Fr. (Tissa) Balasuriya's excommunication lifted.Colombo, Sri Lanka - In our Jan/Feb '98 edition, C.I. reported on Fr. Tissa Balasuriya's whirlwind tour through Europe and North America in October and November of last year. At that time there was not a sign of repentance, only attacks on the Vatican. But on January 15, less than two months after his Call to Action address in Detroit (see Jan/Feb., p. 20) and just over one year after his automatic excommunication excommunication, formal expulsion from a religious body, the most grave of all ecclesiastical censures. Where religious and social communities are nearly identical it is attended by social ostracism, as in the case of Baruch Spinoza, excommunicated by the Jews. in Sri Lanka on January 2, 1997, Fr. Balasuriya was reconciled to the Church. Perhaps the prayers of the Call to Holiness Conference, held in Detroit at about the same time (Jan/Feb., p.20), were responsible for helping Fr. Balasuriya recognize the truth. We print the Statement of Reconciliation, delivered in the chapel of the residence of Archbishop Nicolas Fernando of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in full. It was read in the presence of the Papal Nuncio. The retraction In the law of Defamation, a formal recanting of the libelous or slanderous material. Retraction is not a defense to defamation, but under certain circumstances, it is admissible in Mitigation of Damages. Cross-references Libel and Slander. of his errors clears Fr. Balasuriya of the charge of heresy. Needless to say, it puts a new light on those who defended his heretical he·ret·i·cal adj. 1. Of or relating to heresy or heretics. 2. Characterized by, revealing, or approaching departure from established beliefs or standards. views over the past year, attacking the Vatican in the process. Among them: 18 faculty members of the Maryhill School of Theology, Manila, Philippines; a number of individuals (in Canada, Gregory Baum and Laksman Marasinghe, law professor at the University of Windsor History In 2003, the university marked its 40th anniversary. Its history dates back to the founding of Assumption College in 1857. Originally, Assumption was one the largest colleges associated with the University of Western Ontario. , ON); the periodicals America (Jesuit, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ), Commonweal com·mon·weal n. 1. The public good or welfare. 2. Archaic A commonwealth or republic. Noun 1. (New York), Tablet (England), the Kansas-based National Catholic Reporter (Charles Curran: "Welcome to theological outcast status," Feb. 7, '97); and in Canada, The Prairie Messenger. One further note. The Toronto Catholic Register of Feb. 2, '98, printed a newsreport from New Delhi according to which the Vatican had acknowledged its errors, and withdrawn the Excommunication because it should never have been invoked in the first place!! The following is reprinted from Origins, the Washington documentary service, Jan. 29, 1998. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion