ON THE FORUMS

 View Forums

 FREE Membership

 FREE Newsletters

OUR SPONSORS

Please support our sponsors

CATHOLIC QUOTES

 Encyclopedia RSS

 Catholic Encyclopedia

SPECIAL OFFERS

S  i  d  e  b  a  r

The Faith according to McBrien

By Ronald J. Rychlak

This Rock Volume 16, Number 6   July-August 2005     Frontispiece By Karl Keating   Letters   Habemus Papam! By Joseph Previtali   Andiamo Avanti By Matthew Bunson   Feminine Genius By Mary Jo Anderson   Dealing with Dissent: Fr. Richard McBrien By Ronald J. Rychlak   The Faith according to McBrien By Ronald J. Rychlak   Winning Converts (In and Out of Prison) By Russell L. Ford   Step by Step What's Wrong with Contraception, Anyway? By Kenneth J. Howell   Fathers Know Best Confession   Brass Tacks What Exactly Do You Mean by Sola Scriptura? By Jimmy Akin   Damascus Road Women's Ordination Was Non-Negotiable By Fr. Peter Geldard with Joanna Bogle   Reviews   Quick Questions    Subscribe    Permissions

In his books, other writings, and in the popular press, Fr. Richard McBrien has advanced numerous positions that are clearly at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Among the most controversial are the following:

• He denied that Christ founded the Catholic Church as we know it.¹
  
• He wrote that the sacraments were not directly instituted by Christ.²
  
• He said that "the idea that the Catholic Church is the one true religion no longer exists."³
  
• He depicted Christ as if he did not always know that he was the Son of God.⁴
  
• He questioned the virginal conception of Jesus⁵ and the perpetual virginity of Mary.⁶
  
• He wrote that the dogmatic definitions of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary are not part of the essential core of the faith.⁷
  
• He endorsed philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s assessment of original sin as "a rationalized myth about the mystery of evil."⁸
  
• He encouraged people to ignore Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, when the bishop warned his flock that they could not join certain anti-Catholic organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Catholics for a Free Choice, the Hemlock Society, and the Masons.⁹
  
• He was one of the original signers of Fr. Charles Curran’s Statement of Dissent against Humanae Vitae, and he has argued that this reassertion of the historical Christian position on contraception was fundamentally wrong teaching.¹⁰
  
• He said the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses but are the products of the later Christian communities who invented miracles in order to convey certain theological meanings and establish the divinity of Christ.¹¹
  
• He questioned the doctrine that the sacrament of ordination brings about an intrinsic change in the priest’s relationship to Christ and the Church.¹²
  
  

  ---

  1. McBrien, Catholicism, 798, 577.
  2. Ibid., 789–99.
  3. Canadian Register, September 25, 1971; see also Likoudis, "Richard McBrien’s Heretical Teaching Concerning the Church," Serviam Newsletter, November 1994.
  4. McBrien, Catholicism, 551–53; see also McBrien, Who Is a Catholic? (Tempe, Ariz.: Dimension Books, 1971).
  5. McBrien, Catholicism, 542.
  6. Ibid., 542, 1081–83, 1252; see also NCCB, "Fr. McBrien’s Catholicism."
  7. McBrien, Catholicism, 1102–04.
  8. Ibid., 185, 198.
  9. Domenico Bettinelli, Jr., "Excommunications in the Heartland," Catholic World Report, May 1996, 28.
  10. Barbara Kralis, "Attempts to Sabotage Catholic Voters," Illinois Leader, November 2, 2004.
  11. McBrien, Catholicism, 341–43, 417–18.
  12. Ibid., 866-67; see Likoudis, "New edition."