Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Law Salesmen Work over Rolf Preus. Paul McCain...":
McCain is acting as a gatekeeper for the LCMS. Make that, for Harrison. He let his Romish sympathies show when he fawned all over Father Richard John Neuhaus postmortem. The fact that in rejecting Justification by Faith Alone Neuhaus cursed Christ didn't keep McCain from saying, "I felt Richard John brought to the Romanism he embraced a hearty and full measure of the joyful Gospel rediscovery of Martin Luther, for which I am grateful."
Really?! A full measure of the Gospel? RCC's official doctrine states that if anyone thinks they are justified by faith in Christ alone they are damned to Hell. If anyone doesn't accept the Pope as Christ on earth they are damned to Hell. That's the RCC gospel.
McCain continues, "He [Neuhaus] opened several doors for me while I served The LCMS President, making it possible for LCMS leadership to make direct contact with the Vatican, when ELCA leaders were intent on cutting us out of formal conversation with Rome. Father Neuhaus was able to make direct personal appeal to Pope John Paul which led to direct contacts with Cardinal Ratzinger, with the result that the The LCMS was again given a place at the table of discussion and dialog with Rome, and most importantly, a point sadly lost on some,..."
http://cyberbrethren.com/2009/01/08/a-grief-observed-richard-john-neuhaus-1936-2009/
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More Neuhaus hagiography
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| Father Richard John Neuhaus, LCMS, AELC, LCA, Church of Rome. |
Homily, Neuhaus funeral
"Tonight the risen Christ is offered in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the soul of Richard John Neuhaus, and many gathered here discern Christ more clearly because of how we discerned him in Richard. Christ’s Eucharist is death and resurrection together."
Neuhaus gushed:
"The Catholic Moment
In 1987, while I was still a Lutheran, I published a book titled The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World. There I argued that the Catholic Church is the leading and indispensable community in advancing the Christian movement in world history. In evangelization, in furthering the Christian intellectual tradition, in the quest for Christian unity, in advocating the culture of life, and in every other aspect of the Christian mission, this was, I contended, the Catholic Moment. I am frequently asked whether I still believe that, or whether the Moment has been missed, or derailed, or simply delayed. The short answer is: If the Catholic Church is what she claims to be — and about that I have no doubt — then every moment from Pentecost to Our Lord’s return in glory is the Catholic Moment. But the degree to which that Moment is realized in the little span of time that is ours depends on whether contemporary Catholicism has the nerve to be fully and distinctively Catholic."
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GJ - I corresponded with Neuhaus for a number of years and met him at the Ad Fontes conference, just before he became a priest. LCA President Crumley was at the conference, too, and seemed to be trying to argue Neuhaus out of the decision (my interpretation - I didn't eavesdrop).
After Neuhaus made his change public, I wrote him a letter suggesting he work his way into the papacy, study the issues, and announce to the world, infallibly, that Luther had been right all along. He demurred.
He sinuflected to Rome, preparing many of his friends to follow after him - and they did.
I see the same process going on today in the LCMS. Robert Preus wrote Justification and Rome to halt the spread of Romanism at Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne.
The Neuhaus funeral is noteworth. They offered a Mass for his soul, which means they were doing a good work to reduce his time (and theirs!) in Purgatory. I doubt whether an apostate could have a more significant symbol of his betrayal of the Gospel - a conservative Lutheran pastor buried as a Catholic priest, with a Mass offered for his soul suffering in Purgatory.
