SML: Sister Vassa's Christmas Special

TheLostCoin

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how do you know that Sheen's canonization process isn't based on his internal disposition? and even if folks want him simply because he was on TV, that says nothing about how saintly he was or wasn't. it simply says he might have some shallow supporters, which says nothing either way about his holiness.

If it was based on his internal disposition, there wouldn't be the extreme hostility to the delaying of his canonization by his supporters. Most of the people who want him canonized (not all) are incredibly hostile towards any kind of investigation to his own personal life outside of his show, which to me establishes either that
1. They want him canonized because of ideology
2. They want him canonized because he's recognizable
3. All of the above.

We've seen this process happen with several other recently canonized Catholic Saints, whom I've already talked about on this forum, and who's talking about got me permabanned from OBOB, such that I've talked about them enough and don't want to bring up their names.
 
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ArmyMatt

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If it was based on his internal disposition, there wouldn't be the extreme hostility to the delaying of his canonization by his supporters. Most of the people who want him canonized (not all) are incredibly hostile towards any kind of investigation to his own personal life outside of his show, which to me establishes either that
1. They want him canonized because of ideology
2. They want him canonized because he's recognizable
3. All of the above.

We've seen this process happen with several other recently canonized Catholic Saints, whom I've already talked about on this forum, and who's talking about got me permabanned from OBOB, such that I've talked about them enough and don't want to bring up their names.

you're not saying anything about Fulton Sheen. I asked about his disposition, not the disposition of those pulling for his canonization.

even if a bunch of jerks are pushing for Sheen to be a Roman saint, doesn't mean that Sheen isn't a Roman saint. it just means a bunch of jerks want him to be a saint.
 
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rusmeister

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Have you ever said anything that was understood by someone else to be against Church teaching?

Was your first response to be “I was wrong”?

Or rather, did you try to explain what you meant and why the other person misunderstood you?

Sister Vassa has said “I affirm Church teaching” or something similar on numerous occasions, as her listeners will aver.

She has also brought many heterodox people into the Church.

Where she has been unwise in her advice, I have been quick to correct her publicly and privately.

Again, unless one is confident that he would be 100% Orthodox in all his utterances with a microphone recording everything he says for various hours every week, he should be loath to judge others.

We should not in the least be loath to try to judge whether any teachings is in line with what has always been taught. We should be eager and desirous that teaching be good and true, and not error-ridden, heretical, and deceptive. We should always desire to get Orthodox teaching 100% right, even in spite of our shame at not living out those teachings, which hopefully will spur us to live more as we should. That has nothing to do with “judging others” in the sense of judging their standing before God. But we do jolly well need to judge their words and teachings. To not do so is to be indifferent to the Faith and to one’s own salvation as well as that of others.

I am not sure that any public correction you have made of Sister Vassa, even if you are her superior, has had any effect on her opinions. I have not seen any public recanting by her of her public words, despite the censure of the Synod she is under.

No one misunderstood her words. Insofar as words have any objective meaning, both we and the ROCOR Synod understood them in the same way. It was plain enough.

She’ll continue to come up as a topic as long as anyone here tries to pretend that she didn’t depart from our teachings on sexuality in her infamous letter/e-mail, which she has not publicly repented of to the best of my knowledge. I’ll be happy to hear that she has, and consider it a closed topic when she does.
 
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rusmeister

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you're not saying anything about Fulton Sheen. I asked about his disposition, not the disposition of those pulling for his canonization.

even if a bunch of jerks are pushing for Sheen to be a Roman saint, doesn't mean that Sheen isn't a Roman saint. it just means a bunch of jerks want him to be a saint.

I don’t know that much, but his teaching is at least 90% Orthodox, aside from the Catholic doctrines we deny. He seems to have lived a pious and sincere life. Whether that makes him a saint in the eyes of God is anyone’s guess, and in general, “Not my circus, not my monkeys”. But he seems to have been a Catholic version of Met Anthony Bloom, so it seems likely to me that it would be reasonable for Catholics to consider him a saint, even if Catholic jerks are among them. But in the end, it’s not really our concern.
 
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ArmyMatt

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I don’t know that much, but his teaching is at least 90% Orthodox, aside from the Catholic doctrines we deny. He seems to have lived a pious and sincere life. Whether that makes him a saint in the eyes of God is anyone’s guess, and in general, “Not my circus, not my monkeys”. But he seems to have been a Catholic version of Met Anthony Bloom, so it seems likely to me that it would be reasonable for Catholics to consider him a saint, even if Catholic jerks are among them. But in the end, it’s not really our concern.

agreed. I can say from experience that some people who followed Elder Ephraim really creeped me out when I went to St Anthony's. but when I met Gerunda and got to talk to him myself, it was clear to me that I was in the presence of a living saint. but his sanctity has nothing to do with the vibe I got from some of the other pilgrims.

and with that, you are right that Sheen isn't our place to judge anyway.
 
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TheLostCoin

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you're not saying anything about Fulton Sheen. I asked about his disposition, not the disposition of those pulling for his canonization.

even if a bunch of jerks are pushing for Sheen to be a Roman saint, doesn't mean that Sheen isn't a Roman saint. it just means a bunch of jerks want him to be a saint.

Yeah...
 
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