Cathedral rector closes door on bogus conference

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports ...

The Roman Catholic cathedral of Los Angeles on Monday rescinded its invitation to hold a Christian unity conference later this month after concluding that the principal speaker was to be a controversial self-proclaimed mystic who claimed to speak directly with God, Jesus and Mary.

In a letter to the sponsors, Msgr. Kevin Kostelnik, pastor of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, said that what had been represented by sponsors as a Christian unity conference had turned out to be largely a forum for Vassula Ryden, a Greek Orthodox laywoman who has attracted worldwide attention with her reports of sacred conversations.

I'm glad that finally somebody from the Archdiocese (or was it Rome?) is reading LA Catholic. It was here exactly one month ago that I blew the whistle on the bogus ecumenical event that was scheduled to be held at Cardinal Mahony's cathedral at the end of this month.

Among those who were scheduled to speak at the Key to Christian Unity Conference was self-proclaimed "visionary," Vassula Ryden. In 1995, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under its former head, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, issued this warning about Ryden:

" ... this Congregation requests the intervention of the Bishops so that their faithful may be suitably informed and that no opportunity may be provided in their Dioceses for the dissemination of her ideas. Lastly, the Congregation invites all the faithful not to regard Mrs. Vassula Ryden's writings and speeches as supernatural and to preserve the purity of the faith that the Lord has entrusted to the Church."

Is it not astounding that neither Monsignor Kostelnik (cathedral rector) nor the Rt. Reverend Alexei Smith (who heads the Archdiocese's ecumenical and interreglious affairs) was aware of Ryden's complete lack of credibility? What is more, in the TIMES piece Kostelnik acknowledges that Mahony himself was going to give the opening remarks at the conference. The cathedral previously played host to an embarrassing "interfaith" pow-wow to celebrate the election of the pro-abort, pro-gay agenda, leftist mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa.

It just goes to show you that some people never learn from their mistakes. They either try to cover them up or just pass the buck. The problem is, Mahony is running out of bucks. I am sure it wasn't easy for Kostelnik to return Vassula's $3000 check and the $200 deposit for food services. After all, money is money.