Friday, February 14, 2014

National Catholic Register: Sacraments Schmackraments (you don't need them)



It's getting freeky at the National Catholic Register

Is it a full moon?

p.s. A last minute acknowledgement of sin, remorse and appeal to Christ for redemption falls into the category of Baptism by desire. That's why the good thief was 'saved'.

Based upon that whopper of a blooper he's based his theological certitudes upon, could we cancel the seven part series?

13 comments:

Stephen Lowe said...

No. It is just mark shea. Nothin' to see there, keep movin'.

Restore-DC-Catholicism said...

Actually the moon is full tonight!

DanJay1983 said...

He didn't say that we don't need the sacraments. How about you actually read the full article before making a snap judgment.

TTC said...

"What is striking here is that the saved sheep do not indicate the slightest familiarity with baptism or the sacraments. They are members of “the nations”

"we must also remember that this is the same Jesus who tells the unbaptized and Eucharist-deprived Good Thief, “Truly, I say to you: Today you will be with me in Paradise”

"The key is the simple recollection of St. John of the Cross: “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”

"A plumber who uses his skills to fix a single mom’s sink at no charge is doing a work of Christ (and for Christ) in a different way than the priest who hears her confession or gives her the Eucharist. But it is a work of Christ. That is the point."

Daniel -

if Mark was not intending to convey that the aforementioned plumber is not in need of conversion or the Sacraments;

Id Mark did not intend to convey that the aforementioned plumber's free sink work is an act of salvific equivalence to a priest's absolution of sin in the Sacrament of Confession or Transubstaniation Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ for his consumption;

then the article needs a re-write.

The substance leads the Catholic reader to conclude that the unbaptized, Catholics not going to Mass, Catholics who reject Church teaching or actively practice sin can use love and corporal works of mercy as the replacement for Sacraments as Christ is not bound by them.

n.b. If the Church binds it, Christ binds it too.

The farcical introduction leads the reader to conclusion that National Catholic Register is going to run a seven-part series on how people get to Heaven outside of the Sacraments.

TTC said...

ps while I have a captive audience.

One can have the DESIRE that all men be saved but one can never use the word 'hope' to contradict Church teaching about souls sentenced to hell. The Church teaches that more souls will go to hell than will go to Heaven.

TTC said...

pps - your son is beautiful. Congrats. God's blessings upon him, you, your family and your home.

Dymphna said...

"Beyond the sacraments"? Whoah!

TTC said...

Dympha,

Yea.

A seven part series on doing stuff to obtain salvation when Sacraments are not your thang - like the good thief.

JB said...



This is what happens when a convert writes about the faith without any theological training. To say that Dismas was "Eucharist deprived" or sacramentally deprived in any way, hanging next to Jesus himself and confessing his guilt to Him, is comically obtuse.

breathnach said...

This series should be entitled : "Smooth it Away Shea's Guide to Irrelevancy of the Sacraments". This isn't the New Evangelization, it's the New Indifferentism.

TTC said...

What gets me is, apparently the senior editor at the Register (whoever it is) can't smell theological problems.

Anonymous said...

“If we ignore the poor, we will go to hell.”

Well, a lot of Absp. Chaput's "brother bishops" are going to Hell for ignoring a different kind of "poor": Those who were molested by the priests they enabled.

Too many Christians view "the poor" solely in materialistic terms. There are other kinds of poor, such as the depressed, the anxious, the grieving, the survivors of murder. The churches constantly ignore these people by telling them to "get over it" or by opposing capital punishment in all cases.

We should not be surprised that church leaders and their spokesmen (like Shea) will "re-interpret" the truth to serve their own agendas. Those Apostles' letters in the New Testament prophesy that kind of behavior.

Besides, if Shea were half the Catholic he makes himself out to be, then he would stop slandering people and distorting their arguments at will. If Shea were "judged on (his) love," he would be sorely lacking. Unfortunately, there are no mirrors in the Shea household, as it were.

Restore-DC-Catholicism said...

Sacraments are "outward signs of inward grace". Saint Dismas received absolution from the Supreme High Priest Himself. In his case, no "outward sign" was necessary since he heard the words of absolution from the Source of all grace Himself. That obvious point is lost at Patheos and with all who use St. Dismas to justify indifferentism.