Yesterday, Archbishop Wester celebrated Mass for the members of this year’s Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) Assembly. It is likely no coincidence that the Gospel reading was Matthew 7:15-20, which begins, “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.’” Sadly, His Excellency gave no such warning Tuesday night as gnostic-leaning Franciscan, Fr. Richard Rohr, denied the inerrancy of Scripture, denied the doctrine of infallibility, denied that the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of the Truth, and proclaimed the evolution of doctrine. Abp. Wester was in the conference hall for Fr. Rohr’s talk, as the picture below is of him entering the conference hall.
Gnosticism is an ancient heresy that denied the Incarnation because it professed the false belief that all matter was evil. While Fr. Rohr doesn’t profess this belief, much of his ideas are sprinkled with gnostic teachings. For instance, the gnostics didn’t deal with sin so much as ignorance. This is a theme that runs throughout Fr. Rohr’s speech. Another gnostic idea is that one must obtain secret knowledge in order to achieve salvation, and again, this theme is heard all through his talk.
In a previous article, the Lepanto Institute profiled many of the serious issues with Fr. Rohr, some of which are the following:
- Fr. Rohr violated Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia, #30 by receiving and distributing “communion” at a Protestant service.
- Fr. Rohr co-presided at a “commitment ceremony” between two lesbians.
- Fr. Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation hosted a workshop inspired by Starhawk, a self-proclaimed witch and neo-pagan practitioner of goddess-worship.
- Fr. Rohr was identified as having prayed to “Mother God” in Mass.
Despite Fr. Rohr’s documented history of violating Church teaching, he is still a priest “in good standing” and currently has faculties in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. In fact, during his speech to the AUSCP, Fr. Rohr specifically mentioned that he had always had “Cardinal-bishop protectors wherever [he] has been, including our wonderful Archbishop Wester, here.”
//youtu.be/w0AqLmbx5KQ
Fr. Rohr’s speech was a meandering conglomeration of gnostic ideologies and political rhetoric. Amidst his insults to traditional Catholics, political conservatives, the Trump administration, and those who believe in the fullness of the Church’s absolute teachings, he calls for those in attendance not to take sides, not allowing themselves to humiliate ‘the other side,’ and not to demonize or scapegoat ‘the other side.’
We’ll post the speech in full at the bottom of this article, so you can here it for yourself, but specific highlights from the speech include the following:
- Beginning at 19:15 of the video, Fr. Rohr claims that it was Protestants who “decided that the Bible was inerrant.” He goes on to say that, “The Bible might be inerrant spiritually, but historically, scientifically, culturally … it’s a mass of contradictions from beginning to end. Now, I won’t offend Catholic by that because Catholics don’t know very much about Scripture.”
- Shortly after this, beginning at 19:53, Fr. Rohr denies the doctrine of infallibility of the pope, claiming that it was an “invention” of Church hierarchs. He said, “Around the same period that they declared the Bible to be inerrant, INERRANT! We declare the pope to be infallible.” NOTE: This statement elicits laughs throughout the audience. He continues: “We both went on nineteen hundred years without an inerrant bible … So, they said ‘sola scriptura,’ with a very limited understanding of how a Sacred Story is communicated, and we decided that all truth could be found by making the pope infallible. Might they say, ‘well, what did we do for the first nineteen hundred years? Were none of those people Christians? Were none of them Catholics because they didn’t have an infallible pope?”
- At 26:15, Fr. Rohr claims that Christianity, including Catholicism, is a “religion of white privilege.”
- At 33:40, Fr. Rohr twists the writings of the mystics and Scripture to assert that true knowledge of God comes from an “awakened spirit”
- At 38:48, Fr. Rohr claims that people on the right are united, not because of what they believe, but because of what they’re against, and he suggests that it is a unity against people like himself, those in the room that he is talking to, and that the right holds together in order to bring in “funds.”
- At 39:25, Fr. Rohr claims that the “sin of the world” that Our Blessed Lord came to reveal is “ignorant killing; ignorant attacking anybody else.”
- After spending over 40 minutes telling the audience that they can’t know anything that is true except by an interior experience, Fr. Rohr proposes a slippery idea that truth can come from many sources, such as Hindus, Buddhists, or Protestants, suggesting that Catholics should be comfortable reading false sources in search of Truth.
Here is the entire talk for those who can stomach it.
//youtu.be/U86tF_Q4v3w
Why is this man still a priest? Why hasn’t he been defrocked and excommunicated as a heretic?
He just a symptom of the REAL GRAVE condition that has permeated Holy Mother Church.
He must repent and recant, or believe God will send hin to a very special place in hell for his grave blasphemy.
One question, Why is this yo-yo still a priest ?
Because Bishops don’t have enough guts to get rid of him.
I find it interesting that the archbishop is not in clerics in the photo. Does he not want to be identified or visible?
Is that how a Catholic Archbishop dresses in the US?
So very sad, guess he must be ashamed of his position!!!
How can this priest be allowed to say these things, that are against our religion?.
He should be defrock.
O dear Lord! Emma Bonino is one ‘of the forgotten greats’, and this priest probably has more ‘discernment ‘ than Cardinal Sarah.
What a time to be a practising Catholic
If the USCCB does nothing about these traitors to their priesthood then why should they expect the Faithful to follow their leadership??
If the USCCB does nothing about these traitors to their priesthood then why should they expect the Faithful to follow their leadership??
Fr. Rohr always has aways put me in mind of Martin Luther, i.e., creating a religion that he alone can direct and manage as the soul source of reference. The real problem is the number of followers he has in the pews. If you look at Fr. Rohr’s videos on YouTube the comments will make you feel really bad – they just fall all over him. It’s the same old story, lack of Catechesis on the part of his followers – most of his fans that I know simply don’t really understand the Catholic faith nor can they really explain Fr. Rohr’s teaching on such things as the Cosmic Christ.
We need to pray for these people and not take the rhetoric as an insult – other than praying for them anything else simply takes us away from centering on Christ in our daily lives.
Cotton
About a year back a Catholic acquaintance advised by email that she was attending a R. Rohr study group. As I had heard some pretty dubious stuff about his writings, I emailed the person in what I thought was the most gentle way possible mentioning that some of his writings were very questionable and “just to be careful.” Well, the email response from her was like a slap in the face and I was told in no uncertain terms to mind my own business. Oh well, sometimes there is no good way to talk about a guy like Rohr and it would have been better just to come out and say what was on my mind. Either way the email response would have been the same.
The church needs to drain the swamp starting with the pope on down,get rid of the homo priests, stop getting involved in world politics, give some of the weakth to the poor, find another drum to beat besides the abortion one,turn back to jesus as the center ,
Rohr appears to follow the agenda of the dissident group, faux “American ‘Catholic’ Church” condemned as heretical and not Catholic. So, why is he assuming identity in the Roman Catholic Church, and why is he operating under cloak of legitimacy without censure from the USCCB and/or the local diocese he operates out of?
This doesn’t come as a surprise to me given the fact that we have ‘the head honcho, the Alpha male Wolfe at the Vatican. Nothing surprises me anymore.’
Once the Catholic church goes, so goes the World. We are seeing this played out right before our very eyes.
Lord Jesus, please come quickly and save your church, the Barque of Peter for she continues to sink!
No surprise . . . He’s just another sick, malformed ‘priest’ who’s infiltrated Holy Mother Church. The faithful need to keep exposing these wolves and calling them out including their ‘bishop’ bosses (mob bosses).
Judging by the excerpts from the article this false Catholic erroneously believes truth must be centered upon radicalism, subjectivism and situationism. This is neo-modernism and presentism based on bad theology. If he wants to say and believe anything regarding religion he should stop pretending to be Catholic and become a unitarian universalist.
“Fr.” Rohr is from Cincinnati, OH and back in the 1960’s he was a newly ordained priest (OFM) when he made the Curssillo at St. Anthony’s National Shrine in the same city. I also made the same Cursillo weekend and, as I remember, he was a very prolific speaker when he gave testimonies during the Cursillo weekend. By the time the weekend was over, he gained much popularity among all the attendees. Some time after that, he formed a parish cluster called “New Jerusalem” at a suburban Cincinnati parish. As I recall, it was considered more as a cult following than a true parish.
Also, during this time period, he was a very sought after speaker at many Cincinnati and surrounding area parishes.
It amazes me that he has turned out to be the kind of “priest” ( and I use that term very loosely) that he is today.
I think that if there are more priests like Fr Richard Rohr and Pope Francis in the Catholic Church, the church will open its eyes to stop being an institution but a spiritual body that nurtures it’s followers to see God in true light and not as a “We are the sole holders of the Truth” and all other faith traditions are wrong. Even Jesus said, “why do you call me good, only God is good”. If that is what Our Lord Jesus Christ whom I worship and adore could say that and he spoke the truth, why should we in the Catholic Church continue to remain ignorant and close doors to people of other faith traditions or no faith who also love God and love everyone in an inclusive manner…non-dual thinking is all that Fr Richard a Rohr is speaking about. Love without bias. Love as Jesus loved, the Jew and the Gentile, the believer and the unbeliever. Jesus did not love because you followed him. He loved because that is who He was and continues to be. The Catholic Church as some of us understand it, must get off its moral high ground. Listen to Fr Richard Rohr because he speaks the truth and the truth is sometimes a very bitter pill to swallow.
Rowena….. better… MUCH BETTER to keep your eyes on THE PRIZE…. JESUS CHRIST !!! Please STOP
following human man made ideas given by those who just want miss guided attention! Their fall will come. Do Not be apart of it! The Church is suppose to be the Moral Authority for the world… much as the Israelites were before Christ came in the flesh. The NEW Jerusalem is The Catholic Church. Sadly many do Not Know their Faith Handed on to us by Our LORD HIMSELF. Much in part due to unfaithful clergy who ” just want to be loved” & seeking love in all the wrong places. RUN… RUN from those who would drown you in emotional flowery words that mislead hate & kill CHRIST.
Richard is like many of the heretics over the last 2000 year who were wonderful-sounding, articulate, charismatic, cult leaders. Richard speaks to the soul but he also soothes the ego by erasing the lines of personal responsibility and holiness to which Jesus calls us. Too bad, because I think he is brilliant and has some excellent ideas about prayer and our relationship with God that are transformative and still within the teachings of Church. But, as with all cult leaders, his ego gets the better of him as he continually, though unnecessarily, goes off the reservation. For instance, why he has to falsely characterize what the pope’s infallability refers to just so he can make fun of it to an adoring, laughing, uninformed audience, is proof he is reliving the pride of Adam, along with his predecessor heretics.
Thanks Cotton! I think you give some of the best and most mature commentary i have seen on this post so far. Yes, i am of this generation, too… and the real culprits to our lacking in Knowing our Faith are the ones that should be focused on – vs the innocently ignorant victims… people comment here like those who appreciate much of the good teaching Fr. Rohr gives are Theologians and just being rebellious. In my 20’s, now in my 50’s, i was enamored by him as well, and i felt at that time of my journey that he was giving me the more radical and rare teachings on the faith- Living it out, vs what at that age looked like Catholics practicing an hour of magic every week, and just participating in the sinful world the other 6 days… We DO have a Huge task of education and catechesis upon us in these times! I Hope everyone that is Criticizing so intensely will put just even half of that wasted energy into Loving those who are yearning to Know GOD Better, and need you’s to step up to Teaching and being part of the Answers…!