The Building of a Church

Mel Gibson is building a church in Pennsylvania at the request of his father. Hutton Gibson said he was tired of driving 3 hours to go to church each week, so his son, Mel, is building a new "Catholic" church in Mt. Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania. It is being called St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, and is part of the Catholic movement that rejects the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.

You can be thankful that I am going to refrain from my rantings about the above paragraph . Instead, I would like to rant a bit about the following:

The Gibsons have chosen as their church leader a former priest who is no longer in good standing with the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, Pa., the newspaper said.

The Rev. Lawrence Persico, vicar general of the Diocese of Greenburg, told the Tribune the Gibsons' church would not be recognized as Roman Catholic.

"A Catholic church, to be truly in communion with Rome, must be in communion with the diocesan bishop," Persico said. "I don't know where they get their legal authority. It's not a Roman Catholic church, no matter what they say. Union with Rome and the Holy See is very important if you're going to be a Roman Catholic. It's essential."

I guess it is okay to choose your own "church leader" even if he has been removed from service in another church. Perhaps the wisdom is questionable, but we live in America, right? People have the right to do unwise things.

My issue is this: Does anyone see the sad umbilical connection of Roman Catholic churches to "Rome and the Holy See"? Why is the connection to God missing in this statement? I suppose one could argue that in order to be Roman Catholic a "union with Rome and the Holy See" is "very important." That would be much the same as being Southern Baptist and having a union with the Southern Baptist Convention.

The issue, in my opinion, comes with the statement by Rev. Persico that he doesn't know "where they get their legal authority." This is enlightening -- I didn't know that churches had any "legal authority"! (Sorry for the sarcasm -- I couldn't help myself ).

This is a sad commentary on the fact that many churches are moving away from the only One who "builds His church." Rather than finding their "authority" in the Living One, they look to organizations, communities, governments, or people. The natural next step is that those "authorities" change doctrine, theology, and practice to fit their own desires and ideologies. And the church must then comply to remain part of the group.

I am not advocating strict independence of churches -- accountability is necessary. The above article just provides evidence that it is of utmost importance that we "abide in the vine" as Jesus said, looking to Him and Him alone as our Head; it is from Him that we derive our "authority."