Posted on 01/19/2015 6:21:53 PM PST by marshmallow
Calif. priests must return to Iraq.
The following comes from a Jan. 15 story in the Los Angeles Times.
Intervention by Pope Francis has apparently not solved the schism between a prominent Chaldean priest in eastern San Diego County and the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq.
At issue is a demand by Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako that Father Noel Gorgis and several other Chaldean priests in the U.S. return to Iraq or face, in effect, excommunication.
In an interview with Aleteia, a Rome-based Catholic news agency, Sako said that the survival of the church was at stake during the onslaught by Islamic radicals.
“We have been there for 2,000 years,” he said. “We have a mission and a role, and if a future exists for the Chaldean Church, it is not in the diaspora but in Iraq. If all the families leave, and even the priests, the entire history and Chaldean Christian patrimony will vanish.”
Gorgis, 49, known as Father Noel, is pastor at St. Peter Chaldean Church in El Cajon. Along with the Detroit area, eastern San Diego County has been a major resettling spot for Iraqi immigrants.
Chaldean leaders insist that sending Gorgis and the others back to Iraq would mark them for death by the Islamic forces that have swept through much of Iraq, destroying churches, killing Christians and forcing many to flee.
(Excerpt) Read more at cal-catholic.com ...
“It is one thing to willingly go where one feels led. It is quite another thing to have someone tell you, YOU have to go.”
The Holy Spirit might very well be acting through the Patriarch: Acts 21:4.
“Sometimes the best offense is defense.”
Refusing your mission is not defense.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit is telling them not to go and the Church leaders are telling them they need to go.
I am reminded of Augustine. In the early years of the church, Christians believed it to be a great honor to die for the cause of Christ. So much so that they deliberately sought to be burned at the stake or martyred in some other way. Augustine saw the foolishness of this and quickly presauded believers that it wasn't in the interest of Christianity to become martyrs if the situation could be averted. One could learn from Augustine's wisdom.
“Perhaps the Holy Spirit is telling them not to go and the Church leaders are telling them they need to go.”
I doubt it since the Holy Spirit doesn’t encourage disobedience.
You are, of course, assuming the Church leaders are being “led” by the Spirit. History has shown that is not always the case.
“You are, of course, assuming the Church leaders are being “led” by the Spirit. History has shown that is not always the case.”
The Church is protected by the Holy Spirit no matter what faults its earthly leaders might have.
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