Posted on 03/29/2007 5:20:08 AM PDT by Gamecock
FoxNews reported today that while addressing a parish in a suburb of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI clarified his view of hell. The Pope said concerning hell, [it] “really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more,”
According to reports from the Vatican this “straightforward” language is in effort to eliminate confusion pending an upcoming release of the new Catholic catechism. One might wonder about confusion from a church that proposes that its doctrine does not change.
However, even the casual Catholic should remember the last Pontiff’s less literal view of hell. Speaking of hell, Pope John Paul II said that it is “the ultimate consequence of sin itself . . . Rather than a place, Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy”.
According to Catholic dogma the Pope is infallible and exists as the functional head of the body of Christ on earth. So how can we have such divergent views on the reality of hell?
Hell is not the only issue with which we seem to see some contemporary doctrinal progression from Rome. In October the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a “halfway house” between Heaven and Hell, inhabited by unbaptized infants and holy men and women who lived before Christ, was “only a theological hypothesis” and not a “definitive truth of the faith”.
It is a real shame that millions and millions of folks are walking lock step with the Pope as their authority rather than Scripture. In order to be a good Catholic your theology must progress with the evolution of Papal theology, even at the expense of former Pontiffs. How dangerous it is to be blown about by Papal winds. Not so for Christians who reject Rome’s magisterial view of authority and embrace the doctrine of Sola Scriptura where God’s unchanging, inerrant, infallible divine Word is the ultimate authority in the church.
"You get sola scriptura out of that exactly how?"
It's called the Handy-Dandy Instant Scripture
Generator. You too can have one. It requires no back-up, no reasoning, and absolutely no input.
Sorry if I'm being flip, but fatuous inanities deserve to answered in kind.
Indeed. The constancy and unity of the descendents of the Protestant Reformation has been exemplary. /sarc>
Other than that, there's nothing to see here. Let 'em rant. Maybe God will help them see how silly they look.
I believe that photo was taken during a showing of a film at the Vatican about the life of John Paul II. Benedict XVI is reacting to a scene in the film when JPII was shot by Ahmet Ali Agca in St. Peter's Square.
Naahhhh ... that was during the daily "foreign intelligence briefing". He was getting an update on the upcoming American Presidential election ... that pic was shot just as the presenter got to the page with the Hildebeeste. He's trying not to vomit.
Your language is rather coarse. It does not reflect well on your faith.
/sarc
As it happens, I entirely believe what I said. I think this thread is provocative and intentionally insulting and offensive. I think it was put up to ridicule and to cause pain You're not going to try to tell me that this thread, complete with explanatory photos, was started to enable a thoughtful charitable discussion of the issues, are you? Faith is a virtue, gullibility is a symptom.
It gets my attention and confirms my point that when I use language which while harsh is not unprecedented in the theological discourse of either side, you rebuke me, while the mockery and hatred of the original post don't seem to trouble you.
If people who putup posts like that find my discourse offensive, I must be, by grace, doing something right. Being reviled with Benedict XVI or condemned with John Paul the Great is an honor of which I am unworthy and which makes me hold up my head. I stand by my words gratefully and happily.
Whohoo! Who let the Dawg out? Oh yeah, and amen to everything you said!
I guess it's true--we're know by the company we keep.
Mad Dawg, please count me on your team. :-)
When you are calling attention to the mistakes of others, please remember to use a comma to attach a subordinate clause to the front of a main clause. Also, the termination of a sentence requires the use of only a single period.
I can't help it--I'm smiling.
Well, it COULD be sheer, though culpable, ignorance. Not so much an outright lie 'in the first degree' with malice aforethought as being so entranced with the prospect of ranting about Catholics that he neglected to learn what he was talking about. There's a lot of that going around, and I expect more as Easter approaches.
May we be counted on His team!
Me, I'm going to go do the office of readings.
If one really wants to know how a religious group actually defines and talks about stuff, one goes to the documents that group writes, not what other people say they say. I do this when learning about any church.
I know what I believe and why I believe what I believe, but occasionally I have people tell me I believe things that just aren't true.
But I love them with Christian love anyway. Even when they tell me my flavor of the faith isn't Christian.
Pedantic? No sorry. My normal vocabulary.
From the time I was a child at Catholic catechism classes, I always knew that to be in hell was to be forever separated from the loving God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. So, neither Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict are really in disagreement as to the existence of hell or what it's meaning is. Furthermore, the doctrine is still the same as it was from the time of Jesus Christ.
This thread needs Captain Obvious!
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