opinion, or outright wrong, they have no basis
in truth or reality.
Posted on 05/20/2015 2:41:37 PM PDT by NYer
But WHY does Jesus still hang on millions of Catholic crosses?
An infant cannot make cogent decisions and that is something that no one can do for him, even if they can take care of his physical needs.
As I said, they can teach him and encourage him in the right direction, but ultimately, the decision is his and always will be.
And I have NEVER found someone who left the Catholic church for that reason.
Catholics don't need to leave the church for getting out of a marriage they don't want to be in.
All they have to do is convince a priest that it wasn't a valid marriage to begin with and voila, church sanctioned divorce on tap.
Poor Elsie...
“Slowly being driven mad by ELSIE’s abject refusal to do what he wants;”
No, actually you’re doing exactly what is expected. When an anti-Catholic shows he is comfortable being both wrong and apparently ignorant - by choice - it certainly doesn’t help the anti-Catholic cause. Such a choice in no way surprises me or bothers me. It’s typical and expected.
“tries yet again; thus re-enforcing what Einstein had observed: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results equals...”
The repeated failure is not mine. The insanity cannot be mine either.
http://www.cin.org/users/jgallegos/web_aug.htm There’s that link again. It doesn’t bother me to post it and it doesn’t drive me insane because whether you look at it or not I’m getting exactly the result I expect in each and every post. An anti-Catholic will fail again.
“And I have NEVER found someone who left the Catholic church for that reason.”
I have. Many times. It’s probably the number one reason why some Catholics become Episcopalians.
First of all, a Catholic who is divorced, but does not remarry civilly or cohabitate, that is, who maintains chastity avoiding to their state in life, is still a Catholic. Not everyone who is divorced wants to be, and it can be a painful thing for all concerned. The Church offers counseling and Retrouvaille retreats for couples who are having problems. If efforts to remain together do not work, and the couple obtains a civil divorce, they must remain chaste to remain in the Church, in full communion.
Do all 1.2 billion Catholics abide by this? No. People do remarry and they do cohabitate. Do all clergy deny them the reception of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament because they have made the choice to remarry thus renouncing the Sacrament? No. Not everyone does accordingly. It's human nature. Most of the people I know who have left the Church have done so because of remarriage.
Second, the Church does not grant divorces. It also does not grant annulments lightly. That fact had a huge effect in both secular and religious history.
The Catholic Church has seven Sacraments, of which Holy Matrimony is one. Annulment means that the reception of the Sacrament was not valid, or was subject to impediment, to begin with. While civil divorce deals with all aspects of the marriage, an annulment concerns the spiritual, and most intimate, as well as the mundane, aspects of the marriage bond. It is not an easy process, and involves a great deal of witness, questioning, testimony, research on all parts. Valid impediments would include lack of disclosure to a spouse of mental illness or addiction when one was already aware of same; coercion of one or both spouses to marry against their will; undisclosed prior valid marriage; incapability of spouse to remain faithful due to sexual addiction or abberation. Simply not wanting to be married any longer is not considered as valid.
As a result, the marriage is not considered dissolved; it is acknowledged to not have been valid in the first place. Children of the marriage are considered legitimate when an annulment is granted.
I know quite a few.
**V998:I have. Many times. It’s probably the number one reason why some Catholics become Episcopalians.
Like I said, it made a big impact on history! That's a fact... :)
Because it is 100% Biblical.
1 Cor 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
Is that one of the books you guys took out. With each of you being your own pope it is hard for us to remember.
That's why God made parents. That's why kids obey parents and other authority figures in their lives who give them instruction, structure, discipline and protection to bring them up safely with the skills they need to be independent. At Confirmation, the person opts to declare for themselves. A parent is obliged to raise their child in their belief system, whatever that may be. Hopefully, they will do so without teaching them to resent anyone who believes differently...
**As I said, they can teach him and encourage him in the right direction, but ultimately, the decision is his and always will be.**
Exactly. Hence Confirmation.
As we mature in our lives and our Faith, we actively make a choice to keep that covenant begun at Baptism for the rest of our lives, at which point, we make our Confirmation. We receive the Holy Spirit in a special way. We also, having been given a name at Baptism when others spoke on our behalf, choose for ourselves a name of our own. From then on, we shoulder the responsibility to live for God through the tenets of that Faith.
So people should proseletyze adults (in Technicolor!) over a computer server, but should not pass their religious beliefs on to their children if the child is too young to commit. Is that it?
That’s really nice of you- thanks for reading- I go on sometimes! But it is true- maybe folks wouldn’t walk away so easily if they took the time to find out what we really have in the Church. There was a time of misinformation, but now we have access to everything we need. People will join organizations and clubs, follow the rules, pay their dues on time, check out all it has to offer. Even wear monogrammed hats, shirts... But when it comes to God, well...
Some don’t even know the basics of the Faith; complain about rules or openly defy them; have no sign in their home or on their person that they even think about God. What gets me is when folks say they “don’t get anything out of it”- I ask what the put into it. It’s like any other kind of relationship- it can’t be one-sided.
Go back and re-read what I said.
I wonder what CHANGED?
Past tense.
The church of Rome: "... but we show Christ CONTINUALLY being crucified. To Catholics a wonderfully true image; to Protestants, a symbol of foolishness, perhaps."
Does the church of Rome have a VALID leader today?
With so many dissident FR Catholics judging him; it's hard to tell.
An EMPTY cross reminds ME of His sacrifice as well as His RESURRECTION!
You guys 'cross yourselves' all the time.
Why?
Where is the Dead Jesus in THAT symbolism?
That is the Sign of the Cross. We make the Sign with the words, "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen." It's a prayer in itself, an invocation to God in the Trinity. We begin and end our prayers that way. It's supposed to be slow and reverent; and can be made at any time. I was taught as a little kid to make the Sign whenever I heard an ambulance, to ask God's help for the person who's ill. Still today, when I hear a siren, I take a moment to ask God's help for whoever is involved. Just an example...
http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-11.htm
Tertullian: Elucidations In all the ordinary occasions of life we furrow our foreheads with the sign of the Cross, in which we glory none the less because it is regarded as our shame by the heathen in presence of whom it is a profession of our faith.
Last line of the first paragraph.
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