Posted on 04/17/2015 12:12:16 PM PDT by RnMomof7
I’ve mentioned that Roman Catholicism is so onerous because it puts its hooks in you at various times in your life – from baptism as a child, to “first confession” and “first holy communion”, then Confirmation as an early teen, then marriage, baptism of your own children, etc. It’s a programmatic cycle.
There is another point at which Rome is prominent, and that is at death. As the “Baby Boom” generation continues to age and die, people will continue to be focused on this phase of life, either as people focused on the end of their own lives, or that of their aging parents.
Paul Moses, a journalism professor at Brooklyn College/CUNY”, has written a piece for the Wall Street Journal this morning entitled “A Liberal Catholic and Staying Put”, which puts this in view.
Beginning the article with some comments from the atheistic “Freedom From Religion Foundation”, which urged discontented, liberal-minded Catholics to “Summon your fortitude, and just go”, he rejects this notion with the following comments:
To me, these invitations reflect a shallow view of the Catholic Church that reduces its complex journey to the points where it intersects with the liberal social agenda. Pope Francis’ pastoral approach has shown a more merciful, less judgmental face of the church—one that always existed but needed to be more prominent in the public arena.
After my father died last year, I realized that my instinctive resistance to these “just go” arguments—from the atheists, the secularists, the orthodox, the heterodox or anyone else—runs deep. It began when I observed how impressively the church was there for me in a moment of need (emphasis added).
Early on the morning after he died, I went to my father's parish, St. Peter's in lower Manhattan, to find out what to do to bury him. I found one of the priests in the sacristy after the early Mass. The Rev. Alex Joseph took my hands in his, spoke a beautiful prayer, told me of his own father's death years earlier and added, "Our fathers are always with us." I was much moved.
We decided to have my father's funeral in the Staten Island parish where he had worshiped for 25 years … Bernard L. Moses, who died at 88, had loved Father Madigan’s homilies, and to hear [Father Madigan] speak at the funeral Mass was to understand why. My father had advanced up the ranks of the New York City Housing Authority to director of management. Citing his concern for tenants, Father Madigan used the traditional Catholic term “corporal work of mercy” to describe what my father did. It explained for me, in those difficult moments, why my father, who was well-schooled in Catholic social teachings, had passed up the opportunity for a more pleasant career in academia, or a more lucrative one managing private housing, to work in housing projects instead.
Few of us, I think, live daily on the edge of eternity in the conscious way that the Puritans did, and we lose out as a result. For the extraordinary vivacity, even hilarity (yes, hilarity; you will find it in the sources), with which the Puritans lived stemmed directly, I believe, from the unflinching, matter-of-fact realism with which they prepared themselves for death, so as always to be found, as it were, packed up and ready to go (emphasis added). Reckoning with death brought appreciation of each day’s continued life, and the knowledge that God would eventually decide, without consulting them, when their work on earth was done brought energy for the work itself while they were still being given time to get on with it (pg 14).
Who ever said it was? Or is that some type of obfuscation to divert? The individual ekklesia (assemblies) are indeed visible. I would suppose you would not deny that the Catholic Church claims their so called saints are part of the "church" right? Are they visible?
A "maiden" was an unmarried young woman. Are you saying they were not virgins?
And here is a quick link, the reason I linked it is because it cites the debate between Saint Justin Martyr and The Jews of his time, particulary, a Jewish Scholar named Trypo. This debate can be accessed at the Protestant site CCEL or the Catholic one Newadvent. Regardless, the Jews circa 150AD did not view the Hebrew word almah to mean virgin and clearly rejected the Greek LXX use of the word parthenos which clearly means virgin, which is the way the Hellenstic Jews translated almah in the LXX version of the OT.
http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/17042/does-isaiah-714-refer-to-a-virgin
Truth says we call a spade a spade and we call a cult a cult.
CynicalBear:
Ok fair enough but if you are going to use those terms, I will have to ask you not to post to me again at all. I will no longer post to you. I am not going to discuss anything with anyone who uses those terms.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation in this manner.
"without excluding a possibility that the young woman might be a virgin."
Now, when we take all of the scriptural references to Mary we understand she was a virgin don't we. The Catholic propensity to focus on just one verse leads to all kinds of errors.
If you post false interpretations of scripture I will post to refute them. Count on it.
see post 305. No more comments
no, you will refute what you think is false. Again, no comment on the matter again and I respectfully ask you not to post me in the future on any subject.
Thanks again for your cooperation in this manner
Ok, you have a problem with Saint Jerome.
No, I have a problem with you calling him the greatest ever and then having to change your story.
ealgeone:
It is my opinion he was, and I provided evidence for why I made that claim. If you have a candidate who you think is better, propose who you think it is.
And I still stand by that claim that he was in fact the best biblical scholar in the history of the Church.
And here is the Newadvent biography of Saint Jerome. At the beginning of the 10th paragraph, I believe, the sentence begins “To Sum up his Biblical Knowledge of Saint Jerome ranks him first among ancient biblical exegetes.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08341a.htm
That was a clear admission of what we knew all along.
You opinion is not necessarily a fact.
Something I thought I would never see. I'm thinking it was a slip up. True non the less.
No it wasn’t and in fact Protestants and Evangelicals condemned the KKK in the 1920’s.
Notice many of the KKK accusations have been removed by the mods.
Rewriting history is pretty much a must for Catholicism.
This is scary.....
Syncro:
Nonsense, The KKK was tied to American Protestant Christianity. The ones that condemned it were what you FR prots here call the Liberal mainline Protestants.
There was a Catholic Priest in Alabama around 1925 that was murdered by a Pastor of a Protestant Church who as a KKK member.
ealgeone:
No sure the context of the quote you are writing. The article I gave you was longer than that quote.
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