Fr. Cute Face Says: God Wants You Happy

[Aya Sophia]

Anyone in the phamily read or heard about this book: God Wants You Happy by Father Jonathan Morris?

 

http://www.amazon.com/God-Wants-You-Happy-Self-Help/dp/0061913723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389185020&sr=8-1&keywords=god+wants+us+happy

 

What are your thoughts about it and do you recommend it? Is it orthodox? Would you feel comfortable giving it to a loved one?

 

Merci.

[Byzantine]

I've seen it at the Franciscan University bookstore, so hopefully that indicates orthodoxy.

 

Am I the only one who thought that this was going to be a quote from FP?

[Ancilla Domini]

Am I the only one who thought that this was going to be a quote from FP?

 

You're not alone. :hehe2:

[ClemensBruno]

Wow! So THAT's Father Cute Face. ...so accomplished at 17 years old. <<just kidding>>

[PhuturePriest]

I've seen it at the Franciscan University bookstore, so hopefully that indicates orthodoxy.

 

Am I the only one who thought that this was going to be a quote from FP?

 

I'm kind of a big deal. So much so that I thought the same thing myself.

[PhuturePriest]

Anything by Father Jonathan Morris is good. Buy it.

[Nihil Obstat]

Good thing he distanced himself from the Legion of Christ. I hope he also managed to keep his distance from the evil of Maciel.

[PhuturePriest]

Good thing he distanced himself from the Legion of Christ. I hope he also managed to keep his distance from the evil of Maciel.

 

I was pleased when I heard he decided to leave and become a diocesan priest. I believe I recall him saying he respects those who decided to stay and fix the issue, but that he couldn't do it, because he felt personally betrayed by Maciel, whom he had met and had acted as if he was Saintly.

Edited January 8, 2014 by FuturePriest387

[Nihil Obstat]

I was pleased when I heard he decided to leave and become a diocesan priest. I believe I recall him saying he respects those who decided to stay and fix the issue, but that he couldn't do it, because he felt personally betrayed by Maciel, whom he had met and had acted as if he was Saintly.

A lot of people, not cranks by any means, do not think the Legion can possibly be reformed.
 
Dr. Ed Peters:
 
http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/the-legion-disaster-drags-inexplicably-on/

I have long held that nothing can rehabilitate the institution known as the Legion of Christ nor any of its affiliated works, and I’ve seen nothing in the last three years that gives me any reason to change my views. The LC and its progeny should be completely and forever dissolved. Period.
The question of “what to do with” the many wonderful people taken in by the Legion is partly pastoral and partly practical. Obviously, the good people therein need to be invited and welcomed into authentic Catholic institutions; priests in particular should be assisted to incardination elsewhere (several savvy bishops have already incardinated highly talented former-LCs into their local Churches). As for Legion property issues, canon law has norms governing the assignment of goods once belonging to (dissolving) canonical juridic persons. Bottom line, the Church is master of ecclesiastical assets, assets don’t control her. No insoluble problems lurk there.
But, in my opinion, the protracted efforts to resuscitate the LC, the LC what? – - – the LC corpse seems not too strong a word—need now to cease. Indeed, even proposals to let Legion survivors, clerical and lay, as survivors, found new canonical institutes seem quite unsound to me. Ask yourself: what, besides their Catholic faith, do survivors quasurvivors of the Legion have in common, except that they were all deceived into affiliating with a deeply disordered institution founded by a sick and/or evil con-artist? Such shared traumas might make for some level of survivor-bonding, and they certainly leave such persons deserving of special pastoral outreach, but they are not the foundations on which lasting, healthy religious institutes are built. Do we have to say that?
The Catholic Church has zero tradition of institutes of perfection being founded, directly or even indirectly, by predatory charlatans. Admittedly, Maciel, we see now, seemed to pull that off for a few decades, but his cult imploded almost immediately upon his death.
What I can’t fathom is why we are still talking about ‘reorganizing’, or ‘reforming’, or ‘refounding’, anything having anything to do with him or his concoction.
 
 

 

[cmaD2006]

Somewhat off topic:

 

My two cents -- pray for the Legionairies of Christ and associated groups (Regnum Christi).  Their Extraordinary General Chapter started today (Jan 8 2014) in Rome.  Only time will tell what God can do.

[GeorgiiMichael]

Dr. Ed Peters clearly hasn't been paying attention to the great work that Fr. John Bartunek has been doing, especially with his Retreat Guide series of do-it-yourself retreats.

[Nihil Obstat]

Dr. Ed Peters clearly hasn't been paying attention to the great work that Fr. John Bartunek has been doing, especially with his Retreat Guide series of do-it-yourself retreats.

One good man does not mean the order as a whole is reformable.

[PhuturePriest]

One good man does not mean the order as a whole is reformable.

 

I think anything is fixable so long as God wants it to be fixed. I personally hope he does, because the name "Legion of Christ" is clearly inspired by the Roman Legions, and it would be a shame for such a cool name to go to waste. :P

[Nihil Obstat]

I would not shed a tear if the order was suppressed. Reach out pastorally to the priests and whoever else was involved and whose hands are clean, make sure they can continue doing whatever good they were doing. But Maciel was scandal personified and I agree with Dr. Peters that "the Catholic Church has zero tradition of institutes of perfection being founded, directly or even indirectly, by predatory charlatans."