Tag Archives: Heretics

2022-09-10 · 3:07 pm

තිස්ස බාලසූරිය, ten years dead, an enemy

The name Father Tissa Balasuriya was brought to mind in the past week. He was a “liberation theologian” from Sri Lanka, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, excommunicated for a while because of his many and disgusting heresies regarding our Blessed Mother. He died in early 2013, a week or so after Pope Benedict XVI did what he did (whatever it is that he did). It was Cardinal Ratzinger who had published the excommunication so many years earlier (1997). Here’s an excerpt:

“A fundamental aspect of the thought of Father Balasuriya is the denial of the dogma of original sin, held by him to be simply a product of the theological thought of the West (cf. pp. 66-78). This contradicts the nature of this dogma and its intrinsic connection to revealed truth. The author, in fact, does not hold that the meaning of dogmatic formulas remains always true and unchangeable, though capable of being expressed more clearly and better understood. [In contrast, I was able to demonstrate the “mechanism” (well, God’s justice precisely in view of how He created us), regarding the transmission of original sin not by imitation but by propagation, showing the inescapable logic of this from the Hebrew text, a first as far as I can tell after a quite exhaustive examination of millennia of commentary on the matter.]

“On the basis of these positions, the author arrives at the point of denying, in particular, the marian dogmas. Mary’s divine motherhood, her Immaculate Conception and virginity, as well as her bodily Assumption into heaven, are not recognized as truths belonging to the Word of God (cf. pp. 47, 106, 139, 152, 191). [In contrast, in my own work, I demonstrated how all these dogmas are necessary upon the examination of the text of the Sacred Scriptures, again, a first as far as I know in the history of Judeo-Catholicism.] Wanting to present a vision of Mary free from «theological elaborations, which are derived from a particular interpretation of one sentence or other of the scriptures» (p. 150) [In contrast, I demonstrated how Genesis 2:4a–3:24 is a tightly scripted equation, a syllogism], Father Balasuriya, in fact, deprives the dogmatic doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin of every revealed character, thus denying the authority of tradition as a mediation of revealed truth. [In contrast, I demonstrated the revealed character of all the present Marian dogmas, and more, that is, regarding Mary as Advocate, Mediatrix, Co-Redemptrix.]

“Finally, it must be noted that Father Balasuriya, denying and relativizing some statements of both the extraordinary Magisterium and the ordinary universal Magisterium, reveals that he does not recognize the existence of an infallibility of the Roman Pontiff and of the college of Bishops cum et sub Petro. Reducing the primacy of the Successor of Peter to a question of power (cf. pp. 42, 84, 170), he denies the special character of this ministry. [In contrast, I have attempted, as a courtesy, to correct Francis’ assertions of power as an attempt to control Sacred Tradition (he taking up Balasuriya’s heretical assertions), pointing Francis instead to correct philological exegesis of Matthew 16 regarding the limits of infallibility apart from Sacred Tradition. This is speaking with parrhesia, with charity. I must say, this has been quite the exhaustive, comprehensive examination, though spread out over very many articles over very many years.]

“In publishing this Notification, the Congregation is obliged also to declare that Father Balasuriya has deviated from the integrity of the truth of the Catholic faith and, therefore, cannot be considered a Catholic theologian; moreover, he has incurred excommunication latae sententiae (can. 1364, par. 1). [In other words, the automatic nature of the excommunication was now also declared, therefore having external penalties imposed and supervised.]

“The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Notification, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.

“Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2 January 1997, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Joseph Card. Ratzinger Prefect” [So, that’s weird. I think the multiple dates here refer, perhaps, to the approval, and/or the signing, and/or the publishing.]

A year later, in 1998, this excommunication was lifted upon Tissa’s admission that there might be “perceptions of error” in his writings, whatever that means. While teaching in major seminaries in Australia a few years later, I saw a BBC interview with Tissa in which, if I remember correctly, he mocked this decision of the foolish Holy See rehabilitating him. I was intent on getting him excommunicated once again (with full encouragement of the Holy Office), and so contacted the BBC to get a DVD copy of the interview (which they advertised at the end of the program). To their credit, they responded and took my phone calls. But they got nervous and said that sharing a copy was, in this case, forbidden by the interviewee. Who would’ve guessed? The BBC guy was super nervous, as denial is against government policy (the BBC being a government agency). Anyway, you can fool what is now called the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith some of the time, but not Jesus, not Mary at any time. One way or the other, now Tissa knows the rest of the story, with great clarity. I hope he turned around before he died. I don’t wish anyone any harm, even with the infliction of penalties which are medicinal in nature. For the eternal repose of Tissa’s soul (We’re to pray for our enemies, right?): Hail Mary…

Whatever the perception of Tissa as a full-on heretic, he did get due process. That’s charity, right?

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2018-09-02 · 5:15 am

Kryptic call for assassinating the Pope?

pope-francis

I’m just going over some drafts I wrote some weeks ago. I thinks it’s time to publish some of them. I think it’s important to emphasize that the most malicious heresy against papal infallibility is the one which has it that the papacy as such is merely an office and is not identified with the very person of the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome. To divide the two is to sunder the Holy Father as effectively as any method of assassination could take him out. That’s not to say that everything he says is infallible. It is to say that when he speaks as the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter, to the universal Church, on a matter of faith and morals, especially in deciding a controversy, that is, when he solemnly pronounces on such a matter in such a way with such a quality, and not merely as a dialogue, it is then that his own person is also on the line. Just to be clear:

Jesus spoke of the name of Peter, the Rock, indeed, about himself, personally, upon whom Jesus founds His Church. The papacy is not a mere office, stuff to do, replaceable by a committee, or even a Council without a Pope. It papacy is one with the person of the Pontiff.

The papacy, and the promise of infallibility, has a very direct and immediate effect on the person of Supreme Pontiff himself. If the individual Bishop of Rome, Francis or John or Paul or Benedict by name, whatever, is to fail in infallibility, he is to fail in his own person. Failing with infallibility is not an option (something somehow not understood as self-evident by pundits, lefties and righties alike). The viability of infallibility and the viability of the very person of the Pope have everything to do with each other. Let’s just say it: The Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome will die or be utterly incapacitated before he can fail in infallibility. That’s how it works. The physical person of the Successor of Peter is expendable, utterly. Jesus’ guarantee of being with the Church until He returns is at the expense of the Bishop of Rome.

People hate this because they are so soft, so unwilling to admit that Jesus would establish a situation in which, not truth, but one of us is expendable. The identification of the Rock with Peter, of the Keys with Peter’s decision, demands that Peter be incapacitated in whatever manner before he pronounces and declares that which is against the faith and morality, for, as it is, the truth is already and irrevocably established since forever in the heavens. In other words, God will permit or provide such incapacitation or death. No one else is to do this, no gnostic individual, no group of ecclesiastics no matter how exalted they are in their own minds. Tender snowflakes that we are, this absolutely infuriates us and we crucify the Truth by saying that the Pope can change doctrine or, you know, make a mistake which would invalidate his office. This is insipid stupidity.

When people then go the extra step, saying that any one person or any such exalted group could go ahead and eliminate the Supreme Pontiff by a decree declaring him to be an anti-Pope, they insist this can be done if there is a physical, tangible sign, you know, so they can (falsely) claim that they are not gnostics. In that case, the real Pope would be the wrongly declared to be “anti-Pope,” you know, because the gnostic know it alls said so, those who in their own minds are infallible and speak for the Holy Spirit. How ironic. In another time these same people, so right in their own minds, might well have been burned at the stake as heretics. But we are soft today.

Now, what is that sign to be anyway, that someone kills the Pope? That’s about the only thing it could be. Are these pundits calling for the assassination of the Pope, giving some self appointed assassin the divine mandate to act on God’s behalf, providing the sign God surely wants to give? Yes. In my opinion, they are doing just that. Heresy is just that mean, just that ludicrous, just that callous, just that vicious, just that demonic, you know, because of being tender snowflakes who are self-justified in crucifying the disciple like the Master. Read the end of Romans chapter one, say, from verse 1:18 to the end.

I’ll tell you this, Jesus, who established Peter as the Rock, will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen.

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