Sunday, October 19, 2014

Father Brian O'Toole engages in legalism

Father Brian O'Toole on left
Most of you are aware of the controversy caused by a Synod document (which has since been rewritten because of its flawed theology) which made the asinine claim that we should "accept and value" the homosexual orientation and not simply the homosexual person.  I explained here why this load of bovine scatology is unacceptable.

Father Brian O'Toole, the "Pastor" of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish in Gardner, Massachusetts, disagrees.  This intellectual giant and lover of souls assured the laity in attendance at the 10:30 AM Mass at Sacred Heart Parish (also in Gardner-  the parishes have merged) that Pope Francis is only trying to be more "pastoral" and implied that opposition to the original draft of the Synod document in question is rooted in Pharisaism, in hypocrisy.  He used the word "legalism." Fr. O'Toole implied that orthodox Catholics who actually accept Our Lord's exhortation to, "Go and sin no more," are legalistic in the same way that the Pharisees were with their 613 "rules" (he mistakenly put the number at 618.

Ironically, it is Father O'Toole who has succumbed to legalism without realizing it.

Dr. Germain Grisez, in a talk entitled "Legalism, Moral Truth and Pastoral Practice" given at a 1990 symposium held in Philadelphia, had this to say:

"Theologians and pastors who dissent from received Catholic teaching think they are rejecting legalism because they set aside what they think are mere rules in favor of what they feel are more reasonable standards. Their views are thoroughly imbued with legalism, however. For dissenters think of valid moral norms as rules formulated to protect relevant values. Some even make their legalism explicit by denying that there is any necessary connection between moral goodness (which they restrict to the transcendental level of a love with no specific content) and right action (which they isolate at the categorical level of inner-worldly behavior). But whether their legalism is explicit or not, all the dissenters hold that specific moral norms admit exceptions whenever, all things considered, making an exception seems the best - or least bad - thing to do. Most dissenters also think that specific moral norms that were valid in times past can be inappropriate today, and so they regard the Church's contested moral teachings as outdated rules that the Church should change."


Dr. Grisez reminded his listeners at the Philadelphia symposium that, "During the twentieth century, pastoral treatment of repetitious sins through weakness - especially masturbation, homosexual behavior, premarital sex play and contraception within marriage - grew increasingly mild. Pastors correctly recognized that weakness and immaturity can lessen such sins’ malice. Thinking legalistically, they did not pay enough attention to the sins’ inherent badness and harmfulness, and they developed the idea that people can freely choose to do something that they regard as a grave matter without committing a mortal sin. This idea presupposes that in making choices people are not responsible precisely for choosing what they choose. That presupposition makes sense within a legalistic framework, because lawgivers can take into account mitigating factors and limit legal culpability. But it makes no sense for morality correctly understood, because moral responsibility in itself is not something attached to moral acts but simply is moral agents’ self-determination in making free choices. Repetitious sinners through weakness also were handicapped by their own legalism. Not seeing the inherent badness of their sins, they felt that they were only violating inscrutable rules. When temptation grew strong, they had little motive to resist, especially because they could easily go to confession and have the violation fixed. Beginning on Saturday they were holy; by Friday they were again sinners. This cyclic sanctity robbed many people’s lives of Christian dynamism and contributed to the dry rot in the Church that became manifest in the 1960s, when the waves of sexual permissiveness battered her."

Dr. Grisez then went on to explain that, "Pastors free of legalism will teach the faithful how sin makes moral requirements seem to be alien impositions, help them see through this illusion, and encourage them to look forward to and experience the freedom of God’s children, who rejoice in the fruit of the Spirit and no longer experience the constraint of law..They will explain that while one sometimes must choose contrary to positive laws and cannot always meet their requirements, one always can choose in truth and abide in love. They will acknowledge the paradox of freedom - that we seem unable to resist freely choosing to sin - the paradox that Saint Paul neatly formulates: ‘I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate’ (Romans 7:15). But they also will proclaim the liberating power of grace, and help the faithful learn by experience that when one comes to understand the inherent evil of sin and intrinsic beauty of goodness, enjoys the support of a community of faith whose members bear one another’s burdens, begs God for His help, and confidently expects it, then the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead raises him from his sins, and he discovers that with the Spirit’s grace one can consistently resist sin and choose life."

I nominate Father Brian O'Toole for this year's Walter Duranty Award.

8 comments:

Eric Levan said...

Heard the crazy homily. Fr. O'Toole comes across as a tool.

When is the crap going to stop? How many more good Catholics have to leave our insane parishes before the craziness stops?

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-faces-key-test-vote-divorcees-gays-050024558.html

Anonymous said...

When a priest refuses to offer sound doctrine and disrespects the souls entrusted to his care, it is time boycott the parish.

No doctrine...no dollars!

Rita Melanson said...

Father O'Toole owes the parishioners at Sacred Heart an apology. His homily was both divisive and morally offensive. He said that we shouldn't create an "Us vs. Them" atmosphere and then proceeded to suggest that there are two kinds of people, one kind (those who insist on moral norms) being Pharisaical.

Father seems to reject Jesus's Law of Love, "If you love Me, keep My Commandments," and seems to view these Commandments as mere "rules" - akin to the 613 rules of the Pharisees- which are arbitrary and which may be changed or even rejected at will.

Perhaps it's time for Father to acknowledge that he has already left the Church in his heart and mind and remains in the Church only in a bodily manner (Lumen Gentium, 14) and to become an Episcopalian where they roll the dice every week to determine what they will "believe."

E. G. Lewis said...

It seems as if our only hope is the biological solution. Our Protestant-Catholic pastor retired a year ago. We have a new priest who's determined to maintain the sanctity of the Mass. Guess what, no more "plays" to illustrate the Gospel instead of a boring old reading, a few weeks ago the tabernacle came out the corner where it'd been shoved and reappeared in the center of the altar, there's even talk of introducing chant, Latin, and incense to the weekly Mass and all the altar servers have been given a temporary leave until they're retrained. It's not the TLM, but it's progress.

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

I translated from Dutch a few small excerpts of messages from Jesus to a chosen soul in Belgium, she was a spiritual child of Padre Pio and had 24/7 a priest administered to her by the church to watch her every step.
In 1982 => excerpt : “the devil rules over My Church, he has dominion over all and over the whole world. Stay true and faithful to Me, stay true and faithful to MY Church, for know that as long as the Liturgy is not restored, the world will be flooded - and this is already going on - with disasters, wars and epidemics. Pray much for my priests and consecrated souls, many of them turn their backs on Me and My Holy Mother. I love them though and am yet willing to forgive them, because : am I not a Merciful God, am I not a Good God? But I also am a Just and Righteous God and that is how it should be : be good, be nice, but be just and righteous.......

In 1977 : the times of the catacombs are returning ...
the punishments : floodings, earthquakes, fires already started
Jesus also spoke about the schism in the Church , the Anti-Church and the modernistic Church and about an
important event that would bring the schism into the open.
Riki

Samantha said...

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-purge-will-hit-new-levels-they-know.html?m=1


The hatred will lead to a purge. It's coming. And the haters, like the divisive warmongers Fr. O'Toole, will lead the way.

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