Clergyman Tried for Heresy by Diocese

AP ^ | 12/13/5 | ROBERT JABLON

[SmithL]

LOS ANGELES -- A rare heresy trial was held Tuesday for a Roman Catholic priest who joined a denomination that doesn't accept papal infallibility and has ordained women clergy.

The Rev. Ned Reidy did not attend the one-day closed trial, which was conducted by three priests at the Diocese of San Bernardino. Reidy, 69, called the trial "medieval" and contends it has no authority because he stopped being a Roman Catholic in 1999.

Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the diocese, said Reidy was automatically excommunicated when he went to another denomination, but under church law he remains a Roman Catholic priest until he is formally excommunicated and defrocked.

The heresy trial would "officially clarify his status within the church," Lincoln said. The court's decision will be announced to Reidy at an unspecified future date.

[Claud]

The BIA, the BIA....lessee....what church or denomination ran that again?

Oh wait, it was the Federal Government.

I think you will find that clergymen, by and large, treated American Indians with far more respect and dignity than the government and its minions did.

[MRMEAN]

I think you will find that clergymen, by and large, treated American Indians with far more respect and dignity than the government and its minions did

Probably true for English and American clergymen. I didn't bring up "California Inquisition," I just made a stab as to the reference.

However...with regard to your statement, it would not be true with regard to the treatment of the Indians by the Church under Spanish colonial rule, where the Church and the Spanish governors worked hand in hand to subjugate the natives. In fact the real Spanish Inquisition was brought over to the New World, though it was in place, I believe, for only a limited time.

[Antoninus]

I think you will find that clergymen, by and large, treated American Indians with far more respect and dignity than the government and its minions did.

And let's not forget what happened to the tribes in Canada who embraced Catholicism. Many of them were wiped out by those sweet, innocent, noble practitioners of "Indian spirtuality", the Iroquois Confederacy. And let's not forget the Catholic tribes of the Pacific NW, on whom the Feds tried to impose Methodist ministers.

Yeah, Catholicism was the problem...

[solitas]

Die. If he doesn't accept infallibility he's got a better sense of things than you do (the council of 1870 was on some good drugs).

[Claud]

Probably true for English and American clergymen

Yes, and even more so for the French.

However...with regard to your statement, it would not be true with regard to the treatment of the Indians by the Church under Spanish colonial rule, where the Church and the Spanish governors worked hand in hand to subjugate the natives.

The Spanish colonies are not my specialty of study, but I'd be surprised if that was universally the case. I've read a bit of Las Casas, and he gave the government both barrels. But to what degree he was typical I'm not sure.