[sinkspur]

Abortion is rejected by the Catholic Church.

No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels or separate himself from the Pope, which Gibson has done.

[leprechaun9]

My question was directed at the MEMBERS of the Catholic Church. I know the official position of the Church, but I also know that there are many "practicing" Catholics who support abortion!

The public voting records of elected officials show that many who consider themselves "Catholic" vote to support ABORTION! The Catholic Church has remained very muted since Roe v. Wade and it is only in the last year that SOME of the Catholic heirarchy are beginning to speak out against these public officials.

Here in NJ, there is a Roman Catholic Church that is NOT part of an Archdiocese. It is run by a priest who has maintained the Holy sacrifice of the Mass (i.e., Latin) and the practices that existed prior to VCII, ie., receiving Holy Communion in one form, kneeling at the Communion rail to receive, the covering of statues and cruxifixes during Lent, etc. This priest received a proclamation from the Pope for his dedicated life to the priesthood.

[A. Patriot]

No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels or separate himself from the Pope, which Gibson has done.

Almost sounds like the Protestant movement of Martin Luther.(ie:separation from the Roman Church because of disagreements in doctrine and practices.)

I think this is a good thing. The Roman Catholic Church is in need of MAJOR reforms (IMHO). It needs to go back to a time when its focus was on Holiness, not pedophilia and pederasty.

[ultima ratio]

"No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels or separate himself from the Pope"

But one can understand why in a crisis some do when the Pope and his bishops are dangerous to the faith.

[Alberta's Child]

No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels or separate himself from the Pope, which Gibson has done.

If I lived in the diocese of Los Angeles and had the werewithal to do so, I'd build a chapel and pay a priest to come say Mass for me, too. It's utterly ironic that a chapel that isn't recognized by a Catholic diocese dominated by flaming homosexuals is somehow "out of the mainstream," isn't it?

The term "mainstream" ought to scare the daylights out of sincere Christians these days, considering Christ's admonition about the "narrow gate" to eternal life.

[AgThorn]

No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels or separate himself from the Pope, which Gibson has done.

Correction ... "No one in the ROMAN Catholic Church ....", i.e. the "Catholic" Church, by definition, can also mean the universal Christian Church. The latter, more important meaning, includes both the RCC as well as Mel's pre-V2 Catholic church.

[It's me]

No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels...

I don't think that's entirely true. People have built chapels on their own property for years! The wealthy have done this for years. Look in Europe.

How about Catholic colleges? They are not neccessarily churces of the diocese but they are "legal."