St. Colman Catholic Church recently issued the following announcement.

SAINT CORNELIUS (d. 253) Feast Day – September 16 

After the martyrdom of Saint Fabian, the Church was governed by a college of priests. Saint Cyprian, a friend of Cornelius, writes that Cornelius was elected pope “by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of most of the clergy, by the vote of the people, with the consent of aged priests and of good men.” The greatest problem of Cornelius’s two-year term as pope was with the Sacrament of Penance and centered on the readmission of Christians who had denied their faith during the time of persecution. Two extremes were finally both condemned. After his election, a priest named Novatian had himself consecrated a rival bishop of Rome, one of the first antipopes. He denied that the Church had any power to reconcile not only the apostates, but also those guilty of murder, adultery, fornication, or second marriage! Cornelius had the support of most of the Church in condemning Novatianism, though the sect persisted for several centuries. Cornelius held ordered the “relapsed” to be restored to the Church with the usual “medicines of repentance.” Almost every possible false doctrine has been proposed at some time or other in the history of the Church. Men like Cornelius and Cyprian were God’s instruments in helping the Church find a prudent path between extremes of rigorism and laxity. They are part of the Church’s everliving stream of tradition, ensuring the continuance of what was begun by Christ, and evaluating new experiences through the wisdom and experience of those who have gone before.

Original source can be found here.