Posted on 07/07/2005 7:58:28 AM PDT by NYer
The Vatican on Thursday said too many Roman Catholics were not taking their religion seriously and that those faithful who receive communion and still support abortion rights were behaving scandalously.
In an 88-page working document for a synod of bishops to be held in October, the Vatican also decried dwindling attendance at Sunday Mass and reaffirmed a rule that Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the Church cannot take communion.
The document on the theme of the Eucharist said many Catholics had lost the sense of the sacred surrounding communion, which the Church teaches becomes the body and blood of Christ during the Mass.
One part of the document returned to an issue that remains particularly hot in the United States -- whether Catholics who support abortion rights can receive communion.
"Some receive communion while denying the teachings of the Church or publicly supporting immoral choices in life, such as abortion, without thinking that they are committing an act of grave personal dishonesty and causing scandal," it said.
"Some Catholics do not understand why it might be a sin to support a political candidate who is openly in favor of abortion or other serious acts against life, justice and peace," it said.
The U.S. Catholic community was divided last year over whether they should support presidential candidate John Kerry, himself an Catholic who supported abortion rights.
Some Catholics say they personally would not have an abortion but, in pluralistic societies such as the United States, feel obliged to support a woman's right to choose.
But the Church, which teaches that life begins at the moment of conception and that abortion is murder, says Catholics cannot have it both ways.
The document lamented what it called "a crisis in the meaning of belonging to the Church" and an inadequate understanding of the Catholic teaching that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is real and not symbolic.
It said an increasingly secularized society had weakened the sense of mystery in the sacrament of communion. Too few Catholics were approaching communion with the "fear and trembling" that the true presence of God warranted.
It also listed a series of other "deficiencies and shadows" related to communion, lamenting that too many Catholics were taking the sacrament while they were in a state of sin because they had not gone to confession first.
"The faithful frequently receive Holy Communion without even thinking that they might be in state of mortal sin," it said.
The taking of communion by divorced Catholics who remarry outside the Church had become "a common occurrence in various countries" even though it is officially forbidden.
The Catholic Church forbids divorce.
The document lamented that in some developed countries participation at Sunday Mass was as low at 5 percent and again urged the faithful to keep Sunday holy.
catholic basher. you are dismissed. goodbye.
Saints and sinners? (Just a guess.)
What's so un-Christian about standing up for what is right?
If anything...the world needs more Christians who will stand up for what is right and put those beliefs in action.
You like this Pope, because, like the Southern Baptists, he is sticking to what is right, in spite of the popular secular movements--thanks to Hollywood and the Old Media-- that so dominate our society. I was baptized Southern Baptist myself and I like this Pope too.
Do you believe in the resurrection of Christ?
I hope that it is as long as the number of followers heeding the teachings of the church, and not filled with those who say they beleive but act completely out of line with that.
*************
I'm sorry. I don't see your point, or your reason for posting on this thread.
Real ecumenism is Bible thumping Baptists and Catholic traditionalists sitting down and acknowledging how much we share (love of Scripture chief among them.) Until recently ecumenism was liberal mainline Protestant fruit cakes and scum like John Kerry locking lips...well...Pope Benedict is in the process of crushing that. He's making big time overtures to the Eastern Orthodox...this'll drive liberal Catholics absolutely nuts.
**This is going to be big news to my sister that was told by an office in the Cleveland Diocese that she may continue receiving the Sacraments without an annulment because, "We don't believe that anymore."**
Who is the apostate who told her that? It's true if she has not remarried? But I don't see that qualifier in your statement.
If she has remarried -- then she cannot receive the sacraments unless she follows through with an annulment with the tribunal.
That's funny, that's almost exactly what they sad when Jesus told them in John 6, "unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you."
60 Then many of his disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" ... 66 As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.
Amen.
If anything...the world needs more Christians who will stand up for what is right and put those beliefs in action.
Oh geez...let me amend this...every Christian should be pro-life, and should not tolerate pedophillia, homosexuality, and I dare say divorce or birth control, those beliefs should be brought forth in action in a Christians life.
Sorry for being in opposite world initially.
As a practicing Catholic, I cannot make the same claim. I have often mocked other religion's beliefs. Just this morning, for instance, I was not only mocking, I was decrying Islam as evil.
But the truth is, petconservative, this is not the thread to bring your beliefs about Catholicism. There are plenty of Catholic/Protestant opportunities to dialogue on FR. (I am assuming you are a Christian. Forgive me if I have assumed too much).
Their reason for posting to the thread is merely to get in a few shots at Catholicism. Whatever, or whomever, drives their hate for the Church is so strong that they cannot control themselves when they see a thread concerning Catholicism.
--Who could believe such a teaching? Try the early Christians as a start.--
Here's a few choice examples:
Ignatius of Antioch
"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible" (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]).
Justin Martyr
"We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).
Irenaeus
"If the Lord were from other than the Father, how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?" (Against Heresies 4:33–32 [A.D. 189]).
"He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life—flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?" (ibid., 5:2).
Ther are always slackers when you've got over a billion in the fold. There are three ways to fix this and the Roman Catholic Church has used them well over the past 2000 years: Inquisitions, Excommunications and Funeral Masses.
Thanks for that contribution.
That is bound to really build some bridges around here among Christians.
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