Why I am a Catholic

New York Times Blog ^ | 10/28/2014 | Ross Douthat

[edwinland]

Of all the columns I imagined writing when I started out at this job, it’s safe to say that Sunday’s piece, in which I suggested that conservative Catholics should “resist” their pope if he seems intent on leading the church off a doctrinal precipice, was not one of them. So it’s worth saying something briefly about my own personal religious perspective on the church to which I belong.

I am a Catholic for various contingent reasons (this is as true of converts as of anyone else), but on a conscious level it’s because I am a mostly-faithful Christian who is mostly convinced that Roman Catholicism is the expression of Christianity that has kept faith most fully with the early church and the words of Jesus of Nazareth... A point that Cardinal George Pell[made] ... — that the search for authority in Christianity began not with pre-emptive submission to an established hierarchy, but with early Christians who “wanted to know whether the teachings of their bishops and priests were in conformity with what Christ taught” — is crucial to my own understanding of the reasons to be Catholic: I believe in papal authority, the value of the papal office, because I think that office has played a demonstrable role in maintaining the faith’s continuity, coherence and fidelity across two thousand years of human history. It’s that role and that record, complicated and checkered as it is, that makes the doctrine of papal infallibility plausible to me ... and indeed if you asked me to write a long defense of “infallibility” as a concept I’m sure I’d end up caveating it ... The language that I think the historical record supports is more like impressive continuity on the most important questions.

One of those important questions is the nature of marriage ...

[SkyDancer]

The focus must be on Yashua, nothing else.

[humblegunner]

Is that what you did? Asked innocent questions? That's it?

Yep.

I have no preserved ears or toes or teeth from dead people.

Should I not be curious about folks who collect those things?

[Talisker]

You’d be funny except you’re not.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Necropolitic?

Nice.

Look, unless you'd throw your grandma in the meatgrinder, we all honor the dead in our own way. Wreaths of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, taps, Presentation of the Colors.

God is gracious enough to honor the dead, too --- sometimes granting healing miracles and blessings through their prayers and by means of their mortal remains, just as Jesus healed people who touched the hem of His garment; just as people touched their handkerchiefs or aprons to the Apostle, and when they brought these cloths back to the sick, their sick were cured (Acts 1:211-12.)

Not by magic, but by faith in God, which God decided to grant through the prayers for the faithful and through their beloved remains.

Here's the hair that St. Claire of Assisi cut off when she became a nun. Nice. But my husband, my stylist --- how short-sighted! ---- isn't saving mine!

[Aliska]

I had locks of hair I wish I could find and one I gave away to a closer relative, all of Protestant tradition, more sentimental I think than having any religious motive behind it.

The teeth, that was strange. I and a Polish woman were sorting through my aunt's possessions and came to a bottle of teeth. The Polish lady said "trash?". I said "no", and stuck them in my pocket.

The teeth had gold fillings and the Polish lady may have been hoping i'd be stupid enough to throw them away. I took them to a gold shop and got over $100 for them, donated them to a Catholic church downtown to feed the hungry.

There is a nun at that church who is amazing. She has tirelessly over the years baked fruitcakes for holidays and the ministry for the hungry and homeless. In her 80's she was hit by a car and badly injured. She went through the usual hospital business and rehab which was probably very painful.

Next I knew she was happily back at work feeding the hungry. I think what she does is holier than anything cumulatively holy I may ever have done.

[humblegunner]

Necropolitic?
Nice.

I just made it up.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Not by touching a Pope's robe, that Iknow of. But the number of people cured in relation to the intercession of saints in Heaven, very often in conjucton with the prayerful use of relics or other blessed objects, is significant. I suppose there have been 50-60 very well documented from a scientific point of view at Lourdes; plus, most of the canonized saints, at least since the Code of Canon Law of 1917, have had at least one, and usually two, healings or other miracles attributed to the prayer and faith as God honored their relics.

These are the investigated miracles, th authenticated ones. Many more which were never so closely scrutinized.

One which was very well investigated was the cure of Teresa McCarthy, a child at the time (1987), living in Boston; I met her parents. Here are some good accounts:Teresa McCarthy healed by intercession of St. Edith Stein

The Church has always, since Pentecost, been in the Age of Miracles. It's never stopped.

[Mrs. Don-o]

You’re such an innovator!

[sasportas]

You sure jump through hoops trying to sanitize Rome’s tyranny. Next thing, maybe you’ll tell us how wonderful Rome was in only strangling William Tyndale at the stake instead of burning him alive. And for the terrible crime of trying to get the Bible to the common people.

[humblegunner]

You’re such an innovator!

The mummified toe of Saint Cumulus provides inspiration to me always.

[lquist1]

“Oh brother. Open a Bible and read it and you’ll find enough ways the Catholic Church has strayed from God’s truth, to fill a good sized book.”

No doubt about that; claiming that Mary lived a sinless life (contradicting Romans 3:23), declaring Mary “Mediatrix of all graces” (contradicting I Timothy 2:5),praying to Mary and the saints (a practice wherein there is no biblical precedent), praying dead souls out of purgatory (purgatory is another doctrine with no biblical precedent and contradicted by Luke 23:43 when Jesus told the thief on the cross “THIS DAY thou shalt be with me in paradise”, not after a few hundred or a few thousand years in purgatory), the list goes on and on.

[reefdiver]

I am not resisting my Pope.

[GreyFriar]

thank you for posting Ross Douthat’s excellent article on why he is Catholic.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

There are two groups in the Church hierarchy that might like for doctrine to be relaxed:

1. Progressives

2. Greedy Pragmatists

We're all well aware of the pernicious effect through history of progressives, but we should probably be even more concerned about the greedy pragmatists.

As more and more Christian doctrines get labeled illegal it will be more and more difficult for churches to exist as profitable, or even non-profit, organizations. If a church's doctrines start to approximate the zeitgeist they will be able to continue as a going concern with tax breaks, federal support of their ministry, and public support with no fear of picketing or law suits.

There may be some cardinals in the hierarchy who wish to keep the money flowing and are afraid that if the church's beliefs stray too far from modern beliefs that the spigot will be shut off.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I am not jumping through hoops. Reasonable people are interested in the historical facts. Nobody can justify, and I do not justify, the murder of people because of their beliefs or convictions, no matter what their religious affiliation. All of us --- Protestant, Catholic - have that in our history. There were wars of religion all through the 16th century in the Reformation era, both sides killing fellow Christian and dishonoring the name of Christ.

Those who wish to ceaselessly magnify and inflame those dreadful passions from 55 years ago should have no place on this Forum. It does not serve Christian charity: and the gross exaggerations do not serve Christian Truth. Let us repent of historic crime and be done with it.

The tagline is for you, in all good will.

[Mrs. Don-o]

To each his own. My toes used to be so cute....

[Dutchboy88]

"I am not resisting my Pope."

???

[Zionist Conspirator]

Those who wish to ceaselessly magnify and inflame those dreadful passions from 55 years ago should have no place on this Forum.

Um . . . what exactly happened in 1959?

Wait. Is this about the Buddy Holly thing?

;-)

[humblegunner]

Cute toes, but I’d rather not keep them in a bottle on the bar.

[jimmyo57]

Thought that was Henry Waxman for a second! lol