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Why Every Christian, Not Just Catholics, Should Be Very Worried About The Catholic Sex Scandal
The Federalist ^ | 09/17/2018 | By Willis L. Krumholz and Robert Delahunty

Posted on 09/17/2018 11:01:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The rapidly unfolding crisis in the Roman Catholic Church is not a matter of concern to Catholics alone. Its true dimensions have yet to be measured, but we think it will prove to be a crisis on the scale of the Protestant Reformation, which began just over 500 years ago — an earthquake of 9.5 on the Richter scale. If so, resolution of the crisis will take decades to work through.

Resolution and absolution will require serious effort, and most likely require deep, structural reforms. Even if we are mistaken, the Catholic crisis is of such a magnitude that Christians of all denominations must take a serious interest in it.

We are both evangelical Christians with strong ties to the Catholic Church and deep respect for it. One of us was raised as a Catholic, was educated at Catholic primary and secondary schools, and has taught for the past 14 years at a Catholic law school; the other is a graduate of the law school and the business school of that Catholic university, and has many Catholic family members.

We also care deeply about our many Catholic friends, and the health of the Roman Catholic Church, which is an enormous force for good in this world. We also believe that what happens with the Catholic Church will affect Christianity worldwide. In other words, we have a stake in the matter.

Non-Catholics Should Pay Attention

Some Catholics may regard the crisis in their church as a purely internal matter, and consider outside commentary unwelcome and intrusive, even if it is well-meant. Likewise, many non-Catholic Christians may assume the Catholic crisis does not affect them at all, and perhaps even find in that crisis confirmation for their darkest views of Catholicism.

We do not accept that position. Non-Catholic Christians should take an active part in the conversation about the Catholic crisis. While they must be unfailingly tactful and sympathetic, they should also be as critical as is necessary given what is at stake. The well-known writer Rod Dreher, formerly a Catholic and now Eastern Orthodox, has posted frequently on the Catholic crisis, and is a magnificent model for other non-Catholic Christians to follow.

Among many reasons for non-Catholic interventions, three stand out in our minds.

1. The Victims

First, every Christian has a compelling obligation to protect the weak and vulnerable to the greatest extent possible. The victims of clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church (as elsewhere) have often been children. While many victims have been compensated — if “compensation” for such injuries is really possible — and the Catholic Church in many places has instituted practices to guard against future abuse, it remains necessary to speak on behalf of those who have been victimized and those who may still be at risk.

All Christians, especially Catholics, should be angry. It is unbearable to think of what has been done “to the least of these” by those claiming to speak in the name of Christ. Many of the children targeted and abused came from broken and dysfunctional homes. Many are fatherless.

The church is charged with mending the emptiness that a broken family brings, not violently shattering a child’s world. God is the father to the fatherless. What would Christ, who overturned tables at the temple and chased out the moneychangers with a whip, do to those who sexually molest his children?

Far too many in the church hierarchy, including the pope, are not sufficiently angry. For example, this coming January, Cardinal Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyons in France, will be standing trial for allegedly covering up the crimes of a local priest who, in the 1980s, sexually abused Boy Scouts. A local priest has gathered more than 100,000 signatures to petition the pope to remove this cardinal.

Thus far, however, Pope Francis seems not to have responded to that petition. However, in 2016, despite knowing of the allegations against the cardinal, and apparently without meeting or hearing the victims of the priest’s abuse, Pope Francis praised Barbarin as “brave.” He also has not ordered a canonical proceeding against him.

We are not prejudging Barbarin’s guilt or innocence: that depends on the outcome of his case in January. But we think it is fair to say that Pope Francis’ handling of the affair indicates that he is — at best — over-eager to defend his hierarchy and insufficiently attentive to those who have suffered at their hands.

The pope is not the only member of the Catholic hierarchy who seems simply unable to register the severity of the injuries they cause to their victims, and others at risk from them. Recently, on a visit to a seminary, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, a Francis appointee, answered one anguished young candidate for the priesthood by saying, “While the church’s ‘agenda’ certainly involves protecting kids from harm, ‘we have a bigger agenda than to be distracted by all of this.’” His audience was reportedly dumbfounded: Surely the problem of sexual abuse of seminaries and children is more than a “distraction?”

In a similar vein, Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras has excoriated a group of 50 Honduran seminarians for petitioning the Vatican to correct homosexual abuses going on in their seminary. We apparently are to believe that 50 seminaries are spreading malicious lies, while Madariaga, whose top aide resigned last July in the wake of charges of sexual and financial misconduct, is only speaking the truth.

Moreover, the victims of clerical abuse and the hierarchical concealment of them are not limited to those who have personally suffered sexual affronts. The financial costs to the Catholic Church of litigating and settling abuse cases have been staggering, and are now likely to escalate much higher. In 2015, the National Catholic Reporter found that the church had incurred $4 billion since 1950 in costs related to clerical sex abuse.

Research has also found that the church lost about $2.3 billion annually over the last 30 years due to scandal-related consequences, in the form of lost membership, and diverted giving. Specifically, there is a notable drop in giving in areas rocked by abuse. This makes sense. Why should good people give to pay for bad things?

Abuse litigation in the Los Angeles Archdiocese alone cost $740 million. Yet the former archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, under whose tenure (1985-2011) there were 500 alleged victims, is still considered a “priest in good standing” and has not been demoted by the pope.

These amounts will likely rise significantly in the wake of the recent report by a Pennsylvania grand jury detailing abuse in most (but not all) of that state’s Catholic dioceses, the overwhelming likelihood that similar investigations will occur in other states, and the risk that statutes of limitations will be amended to expose the Catholic Church to greater liability.

That means the American Catholic Church has had, and will have, far fewer resources to help the poor, to care for the sick, to shelter the homeless, and to educate children. These are victims too.

2. Concern for Fellow Christians

Second, even if you happen not to be a Catholic, surely you have Catholic family members, spouses, close friends, or colleagues who are Catholics. Almost half of the U.S. population has a “strong” connection to the Catholic Church. We have often found the Catholics closest to us to be dismayed by the situation in their church — angry, stunned, confused, or even in denial. Fellow Christians should share their agony.

The other Christian churches should want a healthy, robust Catholic Church, not the gravely weakened one of the present. American Catholicism was losing members alarmingly even before the current phase of the Catholic crisis. It is said that the second largest American denomination, after the Catholic Church, is ex-Catholics.

Not all of that decline is due to the clerical scandals; the general re-paganization of American society has surely played its part. But it seems likely that many former Catholics have abandoned their church (or at least are boycotting it) because of the scandals. The abuse scandals may also be playing a role in this re-paganization — after all, abuse of young boys was a pagan practice that early Christianity condemned and sought to stamp out.

In light of all this, non-Catholic Christians may be increasingly tempted to view Catholicism as a kind of pariah church within global Christianity. But that would not only be uncharitable; it would be unwise. To a great extent, the reputation of the Christian faith itself is besmirched when a large Christian denomination is engulfed in continuing scandals.

3. The Risk to Religious Liberty

When a large corporate body proves unable to govern itself, the chances are high that the government will step in. We saw this when financial institutions considered “too big to fail” were either shuttered by the government or subjected to deeply intrusive government regulation. The Catholic Church is heading towards the same predicament. Unless it can prove, very rapidly, that it is capable of managing its own affairs, it will come under increasing governmental scrutiny and control. Thereby it will pose a danger to the religious liberties of us all.

Already, the American Catholic Church is under the regulatory microscope. We’ve mentioned the stunning grand jury report from Pennsylvania. Attorneys general in five other states — Illinois, New York, Nebraska, New Mexico, Missouri, and now Kentucky — have been quick to take the cue.

These investigations may well reveal problems as deep, intractable, and serious as those discovered in Pennsylvania. That is, the systematic abuse of children was known to be occurring, and no one did anything about it.

Federal and state courts have already been involved, e.g., in diocesan bankruptcy cases. They are now likely to be trying larger numbers of criminal cases related to the abuse scandals, including some against ranking Catholic prelates. There is even a possibility that the Department of Justice may launch an anti-racketeering suit against the American Catholic Church.

Yes, there is a sturdy tradition of religious liberty in this country, and it enjoys constitutional protection in the First Amendment. But in the past several years, that tradition has been weakening, and government has asserted broader power to control decisions that churches once considered their own.

The Obama administration’s “contraception mandate” is a case in point. Given that growing numbers of Americans have severed their affiliations to any religion or church, the public (and the courts) may grow increasingly indifferent to arguments of behalf of religious liberty, and come to regard governmental regulation of all churches with greater acceptance. These trends will be aggravated if the largest American denomination seems scandal-ridden and unable to right itself. That makes the problems of the Catholic Church a matter of the highest concern for us all.

Gazing Into the Abyss

It is absolutely essential that Catholics grasp the depth of this crisis. As we have said, we think it will become as severe and as comprehensive as the crisis of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. With remarkable swiftness, Catholicism simply collapsed in what had been Catholic strongholds — most of Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Scotland, and very nearly France. In recent decades, Catholicism has likewise lost its grip in what had been bastions — like French Canada, Spain, Ireland, and Brazil.

Forty years ago, virtually the entire population of southern Ireland turned out to welcome Pope John Paul II. A few weeks ago, the Irish population essentially shunned the visiting Pope Francis, and the Irish prime minister gave him a stern lecture on his church’s reduced place in that country. What would St. Patrick, who, despite just escaping from slavery in pagan Ireland, returned to the island after hearing the screams of the damned in his dreams, think of the church today?

As goes Ireland, so will go the rest of Roman Catholic Christendom. The church in Germany has been rocked by scandal and there are thousands of known-victims. Already, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is under judgment in Chile, the United States, Australia, France, and Honduras. The crisis has long since gone global.

In fact, as the Catholic scholar Benjamin Wiker has argued, the current crisis is more threatening for the Catholic Church than the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. For one thing, the Reformation began in a society that was still overwhelmingly Christian. Some historians of the pre-Reformation period even argue that Christian piety was deepening and broadening in the run-up to the Reformation, and that the Christian laity was already assuming a more prominent role in managing church affairs (a development greatly accelerated by Lutherans and Calvinists). But the contemporary Western world seems rapidly to be losing whatever residual Christianity was left in it. That makes a Catholic recovery more problematic.

Second, the internet spreads news of the Catholic crisis within seconds into every house. Everyone knows everything. Pope Francis, who seems to prefer talking about plastics in our oceans over the systemic problem of child abuse, may count on a friendly and collaborative media to ignore or downplay the charges Archbishop Vigano recently brought personally against him. But even if information leaks out drip by drip, the Catholic hierarchy and the Vatican can no longer safely rely on secrecy and on silence to cover their misdeeds.

Just as the printing press was a major force in the spread of the Reformation in Martin Luther’s Germany, so internet journalism (and, who knows, even the mainstream media when the pope is no longer useful to their agenda) will sooner or later force the disclosure of the facts. So it will not do for Catholics simply to say, “We have been through this before. We will make it through again.” In the end, that belief may be vindicated. We sincerely hope it is. But in the meanwhile, they must be energetically fashioning responses that are truly commensurate to this crisis.

Willis L. Krumholz lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a JD/MBA graduate from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. Robert J. Delahunty is a professor of law at the University of St Thomas and has taught Constitutional Law there for a decade.


TOPICS: Catholic; Evangelical Christian; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholics; catholicsexscandal; popesexscandal; sexscandal; sexualabuse
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To: boatbums
Well, Al, think about this...

Still trying to change the discussion?

A comment was posted saying "Most Catholics on FR don’t even know what Protestants believe." I agree with the comment, don't you? On FR, there are even Protestants who don't know what other Protestants believe.

Nice, try though.

281 posted on 09/20/2018 7:21:28 PM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: boatbums
Also, I've had some feedback and added a couple more items to the list. One proposed was Trinitarianism, since there are groups like Oneness Pentecostals who don't believe in the Trinity. But I'm still checking it out.

Divergent Beliefs Between Protestant Denominations (updated)

No. Protestant Belief or Practice Yes No
1 Efficacy of Baptism
2 Infant Baptism
3 Baptism by Full Immersion Required
4 Real Presence in the Eucharist
5 Sacramental Confession to Clergy
6 Ordained Clergy
7 Ordination of Females
8 Prayers for the Dead
9 Augustinian Division of 10 Commandments
10 Presence of Crucifix in Church/Chapel
11 TULIP
12 Prima Scriptura
13 Apostolic Succession
14 Faith Alone
15 Abortion
16 Open Communion
17 Rebaptism
18 Predestination



282 posted on 09/20/2018 7:30:19 PM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: Al Hitan
Still trying to change the discussion? A comment was posted saying "Most Catholics on FR don’t even know what Protestants believe." I agree with the comment, don't you? On FR, there are even Protestants who don't know what other Protestants believe. Nice, try though.

But I did try! Did you read what I wrote? I explained how the historical Christian churches HAVE a standard rule of faith. If you want to know what a denomination teaches and believes, look at their statement of faith. If you want to know what an individual believes WRT a specific tenet, ask them!

Here's what you said: "You’re talking about individuals. I’m talking about variations in official doctrine and practices between denominations."

There have been variations in official doctrine and practices all along. How often does your Catechism get updated? It is pretty easy to find out what Protestants believe because their statements of faith are found online anymore. Even Catholicism has online versions of the catechism. The question IS what do individuals that identify as a denomination believe and how does that belief coincide with the official statements of faith for that denomination? There is not really that much difference at all between the historical denominations that get categorized as "Protestant" on the major tenets of the faith. They haven't changed. That's not to say that some mainline churches today no longer teach the ancient Christian faith, just as many Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have gone more liberal and do not teach the Catholic faith. A Statement of Faith is supposed to spell out what the beliefs are for a denomination, whether or not individuals remain faithful to them is really the question. I've worshipped in a Southern Baptist church, a Lutheran church, an Evangelical church and a Presbyterian church. We agree on what are the main doctrines of Christianity. I would NOT attend some other ones because I either know they are cults or false religions or they have devolved from what was their heritage in the faith.

So, yes, I wonder if FRoman Catholics really know what Protestants believe. I know what Catholics believe, though not every Catholic believes exactly like other Catholics do even if they have official doctrines. I've seen polls that show a large percentage of Catholics do not believe in the "real presence"....so there's that. If you don't know what a Protestant believes - you shouldn't be condemning him over doctrines you think are contrary to yours. Why not just ASK???

283 posted on 09/20/2018 8:14:32 PM PDT by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us.)
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To: Luircin
Oh hey, it’s exactly the answer that I expected.

It was not an answer; it was questions in keeping with the comment complaining of Catholics not knowing what Protestants believe.

You say that like that’s something to be ashamed of.

Is that mindreading?


284 posted on 09/20/2018 8:24:57 PM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: boatbums
I wonder if FRoman Catholics really know what Protestants believe.

You don't have to wonder. It isn't a matter of a denomination updating doctrine; it's the variation in doctrine between denominations. The point is that to "know" is highly dependent on who and which denomination. There are some on here who won't even let us know which flavor of Protestant they are, which makes it even more difficult.

Protestantism. Which Thread is Your?


285 posted on 09/20/2018 8:53:10 PM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: af_vet_1981

Logical Fallacy: Ad Hominem, Changing the Subject, and just generally majoring in minors.

I take it from your lack of actual response other than complaining about my style that you concede the point about the wickedness of Roman Catholicism.


286 posted on 09/20/2018 9:50:54 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: Al Hitan; boatbums

Does it matter?

When compared with the lovely fruits—that is, the fruits by which Jesus said that you should know false prophets by—that Rome has come up with, no, it does not.

Considering that Catholicism’s fruits are, not to put too fine a point on it, fruits. And child-rapists.

You can slam the number of denominations all you want; at least our church leadership hasn’t been protecting people who have been raping children for the last fifty years and probably longer.

Why anyone would give any money, time, or talent to Rome after the Vatican’s consistent hostility towards the words of Jesus is beyond me.


287 posted on 09/20/2018 10:02:51 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: BillyBoy
most of the Catholic bashers have zero interest in reading the ACTUAL statements of what the Catholic Church believes, and why

Actually I quite regularly quote Catholic teaching and sources, even more than from Protestant sources, for Rome provides enough to indict her as a false teacher without the need for other sources, save for Scripture. In which her distinctives not even being manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (including how they understood the OT and gospels).

They'd rather just tear down Catholicism on the basis of what they've "seen" Catholics do, like "I've SEEN The Catholics worship the Virgin Mary as a goddess".
Well, one would have a hard time in Bible times explaining kneeling before a statue and praising the entity it represented in the unseen world, beseeching such for Heavenly help, and making offerings to them, and giving glory and titles and ascribing supernatural attributes to such which are never given in Scripture to created beings (except to false gods), including having the uniquely Divine power glory to hear and respond to virtually infinite numbers of prayers individually addressed to them.

Moses, put down those rocks! I was only engaging in hyper dulia, not adoring her. Can't you tell the difference?

Which manner of "adulation" can constitute worship in Scripture (Words for worship in the NT), yet Catholics imagine that by playing word games then they can avoid crossing the invisible line between mere "veneration" and worship.

288 posted on 09/20/2018 10:22:11 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: Luircin
Does it matter?

You're the one who brought it up.

289 posted on 09/20/2018 10:26:07 PM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: Al Hitan
The point is that to "know" is highly dependent on who and which denomination. There are some on here who won't even let us know which flavor of Protestant they are, which makes it even more difficult.

Actually that seems rather easy, seeing as those who most strongly esteem Scripture as the accurate and wholly inspired word of God testify to being the most unified in key conservative beliefs , while Catholics mostly testify to disparate beliefs.

Meaning that if if you are strongly committed to conservative beliefs on Scripture and faith and morals then you most likely belong in a evangelical church, while if you are liberal on such then you most likely belong in the Catholic or a liberal Protestant church. But which are not basically Protestant in the historical sense.

290 posted on 09/20/2018 10:31:01 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: daniel1212
Actually that seems rather easy...

So, you are in agreement with this doctrine from Protestantism:


291 posted on 09/20/2018 10:47:06 PM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: Al Hitan

See, I was afraid this was going over your head. It seems to me that you have a point you want to make and you aren’t interested at all in what I or anyone else might say. At least I tried to treat your question as legitimate.

Tell me you at least understand the difference between major tenets of the Christian faith and what Scripture calls “disputable matters”?


292 posted on 09/20/2018 10:58:30 PM PDT by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us.)
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To: Al Hitan

Who brought what up? That Catholics don’t know what Protestants believe?

I don’t see any evidence to retract that statement. I’d have been willing to accept even the most generalized of statements about one or two particular denominations.

Instead I get the usual Roman runaround about blah blah blah so many Protestant denominations blah blah.

Considering that I still get Catholics accusing me of not teaching the Ten Commandments when it’s literally the first thing in the Small Catechism after the preface, I have to wonder whether the Vatican is intentionally trying to keep their people ignorant.


293 posted on 09/21/2018 12:12:49 AM PDT by Luircin
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To: boatbums
See, I was afraid this was going over your head.

Don’t be afraid. The intellectual contents of your posts haven’t reached my ankles yet.

It seems to me that you have a point you want to make and you aren’t interested at all in what I or anyone else might say.

I’d be interested if what you said had anything to do with the original point under discussion. The comment was made “That Catholics don’t know what Protestants believe," as if Protestant denominations were in agreement. Your posts indicate you want to talk about anything but.

I’ve stated that Catholics don’t know, because as demonstrated, Protestantism doesn’t have one set of beliefs/doctrines. Each denomination has their own set, some which conflict with other denominations’ beliefs.

But in response to that here are some of the things you went on about:

So, you’ve droned on about all that, which I did read, but it skirts what we are discussing: That Catholics don’t know what Protestants believe. And the reason I’ve given is because there is no one set of doctrine for all of the denominations. Not in the past, not because doctrine is developing, not because individuals sometimes don’t adhere to statements of faith, not because every individual doesn’t believe like the other, etc. It’s because many denominations have divergent sets of doctrine at the current time.

Tell me you at least understand the difference between major tenets of the Christian faith and what Scripture calls “disputable matters”?

We aren’t talking about major tenets, disputable matters, statements of faiths (which by the way generally don’t get into the details of the doctrine), etc. We are talking about differences in doctrine existing between denominations, whether major or not. For example, the doctrine of Predistination is pretty significant for some but not for others.

Why not just ASK???

Indeed. That is the whole point. Catholics (as well as some Protestants posting on here) don’t know what Protestants believe because there is not one set of doctrine that covers Protestantism. You have to ask each person what they adhere to if you want to understand where they’re coming from. That is if they will tell you. And if you ask, each of them says that their doctrine is based on Scripture, even if the doctrine conflict with the next guy who claims the same.

294 posted on 09/21/2018 1:25:35 AM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: Luircin
Who brought what up? That Catholics don’t know what Protestants believe?

Yes. Please tell us. What are the doctrines of Protestantism? Please be inclusive.

I don’t see any evidence to retract that statement.

Me neither. In fact, I think the same could be said of some Protestants who post here.

Instead I get the usual Roman runaround about blah blah blah so many Protestant denominations blah blah.

You're the one who said Catholics don't know what Protestants believe, which happens to include all those blah blah blah so many Protestant denominations. What do they each believe?

I have to wonder whether the Vatican is intentionally trying to keep their people ignorant.

I have no doubt you do.

295 posted on 09/21/2018 1:38:14 AM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: Al Hitan
Divergent Beliefs Between Protestant Denominations (updated)

From What?

296 posted on 09/21/2018 3:15:59 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Al Hitan

Oh; I see you’ve added 2 more.

Rebaptism
Predestination

I don’t understand how to use your chart, since both yes & no are checked for each category.


297 posted on 09/21/2018 3:19:27 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: af_vet_1981
Is that mindreading?

No; it's a simile.


You say that like that’s something to be ashamed of.

298 posted on 09/21/2018 3:22:31 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Al Hitan

Which of the many apparitional sightings do YOU believe in?


299 posted on 09/21/2018 3:23:41 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Al Hitan
Baptism is no human trifle, but instituted by God Himself, moreover, that it is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we cannot be saved

Oh


 
The liturgical life of the Catholic Church revolves around the
Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. There are seven
sacraments in the Church: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist,
Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders.
 
The purpose of the sacraments is to make people holy, ...   
.
.
.
The history of human salvation is the history of the way God came to men.
The first step on this way was the bridging of the gulf separating
God and man in the person of the one Mediator Jesus Christ and by his work of redemption.
 
(Yeah; there is more...  www.catholic.org/prayers/sacrament.php )
 
 
.
.
.
The Church Thus Teaches: There are seven sacraments. They were instituted by Christ and given to the Church to administer. They are necessary for salvation.

300 posted on 09/21/2018 3:29:00 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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