By Randy Engel
Contemporary Nestorian Heretic Exhorts His Flock: “Mary is Not the Mother of God”
Introduction
Down under, and I mean “really down under,” in the Australian Diocese of Wollongong in New South Wales, a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Father Rick McCann, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Oakdale, has resurrected the fifth century Christological heresy known as Nestorianism.
In his parish bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, “Fr. Rick” offered a new rendition of the Hail Mary which not only disavows the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, but also strikes out at two of the cornerstones of Catholic doctrine – the Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation. Father McCann also added a notation defending his heretical views:
HAIL MARY, FULL OF GRACE. THE LORD IS WITH THEE. BLESSED ART THOU
AMONG WOMEN, AND BLESSED IS THE FRUIT OF THY WOMB, JESUS.
HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF MY LORD, BE WITH ME NOW
AND AT THE HOUR OF MY DEATH. AMEN.
NOTE: MARY WAS NOT THE MOTHER OF GOD, THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD, AND
HE DIDN’T HAVE A MOTHER, HE ALWAYS WAS AND HE ALWAYS WILL BE. THEY
HAVE NO NEED TO PRAY IN HEAVEN, DO NOT ASK MARY TO PRAY FOR YOU,
RATHERTO BE WITH YOU AND PROTECT YOU AT ALL TIMES.
Nestorianism – An Ancient Heresy
This is not the first time in the history of the Church that these heretical views have been expressed.
On Christmas Day in AD 428, Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, preached that Mary was not the Theotokos (“God-Bearer”), but only the mother of Christ, the human Jesus. Three years later, Nestorius was declared a heretic, deposed and sent into exile. He defended his beliefs till his death in AD 451.
Nestorianism was formally condemned at both the Council of Ephesus in AD 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, and has been repeatedly denounced by numerous Church Fathers and saints down through the centuries.
As Saint Cyril of Alexandria, a contemporary of and protagonist against Nestorius, wrote:
I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the holy Virgin is able to be called the Mother God. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who bore him not be the Mother of God?
The monastic giant, the saintly John Cassian, also a contemporary of Nestorius, wrote:
Now, you heretic, you say (whoever you are who deny that God was born of the Virgin), that Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, cannot be called the Mother of God, but the Mother only of Christ and not of God – for no one, you say gives birth to one older than herself. And concerning this utterly stupid argument… let us prove by divine testimonies both that Christ is God and that Mary is the Mother of God.
McCann Removes Reference to Sin
The reader may have noticed that Father McCann removed any reference to sin/sinners in his Modernist version of the Hail Mary.
Instead of the universal collective petition, “pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death,” the priest twists the words into narcissistic, banal nothingness – “be with me now and at the hour of my death.”
But Christ did not come into the world to keep man company. He came to save man from his sins.
And who should be more aware of the meaning and effects of sin upon the human race than Mary, the Immaculate Conception, who was granted by God, the singular grace of being free from original sin and its stain, and who stood at the foot of the Cross and witnessed the horrific crucifixion of Jesus, her only son and the Savior of the World?
A Perverted View of Prayer
According to the Modernist notation of McCann, “They have no need to pray in heaven.”
This raises the question – Does McCann even know what prayer is?
Is not the essence of true prayer, the giving of honor and glory to our Triune God? In heaven, there is nothing but prayer – the prayer of the angels and the saints who unceasingly offer praise and thanksgiving to God.
For those of us who are still bound to this earth, we not only join the heavenly choir in giving thanks and praise to our Creator and Redeemer, but we offer prayers as an expression of our sorrowful love in reparation for all our sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and as an acknowledgement of our total dependence upon God. Yes, we rightly petition God and Our Lady to grant our needs according to His Holy Will, but this is secondary to the aforementioned reasons Catholics pray.
Enter Bishop Peter Ingham
The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wollongong and Fr. McCann’s superior is Peter William Ingham.
I have been told that several distraught orthodox parishioners from St. Joseph’s have repeatedly, and over time, brought Fr. McCann’s heterodox verbal pronouncements to the attention of Bishop Ingham. But it was not until the priest put his ideas in writing in the church bulletin that the bishop was finally forced into public action.
Bishop Ingham has recently issued the following statement:
In view of the erroneous statement in the Oaks Parish bulletin on the Fourth Sunday of Advent 2016, it is necessary for me, as your Bishop, to clarify Catholic teaching.
It is of Christian and Catholic faith that Mary is the Mother of God.
This claim caused much theological controversy in the early centuries, and much misunderstanding in more recent times. So, it is necessary to understand it properly. The explanation of Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, is clearer because of their choice of terminology: they speak of Mary as the “God-bearer.”
The actual word used in Greek theology is theotokos meaning “God-bearer” and therefore “Mother of God” because the one Mary bears is God the Son. The Church has never said that the Divine nature of Jesus, the Word Made Flesh, received the beginning of his existence from the Holy Virgin Mary (Catechism of the Catholic Church, para 466.)
The title Mother of God had been given to Mary in popular devotion from the second century onwards and it was confirmed by the Council of Ephesus in AD 431 in order to assert the full divinity of her Son. “… Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb…” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (para 466.) And, of course, in the Gospel scene of the Visitation, Elizabeth greeted Mary as “the mother of my Lord.”
As we naturally ask another person to pray for us, all the more so do we ask the Blessed Mother to “pray for us sinners now and (especially) at the hour of our death.” The Virgin Mary and the Saints are with God so their prayers are powerful.
The reader will note that the name of the offending cleric does not appear in the bishop’s statement. However, Fr. McCann has been removed from the parish. As yet, there is no information as to his future status. To his credit, Bishop Ingham has ordered that his statement be read at all masses on Sunday at the Oaks parish.
One can only hope that Father McCann will repent of his actions and publicly recant his errors and express sincere regret for the offenses he has committed against God, Our Lady, the Church and the Faithful, especially any child or teen he has spiritually harmed.
Always Too Little to Late
Since it is known that Bishop Ingham knew for some time that Fr. McCann was teaching heresy, there are some questions that arise concerning the McCann case.
Did, at any time, Bishop Ingham call Fr. McCann into his office and warn him to cease and desist his heterodox teachings? Did he warn McCann of the dire penalties for failure to do so? Did the bishop defend with conviction and zeal, Mary, Patroness of the Wollongong Diocese, against the Nestorian attack?
Apparently, if he did so, Fr. McCann was not impressed, seeing that he had the gall to put his heretical statements in writing for all to see.
I am happy to see that the soon-to-retire Bishop Ingham, has finally set the doctrinal record straight on Nestorianism and has acted against Fr. McCann. But, I ask myself, why does it always seem that no action is taken by the hierarchy against known clerical heretics until the heretics are denounced by the long suffering Catholic laity and the matter becomes a public scandal?
Why is it always a case of too little too late when it comes to defending the Faith?
Considering the heretical teachings of the current occupant of the Chair of Peter, I think it’s a question that will not soon disappear.
Blog posts like this one, make me long for the days of Ars Orandi.
” But, I ask myself, why does it always seem that no action is taken by the hierarchy against known clerical heretics until the heretics are denounced by the long suffering Catholic laity and the matter becomes a public scandal? ”
Here’s my theory: Either the hierarchy itself are mostly heretics themselves or they are too stupid and /or ignorant to recognize heresy. Either way, they don’t take immediate action because they are afraid to disrupt the revenue stream because quite honestly, the majority of the Catholic flock is just as ignorant and stupid as their priests and bishops.
Heresy is not possible in the new man centered religion, where members come together for a symbolic, blessed bread and wine snack buffet with music.
Unless you deny V2, then you are a heretic or worse.
Our Lady of Good Success regarding our times taken from, ” Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of Fatima: Prophecies for Our Times”, by Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D. :
“In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury that would conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent.”
This applies to so many situations we see today from this small parish mentioned in your article to so many other parishes, on a variety of subjects.
On a larger scale we see how many higher ups in our Church are falling silent simply because they are afraid of losing their positions as fear tactics are supposedly being enforced at the Vatican by Pope Francis. Supposedly tensions are high while with these men who took vows to know, defend, keep and pass down the faith to us remain silent, as we abandoned, Catholic families continue to struggle to learn and keep the faith so we could pass it down to our children. All we want is The True Faith. We deserve what is ours. We need to Know, Love and Serve God so that we could be happy with Him in Heaven. What’s the big deal? This is a battle for souls. “Those who should speak will fall silent.”
” For the moment they [those in Rome] are in rupture with their predecessors. This is
impossible. They are no longer in the Catholic Church.
…
Rome has lost the Faith, my dear friends. Rome is in apostasy. These are not words in
the air. It is the truth. Rome is in apostasy… They have left the Church… This is sure,
sure, sure. ”
Archbishop Lefebvre
Retreat Conference, September 4, 1987, Econe.
I just called this man on the phone to ask him about his heresy.
He stands by it completely and said that the Church is just made up by men and we can believe whatever we want. “I pray to my own god in my own way” he said.
“I just shared with others the way I believe”. “Then at that moment”, I told him, your heresy became public and you automatically left the Church. You are an excommunicate”.
I told him that he is probably not even a validly ordained priest, that he is a modernist heretic, excommunicated, and a disgrace to the Church. He hung up on me.
http://www.dow.org.au/parishes/sunday-masses/macarthur/item/oakdale
To call this charming fellow you need to dial +612 at the beginning of the number instead of the local 02 prefix.
I have more respect for Protestants. They know they are Protestant. They say they are Protestant. They act like protestants. They don’t claim to be anything but Protestant. On the other hand, the N.O. “church” are Protestant, yet say they are Catholic.
Its taken quite awhile but thanks to Mr. Bergolgio this fact (the NO religion is a protestant sect) is becoming more and more apparent as each day passes. I personally wasnt quite there at the end of Fr Ratzinger’s “papacy” (I was pretty close but not yet there), but again, thanks to Mr Bergoglio, I finally got it. I think that a LOT of people have finally been “getting it” these past few years. Bergoglio, as crazy as it may initially sound, is surely a blessing.
Bergoglio made me a sede.
That makes two of us.
I’m currently reading this book by E. Michael Jones: Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior.
Fr. McCann looks like a typical misbehaviorist of the San Francisco variety.
Ha! Though I bet many many more have done the same.
Frankie doesn’t have the charismatic charm that JPII The Grate used to make the reality of Vatican II and the Novus Ordo appear to be Catholic, nor the intelligence and cultured reserve which Benedict XVI used to deftly disguise the counterfeit religion of the Novus Ordo sect as the Catholic Church.
Bergoglio is foul mouthed and uncouth thug, and by this, God has used him to strip bare the ugly reality that is the Novus Ordo sect and expose it for what it is, so that Catholics of good will can see the danger and retreat to safety.
A well known sedevacantist said to me that Francis is the best thing to happen since Vatican II.
I mentioned in an above post that I called Mr McCann from Oakdale today, and he is one of those older, know it all, arrogant, nasty, modernist heretics.
I was happy when he hung up on me. Those men and the heretical garbage they vomit over the congregation is the cause of so many leaving what they think is the Church (but is really just an enormous counterfeit sect).
About 7-8 years ago my grand kids started bring home things they had been told by their Religious education teachers at La Salle College and Saint Brigid’ schools ( Catholic). The most outrageous ONE was that Our Lady was not the Mother of God.
The comment was actually the very thing that prompted me to ‘take on’ the status quo in respect to the state of the religious education of our Children and Grand children in our so called Catholic Education system. After several attempts to challenge the quality of Religious Education and especially the quality of the Catechists in our CATHOLIC schools I can tell you that it has come to naught. Despite letters of concern and complaints to Archbishops, Priests, The Record News Paper, and permanent Deacons the Catholic Education Office nothing has been achieved. There was only one thing for it. We started ‘Home Schooling out grand children in their Faith and preparing them for the reception of the Sacraments.
With a Multi million dollar Catholic Education System ( Catholic School system) at our disposal we had to resort to teaching Our Kids/Grand Kids about their Faith, at Home. Here we are 7-8 later and still the debacle is still being perpetuated by the likes of Father McCann.
Just when are we going to wake up to that monstrosity that masquerades as a Catholic Education System that cannot /will not address their core function. May I be so bold as to suggest to the Hierarchy of the Church and the Catholic Education System that their CORE/PRIME FUNCTION is to educate our Children in the tenets and doctrines of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. If they cannot do that then they exist under false pretenses. Why do we continue to spend thousands of dollars to send our children to Catholic Schools when they can be educated free under the State Education System.
Does anyone agree with me or am I P…..g into the wind on this one?
Rgs and God Bless
Geoff Kiernan
I totally agree with you. It is only through homeschooling for the past 6 years that I truly began to learn The Catholic Faith and pass it down to my children. Homeschooling is a blessing for sure in these days. It is a complete way of living that is REALLY the ONLY way. No matter how you look at it Catholic homeschooling is the ONLY option and a gift from God. Our Lady’s little cloister! Might I add, in case you’re looking to homeschool, there are wonferful Traditional Catholic curriculums out there. Also, be sure to say that daily rosary and live the Fatima message.
I no longer consider anything Conciliar the Catholic Church, not even FSSP. They have compromised with Modernism. Avoid it and all its institutions for the salvation of your soul and those of your family. They are no longer Catholic.
More quotes from an article by Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D. regarding Our Lady of Good Success:
“How the Church will suffer during this dark night! …[ Lacking a prelate and father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger.”]
___
She promised her intercession at the very moment when the evil will appear triumphant and when the authority abuses her power. This would mark, as She said, “the arrival of my hour, when, in a marvelous way, I will dethrone the proud and accursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss.” These words harmonize perfectly with the message of hope Our Lady delivered to the three children at Fatima in 1917: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
——-
“To test this faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions where all will seem to be lost and paralyzed. This, then, will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
Well done. If the Church were not undergoing The Great Apostasy, this priest would have been officially declared outside of the Church quite some time ago. Lord, save us.
I always tell parents to get their children out of those evil places, including, or perhaps, especially, the “Catholic” schools. Parents have a sacred duty to protect their children from the spiritual, moral, intellectual and psychological abuse they are systematically subjected to in the schools which have all been compelled to adopt the evil programmes coming via UN, EU, etc. We will pay for not protecting our innocent children. God help us! Mother of God, intercede for us!
Amen! How blessed are your children.
Congratulations Mr. Kiernan, God will reward you abundantly for your heroic sacrifices on behalf of the salvation of your family.
“Why is it always a case of too little too late when it comes to defending the Faith?” Great point which begs the question of when the college of cardinals will put a stop to Bergoglio and his sycophants? Read a chronology of quotes and headlines from his installation to the present and it’s plain to see Bergoglio is relentlessly attacking the Church from within. The destruction extends well beyond adultery, communion and Amoris Laetitia.
The story presented here is but a microcosm of the chaos that is Jorge Bergoglio. So who will stand in defense of the Faith and call out Bergoglio for his numerous offenses against God, Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church?
Did he sound like a sodomite?
Thanks Lynda.
This case highlights the bigger question doing the rounds, that a heretic has to be declared a heretic to leave the Church.
The theologians of long ago coudl not have foreseen a time like this, when heretics are not declared, because the hierarchy are heretics themselves.
This Rick McCann fellow, ordained in 1982 (http://www.catholicdirectory.com.au/ordinationsearch/list/name) in Paul VI’s new rite of ordination, would have been declared a heretic by a Catholic Bishop, but since that has not and will not happen, we need to recognise the wold ourselves. The same goes for Bergoglio before he was elected. He would have been declared a heretic many years ago in normal times, but these are not normal times.
There’s an old saying: “There has never been a chaste heretic”.
It’s not certain just by speaking to a cantankerous, arrogant, older Australian “priest” to know if he’s a poofter to boot.
Apart from a few rare exceptions, why would a normal guy in his late teens or early 20’s see the Novus Ordo and say, “I want to give up a wife and kids for this and preside over the assembly”?
So true…..its basically impossible for a man of good will to enter into the novus ordo faith. If you do so then you are either an ignorant moron or a sexual deviant.
They can’t and are even very careful about not condemning Pope Francis for the destruction and numerous offences he’s done beyond adultery, communion and A.L. because they realize those condemnations would also automatically have to include the condemnation of (NeoCat’s # 1 hero) St. Pope John Paul II The Great. In fact, I believe part of their new plan, since it’s no longer possible to turn a blind eye to Pope Francis without looking like a heretic yourself, is to try to exploit Pope Francis’s errors in an effort to make PJPII look greater than they already have (if that’s even possible.) They do this constantly with A.L. comparing it to how PF contradicts one of the few teachings PJPII actually got right but always failing to mention how for 27 years PJPII by practice taught PF and all future popes that it’s perfectly OK to totally ignore the teachings of past popes while at the same time trying to condemn PF for not following PJPII’s teachings even though PJPII dissed the teachings of far more many popes than Pope Francis could ever possibly hope to. I think it could be called “talking out of both sides of their mouths.” What happens is it ends up making Archs. Cupich and Kasper looking more consistent and far less hypocritical.
I’m not sure I’m following you about the “new plan”? It’s my opinion the college of cardinals will do nothing because they fear schism. And I tend to believe that schism is exactly what Bergoglio wants. He’s been picking a fight for quite some time. And he’s already begun a purge of those who don’t march in lock step. Schism would allow him to finally rid the Church of the “rigid” or “doctrinaire” clergy he regularly ridicules. Then he will be completely free to make even more revolutionary changes to the Church.
And while traditionalist and sedevacantist websites hammer Jorge for his continual heresy, the mainstream media loves him. If schism occurs, which faction would be looked upon as the true Catholic Church by a majority of its 1.2 billion members? I fear it would be the Bergoglio faction.
Realistically, at least imo, the schism has already happened and was completed long ago on July 1, 1988, “a day that will live in infamy” within the Catholic Church, when Pope John Paul II “excommunicated” Archbishop LeFebvre along with the traditional authentic teachings that he enspoused passed on to us by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church in favor of the effeminated, emasculated, and modernist false teachings of Vatican II that Pope John Paul II had promised and committed himself from day 1 of his pontificate to encourage and promote.
That’s why I don’t buy into the popular opinion that this is the worst time in the history of the Church or the Pope Francis is the worst pope ever. I think the 3 lowest times in the Church were 3) when PJPII prayed along with voodoo and witch doctors at Assisi 2) when PJPII kissed the Koran and 1) when he “excommunicated” Arch. LeFebvre. The first two I mentioned and in an indirect way the third one being the most grievous sins ever committed against the First Commandment by a pope so I can’t see how these times are now being considered unprecedented and I think based on many of the quotes of Arch. LeFebvre he would agree.
I think we can just agree to disagree. After reading a number of your posts it strikes me that you enjoy playing devil’s advocate.
And while you clearly want to place blame at the feet of Wojtyla for the worst of the Church’s failings, I think it’s driven more by emotion than a rational review of events. If anything, Bergoglio has, in less than four years, created more chaos than Wojtyla did in 27. And it extends well beyond communion for adulterers. I challenge anyone to read a thorough chronology of headlines and quotes since Bergoglio’s election (https://thewildvoice.org/pope-francis-chronology-perspective/) and not draw the conclusion that he and his henchmen are destroying the Church from within. In total, the havoc wreaked is so much more egregious than just Amoris Laetitia. I believe it’s unparalleled.
Bergoglio, not Wojtyla, presents a clear and present danger to the Church and its flock. And the questions remain… what will be done about it and by whom?
Agreed: I think we can just agree to disagree.