Dissent Poisons
"There
is no such thing as being a good Catholic and being disobedient to the
Holy Father. There is no such thing as being a good Catholic and being
a dissident when it comes to faith and morals. There is no such thing
as dissent from authentic and authoritative Church teaching. No such thing.
Those who do that separate themselves from Christ and His body. They become
dead members of the body of Christ.
You should avoid such people like the plague and you should keep your children from such people as though keeping them from the worst contagion, because contact with such people can poison their minds, poison their souls and kill them morally and spiritually, and you don't want to be responsible for that. That is not lack of charity, that is not lack of pastoral concern. That IS charity, that IS being pastoral and that IS being merciful. It is not merciful to turn our children over to those that can poison their hearts and minds. That is not charitable, merciful, nor pastoral.
Pray for people that attack the Church, the Holy Father, the Magisterium. Pray for them, love them indeed, but don't listen to them and don't put yourselves nor your children in a position where they or you can be influenced.
Let me tell you something. The devil is smarter than you and me. He is a very high angel fallen from grace. Yet God has allow him to retain that very high angelic intelligence. You will not outwit the devil; he's very clever. Through true humility, through grace and through prayer, you win the battle. But don't be presumptuous and think that out of some kind of misguided notion of being 'open', of being 'tolerant,' that you can subject yourself and your children to all forms of philosophical and theological error.
Now I'll put this very simply. As some of my rancher friends from Wyoming would put it, if you soak in a tub of manure, you might come out smelling funny. Well, if you soak in error, if you put yourself in an environment of religious error, theological and philosophical error, you're apt to pick some of the smelly contagion of it. Don't do that. That's not smart.
There's a story from the annals of the Post Resurrection Church of St. John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple, who went to Ephesus. And the Blessed Mother went with him. And they say that St. John was within the public baths of Ephesus and a heretic came in from the other end of the public baths and word of his presence got to the other side to St. John. Now this is the Apostle that preached Love, right? St. John, the one who said God is Love. In his old age, the only thing St. John could say was 'Love God." That's all he could say. He got word that a heretic had just come in the building, he leaped up, grabbed his clothes and ran out of the building yelling "run for your lives, the heretic 'so-and-so' just came in the house." That was his attitude.
I'll tell you something, I used to contest with these people. I used to debate with them. I used to engage in apologetics with them. I don't do it anymore and I'm going to tell you something. For the most part, I am more qualified to do it than you are, than most of you. I've got a doctorate, I've got five degrees in Theology and Philosophy. I know the material, but I don't do it because it is an exercise in futility and I don't want to drive myself 'nuts,' in plain English, and it doesn't work. Now, if I have to defend the faith, I'll do that, but I do not engage in debates with people, especially with people who have lost the faith. There's an axiom in metaphysics, 'Things are received in the mode of the receiver.' I say this over and over again. You get what you're ready to get, you receive what you're ready to receive."
Fr. John Corapi, SOLT -- excerpt from recent audio tape entitled "Messages for Homeschoolers" available from http://www.soltmedia.com/.