Contrast this with the Episcopal priest, a Nashotah House alumnus, who explained to an Episcopal adult forum that the seven deadly sins are neither here nor there. The priest's same-sex partner passed away suddenly, and grieving, he contacted his late partner on the other side with the help of a reputable medium. It's worth pointing out that there is nothing heterodox about the occult in traditional Anglo-Catholicism, and Bp James Pike was assisted in hooking up with his own reputable mediums by perfectly respectable Anglo-Catholic clergy in the UK and the US. We know how that turned out.
I assume Fr Ripperger, himself a professor of dogmatic and moral theology, would have patient but definite things to say about all this. In what continues to be a mainstream Catholic position, the seven deadly sins are very important, same-sex attraction, if acted on, is a sin, and necromancy is a mortal sin. But an Episcopal priest from the most prestigious Anglo-Catholic seminary instructs his Anglican parishioners that these are all OK -- indeed, more than OK. Does Nashotah House have a position on any of this?
I think maybe one explanation might be that Nashotah House has a rigorous course in moral theology, but it isn't required for a degree. But this of course doesn't solve my problem. Beyond that, Jeffrey Steenson served as a trustee of that seminary until he resigned as an Episcopal bishop. And he clearly favored Nashotah House alumni in the first tranches of priests ordained for the OCSP, many of whom continue in parish work. To be sure, there was some type of on line course given to prospective OCSP clergy in the first part of 2012, but some sort of distance class seems inadequate to remedy what seem to be serious deficiencies in the Nashotah House curriculum.
UPDATE: My regular correspondent points me to the Nashotah House site, which lists the following required courses for the residential MDiv program:
Systematic and Moral Theology (12 credits)
- ST 501 - Systematic Theology 1
- ST 502 - Systematic Theology 2
- MT 501 - Ethics and Fundamental Moral Theology
- MT 601 - Moral Theology and Contemporary Issues
I simply don't know what to say here, except that MT 601 may cancel out ST 501-2 and MT 501. From a Thomistic point of view, 601, as a higher number than the others, is probably more perfect.
Fr Ripperger cautions us against being excessively critical (or indeed, very critical at all) of priests -- any of them can absolve us of our sins. On the other hand, I see from time to time in Catholic forums threads about someone who went to confession and got a comment along the line of, "Pornography is actually OK. It isn't a sin just to be curious." The advice the people who raise this get is to go find a different confessor. That guy can absolve me of my sins, and if the big asteroid was about to hit the planet and I had no other choice, I'd have to go to that guy for confession. But I'd have to look for a different confessor otherwise.
Frankly, I would be very dubious about going to any OCSP priest for confession -- again, unless I were on a sinking ship surrounded by sharks. I note that the latest tranche of OCSP priests has been redirected to Catholic seminary.
