Serious errors, even heresy.

A book review usually summarizes the book, but for this book there will not be space for this since there are very serious errors, even heresy, which must be pointed out in detail. Fr. Rolheiser is an Oblate of Western Canada who has been in a leadership role in his Congregation for many years and who writes a weekly column which appears in Catholic newspapers.

Forgiveness of sin

The first error concerns the Sacrament of Penance. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "only priests who have received the faculty of absolving from the authority of the Church can forgive sins in the name of Christ" (#1495). And the Code of Canon Law says that "individual and integral confession and absolution constitute the sole ordinary means by which a member of the faithful who is conscious of grave sin is reconciled with God and with the Church. Physical or moral impossibility alone excuses from such confession..." (#960).

Yet Fr. Rolheiser says that

"we have our sins forgiven... through contact with Christ's body, that is, the Eucharist and the community" (pp. 86-87). "We have our sins forgiven by being in community with each other, at table with each other" (p. 87). "We will never go to hell as long as we are touching the community--touching it with sincerity and a modicum of contrition" (pp. 87-88).

If a parent's children no longer go to church, pray, or keep the Commandments, we are told, the parent can forgive them and, if they receive forgiveness from the parent, they receive forgiveness from God (pp. 88-89). The reason is that Jesus has said to the parent, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven" and "Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained."

Fr. Rolheiser writes:

"If someone close to you dies in a state which, externally at least, has her or him at odds ecclesially and morally with the visible Church, your love and forgiveness will continue to bind that person to the Body of Christ and continue to forgive that individual, even after death" (p. 89).

Again, he states:

"What is at stake in explicit confession is not the radical question of whether God forgives our sins or does not forgive them" (p. 93). And his book says that "we can be forgiven our sins simply by touching the community and by going to Eucharist."

There is no distinction here between venial or mortal sins and no mention of a firm purpose of amendment. Says Fr. Rolheiser: "The essential Sacrament of Reconciliation has always been sincerity and contrition as one approaches Eucharist and touches the Christian community" (p. 93).

But the Catholic Catechism states:

"Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic Communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive Communion without having received absolution in the Sacrament of Penance" (#1415).

The Council of Trent declared that, if someone pertinaciously denies this, he is automatically excommunicated (Enchiridion ... Declarationum, Denzinger-Schonmetzer [1965], #1661).

Sacrament of the sick

A second error concerns the Sacrament of the Sick. According to Fr. Rolheiser, "any one of us who visits a sick or dying person...anoints that person, just as a priest does in the Sacrament of the Sick" (p. 91). The Catechism teaches that "only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the Anointing of the Sick" (#1516).

Divine life

A third serious fault is that, throughout this book about spirituality, there is no mention of human beings living with divine life; it is not taught that what makes the Body of Christ one, is divine life, and that this is the heart of true Christian spirituality. Grace is never mentioned.

There are quite a few others things to which one could take exception but space does not permit. It might be mentioned though that Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee has given this book his enthusiastic endorsement: "Its insights are just what all of us need at this moment in history." This, I believe, is a tremendous blunder.

Of course there are many things in the book which are true and important. But the teachings mentioned above are so seriously harmful that the book should be avoided.

Fr.Kennedy writes on philosophical-theological issues for Catholic Insight. He is professor emeritus of philosophy and has written or edited eleven hooks on medieval philosophy.