Did you know that the Diocese of Owensboro Department of Religious Education has a Media Center which includes a library of video tapes that you can use in your parish or school?  You can even order them online by emailing the Director of Audio Visuals.  There are over 2000 selections to choose from.  Here is a sampling of what's available along with descriptions as they appear in the diocesan catalogue.  Below each video description is included some additional information about the people in the videos:

"(Fr.  Richard) Rohr is founder and director of the Albuquerque Center for Contemplation and Action, a gathering place for heterodox, dissident teachers.  Visitors to Rohr's center include:  Matthew Fox, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Joan Chittister, Daniel Berrigan, Edwina Gateley, and Bishop Raymond Lucker."
~Mary Jo Anderson, Crisis Magazine " The Enneagram - Psychic Babble"

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a ruling on Fr. Anthony de Mello that stated that his teachings are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.  Here it is:

NOTIFICATION CONCERNING THE WRITINGS OF FR.  ANTHONY DE MELLO, SJ

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
June 24, 1998

The Indian Jesuit priest, Father Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) is well known due to his numerous publications which, translated into various languages, have been widely circulated in many countries of the world, though not all of these texts were authorized by him for publication.  His works, which almost always take the form of brief stories, contain some valid elements of oriental wisdom.  These can be helpful in achieving self-mastery, in breaking the bonds and feelings that keep us from being free, and in approaching with serenity the various vicissitudes of life.  Especially in his early writings, Father de Mello, while revealing the influence of Buddhist and Taoist spiritual currents, remained within the lines of Christian spirituality.  In these books, he treats the different kinds of prayer: petition, intercession and praise, as well as contemplation of the mysteries of the life of Christ, etc. 

But already in certain passages in these early works and to a greater degree in his later publications, one notices a progressive distancing from the essential contents of the Christian faith.  In place of the revelation which has come in the person of Jesus Christ, he substitutes an intuition of God without form or image, to the point of speaking of God as a pure void.  To see God it is enough to look directly at the world.  Nothing can be said about God; the only knowing is unknowing.  To pose the question of his existence is already nonsense.  This radical apophaticism leads even to a denial that the Bible contains valid statements about God.  The words of Scripture are indications which serve only to lead a person to silence.  In other passages, the judgment on sacred religious texts, not excluding the Bible, becomes even more severe: they are said to prevent people from following their own common sense and cause them to become obtuse and cruel.  Religions, including Christianity, are one of the major obstacles to the discovery of truth.  This truth, however, is never defined by the author in its precise contents.  For him, to think that the God of one's own religion is the only one is simply fanaticism. "God" is considered as a cosmic reality, vague and omnipresent; the personal nature of God is ignored and in practice denied.

Father de Mello demonstrates an appreciation for Jesus, of whom he declares himself to be a "disciple." But he considers Jesus as a master alongside others.  The only difference from other men is that Jesus is "awake" and fully free, while others are not.  Jesus is not recognized as the Son of God, but simply as the one who teaches us that all people are children of God. In addition, the author's statements on the final destiny of man give rise to perplexity.  At one point, he speaks of a "dissolving" into the impersonal God, as salt dissolves in water.  On various occasions, the question of destiny after death is declared to be irrelevant; only the present life should be of interest.  With respect to this life, since evil is simply ignorance, there are no objective rules of morality.  Good and evil are simply mental evaluations imposed upon reality.

Consistent with what has been presented, one can understand how, according to the author, any belief or profession of faith whether in God or in Christ cannot but impede one's personal access to truth.  The Church, making the word of God in Holy Scripture into an idol, has ended up banishing God from the temple.  She has consequently lost the authority to teach in the name of Christ.

With the present Notification, in order to protect the good of the Christian faithful, this Congregation declares that the above-mentioned positions are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved the present Notification, adopted in the Ordinary Session of this Congregation, and ordered its publication.

Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 24, 1998, the Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist.

+ Joseph Card.  Ratzinger, Prefect

+ Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B.,
Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli
Secretary

What are Fr. McBrien's Catholic beliefs?  See the following:

• Collected Articles on Dissenter Richard McBrien from Credo of Buffalo.
• Comments on Richard McBrien, 'Catholicism', 3rd Edition by Fr. William Most.  From EWTN.

Vatican Notification on Nugent/Grammick: http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/dissent/nugent.htm

"In Saginaw, Michigan, under the leadership of Bishop Kenneth Untener (another former seminary rector), parishes are already commonly run by nuns and 'lay pastors.' One Michigan priest put it this way: 'Bishop Untener doesn’t think he needs priests.  One guy comes to consecrate the hosts for a whole month and that’s it for the duties of the priest.' (It is instructive to note that Saginaw, with a Catholic population of 140,000, has averaged only one priestly ordination a year during the past decade.)"
~Michael Rose, " A Self-Imposed Shortage", Catholic World Report.

"In 1980, Father Untener faced a firestorm of controversy when it was announced he was to be consecrated a bishop.  According to accounts published in the Detroit Free Press and National Catholic Register at the time, he was called to Rome twice within days to answer questions about a program on human sexuality he established at his seminary.  On his return trip to Rome, Father Untener brought Cardinal Dearden and Bishop Imesch to help defend him.  More than a dozen priests in the archdiocese have told Catholic World Report that homosexual seminarians were comfortable at the seminary during Untener's tenure, and some were ordained priests."
~Jay McNally, Catholic World Report.

"Bishop Kenneth Untener, who was present, was once a regular at 'Time Consultants' radical feminist conferences.  He is also a member of Pax Christi and Call To Action."
~Our Lady's Warriors.

There's that word again... "patriarchal".  In feminist-speak that is short for "women oppressive, male dominated" and usually used to describe the Church when referring to the male only priesthood.  The second video suggests a rather new-age approach to ecology... "violence done by humans to the earth", and "treat the earth as sacred", and "wounded creation".  Maybe Rosemary's a Franciscan?  Probably not.

• Rosemary Radford Ruether unmasked.

"From Biblical tradition to historical sources, Ruether now takes on Christology.  Rejecting the classical notion that the human soul is radically fallen, alienated from God, and unable to make any move to reconcile itself with God, therefore needing an outside mediator to do the work of reconciliation for us, Ruether defines the human self through its primary identity as image of God.  This original goodness and communion with its divine ground of being continue to be our true nature.  Evil is defined as those structures which victimize others.  We become alienated from our true potential but experiences of consciousness raising, starting with the experiences of the most disprivileged among us, convert us back to our true selves and enable us to reconstruct personal and social relations.  Ruether suggests that an external redeemer is not needed, since we have not lost our true selves rooted in God.  But grace events of loving outreach from others and shocks of rampant evil put us in touch with our authentic selves and set us on the path of struggle for just and loving relations."
~"Rev." Maggie McNaught, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto, CA, in an article titled: "Theological Dialogue: Rosemary Ruether"

Patriarchy again...

If, somehow, you don't already know about Call to Action, you can find out more here, here, or here.  Or you can read about CTA, Joan Chittister, Rosemary Ruether, and Cardinal Mahony all in the same article here.

"Sister" Joan Chittister is a radical feminist and an activist for women's ordination, the abolition of priestly celibacy, a frequent speaker at Call to Action conferences, and an enthusiastic supporter of the group calling themselves "Catholics for A Free Choice", a dissident militantly pro-abortion group.

See if these insights of Joan "touch your soul":

• Other Voices: Pope Joan? by Donna Steichen, author of "Ungodly Rage".

Fr.  Brennan is another regular Call to Action speaker.

"At CTA's 1993 convention Fr. Patrick Brennan from the Archdiocese of Chicago said, 'Our church is going through a major paradigm shift.  We are experiencing... the death-kick, the final days of the last medieval monarchy.' He called for 're-imagining the parish' as a small faith community with priests and laity equal, where the 'role of the presbyter or the priest is going to be radically changed...  [where] parishes will be run by Directors of Parish Life or Directors of Pastoral Life.  Most of them will be lay folks.' This is the hope for which they work —a priestless, doctrine-less Church made up of small encounter groups."
~Les Femmes Newsletter

Ex-priest Anthony Padovano is well known as the founder of CORPUS, a group advocating married and women priests.  For a good summary of Mr. Padovano's activities against the Church, click here.

Padovano defends abortion in a book review on the Catholics for A Free Choice website here.

Fr. Michael Crosby is another frequent Call to Action speaker.

He gave the Keynote Address at 1997 CTA conference in Detroit: http://www.cta-usa.org/rescrosby.html

"Michael Crosby's talk, 'Is the Church One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, or One, Roman, Curial and Apodictic' was perhaps the most dynamic and provocative of the conference.  Michael Crosby pulled no punches in showing that the Roman Curia has distorted the four marks of the church and turned it into something very different from what Jesus intended.  Father Crosby made clear, however, that the curia is necessary for the functioning of the church; he disagrees with the way in which the curia presently operates, as a 'third body' between the pope and the bishops."
~Fr. Eugene B. Brown, "Call to Action: who will speak if we don't?", From the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm's website.

"SOME CATHOLICS TURNED OUT TO PROTEST the appearance of Father Michael Crosby at Holy Rosary Church in Woodland on February 12th and 13th.  Father Crosby is a celebrated Call to Action and We Are Church lecturer and the author of, The Dysfunctional Church.  Shunning the traditional Roman collar, Father Crosby showed up at Holy Rosary in a blue blazer and tan slacks, over which he wore his vestments for the Mass.  Protesters were inspired to turn out against Father Crosby because of his recent statements about the Church, in particular, that practicing homosexuals should be allowed to receive the Eucharist, and that the Church is "crazy" in teaching that mortal sin will keep one from heaven."
~April 2000 News, from the San Francisco Faith

James Carroll, another ex-priest, wrote a book titled Constantine's Sword: the Church and the Jews.  Time Magazine said: "a new book claims that Christianity, not just bad Christians, is to blame for the persecution of the Jews." (Our Lady's Warriors)

Kathleen Hughes is a Call to Action conference speaker and women's ordination advocate.

"Sister" Fran Ferder is yet another Call to Action speaker.  She also wrote a Quixote Center book titled Called to Break Bread?  A Psychological Investigation of 100 Women Who Feel Called to the Priesthood in the Catholic Church. Read about it here.

Cardinal Mahony's Gather Faithfully Together - A Guide for Sunday Mass has been roundly criticized by many faithful Catholics concerned about the peculiar innovations contained within, it's apparent lack of Catholic spirituality, and disdain for tradition.

Here is...

• ...what Adoremus thinks about it,
• ...what an article in Homiletic and Pastoral Review says,
• ...what an article from "The Wanderer" says,
• ...what The St.  Joseph Foundation says,
• ...what Catholic World Report says,
• ...what St.  Catherine's Review says,
• ...what Mother Angelica thought of it.

The Common Ground Initiative is a creation of the same people involved with Call to Action.  A good explanation of the CGI can be found here.

More information on Call to Action and the Common Ground Initiative.

What can I say about this except for the fact that our own American Bishops have forbidden any type of dance within the Sacred Liturgy.  See the Vatican Notitiae declaration on Dance in the Liturgy here.

Anybody surprised?