Who taught them? This is an admission that either the RCC is not doing it's job or the teachings are unbelievable.
We've said many times that the Church has done a horrible job teaching the Faith in the last generation or so.
People who consciously choose not to believe certain things often do so becuase the teachign is difficult.
You are believing in the fantasy that there is one and only one belief on everything within the RC church. This is a myth and only the ultra-myopic could believe it.
Things that have been settled definitely are in this collection of teachings that we call the Catechism. There are real words in there, teaching real beliefs. Perhaps I need glasses, but I am not hallucinating.
Second, the church is THE PEOPLE, not the hierarchy. So to say that "the Church" (meaning the RC church in your parlance) believes... is to try to frame an argument in order to get the end result, not based on facts or the Scriptural model. It is therefore, not true to say that there is one belief or unity on any issue within the RCC.
If you consider the mass of people who call themselves Catholic to be the only source for beliefs, then you are correct.
Fortunately we have a hierarchy and a collection of teachings which have been handed down. They exist. Quiz me, and I will show you. There are certainly dissidents and ignorant folks. That doesn't make the official teachings in the Catechism disappear.
SD
No, you miss the point. The "masses" as you call them, ARE THE CHURCH, so to find out what the RCC really believes, they are the true source, not what is written anywhere else. Like it or not that's the way it is, and I know the answer to that one.