[Mrs. Don-o]

"Willful formal heretics are not 'brothers'... "

There are types and degrees of brotherhood; there are different senses in which a man can be a brother.

• First, every baptized person is a brother in Christ, since each person who is baptized receives an indelible, that is, permanent mark on his soul.
• Second, a Christian who is no longer in communion with the Catholic Church, is one of those whom the Council Fathers called "separated brethren."
• Third, any believer in the One True God, even if unbaptized, can be called a brother in the Faith in the same sense that Pope John XXIII greeted his Jewish visitors, "I am Joseph, your brother."
• At a further remove, but still certainly, any human being can be called "brother" because according to St.Paul (Ephesians 3:15), we all have the same Father, "from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name"; and as he explains, (Acts 17:25-2) "since He gives to all life and breath, And He has made from one blood every nation of men."

  Anyone who wilfully departs from the Catholic Church is in grave error and grave danger. For this reason, our attitude, I think, should be one of endeavoring to win him back into full communion with the successor of Peter and with all Catholics.

  What good does it do any sinner if, when he's still in the "far country," the prodigal's father makes a point of publishing that, "He's not my son," or if the Good Shepherd insists, "He's not my sheep," or if you make a point of saying, "He's not my brother"?

  I don't think you'd do that to a natural brother, a blood brother who was estranged, in danger and in error. You'd emphasize the bonds you still have. You'd try to get him back.

[sitetest]

Good post.

[Tax-chick]

Excellent.

[Andrew Byler]

Second, a Christian who is no longer in communion with the Catholic Church, is one of those whom the Council Fathers called "separated brethren."

"Seperated Brethren" is the term for those who were baptized into and raised in other Christian communities. This is not a term for Catholics who publicly deny an article of the faith (the Papacy in this case) and make a public spectacle of the break with the Church over what are frankly BS reasons.

Rod has left the communion of the Catholic Church and is publicly denying the historical basis of the dogmas of the Papacy. A Catholic who denies one article of the faith does not have any divine faith at all - just an overinflated opinion of his own making. And in denying the faith, one is no longer a Catholic.

What good does it do any sinner if, when he's still in the "far country," the prodigal's father makes a point of publishing that, "He's not my son," or if the Good Shepherd insists, "He's not my sheep," or if you make a point of saying, "He's not my brother"?

No one is saying that. Rather Rod is publicly inveighing against the Catholic faith, clergy, and faithful. If Rod were coming back on his knees begging for mercy, and we were to kick him in the face and say "begone with you heretic!" that would be comparable to the treatment of the Prodigal by his brother. Additionally, the issue with the Prodigal was loose living, not denial of the faith and fighting against the Jewish people and Priesthood. Rod's doing nothing of the sort in either begging forgiveness or cavorting in public personal sin, so lets not confuse the issue. He is attacking the Church and the Pope, the heirarchy, and his former co-religionists.