Posted on 07/20/2010 7:29:01 AM PDT by NYer
The final meltdown of Mel Gibson has come at a convenient time for Catholic-baiters in the media. The guy threatens violence against women, he’s a racist and he’s a CATHOLIC! Here’s Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, stooping almost as low as Gibson:
Received wisdom is that Gibson cannot recover from this. But one course is still open to him. If ever priesthood beckoned a man, it is surely now. At least he apparently saves his violence for adult females.
And if you don’t understand that last dig, let me point you to Times columnist Caitlin Moran, who explained on Thursday that the Catholic Church “f**** kids”.
The slurs against Catholics being put about liberal journalists aren’t far removed from Protocols territory, if you ask me. But dragging Gibson into this rancid rhetoric doesn’t work, for a simple reason.
He’s not a Catholic.
In fact, Mel Gibson is in some respects the opposite of a Catholic, since one of the themes of his fake Catholicism is that the Pope isn’t the Pope. Admittedly, Mel’s own theology tends to morph like a shape-shifting lizard, depending on how hung over he is, but in so far as he’s anything he’s a sedevacantist like his father, Hutton Gibson.
Sedevacantists regard the Second Vatican Council as so obviously evil that it must have been the work of Satan, and therefore the Pope who called it and his successors aren’t really Popes. Gibson Senior once reportedly described John Paul II as “Garrulous Karolus the Koran kisser” and has put about the notion that the last real Pope was secretly elected at the 1958 conclave but forced to resign in favour of anti-pope John XIII. But then old man Gibson never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like; hence his well-documented Holocaust and 9/11 revisionism.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Mel isn’t a traditional Catholic. He made his own church, kind of like others have.
“therefore we are not Protestants.”
You say “we” are not Protestants. But other Baptists do consider themselves Protestants. Doctrinally, Baptists adhere to the “protest”.
Sure, but he’s also not on this thread, arguing with other Catholics.
Please understand, I respect the opinions of everyone on this list, even if I disagree- that is, if I know enough TO disagree. But I make a point of making a point when I see all our “Brothers and Sisters in Christ” turning on one another, for any reason.
And then I’ll join the fray.
I’m Anglican. I’m not “Catholic” in the minds of almost every member of the Roman Catholic Church. That’s fine, it doesn’t bother me. I consider myself Catholic in the sense that I do my best to keep the Eucharist, observe many Catholic traditions, etc. So, despite the fact that most members of the Roman Catholic Church don’t consider me Catholic, I do. And I’ll side with my RCC buddies 9 times out of 10.
But it is disturbing to see such infighting. Even though I know it’s not going to stop, I’m still going to say something. After all, you never know who might be reached. “The works of the spirit are invisible,” someone once told me.
As for Mel Gibson and his particular brand of Catholicism... I don’t care. He’s Catholic. Not Roman, not Anglican, but whatever. Personally, I don’t care. His behavior was unacceptable and he should be held to task for it. That said, I don’t think his behavior was fully his own, and I’m confident there’s more at play here than we’ll ever know.
1 Peter 1: 18Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
I hope Mel finds Christ
We may agree with the protest; however, we existed before and after apostate Catholicism; never giving into nor being under Catholicism’s heirarchy. We were persecuted by Catholicism long before the Protestant Reformation.
Protestants came out from Catholicism, Baptist were never part of Catholicism.
An overwhelming majority, if not all Catholics will split hell wide open when they leave this world. That’s a fact! I’ll choose Jesus Christ and the Scriptures to rest my eternal destiny on, not a false church.
May The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
He has and will continue to do so because His word has made the promise to me. By His grace and power I was delivered from 10 years of drunkeness and drug addiction. Three rehabilitation centers and numerous medical professionals were unable to help me. I simply fell on my knees and cried out to God for His mercy. He miraculously delivered me! That was thirty-years ago. Today I pastor a church, passing the message on to others. That message is simple — Jesus saves and sets folks free. “There is One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” He is all anyone needs to approach the throne of God!
Another article FYI
Others have been there and worked their way out of it, so can Mel.
The good Fr. could set his straight on the true Church and fighting his own demons.
This is a terrible insult to the Church. Unfortunately, there is a no measure of jusfifiable bitterness on the part of those wronged. The Church has no defense, as far as I'm concerned, for the abuse of innocents. But of course, the entire Church isn't guilty.
...there is no measure of justifiable...
Bill Donahue does not decide who is and who is not a member.
The Gibsons themselves have separated themselves - and have done so loudly and proudly.
Gibson was baptized a catholic.
So was Glen Beck.
And yet no one considers Beck to be a catholic because he left and became a mormon.
“. Meaning he is one of us, but has separated from us and put himself above the Church as authority on truth.”
OK. Yes - I can go along with that. Certainly.
consider this website, then ask yourself again if the Gibsons are catholic.
“Mel displays all the classic symptoms of Biploar type I. In a 2008 documentary, Acting Class of 1977, he first talked about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.”
In one tape Oskana tells him he needs medication.
Bipolars sometimes feel fine, so they go off the meds, only to have episodes.
I read the most important thing a bipolar needs to remember: don’t go off the meds because you feel okay.
Also, there has been no mention that I have heard that Mel was/was not on the sauce again. Could be another variable.
Money can’t buy sobriety, or serenity, or a quiet mind.
I hope the remaining people who care about Mel help him to get the kind of help he may need.
The Holy Father hasn't lifted the excomms?
Keep taking those fatso pills you're on. Separation from reality does have its bennies.
Has B-XVI formally withdrawn the excommunications and the declaration of schism???
Well, not that it is entirely the point, but I do believe that the excommunications have in fact been lifted, leading to a great controversy regarding the aforementioned Williamson. And, you may reject the opinions of the Cardinal placed in authority by the Holy Father himself, but it would not change the matter. The Pope commissioned Ecclesia Dei with its authority and when it acted it did so in his name, unless he openly countermanded it. He never did this regarding the state of the SSPX, and considering this suggesting that the opinions of the Cardinal in question can be denied by lay people in the pews sounds a bit like what those in the SSPX are themselves arguing.
And, all of this aside, the SSPX are still obviously Catholic. Their wounded relationship with Rome has not made them otherwise, or severed their responsibilities as priests and bishops to obey Rome. They are Catholics still, if bad ones. If they are not Catholic then they would not be bound in any way to answer to the Holy See, as everyone demands they do, which is itself evidence that people know that they are still in fact Catholic.
Considering that there’s all kinds of wacky c$#p out there, for example the awesome adaptations of Catholicism that has come to be known as “folk Catholicism” in Mexico, I’ll forgive the Gibsons their bizarre deviance.
Why?
Because it’s like I always say: put something in the hands of man long enough and it will be corrupted. That’s true of EVERYTHING.
Their Catholicism or lack thereof has no bearing on my pursuit of divine fellowship. That’s between them and God. Let them sort it out.
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