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Okay. The problem is what is meant by feeding (2 different words are used) the sheep/lambs?

Early in Acts we see the life of the Church as teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers. Deacons are appointed to RELIEVE the apostles of administrative duties, because, the twelve said, it was not right for them to leave the word of God to wait on tables.

So, I'm winging it here, but it SEEMS that the deal is the twelve teach, break bread, say prayers. It's pretty much consistent with Catholic thought, I'd venture that that's what we expect of our popes and bishops.

In the actual history what seems to happen is that a Patrick, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius Loyola, and so forth, go to the Pope and say, pretty much, "Here am I, send me." (or "Here are we; send us.") So in terms of the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, we're doing that. We've been doing it, with bumps in the road, all along. Protestants don't even hear of Francis Xavier, Bartolome de las Casas, of the martyrs and missionaries of Vietnam, Japan, China, Korea, Uganda, and up and down North (Isaac Jogues), Central (Dominican Sisters, inter alia, NOT part of a clerical class) and South America (Peter Clavier).

Given a choice, if that is the choice, between a long established structure of reverends, cardinals, eminences, nuncios, prelates, on and on, And...and accomplishing the feeding and shepherding of Jesus’ sheep....no contest.

I'm sorry, but Protestants just don't get it, by and large.

Look. I ran sheep. I feed them, medicated them, vaccinated them. I took care of them. I didn't watch them all the time. I couldn't. And so sometimes some of them got too sick for me to help before I noticed there was a problem.

Some Protestants get all wrapped up in cultural differences and terminology, they judge the past by the standards of the present. So let's say "respectables, leaders, notables, messengers, principles."

I know only one archbishop, and that only slightly. But my friends who know him better say he is a remarkably devout and down to earth guy who also happens to be really, really smart and well educated. So when these friends learned that he was to be ordained bishop and made an arch-bishop they already thought him notable or eminent.

The deal, or part of it, is that Protestants think in terms of a top-down, corporate or dictatorial culture and system. But the Church is actually a lot more like a very large family. For a long time, the younger brothers, the diocesan bishops, were trusted to handle the homosexuality crisis.

Only when it was clear they were going down in flames did Cardinal Ratzinger (leader Ratzinger? notable Ratzinger?) say, that these cases had to come to the Vatican. When the little brothers mess up, the older brothers step in. That's all.

And I disagree with your analysis of the I Cor 5:1-5 incident.

But before we get into the time sequence of forgiveness and repentance, how long had the incest been going on before Paul found out about it? Do you KNOW there weren't other perversions in the congregation that the locals thought they could handle themselves? Do you KNOW they handled them correctly? Do you KNOW that they guy who repented committed no further perverted acts? If tomorrow they discovered a text which conclusively showed that he fell again, would you accuse Paul of failing in his apostolic duty?

I think the forgiveness was always there, from God and from the Church. The only way the sinner could take that forgiveness to h8imslef was to repent. His repentence did not cause the forgiveness. It may even have been prompted by the forgiveness. For it is written, "There is forgiveness with you, therefore you shall be revered."

Jesus did not wait for me to repend to forgive me. He said, "I forgive you," and one day I both heard the love and knew my need. But the love was first.m Moreover, as I grow in receiving that love, I understand ever more deeply my permanent need for forgiveness.

I don't know if you drink beer. I don't much anymore. But what I know is that on a day of great thirst, when a good beer hits the back of your throat, well there are few pleasures to match it.

For me, life in Christ is to grow in thirst as I also grow in the experience of that thirst being quenched. With a beer, the next gulp won't be as good as the first. With God, for whom my soul thirsts, my greater perception of my need for Him is always met and overwhelmed by his eager response.

Glory to Him, to the God who quenches thirst, forever!

Just to clarify: NEXT Lent I am giving up verbosity, this Lent I gave up chocolate.

Why should what is meant by “feeding” present a problem?

Jesus said to make disciples, baptize them, teach them all the things he had commanded. (Matt. 28:19,20)

The shepherds were to protect the flock from wolves. (John, chapter 10)

The food was epignosis, an accurate knowledge of God and the one He sent forth, Christ. (John 17:3)

“So, I'm winging it here, but it SEEMS that the deal is the twelve teach, break bread, say prayers. It's pretty much consistent with Catholic thought, I'd venture that that's what we expect of our popes and bishops.”

So why do you have a billion(s) dollar scandal? How is that the avoidance of scandal took precedence over the shepherding, the protection of Christ's flock?

If Bishops, Cardinals, Archbishops, the most powerful and responsible men in the Catholic church can rise to their positions without understanding their own teachings about moral accountability, what does that say of the system that produces them?

“But before we get into the time sequence of forgiveness and repentance, how long had the incest been going on before Paul found out about it? Do you KNOW there weren't other perversions in the congregation that the locals thought they could handle themselves? Do you KNOW they handled them correctly? Do you KNOW that they guy who repented committed no further perverted acts? If tomorrow they discovered a text which conclusively showed that he fell again, would you accuse Paul of failing in his apostolic duty?”

You're asking me to respond to questions that neither of us know the answer to or can know and to events that haven't
happened and have no basis to even hypothesize about. I don't do that.

Not much beer and giving up chocolate for Lent? Now that's just wrong. Cheers.