The Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP) has invited Father Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, to serve as the retreat master at its 2025 Assembly in San Antonio. That choice is no surprise. Rolheiser’s soft-focus spirituality, steeped in eroticized mysticism, psychological sentimentality, and doctrinal ambiguity, makes him an ideal voice for an organization long committed to undermining Catholic teaching.
But Rolheiser’s danger goes beyond mood. Across his extensive body of writing, he has:
- Described celibacy as “a loneliness that God himself has damned,” subtly encouraging emotionally intense homosexual friendships as compensation for this supposed deficiency
- Suggested that AIDS should be viewed as a message from God, while refusing to name homosexual behavior as intrinsically sinful or call for repentance
- Relegated homosexuality to a list of private moral issues alongside liturgical rubrics, treating it as a minor debate rather than a matter of grave sin
- Romanticized eros as the foundation of the spiritual life, positioning longing, not grace, as the engine of sanctity
- Denied that sin requires atonement, writing that “sin need not be undone, nor even atoned for”
- Possibly flirted with the idea that even Satan might be saved
Each of these points departs from Catholic doctrine in dangerous ways—yet none are framed as defiance. Instead, Rolheiser offers a seductive theology that feels profound, even as it empties the faith of its substance and meaning. This is precisely why he is so often cited by LGBT activists, dissenting theologians, and therapists attempting to rewrite the Church’s teaching on sexuality and sin. His writing provides them with theological cover.
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