FWIW, Overberg did it again, denying Christ’s saving/salvific action on the cross before the students and baby-boomers of Xavier University’s Bellarmine Chapel on Palm Sunday to kick off Holy Week, a time when Catholics are supposed to focus on the very things he would have us repudiate. Link and snippets are below. Short of delivering these remarks from the lectern without pants, I don’t know what this guy has to do to get the attention of local Catholic officialdom in Cincinnati.
(Perhaps likening the local bishop to a seminary rector would do the trick.)
“… remember that we don’t have to believe in a vengeful God who demands atonement. Jesus died by human decree not divine decree. … God did not want Jesus’ suffering and does not want ours.”
http://bellarminechapel.org/…/up…/2015/04/KO_Palm-Sunday.pdf
You can find a related post from March 28 here.
6 April 2015 at 3:23 pm
I have never met Fr. Overberg, but just based on what I have read of his offerings over the years (he used to have regular column in the Catholic Telegraph), he strikes me as having rather limited imagination.
He repeatedly says we don’t have to think God is “vengeful.” I agree. That’s a red herring. The Trinity chose the cross together. Now, it’s quite true that many, including many saints and fathers of the Church, have pursued the themes of substitution and “debt,” but they were very thoughtful people, and so I tend to think they were just as capable as Fr. O in pondering that. More important, the Church has always taken a broader view. Yes, Jesus died for us, yes, his death atones. But don’t miss what Aquinas said: any suffering of the Savior, “however slight,” would have been enough. The circumcision, or a scraped knee. The Cross, therefore, is entirely gratuitous.
Both Fulton Sheen and St. John Paul II pursued the theme of solidarity with humanity, which is what makes the most sense to me. Jesus died for us, in order to be fully with us. It may be that this will make its fullest sense when all things are complete.
Now, I find it hard to believe Fr. O doesn’t know about all this. I think he she’s some value in provoking shock. I’m not sure why he thinks that’s so valuable. That is to say, a little — very little — of that goes a long way.
6 April 2015 at 4:41 pm
Just curious. Does Fr. Overburg bang the drum for any fashionable political causes, or is his nincompoopery limited to the theological?
9 April 2015 at 4:21 pm
Have your blog readers and you looked into why Bellarmine is so progressive? I was speaking to a pastor on the west side a few months ago. I wanted to know what he thought about connecting the dots. Basically putting groups of people together by who they associate with so that it was possible to glean some insight into their values and ideas. He was ok with the concept, given it was done with charity and truth.
What’s interesting about Fr. Dan Hartnett? Aside from Bellarmine ?http://wearethelightbrigade.blogspot.com/search?q=hartnett
What’s interesting about Fr. Bollman? Aside from Bellarmine ?
http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2013/02/american-priests-seek-to-join-acp-to-support-tony-flannery/
Search (ctrl.F) the same link, Fr. Norman Langenbrunner.
He is a member also and before you search the same link for Cincinnati,
read this link:
http://wearethelightbrigade.blogspot.com/search?q=langenbrunner
Fr. Z knows who the ASS of the u.s.catholic priests are.
So does Fr. Fox.
Fr. Norm is, or was, on the pastoral staff of Arch. Schnurr.
I would be happy to work with others to publish articles to inform our Church faithful about the real reasons why Mass attendance is down and why men are not volunteering their services at Sunday worship services.
We have been trying to do it by ourselves for 3 years now, but when my dad died I was really bummed out.
I have started again and do not plan to stop.
It is too big a job for one person.