HOW TO SHELTER A HERETIC
We live in the information age. Nothing seems to escape the scrutiny of the faithful and the not so faithful. So when Pontifical Household Preacher Fr Cantalamessa delivers his latest heterodox spins the heresy detectors go off with intense readiness. And for a month or so the forums and blogs come alive debating the latest of his blunders. Slow but sure damage control sets into gear and the much debated article disappears from the on line source that was there for all to see in the first place. Oh it will be filed away SOMEWHERE, just nobody knows where. It doesn't really disappear, the thing is doggedly kept alive by the disgruntled. Granted, some of these sites contain a lot of inconvenient truth – some of it is so inconvenient that venturing into them too deeply could land one outside of nowhere... outside the Church even.
I have tried to stick my sourcing to safe sites, to sites faithful to the Magisterium. But alas the Magisterium is not always faithful to the faithful – certainly not faithful when truth is tucked away behind closed doors. But hey, it works! Because just try to bring something up a few years later without sourcing. The opposition responds with deadly venom and then its your credibility that is called into question. Or your spelling. Finally the call goes out to spend time on more important things like "love".
But as Ann Kreitzer said so eloquently “Fighting heresy is a noble Catholic tradition that goes back to the early Church. Well-known preacher, Fr. John Corapi, tells a story “from the annals of the Post Resurrection Church” about St. John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple. “They say that St. John was within the public baths of Ephesus and a heretic came in from the other end…. Word of his presence got to the other side to St. John. Now this is the Apostle that preached Love, right? St. John, the one who said God is Love. In his old age, the only thing St. John could say was ‘Love God….’ He got word that a heretic had just come in the building, he leaped up, grabbed his clothes and ran out of the building yelling ‘run for your lives, the heretic 'so-and-so' just came in the house.’ That was his attitude. Should it not be our attitude as well?” Source
