Ah, the Vatican Airlines where the motto is, "Come fly with us and we'll get you a little closer to heaven." and each passager receives their own vial of holy water.
Posted on 12/06/2007 7:03:33 AM PST by Alex Murphy
According to the centuries-old rules of the Roman Catholic Church, sin-reduction is a two-step process. Guilt is absolved through confession and prayer, but punishment — on earth or in purgatory — can be avoided through indulgences, an ancient form of church-granted amnesty that critics deride as a shortcut to salvation.
The door for indulgences is not always open, though, and for years after the Vatican Council reforms of the 1960s, they were rarely offered — until 2000, when Pope John Paul II started using them to attract pilgrims to World Youth Day.
Today, Pope Benedict XVI put out the latest offer of indulgences, with two highly-detailed options. The harder way to get one, at least if you don’t live in southwestern France, involves making a pilgrimage to Lourdes, where the faithful believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to a teenage girl 18 times over a five-month span in 1858. The pilgrimage, which must be made in the next year, can be accomplished using Vatican charter flights that began over the summer.
The easier way involves a tighter window of time — just nine days in February — but what will probably be a much shorter trip, to “any church, grotto or decorous place” that displays “the blessed image” of the apparition. (Would a front yard in Staten Island qualify?) In the presence of the image, one must “participate in a pious exercise” to show devotion to the Virgin Mary, the announcement says.
“Or at least pause for an appropriate space of time in prayer and with pious meditations,” it continues.
(The instructions do not specify whether you can bring your own blessed image, or B.Y.O.B.I. A handy “divine sound-activated desk fountain” featuring the holy scene is available
(Excerpt) Read more at thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ...
General: That human society may be solicitous in the care of all those stricken with AIDS, especially children and women, and that the Church may make them feel the Lord's love.
Mission: That the incarnation of the Son of God, which the Church celebrates solemnly at Christmas, may help the peoples of the Asiatic Continent to recognize God's Envoy, the only Savior of the world, in Jesus.
Sigh. That's the condition that gives me the most difficulty.
Yeah, I know what you mean. ;-)
Indulgences are not a "shortcut to salvation"! The sin has already been forgiven. Indulgences do not determine whether a person goes to heaven or hell.
Just another example of not understanding Catholicism.
Regards
Nothing wierd, or even weird, about it.
The pope's intentions are the things the Pope is currently praying for.
Your intentions are the things you're currently praying for.
The "prayer for the Pope's intention" referenced is one Our Father and one Hail Mary; of course, other prayers may be said as well.
Understanding the bible doesn't help.
Bwhahahaha
How can a person make a statement about Catholicism, knowing very little about what Catholicism actually teaches? All you are doing is stating a cliche. I could just as easily say the same about Protestantism has little to do with the bible, when it leaves the Catholic faith...
The fact is that the Bible is not self-interpretated. It takes men to interpret what the author intended. You have your opinions and are welcome to have them. But it is unlikely that Protestantism is the "true" understanding of the bible, since the term itself stems from schism, condemned by the OT and NT alike.
Regards
Ah, the Vatican Airlines where the motto is, "Come fly with us and we'll get you a little closer to heaven." and each passager receives their own vial of holy water.
[Matthew 6:6-8] But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
It says right here.....not to do that! Why do you insist upon doing things that are unscriptural? I'll never understand you guys! If I was involved in a group of people saying the rosary.....and someone pointed out this scripture to me......I'd do some research. Then I'd wonder why I never got the word.
It's only "unscriptural" in your bad translation, Diego.
Look it up. The Greek word battalogeo doesn't have anything to do with "repetition," it means "useless words" or "babbling". "Repetition" is a KJV translator's error. (Compare it to other translations and you'll see what I mean.)
BTW, there's nothing wrong with repetition in prayer. Note Matthew 26:36-46, where Jesus prayed the same prayer three times. (Oy, vey! Doesn't He know how wrong that is?!?) Then read Ps 136, for some seriously repetitious prayer.
and someone pointed out this scripture to me......I'd do some research.
Fortunately for you, I've done the research already. Now go and get a real Bible, and try to understand it as something more than just a handy weapon to use against Catholics.
I really thought you hadn't received the word on this yet!
This makes it all the more mysterious??????
Not true. The Magisterium (Is your name Pullman?) warns the plowman and the milkmaid that just as they can plow crooked rows or spill the milk, they can err in their understanding of the Bible. They tell Bibleical scholars the same thing, but where the simple folk listen, the scholars often do not.
I...don't know what you're talking about!
Not that one.
It’s an important point. There are some very strange ideas and practices and doctrines that come out of the RCC that are not found in the bible. This whole indulgences thing is just one of many.
I agree that it is important, but I disagree that there are "some very strange ideas and practices and doctrines that come out of the RCC".
The concept of indulgences are very ancient and are found in Scriptures. To begin with, have you considered Matthew 16:19 or Matthew 18:18? Or we could go back further and look at the Jewish OT - which clearly mentions the idea of penance and acts of contrition for one's sins (such as wearing sack clothes and dousing one's head with ashes). The Church has been given authority to bind and loosen, to punish those within, or to free one from the effects of temporal punishments.
Regards
Oh yes, the verse that gives the pope all power, ofcourse. Boy that verse gets a lot of use by the RCC.
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