Posted on 07/02/2012 12:06:36 PM PDT by marshmallow
SHELBY, N.C. — The day after a newspaper in the small town of Shelby, N.C., reported that the Te Deum Foundation had acquired nearby land for a new Catholic seminary and monastery, a group of nuns in habits stopped at a local service station.
Fifty years ago — 10 years ago and, to some extent, even today — many Southerners regarded Catholics as unsaved and Catholicism as a non-Christian mystery religion.
But that day, everyone at the station greeted and welcomed the sisters. One woman even asked the nuns to pray for her injured nephew.
This acceptance marks a sea change in the Southern Baptist and evangelical Protestant-dominated South, where Catholics make up less than 10% of the population, compared with double-digit percentages in most northern states.
The Diocese of Charlotte, where the seminary will be located, is a prime example of Catholicism’s explosive growth in the South. Formed in 1972, the diocese had an initial 11,200 registered Catholic families.
By 2010, there were more than 63,000 registered families and an estimated 291,000 unregistered Catholics, including many of Hispanic origin. This brings the total Catholic population up from just 1.3% in 1972 to 9.7% today.
Much of the growth comes from immigration: northern Catholics following technology jobs southward and Catholics arriving from Spanish-speaking countries. But Catholics from the north can’t expect to find the pockets of cultural Catholicism typical of the ethnic enclaves of big cities, and Hispanic Catholics won’t find a village whose rhythm revolves around feast days.
Within hours of their arrival in the South, newcomers will be welcomed heartily by their Protestant neighbors — and invited to their church services.
“In such an environment,” wrote Father Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Greenville, S.C., in his website welcome to parishioners, “those who are casual....
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
The number one problem that the Catholic Church has is people who call themselves "Catholic" but don't believe. Usually they call themselves Catholic because their parents and grandparents were. They cause a lot of confusion and mislead other folks about Catholic beliefs.
I'll just hit the high spots - :-)
1. The Catholics that I know at work have the attitude that they can do anything they want (curse, lie, ect.) and just go confess it tomorrow and it will all be fine.
Nope. This is a sin called "presumption" - presuming on God's mercy in order to sin. It's worse than whatever the sin was in the first place . . . and will rate you a serious talking-to in the confessional if you own up to it (if you don't, it's still on your soul . . . a horrible thought).
2. Priests don’t have the authority to forgive anything.
Well, actually it is God who forgives. But He has given authority (through the laying on of hands by the successors to the Apostles, who received the authority from Christ himself) to His priests to give penance and absolution in His name: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." John 20:23.
3. I’m Catholic and we don’t know anything about the Bible
See citation above - I also suspect she was pulling your leg. We hear virtually the entire Bible (except the 'begats' and some of the chronicle books) through in 3 years, thanks to 2 scripture readings + Psalm in every daily Mass, and 3 on Sundays. And if you ever get a chance to attend an Easter Vigil (what you would probably call a Watchnight Service), you will hear a dozen or more scripture readings, with Psalms to match (and antiphons, that is to say chanted scripture, in between).
4. You probably won't see nuns, because they are cloistered. While you might see sisters, you wouldn't necessarily know it because many of them have abandoned their habits. This, in my not particularly humble opinion, was a bad and stupid thing. Hence the recent Vatican investigation of the noisy and radical feminist group of sisters called LCWR . . . like I said, it's folks calling themselves Catholics but believing no such thing that do the most damage to the Church.
. . . just a little old convert here from the wilds of North Georgia . . . :-D
Priests and Pastors are human with human sins. In this day and time there are a lot that are more corrupt than the people they are taking confession from. I guess I don't put a lot of faith in people. I prefer to discuss my sins and failings with God 1/1.
Believe me, I am not bashing Catholics. In fact, I find more fault with Baptist doctrine at times than I do Catholic. It's just different issues. I have told my husband several times that I would love to convert to a Catholic because most of their beliefs make more sense to me, except for the requirement to confess to a Priest.
Then she is a poorly educated Catholic.
Maryland was started as a refuge for Catholics (although Protestants were always in the majority). Charles Carroll of Carrolton, Daniel Carroll (signer of the US Constitution) and Roger B. Taney were all Catholic Marylanders. A bunch of Maryland Catholics were early settlers in Kentucky--Jefferson Davis got some of his early education at a Catholic school and supposedly almost converted. Edgefield, S.C., has a Catholic church building that dates to shortly before the War of 1861.
not true at all...if you have experienced a legitimate baptism, regardless of where it took place, you are a Catholic.
since there is only one true Christian religion (Catholicism) any baptism is into that church. You cannot be baptized a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Presbeterian, etc. etc.... You are baptized a Catholic. Now you may (protest) and become a protestant, but you are still a Catholic. If you decide to return to the Catholic church, it is not even necessary for you to be re-baptized!....you were merely a temporarily fallen away Catholic and we welcome you back with open arms!!!!
I would love to read that book and thanks for not judging my comments the wrong way. The most hateful of the replies from others I will mostly ignore.
I was raised a little differently from most Southerners. My dad was born in Chattanooga but my mom was born up North, in Ohio. She was raised a Methodist. My parents encouraged us to attend church with our friends, regardless of the religion. This gave me more of a tolerance for different faiths. I consider all religions (not cults) to be good for the most part with differences.
My husband was raised Church of God of Prophecy but joined the Baptist church as an adult. He has no tolerance for the Catholic faith. We have heated debates over it occasionally with me defending the Catholic church. I’m still a Baptist but I lost a lot of respect for them when the local Pastor told me that my mom wasn’t a Christian because she was a Methodist. I let him know right away that she joined and was baptized in the Baptist church when she married my dad but I realized how closed minded the Baptists were when he made that statement. My mom is one of the most God fearing people I know and his assumption and comment was offensive. I believe that anybody can be a saved Christian, regardless of the denomination they belong to and the Bible backs that up.
My observation is that if there is animosity between Catholic and Protestant in the South it is due to the years and years of ignorance and misinformation being taught by churches in the South.
Thanks so much for your comments. I replied to Carpe Cerevisi and forgot to ping you. My comments also were meant for you as explanation of my thoughts.
The cathedral in Raleigh is small, which is why they’re building a new one.
The idea that a priest must be sinless in order to administer the Sacraments - in fact, that you couldn't be a Christian if you sinned after baptism - was an idea that surfaced very early on in the Church, back in the 3rd century, and was refuted. And given the Borgias and some of the other naughty clerics over the years, I don't think our age is that out of the ordinary.
I used to be an Episcopalian (which had Confession in theory but never in practice, just one-on-one with God as you say), and I found that preparing for the Sacrament of Confession focuses my mind in a way that prayer alone does not. It's way too easy to just sort of feel a general sorrow for being a sinner, without examining exactly how and when and how often you are failing. When you go to Confession, you confess your sins in kind and in number. There are excellent Examinations of Conscience - some based on the Ten Commandments, some on the Precepts of the Church, some on the Cardinal Sins - that help you think in detail about your sins and WHY you are committing them. There is even an iPhone app that you can take into the confessional with you (and it's passworded!) Which of course (with genuine contrition and a firm purpose to amend your life -- necessary for a good confession) helps you stop.
I have found that I have a much clearer view of my sins after getting organized for a good confession and listening to the priest's advice on prayer and ways to avoid sin. After all, this is a system that has been perfected over hundreds and hundreds of years.
My own personal experience, by the way, is that most priests I've gone to for Confession are conscientious, holy men who are doing their best to help you along to Heaven. Surprisingly, even the goofy hippie priests who are holdovers from the 60s and 70s, the kind who drive me up the wall by playing the guitar (very badly) during Mass and wandering the aisles during the homily, still take Confession seriously and exercise their responsibilities with great humility and kindness.
And, of course, a priest will die rather than reveal anything told him under the Seal of the Confessional. St. John Nepomuk was martyred because he would not reveal to the King of Bohemia what his wife, the Queen, had said in Confession. He's portrayed with the martyr's palm in his hand and his finger to his lips, for silence.
**My problem with confession to a Priest happens when it is considered the only way.**
Are you saying that you don’t believe Christ’s words, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, whose sins you shall retained, they are retained.?
Yes, Christ gave this blessings and instructions to the apostles, the first bishops of the Catholic Church.
As they ordained other priests, for example, Paul ordaining Timothy, that blessing and authproty is passed on to them.
You do believe the Bible, don’t you?
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1449 The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church expresses the essential elements of this sacrament: the Father of mercies is the source of all forgiveness. He effects the reconciliation of sinners through the Passover of his Son and the gift of his Spirit, through the prayer and ministry of the Church:
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I’m not saying that at all. I just don’t believe that you have to talk to God through a Priest. Yes, I do believe the Bible.
For me, with Confession, I KNOW my sins are forgiven and forgotten by God. If I were to confess them straight to God, I would not know that.
There is a story of a guy who worked in a cubicle. He kept asking the guy in the next cubicle who was an inactive Catholic to go to Mass with him.
He asked again and again and again.
Finally the guy in the next cubicle relented and went to Mass with the Catholic guy.
While they were there the first guy noticed that the priest was hearing Confessions. He told his friend from the next cubicle that he was going to Confession and invited him to take part in the Sacrament also. But the visitor did not take this step.
On the way home they were in an auto accident and they both died. The guy from the next cubicle stood in front of Jesus and watched his whole life spin across a screen. Then he said, “How can you forgive all the sins I have committed?” Jesus replied, “You had that opportunity, tonight, sorry.”
Then the original Catholic stood in front of Jesus, watched his life in front of him and asked the same question, “How can you forgive all the sins I have committed?”
Jesus said, “I forgot your sins, go to heaven.”
Confederacy's secret service ... need coffee ...
Note that the sacrament of Holy Penance is also there in Lutheranism, or rather as they call it "Holy Absolution" which is done privately to the pastor and is similar to Catholicism -- the pastor says "In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
The Pastor is also bound by the seal of Confession.
Orthodox and Oriental Churches have variants on this as well...
It is clear that the Lutheran Fathers had a concept of and a practice of Private Confession and Absolution.And Luther himself said "But whoever has a firm, strong faith in God and is certain that his sins have been forgiven him, he may well omit confession and confess to God alone. But how many are there who have such firm, strong faith and confidence in God? Let everyone look to himself that he does not mislead himself."
"...in an evangelical way, through instruction and exhortation, and through praising it, (he should) work toward the goal that it (P C&A) be diligently used in addition to general confession and that, where it is possible and advisable, it be finally reintroduced as the exclusive custom and that it be properly preserved where it exists.
"To think that one does not need a Father Confessor is dangerously over estimating one's ability to avoid and contest the accusations and derision of the Devil. Luther claims that the pastor who does not make use of the Absolution ought not to be surprised their preaching and practice does not reflect the precious gift God has given to His Church."
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