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Steve Skojec, Fr. James Martin, Fr. Thomas Rausch, and a Crux Reporter Walk Into a Bar

2015-10-26_17-51-42

OK, not really. But we did all participate in a panel discussion on the Synod which aired on public radio today. I was a guest on the Public Radio Internation program, To The Point. Host Warren Olney led us through a number of questions about the just-concluded Ordinary Synod of the Family in Rome.

As you might have expected, I stood alone in my skepticism over the synodal proceedings and outcome.

You can now hear the recorded audio of the radio program online.

There were a number of points brought up by the two priests on the program, some of which were troubling. Fr. James Martin, responding to my defense of Catholic teaching on Holy Communion being reserved to those in a state of grace, said something about how Jesus gave Communion to Judas at the Last Supper.

We knew that would be an issue that would come up sooner or later, which is why Dr. Michael Sirilla and I addressed this question (and not a few others) in the latest episode of the 1P5 Podcast. (You can find our discussion of Judas and the reception of communion beginning at time marker 42:30.)

39 thoughts on “Steve Skojec, Fr. James Martin, Fr. Thomas Rausch, and a Crux Reporter Walk Into a Bar”

  1. Hi Steve,

    I’m not going to listen either to the radio program or the podcast, but since Judas was mentioned, I want to give you a brief quotation about him and Holy Communion from Houghton’s Mitre and Crook:

    Dare I admit that I am terrified of sacrilegious Communions? In this diocese I have seen large numbers of communicants in parishes where the priests assure me that confessions are few. I am forced to believe that your consciences are clear but is it because you have ceased to examine them? I wish to remind you that Our Lord is more concerned over His sacramental than His physical body. He prayed for those who crucified Him: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Of Judas He said: “It were better had he never been born.” And what had Judas done? At the Last Supper he had received Communion unworthily: “The morsel once given, Satan entered unto him.” The difference is that Judas, unlike the soldiers but like us, knew what he was doing. Thus, the more frequent your Communions, the more frequent should be your confessions.

    Bishop Forester’s Pastoral Letter on Penance

    Reply
  2. Jesus and Fr. Martin are fairly distinguishable,

    One has prerogatives that the other lacks.

    Put on your thinking cap and figure out which one.

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  3. Me neither. I can’t stand to listen to heterodox priests and bishops in this kind of arena. Way too frustrating. But I appreciate the quote below from Mitre and Crook. I had not thought of that. Thanks.

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  4. The funny thing is, the Rev. Martin really doesn’t believe in his Judas analogy. He recognizes it as a cheap debater’s trick. Why? I doubt he uses it as part of his pastoral repertoire toward those in adulterous unions. Or the other assorted sins modern Jesuits wink at these days. Maybe he flings it at those who use too much A/C…

    Otherwise, calling people “Judas” wouldn’t be very accompanying-ish, or smelling-like-the-sheep-who-keep-rolling-in-their-own-spoor whatever the current pontifical buzzword/metaphor for affirming people in their okayness happens to be.

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  5. From Apologetics UK: “To summarize, we can place Judas at the Passover, and at the table, and at his dipping of the sop. But we should note that sop-dipping is not part of the Lord’s Supper/Communion!
    But we cannot place Judas as eating or drinking the communion elements.
    It was after the meal, and the foot washing, that Jesus instituted the
    Lord’s Supper; Judas was no longer there by then. The remainder of
    the apostles listened to some more preaching from Jesus and then sung a
    hymn and went to the Mount of Olives.”
    http://www.ukapologetics.net/11/judascommunion.htm

    Reply
      • This priest was supposedly was a spiritual advisor/friend to Philip Seymour Hoffman before his overdose. Can’t help but think if Mr. Hoffman had had some genuine Catholic spiritual guidance — something it’s highly unlikely he got from this guy — he’d have had a chance. I was a fan of Hoffman, so I have a grudge.

        Reply

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