in his ordering, forgiving breath a peace that was, for all kinds
of reasons, denied her in this life.

Lodge that concept firmly in the mind of someone contemplating it, and I can almost guarantee the suicide will take place. Whether the promised appearance of Christ will as well is something we can't know this side of the grave. Suicide remains an offense against God in the teaching of the Church.

His conclusion in "Multi-Citizenship - Wide Loyalties" is a bit startling:

We are citizens of the world before we are citizens of a country; women and
men of faith before we belong to some religion; Christians before we belong to a
particular denomination; baptized before we are priests, bishops, cardinals, or
popes; and we are all bound together in a way that makes our signing-on to
Kyoto, or any other global project, more than a issue of individual
convenience.

That is the sort of thinking that comes from Deep Ecology, a radical ecological movement of the Brian Swimme/EarthSpirit Rising variety.

Then there is "The Inclusive Embrace of Catholicism" in which he compares the faith of Mel Gibson to Michael Moore, telling us that "We cannot build either a society or a church with just liberals or just conservatives." He moves on to Pentecost and the upper room where the Apostles were given "a courage which enabled them to speak different languages, languages of both the left and the right, languages of both the liberal and the conservative, languages that both Mel Gibson and Michael Moore could hear and take to heart."

Ummm, I believe the Holy Spirit is in the habit of giving the language of truth and isn't all that enamored of liberal and conservative designations, unlike Fr. Rolheiser; but then he sounds so friendly and inclusive, and that's really what he would like us to believe Catholicism is all about, apparently.

How about this one--"Pagan Beauty." As if citing Teilhrd de Chardin is not enough of an offense against Truth, he tells us:

What takes your breath away takes your breath away! Never pretend
otherwise. God and pagan beauty are both real, but they are not in our lives as
two warring parties that must be brought to a neutral table for a negotiated
settlement, but are two storms on a collision course. Be true to both and see
what happens. Let the storm takes its course, trusting that the Author of all
beauty, pagan and divine, will, while respecting both your struggle and the
legitimate reality of pagan beauty, gently lead you into that great harmony
within which nothing is lost and everything has its proper place and value.

Is this supposed to be an argument for the worship of Cybele or Dionusos? Maybe he had Lucifer in mind, since he seems to be tying Pagan Beauty to the substance of Earth.

One can almost imagine him visualizing an illicit sexual relationship here. He knows just what to do with it, too, and he tells us all about it in "In Praise of Skin," my own personal favorite exposition of heresy.

Here he pulls no punches. In here he says that "skin meets skin, in sacramental sex, and temple commingles with temple." He knows he's being outrageous because he says "Not an easy thing for us to accept." (Um, yeah, ya got that right!) "Untouched skin is rife with fever spots...we don't get touched enough." But he doesn't quit there:

It seems too earthy to be spiritual. Consequently we generally lack the
courage to accept a theology of sexuality that is earthy enough to do justice to
how shockingly physical the incarnation really is. In sacramental sex there is
eucharist. Just as in eucharist, God enters, caresses, and kisses human
skin....God becomes more than words, more than a belief, more than a teaching.
In the eucharist, God...becomes the great healer who touches, caresses,
massages, and kisses our skin.

Picture it. The lecture hall is full of fresh faced innocent seminarians preparing for a life of celibacy. Out comes the lecturer who tells them that sacramental sex is eucharist and their skin is burning to be touched. What is supposed to be the intended results of these words of Fr. Rolheiser? This is the priest who lectured to the rectors and key seminary personnel on "Affective Conversion" at Mundelein Seminary through the sponsorship of the Cleveland Cardinal Suenens Center. Along with Fr. Richard Rohr. And we wonder why we have a sexual abuse crisis.

Fr. Rolheiser's DVD, "Spirituality and the Two Halves of Life" is featured on the Channel Queer website. Anyone want to guess why?

An article at the Monterey Diocese Watch website explores Fr. Rolheiser's explanation of purgatory, and concludes that he denies it.

He was scheduled to talk about the Eucharist on the calendar of the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois in March. It's not clear from the calendar whether this was the sexual eucharist or the Real Thing.

Marianland.com features Fr. Rolheiser's video prominently. Notice this at the end of the description of the video: "This enriching video experience was taped before a live audience at the King's House Retreat and Renewal Center in Belleville, IL. It is presented in three parts and is perfect for use in groups or for individual reflection."

Did you get that word "Renewal" up there? As in Charismatic Renewal?

Marianland bills itself this way on its homepage:

Largest Roman Catholic Marian Pro-Life Resource Web Site
From A to Z
Large Variety of Spiritual Food from the Rich Garden of the Holy Roman Catholic
Church
Largest Selection of the Finest Catholic and other Christian Videos,
Books, Music, Statues and Church Supplies

Uh huh.

Here he is on the website of the Seattle Archdiocese, presenting a poetical pantheistic jumble of nonsense he calls "Priestly prayer: Prayer for the world."

I submit to you readers the evidence of the theology of Fr. Ron Rolheiser as an example of prelest existing within the Charismatic movement, based on the evidence that the Cardinal Suenens Center sponsored his talk at Mundelein. The antinomianism label seems to fit.


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!