Cary McMullen the religion editor for The Ledger wrote a post on Anne Rice that I generally agree with.
There is an old saying, attributed to Cyril of Alexandria (supposedly one of those anti-science, anti-feminist dead white guys): “Outside the church there is no salvation.” Now before Anne Rice starts to get huffy, I think what Cyril meant is that the church has been the (decidedly flawed) custodian of the gospel. How would Rice even know about Jesus if it hadn’t been for the millions of faithful people who sometimes at the cost of their own lives openly declared that they were in fact Christians and dedicated themselves to perpetuating the only organization that has Jesus as the subject of the simple statement that he is Lord?
Rice’s memory is awfully short. And contrary to what she thinks, by rejecting the church she is in danger of rejecting Jesus as well.
First off what St. Cyrill actually said was ” ‘mercy is not obtainable outside the holy city’.” The dogma of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus means much more than that the Church is the custodian of the Gospel, but does not mean as much as the rigorists would have it say. Regardless this is a side point. I would certainly agree with anybody who rejects the Church is in danger of rejecting Jesus if in fact they haven’t already done so by rejecting his Church. As Sy Cyprian said “He cannot have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his mother.”
What I totally disagree with was the headline for this article “Church Won’t Miss Rice.” If the Angels rejoice when one lost sheep is returned, surely they are unhappy about every single sheep that is lost even if the sheep posts on Facebook that they are getting lost on purpose. While I totally disagree with Anne Rice’s reasons for leaving the Church which I find quite juvenile, I want her and everybody else for that matter within the Catholic Church and the Body of Christ does miss Anne Rice. Every person is God’t unique creation and they are intended to live with him forever. Anne Rice’s separating herself from the Church means she is separating herself from the sacraments means she is separating herself from the various helps in the Christian life that Jesus intended. Jesus gave us the Church to lead us to salvation and to reject his Church is to reject his will.
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If you read the whole article, it’s clear that the headline is derived from the author’s reference to The Great Divorce. It is the Faithful who have the final say on their own joy and communion, not Ms. Rice nor anyone else. It does not seem, from my reading, that the author intends to suggest that her salvation is not important. Indeed this is supported by the fact that the author recognizes Ms. Rice’s danger of rejecting Jesus in her rejection of the Church.
As a former Catholic I have to agree with you that the further one chooses(I no longer believe we drift away, we choose “away”) to be from the Catholic Church, the more nonsense and distractions compete with our time and diminish our fidelity to Christ who is only revealed through HIS Church, which persists in the Catholic Church.
I am not happy where I am, but neither my bishop nor the Pope is, in the slightest, interested in listening to what I would say to them(and yes they have pointedly made their ignoring my pleas CRYSTAL CLEAR) so I cannot be in union with such open arrogance and lack of concern for my soul and the souls of those I seek their intercession over and I remain apart from them and their irresponsibility.
I very much disagree with Ms. Rice’s justifications for her own separation, but I do, intimately, understand a complete lack of love for their neighbor’s soul that I continue to see, now for more than twenty years, from those in responsibility in the Church.
All the tinkering with Latin, the silliness of the abuse scandal, a celibate priesthood, gay marriage, you name it….makes no difference at all when one, personally and persistently, reaches out to those who have responsibility for them in the Church and sees all of their concerns, openly ignored.
Our Shepherds, including the recent Popes, are terrible in their behaviors towards those who call to them for help. As I have said many times, there is not ONE SINGLE COMPETENT BISHOP in America, who occupies a See here. Not one. To a man they are dismal failures. They will only learn this when they stop listening to those they choose and start listening to those who continue to call to them.
Would you mind adding my new blog to your links please?
All the tinkering with Latin, the silliness of the abuse scandal, a celibate priesthood, gay marriage, you name it….makes no difference at all when one, personally and persistently, reaches out to those who have responsibility for them in the Church and sees all of their concerns, openly ignored.
Our Shepherds, including the recent Popes, are terrible in their behaviors towards those who call to them for help. As I have said many times, there is not ONE SINGLE COMPETENT BISHOP in America, who occupies a See here. Not one. To a man they are dismal failures. They will only learn this when they stop listening to those they choose and start listening to those who continue to call to them.
Karl, do you remember a vision that Pope Leo XIII had in the 1870s, in which he saw Christ tell Satan that he had 100 years to destroy the Church? Do you remember that Pope Paul VI said, “The smoke of Satan has entered the sanctuary”?
That’s exactly what’s happening. Christ has abandoned the Church because it refuses to repent from its intellectual arrogance and addiction to temporal power and prestige.
Why do you think the clerical sex-abuse crisis metastacized the way it did? Because God finally gave the perverts up to their perversion, a perversion they had been practicing in the Church for centuries!!!!
Wake up, people! The Great Winnowing is at hand. Repent or die!
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