Posted on 03/30/2019 8:12:59 AM PDT by Salvation
Monsignor Pope Ping for OSV column.
Evangelization is to the person of Jesus Christ, not to a church.
Exactly — and Jesus Christ is present within each and every Catholic Church and parishioner.
“Becoming Catholic”
Always about the Catholic Church.
Never about Christ.
“and Jesus Christ is present within each and every Catholic Church and parishioner.”
Apparently not, since not all go to heaven.
Would you post chapter and verse about Christ renting an apartment in each Roman Catholic Church, I missed those verses.
Cheers!
Exactly. Like the Monsignor said, it is not about membership it is about conversion.
**The concerns about a person’s marital status are rooted in the very words and teachings of Jesus himself. He teaches without ambiguity that for a person to marry, then divorce and enter another marriage, puts them in an ongoing state of adultery in the “new” marriage (cf. Mt 5:32; Mt 19:1-9; Mk 10:11-12; Lk 16:18, etc). He adds rather firmly, “What God has joined together, let no one divide” (Mt 19:9).**
Did you miss all these biblical quotes?
I saw them, but it does not address my observation.
“Did you miss all these biblical quotes?”
Plus the Scriptures teach more about marriage, divorce, and remarriage than was included..
But my points were about something different.
Always about hating Catholics, never about Christ!
You need to listen to the truth from the mouth of Jacob Prasch. He is annoited to explain why Evangelicalism is the only way.
One hopes. Christ, not the church, “saves to the utmost”. One is saved by believing on Him, not by joining a church.
Catholics apparently have higher standards.
I too feel that there needs to be a better balance on this. My husband grew up Luthern, baptized, confirmed was practicing until we married in the Catholic Church and agreed to raise our children as Catholics. He never really considered conversion until the kids stated their first communions and he wanted to participate in the Eucharistas well. Looked into it and same thing. Three years education in the Catholic faith. As a young father working raising three kids it was a lot to ask and it almost seemed insulting to me. The Catholic Church sometimes makes all other faiths feel less than or faulty. He did not go through with it. We felt it was a rejection of him as a Christian. Sad that the church cannot find a better way to convert those who want to fully participate. He lives his life as a Catholic for his children and that is more than I could ask for.
After my dad got his marriage annulled after 29 years and made me an official bastard I learned the best way to square with the Catholic Church is give them money.
I got a girl pregnant at age 18 and both families insisted on a Catholic wedding. Ended up coming down to giving them $5000 then all ok in the Catholic God’s eyes !
Testified over a 2 year period against a priest in molestation case which turned out to be more about money then the crime. He was not the only pervert in a cassock I encountered.
After 12 years of Catholic School I’m done but am happy for anyone who feels they are finding their way to God by any means.
If she had not been baptized before, and she had not been married before then she can marry a catholic and it would be an ok marriage with the church. It is handled in the bible, not a problem, happens all the time.
If she is divorced, her first marriage needs to be handled before a priest will marry her. If she as been baptized in another christian faith, there is more work before the priest will do the marriage. It may be easier to go through the conversion which is normally finished at Easter.
She can always get married first and become Catholic later. The only down fall is that a priest may not do the ceremony.
You are right, the church does not make it easy. But they want their new Catholics to be real Catholics. Not just converting for the ceremony.
Did you miss that Jesus lived under the Old Covenant and had to be true to it..else, he wouldn’t have been the only Man to walk the earth and still abide by the Law of the Old Covenant.
No hatred for any catholic, except the priests who abuse children and their enablers.
Most Catholics only know what they are told to believe. You can’t blame them for that.
There is another even more daunting hurdle, that Monsignor, perhaps, would have been wise to mention.
Annulments are not granted on demand. Annulment is available only if the marriage was initiated improperly:
- One of the spouses had been married and that marriage was not annulled
- One of the spouses was not free to marry for some other reason, e.g. had a vow of celibacy
- One of the spouses could not form free consent to marry, e.g. was too young
- The marriage was initiated for corrupt reason, e.g. to obtain citizenship
- The marriage was not intended to be a monogamous union for life, e.g. the spouses agreed to take lovers on the side
- The spouses did not intend to have children even though they could conceive, e.g. agreed on systematic use of contraception
- The spouses could not sexually consummate the marriage, e.g. were too old to have sex.
- A spouse was Catholic but did not have a wedding in a Catholic Church, nor had a dispensation from the bishop
- I probably forget a case or two
In most other circumstances, the Church might recommend a civil divorce in order to protect security and dignity of the victimized spouse, but the Church would not grant annulment. For example, if the marriage was conceived properly per the points above, but over the course of the marriage one spouse became abusive, started cheating, or developed an addiction, — that marriage cannot be annulled. In such case, the spouses might separate and obtain a civil divorce for legal protection, but the marriage is valid in the eye of God and so the spouses are not free to remarry so long as the other souse lives.
In short, joining the Catholic Church as adult is even harder than the article implies. Just like in general, discipleship of Christ imposes severe burden on the disciple.
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