Saturday, December 09, 2006
BRUSKEWITZ AND PROBLEMS ON THE RIGHT
The blogs are abuzz with Bishop Bruskewitz's latest decision threatening dissenters involved in Call to Action, Freemasonry, SSPX, and other heretical organizations, with excommunication--something he has done before. It's easy to laud Bruskewitz for this action, and I do laud him. That's not to say, however, that everything this bishop does can be lauded.
John Vennari reports on a very different view of the Lincoln, Nebraska Diocese. He writes in part:
More recently, on March 21. 1998, a Pentecostal F.I.R.E. Rally was held at Pius X High School in Lincoln. It featured charismatic Fr. John Bartolucci, Fr. Michael Scanlon, Ann Shields and Ralph Martin. The event was promoted in Lincoln’s diocesan newspaper and at this gathering, Bishop Bruskewitz was the main celebrant and homilist. After the event, the same diocesan newspaper gave the Pentecostal gathering an enthusiastic, glowing report.
By contrast, in 1974, in a scathing criticism of the charismatic movement, the staunchly orthodox Archbishop Dwyer of the United States rightly warned, "We regard it bluntly as one of the most dangerous trends in the Church in our time, closely allied in spirit with other disruptive and divisive movements threatening grave harm to unity and damage to countless souls." Today, however, not only does the "conservative" Bruskewitz condone the charismatics, but he allows them to commandeer a Catholic high-school for their rootin’ tootin’ rallies, thus promoting pentecostalism to unsuspecting Catholic teenagers.
While I can't corroborate Vennari's claims, and while I do note that the report is nearly nine years old, I can point to the Lincoln diocesan webpage for Curcillo, showing that Pentecostal activities have been around Lincoln since 1965. There are a number of Ultreyas held each month in the diocese. The emphasis on lay leadership in the Church is clearly stated on the Curcillo webpage. Couple that with the ecumenism in Lincoln, and what you essentially have is Masonic philosophy without the trappings.
I find the encroachment of Pentecostalism on American Catholicism just as troubling as Freemasonry, and in fact believe they are largely one and the same thing. Rosicrucianism in its Charismatic disguise is still commerce with disembodied spirits, no matter how you dress it up. There are certainly good disembodied spirits--saints and angels. But not all are good, and the best advice is to tread very very carefully, observe the fruits, and seek the guidance of the entire Church. When bishop opposes bishop as we see here, discernment is vital. If belief in the phenomenon is not essential to the faith, best to leave it alone.
Additionally Vennari makes a comparison between the small faith community movement in Lincoln and the small faith community movement within Call to Action, claiming that they are one and the same.
The Rosicrucian "home church" movement (scroll down at the website) and the "small faith community" movement are similar in operation if not in name. My own experience with this "faith community" business has been deadly to my faith in Christ. It neatly skirts so-called "professional" clergy in favor of non-professional "priests" of the home and group leaders of the neighborhood unit. It relies on feelings and personal revelation as opposed to dogma and doctrine. Home-based "churches" by necessity condition the faithful to non-sacramental activities, and the Baptism of the Spirit slowly comes to be viewed as the "sacramental" evidence of the special favor of God--a sign of perfection or extra-holiness. Thus the movement produces elitism of the sort that can be found in the writings of occultists.
When I look at what this eletism does to the occult community, pitting brother against brother in a constant tug-of-war for power; and then I reflect on my own experience of something very similar in a parish where the charismatics had the favor of the pastor and two churches in one parish developed a war of words against each other, I tend to believe this is not from God.
Perhaps it should not come as a surprise that Bruskewitz promotes Pentecostalism. The founder of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Unity Publishing reports:
"The most damaging aspect of the "third work" teaching for Wesleyan Methodists was in the form of the baptism of fire. This teaching apparently originated with Benjamin Hardin Irwin of Lincoln, Nebraska, a former Baptist minister who became a member of the Iowa Holiness Association. He became convinced that there was a distinction between the baptism of the Holy Spirit at entire sanctification, and the baptism of fire which subsequently brought down power to the believer. He sought, and claimed to receive such a baptism...It was in Anderson, South Carolina, that Irwin organized the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church, which later merged into the Pentecostal Holiness Church."
Unity Publishing also makes the Masonic connection:
"The Wesleyan Methodists were not as greatly involved with the National Holiness Association in the early years as might have been expected. This appears to have been due to the heavy involvement of ministers and members from the major northern and southern branches of Methodism, many of whom were lodge members and therefore persons with whom Wesleyans refused fellowship." ...
This is a significant fact. Freemasonry, as should be well known to any professing Christian, is both in its' beliefs and aims fundamentally opposed to true Christianity. It accepts no religious doctrine as universally true, save its' own skeletized version of natural religion and "tolerance"-it accepts all religions as equally worthy, and therefore, as equally worthless. Such indifferentism is bound to be a breeding ground for all sorts of doctrinal and spiritual aberrations; if there is no higher arbiter of truth than a man's "inner illumination", or his search for an undefined Masonic "light", is it any surprise that a mason or those whom he influences would exalt the subjective "spiritual" experience, and deprecate the dogmatic expression of truth?
It is conenient to blame the liberals for everything that is wrong within the Church. Reality, however, presents a more confusing picture requiring discernment.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
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UPDATE
While taking a break from cleaning house, I decided to look a little closer at the LOTW program in the Lincoln Diocese as well as other dioceses, specifically the Kerygmatic Retreat in the LOTW website linked above as well.
It seems to me that the objective of this retreat--"the opportunity to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit"--is a worthwhile goal. However, the method...?
One forms a relationship with Jesus Christ by praying. Prayer is talking to God. Prayer can be formal or informal, and there is a lot to be said for a simple conversation. But the ultimate way to form a relationship with Christ is the morning offering which dedicates the day to God's plan for it. That fact is addressed in the Sunday talk as the retreat is outlined at the website. On the Sunday program is "Surrendering Your Life to the Holy Spirit." But look what else is there.
--Small Group Sharing Sessions
--Shepherd Group Sharing Sessions
--One on One Personal Dialogue
--The Holy Spirit as Power Source
What does any of that have to do with relationship with God? It's all about relationship with man and plugging into energy, as though the Holy Spirit were a free version of the local power company.
But what seems even more odd are the Renewal sessions. How does a Catholic go about renewing Baptism and Confirmation? Those two sacraments make an indellible mark on the soul. They are done once, and the person upon whom they are performed is radically changed for a lifetime. Or so we believed. But apparently the Charismatic Renewal has developed new theology of these two sacraments. Would that have something to do with the "Baptism of the Spirit" in which one becomes conversant in nonsensical language?
Grace builds on nature, improving it. Gibberish is hardly an improvement over our naturally spoken language!
