Millstone Award for CORE, Toronto (Canada).

In October 2000, the Catholic Office of Religious Education (CORE) of the Archdiocese of Toronto, under the directorship of Sister Caroline Altpeter, sent to all pastors a mailing concerning the Sacraments, with teachings to be used in the catechesis of adults in the parish and children in the schools. Two of these teachings have earned for CORE the Millstone Award, writes Fr. Leonard Kennedy, c.s.b.

The first teaching

The first teaching is that only two of the seven Sacraments of the Church were instituted by "the historical Jesus" (page 6). The alleged argument for this assertion is that most theologians today teach this.

Now, this first teaching is sharply opposed to the teaching of the Catholic Church. It's pure Lutheranism. We find the teaching of the Church which CORE denies taught clearly and frequently in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Catechism states that "the Sacraments are ... instituted by Christ..." (#1131). It also says: "Adhering to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consensus ... of the Fathers," we profess that "the Sacraments of the New Law were ... all instituted by Jesus Christ Our Lord" (#1114).

Furthermore, under #1117 one reads: "The Church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her 'into all truth,' ... has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, Sacraments instituted by the Lord" (#1117). And once more: "Christ instituted the Sacraments of the New Law. There are seven ...." (#1210).

The Council of Trent, called to refute the errors of Luther, is most strict in this matter: "If anyone shall have said that the Sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ Our Lord, or that they are more or less than seven, ... let that person be anathema" (Session VII, #1601 in Denzinger-Schonmetzer, 1973). Now, an anathema is a much stronger condemnation than a Millstone Award; indeed this one indicates that the first teaching of CORE is an outright heresy which, knowingly adhered to, places a person outside the Church.

The second false teaching

CORE has ventured also into a denial of common sense. Its second teaching under consideration is that "Sacraments are celebrations of something that has already occurred: God has already shared divine life with the adult or infant (due to the faith, desire of his or her parents) who is being baptized, ... has forgiven those seeking reconciliation or healing or anointing, has ratified the mutual covenant of love of those being married" (page 6). The reason for the conferral of sacramental grace before the celebration of a Sacrament, according to CORE, is the fact that God lives in eternity and not in time.

What does this new teaching mean? It means (1) that a baby has had original sin removed, and divine life infused, before it is baptized, (2) that a person has had his sins forgiven before he has gone to Confession, and (3) that a couple are married before their wedding, and presumably, therefore, can live together before it.

Clearly, with this kind of "theology", sacramental ceremonies become almost meaningless. Let us ask at exactly what point does an infant have original sin removed? At what point do Catholics have their sins forgiven? At what point do they become husband and wife?

Now, it is true that God lives in eternity, but it is also true that human beings live in time. God is able to produce effects at any moment in time. He is not forced to produce them all in eternity. He didn't even create the universe in eternity, but in time. And he didn't create everything at once; he creates human beings down through the ages. And he deals with them at all the different moments of time.

The Catechism is quite clear on this point also: "The visible rites by which the Sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each Sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions" (#1131). It says as well: "From the moment that a Sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it ..." (#1128).

If a baptism ceremony, or going to Communion at Mass, or going to Confession, do not give sacramental grace because this grace has been given previously, it seems that, since these ceremonies do not give grace, they are not necessary for salvation. But the Catechism is clear on this point: "The Church affirms that for believers the Sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation."

We hope that the Archdiocese will administer the Millstone Award. Editor's comment:

Two different sources inform me that these errors do not appear on paper only. Periodically, the archdiocesan CORE office conducts instruction sessions for RCIA catechists. Inone catechesis workshop on the sacraments in Etobicoke (fall of 1999), Catherine Ecker of CORE directly and precisely taught--and when questioned defended--the above-mentioned errors. The sacraments of Penance and Marriage, according to her, date respectively only from the 11th and 14th centuries. Sacraments, she added, are celebrations of something that has already occurred. Ecker has repeat requests to speak to parish groups.

Other CORE representatives are known to challenge accepted Catholic teaching and rebuke those who defend it as, for example, in a 1998 seminar when a guest priest tried to convince his audience that private confession was ridiculous and outdated and should be replaced with public confession in a group. When challenged he backed down, but afterwards the CORE representative rebuked the challenger, telling him that "it was no longer the way we do things today."