Heresy Tribunal Against Schismatic San Bernardino Priest

I've been meaning to post this article from the December 14 Los Angeles Times about a heresy tribunal convened by the San Bernardino Diocese against Rev. Ned Reidy, a priest who says he left the Roman Catholic Church and started some New Agey church:

[Diocese spokesman Fr. Howard] Lincoln said the intent was to defrock Reidy, removing him officially from the clerical state if found guilty, so that ordinary Roman Catholics would not be led astray by the priest's assertion that he remained a "Catholic."

Good for Bishop Gerard Barnes. Although I live in a neighboring diocese (the Diocese of Orange), I don't know much about Bishop Barnes -- although this action tells me a lot:

"I never heard of such a thing," said Father Orsy Ladislas, a professor of law at Georgetown University Law School in Washington who is considered a leading canon lawyer in America. "It would be very rare that a diocese would have any kind of formal trial for heresy or schism," he said. "Most of the time the bishops are running to Rome…. Their tendency is to pick up the phone or a fax to Rome and ask for an intervention."

Father Robert McCann, a canon lawyer in Northern California's Oakland Diocese, said such charges could be brought against a priest, "but that's an unusual way to put it in this day and age."

Of course it's unusual in this day and age of timidity by the American Catholic heirarchy -- an age which I am guardedly optimistic is coming to an end, catalyzed by the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

Here is more on the tribunal from the Associated Press and the Riverside Press-Enterprise:

An Inland priest who left the Roman Catholic Church to affiliate with another religion was put on trial for heresy Tuesday.

The Diocese of San Bernardino held a closed hearing in its San Bernardino offices in which the Rev. Ned Reidy was accused of committing heresy for espousing teachings that violate fundamental church doctrine. He also was charged with schism for refusing to submit to the authority of the pope.

Reidy did not attend the hearing. He said the Roman Catholic Church has not had jurisdiction over him since he resigned from the Order of the Holy Cross in 1999 and later founded a Bermuda Dunes parish of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion.

The denomination, based in the city of Orange, does not recognize the Vatican's authority and has more liberal beliefs than Rome on issues such as divorce, birth control and homosexuality.

The Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the diocese, said church officials would notify Reidy of a ruling within two weeks.

Three diocesan priests formed the ecclesiastical court that heard the case against Reidy on Tuesday in the diocese's Halls of the Tribunal.

Reidy said he doesn't care how the court rules and plans to send any correspondence he receives back to the diocese without unsealing the envelope.

If the diocese concludes Reidy committed heresy, he will be formally excommunicated from the church, Lincoln said.

Reidy was automatically excommunicated when he joined the Ecumenical Catholic denomination. Lincoln said Tuesday's trial was necessary because some Roman Catholics might still believe Reidy is a Roman Catholic priest.

The name of Reidy's new parish includes the word "Catholic," he pointed out, and it is only a few miles from Christ of the Desert Roman Catholic parish in Palm Desert, where Reidy served for 19 years as pastor.

Comments

[Tim Keane]

Not to be picky, but it's Ladislas Orsy, S.J., not "Orsy Ladislas"

[John tracey]

After having taught in a Catholic school and known the gay priests that hang around there, I must say the Catholic church is the biggest and most perverted pyramid scheme on the planet.

[Dominic]

How about you keep your blasphemous and carnal comments to yourself,you moron?

Dominic.

+++