It’s Like the Dark Ages All Over Again!

In a move that’s bizarre, archaic and ritualistic even by Catholic Church standards, last week the Diocese of San Bernardino, CA took the unusual move of convicting ex-priest Ned Reidy of heresy and schism.

Reidy left the Roman Catholic Church in 1999 to found a new denomination, the Catholic Ecumenical Communion, in Southern California. The new church holds services similar to those in the Roman Catholic Church, but with several key differences — differences the Catholic Church found to be so unacceptable that only a heresy and schism conviction would suffice.

So, what was Reidy’s Catholic Ecumenical Communion church doing that the Catholic Church found to be so threatening? (Hint: There is more than one correct answer here.)


A) Ordaining women as priests
B) Recognizing same-sex unions
C) Permitting divorce
D) Allowing for the use of contraception
E) Allowing priests to marry
F) Not recognizing the Vatican as the church’s ultimate authority
G) Shuffling pedophile priests from one church to the other so they won’t get caught


ANSWERS
A, B, C, D, E and F. Reidy’s new church is doing just about everything in opposition to the Catholic Church, EXCEPT for harboring pedophiles.

Reidy, who now heads more than two dozen parishes nationwide, doesn’t consider himself or his churches to be Roman Catholic, and therefore was unfazed when he received the letter notifying him of the Catholic Church’s decision. “What they sent me was a 30-page document, and not once did they ever quote the words of Jesus,” he said.