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To: Torie
I suppose one question to pose, is what should be the mission of your Church? Is it to try to reach into and enhance the spiritual and human lives of the bulk of its flock, and expose them to the tools and message which will tend to assist them to be better and happier persons while on this moral coil,...

No, it is not.

The only mission of the Church is to save souls, to get them to heaven. There never was any other mission. That's the only promise it ever makes, that if you are faithful and avail yourself of the means of grace which Our Lord has provided to His Church, you can die in a state of sanctifying grace and your soul will not go to hell.

52 posted on 04/15/2005 7:55:30 PM PDT by murphE (Never miss an opportunity to kiss the hand of a holy priest.)
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To: murphE
I doubt most Catholics (at least in the United States) believe there is a hell, but I could be wrong. When I was in law school, back before rocks cooled, a friend of mine went to the University of Michigan library (3 million books then), and searched in the catalog for books that discussed hell and what it was like. The most recent book on the subject was published in 1909.

In any event, motivating through wielding the stick of hell, in order to inspire fear, to coerce changes in belief and behavior, is simply ineffectual in the present age. You might not like it, but that is my take.

53 posted on 04/15/2005 8:02:56 PM PDT by Torie (Constrain rogue state courts; repeal your state constitution)
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To: murphE

Your answer would have the desired effect provided good will on the part of the listener. Some people just don't want to accept the gracious gifts God offers for free.

The threat of going to hell ought to be enough to make a listener open his eyes. But today we have such sophistication deeply imbued in the minds of even young children thanks to television and progressive curriculum, that their hearts are hardened far in advance. I defer to the Act of Contrition, the one that was standard even before I was to learn the newer version, and I'm pushing 50. But since it is superior theologically, it is the one I have taught my own kids, which I hope will do its part to save them from some of the sophisticated self-centeredness that I suffered as a young adult, due in part, it seems to me, from the corrupted form of this prayer that I learned as a child:

Oh my God, I am heartilly sorry for having offended Thee and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.

This should be prayed every day by all Catholics.

Fear of hell is a starting point. If it works, well, that's better than the alternative. But more than that, one ought not stop there, since it is the higher virtue of love of God that ought to be our motivation. For someone to say, as the other response to this post of yours does, that the "stick of hell" is somehow insufficient for this modern, more highly informed age, is to speak with the same pride and foolishness that characterizes all the apostates of history. The Church is here for our good, to save our souls; and it is up to us to submit to her guiding lead lest we follow the wide path, the easy path, and the path of perdition.


141 posted on 04/16/2005 4:34:56 PM PDT by donbosco74 (Sancte Padre Pio, ora pro nobis, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.)
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