Apparently there's some priest who likes to play in traffic and assault distance runners in order to promote world peace.
Normally it would not be necessary for sensible people to explicitly say that this guy is probably a wacko. For what it's worth, he sounds like a wacko to me.
My real reason for posting about this is this line of Colby's: "Some reports have described Fr. Horan as 'defrocked', which is correct, but it's worth remembering that he remains a member of the clergy nonetheless." Yes, he remains a member of the clergy in the sense that the sacrament of ordination leaves a character ("a mark or seal on the soul that cannot be effaced"). Horan is not allowed to preach or perform any sacraments.
One would think that this would be easy enough to understand. But people do insist on reasoning as if the Church were a man-made institution with arbitrary rules. That's fine for them, and I certainly can't prevent them. But nobody should expect to convince a lay Catholic, let alone members of the hierarchy, that Church doctrine should be changed when the argument includes "You made these rules up; they're arbitrary; there's no reason not to change them."
As I read on message board recently (attribution withheld):
Absolutely....if in fact God does not exist and Catholicism is a manmade religion it certainly would be nothing but a poor excuse. I can totally understand where you're coming from. My answer is coming from the standpoint that this sacrament was in fact instituted by Christ rather than made up by man. In order to understand that, one would have to consider beliefs outside of their own, just briefly.