I'm not going to discuss the Vat II comment because, in hindsight, it is a tangent that I really don't have the time or inclination which to devote. I shouldn't have brought it up. I do know that my parents view of Catholicism is quite different than what is taught today. Interfaith marriages weren't exactly all the rage back in the day, were they? Studying scipture is a completely foreign concept to them, as they know it is not their place.
I'm not going to discuss the Vat II comment because, in hindsight, it is a tangent that I really don't have the time or inclination which to devote. I shouldn't have brought it up. I do know that my parents view of Catholicism is quite different than what is taught today. Interfaith marriages weren't exactly all the rage back in the day, were they? Studying scipture is a completely foreign concept to them, as they know it is not their place.
Men created systems of totalitarian hierarchical rule which has proven to fail each time it was tried. True. The focus of power was a man or group of men. Doomed to fail when they lost focus or fought with each other or were deposed.
On the other hand, with God setting ALL the rules (a definition of totalitarianism, by the way), with the focus on Him, why would it or should it fail? Jesus set up His Church here, staffed by mortal and fallible men (such as St. Peter) to bring His Good News to the entire world. It sets the rules here, because the entity of the Church, staffed with fallible men, guided as an entity by the Holy Spirit, is His Pillar of Truth.
Not the latest fad in theology. Or private interpretation.
Well, are you going to discuss it or not?
Few would dispute that there was some serious crypto-Jansenism going on in the first half of the 20th century. But as for Scripture study being somebody's "place" or not, the Catholics I knew in the '60's knew their Bibles pretty well. Some Catholics clearly didn't get the memo.