Posted on 09/06/2009 3:50:15 PM PDT by NYer
And in a big way. A lot of you have seen the great ads produced by a group called Catholics Come Home. The ads, evidently, are working. And spreading.
From the Los Angeles Times:
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is home to nearly 1 million Catholics. On a typical Sunday, less than 137,000 can be found in church.Curious to see what all the fuss is about? Check out the videos below. And you can find more at the Catholics Come Home link.
Now, using a strategy straight from the secular playbook, its leaders hope to lure back those who have drifted.
The diocese and nearly a dozen others across the country are preparing to air several thousand prime-time TV commercials in English and Spanish, inviting inactive Catholics to return to their religious roots.
In addition to Sacramento, dioceses in Chicago, Omaha, Providence, R.I., and four other cities will launch the “Catholics Come Home” advertising blitz during Advent, the period before Christmas.
Four more dioceses will follow during Lent next spring. Los Angeles is not among the initial group but could be part of a nationwide campaign slated for December 2010.
"I'm hoping that a significant number of people will give us another look," Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto said of the campaign. "Many Catholics have a sense of believing but not always a sense of belonging."
The potential audience is huge.
Only about one-quarter of U.S. Catholics say they attend Mass every week, and a majority go to religious services a few times a year or less, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which conducts social science research about the Catholic church.
Researchers there also found that two-thirds of Catholics believe they can be good members of their faith without attending Mass regularly.
Inactive Catholics cite a number of reasons for their absence. Many do not believe that missing Mass is a sin, the center reported. Others say they are too busy with family or work, or, as other analysts point out, are more interested in material happiness than spiritual fulfillment.
"There is a strange pattern of people who aren't practicing but still have beliefs and pick up parts of the faith," said Mark Gray, a research associate with the center. "They may give up meat on Fridays during Lent or attend Ash Wednesday services."
But he said--in part--"To be saved one must fit all the requirements of being Catholic."
Thus, your statement was false.
You and your ilk make that claim; I follow Christ, and have stated as much in this very thread, but was told that it is not true, I must be following something other, since I do not belong to the Catholic Church.
Thankfully, my salvation does not matter what you think, even if your church says otherwise.
I quoted you where you made that claim.
The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."
Tell me how this does not say that Muslims who simply acknowledge the Creator will be saved.
Sorry, please read the post: he is judge as condemned. Judged and condemned. Does the Catholic Church judge men? You say no, but your own rites say otherwise.
Of course, with the way words are twisted to almost doublespeak, it does not surprise me that the use of the words judge and condemned does not mean judge and condemned.
“Plan of Salvation” does not equate to “are saved.”
The Catholic Church speaks with confidence of the salvation only of the Saints. “Once saved always saved” is a false tradition of men.
Can you not see that they are not the same thing?
I think you're confused, friend. If someone fulfills all the requirements of being Catholic, are they Catholic?
Can a non-Catholic be saved?
Two simple yes-or-no questions, can you answer with just two words?
But "judge and condemned" were not the words used.
Yes. Yes.
You make no sense; follow the thread, you will see I state I follow no church, I follow Christ, and then I am told that I cannot belong to a church, and thus must not be a Christian.
If that is your determination, then I will play your game. You already judge me as condemned, you state I cannot be saved. Why does it matter?
I am out of this thread, you refuse to even follow a thread and willingly lie about others. You willingly mock and insult and attack. You are the worst of the worst. You and your fellow “Catholics” can continue with your hate and ignorance and placing yourselves above God and Jesus. The Bible is irrelevant, you have your Catechism. Jesus is irrelevant, you have your Church.
You have judged as condemned yourselves by your own actions.
Don't stuff words in my mouth.
Does Exodus 20:16 mean anything to you?
I can certainly give you my whole-hearted agreement on this much.
Pax.
***You’ve claimed to have read the Catechism; what is so difficult about this?
Simple. The Catechism is in direct opposition to the Bible on many points. Thus the Catechism is in error, and should not be the “authority” you turn to. ***
Name the opposition.
***To be saved one must fit all the requirements of being Catholic.
Does that include your mariology? If so, that rules out the Orthodox as well...***
I don’t have a mariology; and please do not speak for the Orthodox. They have a reverence for Mary that is very lacking in many self identified Christians.
***That is the authority that Jesus gave to the Church.
Unfortunately, the church let Him down. Just like Peter - the rock on which He built His church - let Him down. Thankfully we still have the ultimate authority of Jesus - His Word in the Bible, and we can use that to determine when and where the church has failed Him.***
I suppose that the Scripture that says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church and that the Holy Spirit will be the Church always have been purged from your personal Bible, along with the editing that Luther did.
***Have you missed this in your perusal of Scripture?
On the contrary, I am daily reminded of the errors of the ways of churches, and the errors of the Catechism. But when you place the Catechism above the Bible, it makes sense that you cannot see the plain errors of your way.***
You mean the churches of men, I suppose. I don’t quite understand your insistence that the Church of Jesus Christ is the same as those of the men that Protestants follow, though. Perhaps the individual interpretation of Scripture is inadequate.
***We include all of Jesus’ commandments, we don’t substitute misunderstandings of Paul or edit the Bible to whatever our particular cult happens to believe.
Then explain how your ex-communication ritual fits in with the Words of Christ. ***
Sure. Matthew 18:
16
13 If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
17
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. 14 If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Galations 1:
8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach (to you) a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed! 7
9
As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed!
And the Reformation preaches another Gospel than the one that they have received. A gospel of men, by men and for men. Not the Gospel of Jesus. When you quote Jesus, that is one thing; when you quote misunderstood snippets of Paul that do not support the entirety of the Gospels, that is another. I have posted the definition and intent of excommunication. Shall I do so again?
***Christ is the sole arbiter of man’s fate; judgment rests with Him and Him alone. How can a Pope and 12 priests condemn a man to Hell?***
They can’t. Why are you posting this?
***Once again, I must tell you that the Church does not dispense Judgement. What other anti Catholic venom do you need to spew?
Excuse me, you JUST got done telling me that only Catholics can be saved. How is that not judgment? How is saying “unless you do this and this and this, you cannot be saved” not passing judgment?***
It is the words of Jesus that we must follow and not the words of men who wish to pick and choose and rationalize. I don’t Judge; neither does the Church. Read Scripture and understand.
***The Church does not supercede Christ; we cannot.
GREAT! Then when will the church repent for its failings in the past? Start with the sex scandals of the last few decades. Any repentance from Rome? You know, the Biblical type where you go to the offended and ask them for forgiveness? ***
The Church and all of its clergy have done so in a rather public fashion and followed it up with vast monetary sums. Have you not been following the news? I am a member of the KofC and I have gotten our council renamed because of the association (not participation) of the bishop in this scandal. I have six children and exactly none of them have been molested in any way. I was an altar boy and never even heard of such events, yet they happened. We face it squarely and those who participated are being removed, prosecuted and dealt with.
***It is the heresies of the men of the Reformation that try to.
On the contrary, the “heresies” you like to rail against were trying to call the church back to a Christian, Biblical existence, where humility, servanthood, and obedience were the rule.***
The heresies of the Reformation are numerous and I have posted on them often. The fantasy of a ‘Christian Biblical existence’ is just that. The Church didn’t even have a canon of Scripture until almost 400 AD.
***But that would mean Rome would have to bend its knee to others it grieved, and we can’t have that, can we?***
I thought that we were to bend our knee to God (but I rarely have come across a modern day Protestant who does). Just as an aside, do you kneel before God? I mean literally.
And what denomination are you now attending?
I had to go back to your April post to find where Catholic author Donal Anthony Foley said that - but said it he did. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
....some of the more evangelically minded Christians seem to have resisted the inroads of Evolution, and this is due to the tenacity with which they have held onto belief in the literal truth of Genesis. This belief seems to have been lost to a large extent within the Catholic Church in a practical sense.But it is important to recognise that this does not mean that the Church has fallen into error on this important point.
As far as the teachings of the Magisterium are concerned, and the documents of Vatican II, the emphasis on the Bible as the inspired Word of God is still there. What has happened is that evolutionary ideas have undermined the general faith of the Church, and so this Biblical emphasis has been overshadowed.
We can trace back this process to the Reformation, when a certain suspicion of the Bible entered into Catholic circles because of the way men such as Luther and Calvin interpreted it. The cleavage between Catholics and Protestants developed into a huge chasm as the centuries passed and was still a major factor at the time of Darwin.
Christendom had become a house divided in which, broadly speaking, Catholics base their faith on the teaching of the Church rather than the Bible. From a Catholic perspective this was not a question of seeing "the Church" or "the Bible" as opposing authorities, but of regarding the twin principles of Scripture and Tradition as normative in the life of the Church.
But one result of this emphasis was that some Catholics were inclined to accept the idea of Evolution. Like the thin end of the proverbial wedge, this acceptance of the principle of Evolution has gradually entered into the practical life of the Church, and to speak frankly, "corrupted" it.
Again it should be emphasised that this does not mean that the official Magisterium of the Church has been corrupted, but that in a practical sense an evolutionary mentality has entered into the Church's attitude towards the world.
Where do you go to church now?
None. I will rely on my relationship with God without some money grubbing middleman.
***Yet not Scriptural enough to understand the role of the Church.
I know the role of the Church, to follow the great commission.***
But what does that mean? It means that the Church is the only entity left behind by Christ to teach the Good News, to interpret it and to define the doctrine of God.
***Really? I am offended.
I am sorry, brother, please show me where I have offended you and I will honestly as for forgiveness.***
You keep accusing me of calling you rather offensive names. I have never done so. If you will, produce the posts in which I have called you these names.
***Then why do you guys do it?
My church does not limit me in my knowledge and insight gained from studying the Bible.***
That’s it in a nutshell. It is your church. I don’t have a church. Jesus has a Church. You make my argument for me.
***The church exists to evangelize and strengthen each other, not to strengthen itself.***
If the individuals do not understand Scripture, how can it evangelize?
***Are you attributing things to me? I have never called you a bastard, nor a son of Satan and I will thank you for a public apology.
You have stated that Protestants are illegitimate Christians.***
Produce the post, please.
*** You have stated that Protestants sprang from the evil actions of Luther.***
Not just lusty Luther, but the meglomaniacal Calvin and the rather mystical Zwingli.
***Thus any and all Protestants are illegitimate, and the result of evil.***
Protestant beliefs, my friend. I have never called you illegimate.
***Me, personally? No. Me, and all other Protestants corporately? Yes. I’d ask you to apologize for this - again - but I know you won’t since in your mind it is acceptable to state such things, because your church says it is OK.***
I don’t have a church, unlike the Protestant mosaic which has man made churches littering the landscape like leaves in the fall. Jesus created a Church. This is an illustration of our differences. I do not presume to enact my own doctrine. I leave that up to God and His Created Church.
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