Steve Skojec

In Australia, Arius returns:

“No human being can ever be God, and Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that,” Bathurst priest Fr Peter Dresser argues in a booklet on sale in several Catholic parishes, including South Brisbane’s St Mary’s.

“This whole matter regarding Jesus being God … not only does violence to my own intelligence, but must be a sticking point for millions of people trying to make some kind of sense of the Christian religion … No human being can ever be God, and Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that,” Fr Dresser of Coonamble argues, a report in The Australian says.

Of course, not content to simply deny the 1683-year-old concept of the Homoousios, other priests from the area like eradicating the lines between the ordained and baptismal priesthood:

The Australian says St Mary’s priests, Fr Peter Kennedy and Fr Terry Fitzpatrick have also canvassed the idea of Catholics celebrating the Eucharist in their homes without a priest.

A discussion paper handed to parishioners by Fr Kennedy and written by Charles Kelliher said the lack of priests in the 21st century should prompt the faithful to look back to the first 200 years of the cCurch [sic], before the priesthood and the Church hierarchy came into existence.

“Like the house church of the first 200 years, it is the community of believers who can concelebrate and bring about the presence of Christ in the eucharistic celebration. Let us embark on the journey as a community of believers in the modern day house church.

“The community of believers would call forth one of its members to preside at this memorial service. This person could be either man or woman, married or single … with no special designation except being chosen or called forth to leadership by the community,” the discussion paper argues.

These guys must not have gotten very good grades in history. What’s creepier is if you combine the neo-arianism of the first priest with the nonsense of the latter two, and wind up with an ambiguous community of believers who like to bring about the presence of the (non-divine) Christ in their midst, for reasons I have yet to figure out.

Why do these people even bother staying Catholic? There is nothing compelling enough in their version of the faith that would make me willing to get up for Mass on Sunday, restrain myself from bumping off some people who really deserve it, or avoid subscribing to Maxim.

If I’m going to make those kinds of sacrifices, I demand something substantive in return. Is that so much to ask?