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The Pope: We are Christians because we belong to the Church, "can't love God outside of the Church"
http://www.asianews.it ^ | June 25, 2014 | The Vatican

Posted on 07/03/2014 4:10:21 PM PDT by NKP_Vet

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We are not isolated and we are not Christians individually, each on his or her own". Instead, we are all part of the Church, "a large family, where one is welcomed," where "one learns to live as believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis said.

Speaking in the last general audience before the July break, the Holy Father devoted his catechesis to the Church before a crowd of 35,000 in St Peter's Square. Despite a few drops of rain, he walked extensively among the assembled faithful.

In his address, he warned against those who "think they can have a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the communion and the mediation of the Church."

In the Church, he noted, there is no "do it yourself", no "free agents." For him, "Our Christian identity is belonging! We are Christians because we belong to the Church. It is like a surname. If the name is 'I am a Christian', the surname is 'I belong to the Church'." Such sense of belonging was born from the alliance between God and Abraham, to whom he donated a great people for his loyalty.

"God's relationship to his people comes before all of us, it comes from that time," and thus, "in this sense, our thoughts go first, with gratitude, to those who have gone before us and who welcomed us into the Church. No one becomes a Christian by himself! Is this clear? Nobody becomes a Christian by himself. Christians are not made in a lab.

(Excerpt) Read more at asianews.it ...


TOPICS: Apologetics; Moral Issues; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: catholicsonly; christianity; exclusionary; noheaven4you; pope
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To: CynicalBear
Ah that famous "Church of One", you get to define and decide it all.


81 posted on 07/03/2014 6:16:33 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: CynicalBear

“Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since they by their own choice withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal which, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation. Between heresy and schism there is this difference: that heresy involves perverse doctrine, while schism separates one from the Church on account of disagreement with the bishop. Nevertheless, there is no schism which does not trump up a heresy to justify its departure from the Church” (Commentary on Titus 3:10–11 [A.D. 386]). ~ St. Jerome


82 posted on 07/03/2014 6:16:50 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
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To: NKP_Vet

The word Church does not appear in John 3:16.


83 posted on 07/03/2014 6:20:15 PM PDT by csmusaret (Will remove Obama-Biden bumperstickers for $10)
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To: narses

Are you sane? Or are you speaking for Satan? There is a difference.


84 posted on 07/03/2014 6:23:09 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: NKP_Vet

Catholics have fallen for the corrupted concept of what the New Testament writers called the “assembly” of believers. No where in the New Testament is the Catholic Concept of “church” found.


85 posted on 07/03/2014 6:24:40 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: Karl Spooner

1 - Are you Christian?

2 - What denomination teaches these things you seem to recall?

3 - Do you celebrate Easter and Christmas?


86 posted on 07/03/2014 6:24:43 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: narses

Are you and do you?


87 posted on 07/03/2014 6:27:44 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: CynicalBear

bump


88 posted on 07/03/2014 6:27:54 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Karl Spooner

Are you sane? Or are you speaking for Satan? There is a difference.


89 posted on 07/03/2014 6:28:15 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: CynicalBear
If you are a Catholic you already did.

Proudly!

90 posted on 07/03/2014 6:28:55 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: CynicalBear

** No where in the New Testament is the Catholic Concept of “church” found.**

So wrong.

Christ’s words:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn 6:53).

Too bad that you reject Christ’s words.


91 posted on 07/03/2014 6:30:30 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: CynicalBear

92 posted on 07/03/2014 6:31:09 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: narses

I’ll just write you off as a screwball. God does make allowances for that in your favor.


93 posted on 07/03/2014 6:32:04 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: NKP_Vet
Man's word....NOT GOD'S
94 posted on 07/03/2014 6:34:10 PM PDT by 2nd amendment mama ( www.2asisters.org | Self defense is a basic human right!)
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To: Last Dakotan
>> Proudly!<<

How odd. That’s what Muslims and Mormons say also.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.<<

I humbly praise God for His grace and mercy for saving a wretch like me.

95 posted on 07/03/2014 6:34:34 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: NKP_Vet

96 posted on 07/03/2014 6:36:12 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: CynicalBear
I humbly praise God for His grace and mercy for saving a wretch like me.

If anybody goes against that here, they will get in big trouble.

97 posted on 07/03/2014 6:39:17 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: CynicalBear
I humbly praise God for His grace and mercy for saving a wretch like me.

If anybody goes against that here, they will get in big trouble.

98 posted on 07/03/2014 6:39:17 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: Salvation
First off, why change the subject? John 6 has nothing to do with the term “church”? Are you that lacking in knowledge of scripture?

Secondly, Christ Himself explained that it wasn’t actually the flesh in that same conversation.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

99 posted on 07/03/2014 6:40:37 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: CynicalBear

Catholics wrote the Bible, and canonized the Bible. The Catholic Curch came before the NT. Without the Catholic Church you would have never heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church brought the Word of God to all believers.


100 posted on 07/03/2014 6:47:33 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
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