Comments on: Being Catholic means the entire package!

By: Big Daddy

Big Daddy — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:36:33 +0000

BrotherPhillip said “It is Christ that unites us… It is Christ that calls us into community and into being”. Let me remind you BrotherPhillip that it is that same Jesus Christ that founded the One Holy Catholic Church. The same church is His teaching authority. He also had the foresight to leave his Vicar on Earth and endow him with the authority to rule over the Church.

Rather than looking towards the Church as okay on this matter and not so on that, look at her as a guide through life. A life that leads to Paradise. Something like a parent, if you had good parents that is. I am positive that you did not always agree with your parents rules. However looking back you know that they were just taking care of you and doing what was best for you. The Church is no different.

The Church has insight we simply do not have. (Sounds simple I know.) In fact the Church goals and our goals as parents (unless we have lost focus of the true prize) are the same. The Church desires that we reach heaven, as parents we want the same thing for our children.

Again it sounds simple but, try what I call a complete surrender. Start with prayer, a prayer that says Lord, I am having trouble with these teachings…….but with your help I am going to do my best to accept them. Your life will be greatly improved, I promise.

By: A Convert

A Convert — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:38:47 +0000

What the author is saying, not to misquote her, is simply this: when we say “We believe…” then we should all believe the Church’s teaching; otherwise we are uttering a lie at every Nicene Creed. This does not mean that we all understand equally. When I first converted I did not understand teachings on contraception, purgatory, or even the Eucharist(as if we could fully grasp that). But it did not mean I felt “free-willed” enough to choose a life style against church teaching. The Church is divinely inspired, and so to follow it’s teaching you are following the teachings of the Holy Spirit. So rather than say “how dare we,” how dare YOU! Do you know your body or the order of the Universe better than He Who created it? Amen amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man….the Jews squabbled at this teaching and walked away. But His Apostles stood fast believing that if we are to follow Christ, He will give us the means and wisdom even if we do not understand. Pro-life does not mean restricting one from having concerns for a scared, single, pregnant mother. It means that what is best for her and the child is not an abortion. The situation is already hard enough, God will bring the best out of what is not always good. But if we do not believe in the teaching of the Holy Spirit, then it’s not God we believe, but ourselves…and again, how dare we think we know best.

By: BrotherPhillip

BrotherPhillip — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:18:05 +0000

I would have to agree with ‘Polneon’. It is unfortunate that in your view of Catholicism you leave no room for ‘personality’. Though I would love to have a world where everyone agreed on everything but that did not even exist at the table in the upper room. Even reading over the Rule of Saint Benedict (which is profoundly Catholic) one would find that he is intelligent enough to leave room for some individuality. Balance is important in any way of life. If we are approaching the altar to receive our Lord with the reasoning that we are united by our beliefs you may need to re-examine yourself and your approach to the faith, Mr. McNichol. It is Christ that unites us… It is Christ that calls us into community and into being - not our set of beliefs or even our ‘common’ or ‘uncommon’ interpretations of the Bible. God is both a transcendent and immanent mystery. For a faith of paradox, this is one paradox that most Catholics are failing to remember… MYSTERY. How dare we ‘limit’ God by saying that one is NOT Catholic if they do not believe in EVERY SINGLE MORAL DETAIL. It seems as if those are the important things to you and not faith in Christ. As Catholics, we too often take things into our own hands and fail to let God handle. This is a message the Church needs to hear more then the archaic and undeniably oppressive philosophy of the Church that you, and countless others, ignorantly offer.

By: Polneon

Polneon — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:17:12 +0000

HJMN4566:
It would be easy to agree with you if your terminoloy had been tighter. We do not profeass in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith. We use the word “Church”.
There is such a thing as a “pro-choice Catholic”? I am one of them. I am just as God created me, free to choose the good over the evil and profess myself as such. I, therefore am clearly and non-negotiably “anti-abortion.” That allows me to be “pro-capital punishment” under the terms of the Catholic Catechism of the Catholic Church, Is it number 1258 or something like that? It also allows me to hunt and fish and do some other things that I thnk that the “pro-lifer” are ambivalent about, like feeding their pets better in one day than the third world people of Africa eat in one month.

You decry the attitude of negotiability of truth. I agree with the concept. Not all we have to do is to define truth. It might come as a surprise to you that even our dearly beloved Catholic church hasn’t found the ultimate definition of that concept. It never will, because God has the monopoly on that one. You might want to give “Divino Afflante Spiritu” a read for a hint about that.