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To: pascendi
So as long as my understnding corresponds with your definition,everything is A-O.K.,is that what you meant? Earlier on this thread I responded to you quite simply,in post #511 I completed what I thought the Catholic Church was,who was in charge and what it meant. It was probably the fourth post in a series wherein you kind of sarcastically claimed deficits in my understanding,both of what you wanted and of what I provided. Since you didn't respond to the last one I did feel that you agreed,silence is assent. Did you agree or did you not agree? See post #511.

Imagine my surprise when about one hundred posts later,you come up with a definition,which if I agree with,puts us in accord. Well,I say to you, if it says what I said than you and I agree and what's more we are right.. But I read it and was kind of stricken with a quality of "Jesuiticalism" in the statement. My particular concern is with your statement:The Church is to remain faithful until the marriage feast.

I see that statement as enabling anyone to cut off anything certain folks don't/didn't like that the Pope and Magisterium taught,whenever they chose. With a statement like that it would have been easy for illiterate Catholics to reject Scripture when it was collected,affirmed and codified, preferring to be guided by the traditions that had been handed down orally for several hundred years. Certainly some gospels that were not includd had been transmitted to groups of people before the Bible was put together. Maybe some folks like some of the gnostic gospels that could have been making the rounds and were pretty p'o'd about their removal. Maybe some of the included ones had never been heard before,maybe they felt it was too constraining to use what was now the Bible.

So if you would explain what this faithful means with regards this ongoing war of words that goes on,on these threads I would be very happy. Thanks.

618 posted on 08/04/2004 2:19:07 PM PDT by saradippity
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To: saradippity
"So as long as my understanding corresponds with your definition,everything is A-O.K.,is that what you meant?

Not at all; there's only the Church's definition of things; there's no "this person's definition or understanding, or "that person's", that matters any. The question is whether one restates the truth precisely as the Church has held the divine revelation She has been entrusted to safeguard.

It's never a defense of any person's definition of the truth or understanding/interpretation of it. Also, remember that what the Church holds as doctrine are divinely revealed truths concerning ultimate reality, and not mere interpretations or understandings. All members either conform to the perennial truth of the Church or they don't. Members do not reference each other in order to be in unity or gain conformity, but true unity and conformity between members only happens when all members reference the same Deposit of Faith and conform to it.

#511: regarding "Where is where?" "We are following Christ and His Spouse (Catholic Church) to heaven,or,in other words,back to the Father."

We are the spouse of Christ, which you did state again more clearly:

"Or,we are following Peter,who is following Christ and His Spouse. His Spouse is the Church that He established as a visible presence to remain in His stead until until He returns or we reach the Father before He returns. He remains with the visible Church by virtue of the Holy Spirit,the Spirit of Truth which He promised to Peter and the eleven or twelve until the consumation of the world. So that's where we are unless you think we are someplace else."

Generally speaking I would say sure, so long as getting real picky on details is put aside. But there is an idea that people fall into whereby they view the Holy Father's leadership as one of forging new territory, or setting course in particular directions and new destinations. They then posit that it is Church teaching that the Holy Ghost is directly involved in these matters, such that whatever the pope does can't be argued with; that to argue with the pope is to argue with the 3rd person of the Holy Trinity. This is not at all the case. The Holy Ghost does not at all work through the pontificate in this manner, and the Church has never made any promise to that effect. Granted, there's what seems only a shade of a distinction here, but it is significant. The true action of the Holy Ghost working through the pontiff, among other things, is to safeguard the Deposit of Faith, and to expel what is contrary to it, and to maintain the focus of the Church's heart and mind on the path of salvation. While he may do nothing to come to the assistance of a faltering Church, the Holy Ghost has prevented anything which is contrary to the Deposit of Faith from being declared as binding. Therein lies the promise concerning the victory against the gates of Hell.

"Imagine my surprise when about one hundred posts later,you come up with a definition,which if I agree with,puts us in accord. Well,I say to you, if it says what I said than you and I agree and what's more we are right..

Imho it's very simple: there's a lot of good people out there who want to assist the Church and have no clue the magnitude and nature of the evil that has blown through the Church. They want to assist but they're afraid to come to grips the devastation, let alone the cause of it. What's more, though they are well intentioned, they have without realizing it, to some degree or another imbibed the very modernist ideas that they are attempting to fight off. One of the traps laid out before them is to put their real and true loyalty to the pontiff into direct conflict with their loyalty to the Deposit of Faith. It confuses the crap out of people. In this particular Pope they have found a personality which is conducive to their plans

"So if you would explain what this faithful means with regards this ongoing war of words that goes on,on these threads I would be very happy. Thanks"

Faithful means to hold the all of the Catholic Faith whole and entire, without modification, and to live in conformity with that Faith. Most wouldn't have trouble with this statement; where the trouble comes in is keeping that Faith during a period of time when others are attempting to re-cast and insert new meanings of what Catholic truth is, and how to live it.
624 posted on 08/04/2004 4:34:07 PM PDT by pascendi (Quicumque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem)
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