A British blogger, who writes the http://faithinourfamilies.com/ blog, is being sued by the associate priest in her parish. Father Dan Fitzpatrick of the Durham Martyrs Church insists on referring to the Holy Spirit as female and the blogger rightly rebuked him. See Father's twitter page and you'll see this (before it's taken down).
That's not Church teaching as handed down through the Apostles, who would have first-hand knowledge of Jesus' meeting. A look at Ms. Short's blog indicates the despicable conduct of Father Fitzpatrick as he is rebuked. He threatens suit, then claims that Ms. Rock pulled down her post when she did nothing of the sort. I suppose he was simply looking to back down from his suit threat and save face in the process.
A facebook friend coined the term "Rosica Factor" to describe this action; here is her blog post, on Keeping It Catholic. This hearkens back to the episode several months ago when Vatican official threatened to sue the blogger behind Vox Cantoris. Wind of it got into the internet and the suit blew up on Rosica's face. We can make this happen again. I see a post on this matter is already up on the Vox Cantoris blog.
The Church is Durham Martyrs Church. Here is their contact page. From the parish site, I gather that they're in the Dioces of Hexham and Newcastle, led by Bishop Seamus Cunningham. Phone numbers are here, as well as facebook and twitter links. Try them all. If any from the North American continent calls, keep in mind that England's time is 5 hours ahead of the US east coast.
As we stood with Vox Cantoris, let us stand with Faith In Our Families. I will tweet this, using the hashtag, #RosicaFactor.
Oh I know Fr. Dan!! See here: http://connecticutcatholiccorner.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-priesthood-pornography-and-violence.html when he was confronted by myself and another Catholic he deleted his twitter account, made a new one and then blocked me and every Catholic who DARED to rebuke or question him on anything!
ReplyDeleteI sent the 'Dear Fr.' a little response. Charitable but firm. Hopefully he gets many faithful 'responses' that give him 'food for thought', even though that may take a miracle.
ReplyDeleteI also sent a response.
ReplyDeleteThis is a man who is clearly in need of help.
You will undoubtedly be interested in this little piece of information. Here is the traditional antiphon for the the Benedictus at Lauds:
ReplyDelete"Benedícta sit creátrix et gubernátrix ómnium, sancta et indivídua Trínitas, et nunc et semper et per infiníta sæculórum sæcula." (Blessed be the Creator and Governor of all things, the holy and undivided Trinity, is now and ever shall be, world without end.) Note how the feminine is used throughout because in Latin, Trinity (Trinitas) is a feminine noun. Therefore the corresponding verb (benedícta) must also be rendered in the feminine as do the other nouns (creátrix et gubernátrix) which relate to the Trinity. God is neither male nor female, but we are limited by language, which uses masculine and feminine nouns, especially Latin. Therefore, in our Latin prayers we have been referring to God in the feminine for centuries, but its English translation does not. It helps to know the actual tradition. Now, who is need of help?
You must be a Protestant. Because are spreading falsehoods.
DeleteAnd I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, who the world cannot receive, because it neither sees HIM nor knows HIM; you know HIM, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. - John 14:16-17
ReplyDeleteNevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send HIM to you. And when HE comes, HE will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, HE will guide you into all the truth; for HE will not speak on his own authority, but whatever HE hears HE will speak, and HE will declare to you the things that are to come. HE will glorify me, for HE will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that HE will take what is mine and declare it to you. - John 16:7-15
Yeah I think I'm gonna go with Jesus on this one. lol
The traditional antiphon for the Benedictus at Lauds on the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity is: "Benedícta sit creátrix et gubernátrix ómnium, sancta et indivídua Trínitas, et nunc et semper et per infiníta sæculórum sæcula." (Blessed be the Creator and Governor of all things, the holy and undivided Trinity, is now and ever shall be, world without end.) Trinity, in Latin, is a feminine noun. That means the verb (benedícta) and other nouns that refer to the Trinity (creátrix et gubernátrix) must also be rendered in the feminine. Therefore, in its Latin prayers, the Church has been referring to the Trinity in the feminine for centuries, but it does not translate that way in English. On the other hand, the first person of the Trinity has been traditionally referred to as Father (Pater) and the second person was manifested in the man Jesus, the Son (Filius), so they are rendered in the masculine. Spiritus Sanctus is Holy Spirit in Latin and it is a masculine phrase. But note, the Holy Spirit is referred to as Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in the eastern Christian tradition, which includes the eastern Catholic Church. Sophia, a feminine word, is wisdom in Greek. Therefore, the eastern tradition refers to the Holy Spirit in the feminine. I think it is important for us to remember that God is neither masculine nor feminine, but we are limited by language in how we refer to God. It also occurs to me the more we try to say about God the further away from God we tend to go.
ReplyDeleteSee the comment above yours. I too will stand with Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate on this one. Oh, by the way - Father did retract his "feminine" silliness.
Delete"the more we try to say about God the further away from God we tend to go"
DeleteSounds like the perfect description of Fr. Dan Fitzpatrick!
"It also occurs to me the more we try to say about God the further away from God we tend to go."
DeleteHmm..... maybe the further away we go from God the more we speak falsehoods in His name.
The apostate Church continues to take such heretical and immoral men for the priesthood while refusing and persecuting the orthodox and holy candidates.
ReplyDeleteThe original Greek word which has been translated as Him, could also be a her, or it.....
ReplyDelete