Testimony of a Former Irish Priest

BereanBeacon.Org ^ | Richard Peter Bennett

[Natural Law]

""A priest is an 'alter Christus' in his professional as well as personal life."

With over a billion Catholics and over 400,000 priests there is a diversity of opinion. I'm sure that if you dig long enough and disregard all other information you can find a statement to support just about any idea. Fr. Baker expressed his own opinion, but he doesn't speak for the Church and the actual position of the Church is readily available for all who are interested in the truth.

I am not asking that you agree with any position of the Church, and frankly don't care what you believe. I just expect you to be honest citing Church doctrine. But I know that expectation is futile since you are such a stranger to the truth.

What you can expect is that every time you make a false statement about the Church, its history, its Catechism, or its clergy I will fiercely refute it. If that makes you uncomfortable, too bad!

[Deo volente]

Your post is absolutely brilliant and spot on!

[betty boop]

You are parsing words too much. Or so it seems to me.

I don't see any obvious reason, from my perspective, for the designation of Mary either as "Mother of God" or "Mary as Mother of the Incarnate Word" as constituting any kind of logical or epistemological difference in terms. Jesus Christ is God, manifesting at once as Son of God the Father, and Logos of the Godhead. His Father was our Father — God Himself — Whom the Son was, and was with, in the Beginning. Whether "Mother of God" or "Mother of the Incarnate Word," both linguistic formulations appear to refer to the same thing: Christ with us, from His Father.

Well, that's the best explanation I can come up with. Whatever its defects, it is from my heart.

[Natural Law]

"I don't even want to think about where the logic of your sentence inexorably leads."

When those who are both morally and intellectually bankrupt are confronted with morally and intellectually superior arguments they take the argument below the belt where they feel more comfortable. Not surprising in this case.

[Quix]

Hmmmm

Expecting the other side to

—have a memory
—rational appreciation of facts
—insight
—candor
—fair-mindedness
—the least bit of a consistent Christian attitude and approach . . .

Tell me, Sister, how long have you been having these delusions?

LOL.

[Alamo-Girl]

Alamo-Girl has a dog.
That dog has a mother.
By some stretch, one might refer to the mother of that dog as Alamo-Girl’s Mother. After all, that dog’s mother is the mother of Alamo-Girl’s currently only in-home ‘child.’

LOLOL! I do have a dog. And he has a birth mother. I am his adoptive mother.

If he were human, he'd probably call me "mother" and when he was old enough to understand, I would explain the difference.

I'm confident Jesus called Mary "mother." And I can't think of any Christian who would object to Mary being called "Jesus' mother" or "Mother of the Incarnate Word."

But the title "Mother of God" requires a footnote and therefore can cause problems.

I prefer clarity.

Thank you for sharing your insights and pinging me to this sidebar, dear brother in Christ!

[Deo volente]

Thank you for your kind words. They’re very much appreciated!

I can’t take credit for those thoughts, as I copied and pasted them. Here’s the link:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm37.htm

I should have made that more clear in my formatting of the post.

[Quix]

I have no doubt it’s from your heart, Dear Sister.

I’m grieved that I wasn’t a better communicator with you about the issues. I gave it my best shot.

Thanks for reading.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

since a priest is "another Christ" in his personal life, he's more inclined to go out and molest children. "Another Christ" = child molester.

The unGodly title of "another Christ" would certainly lend itself to an inflated ego and a mentality that thinks it is "entitled" to whatever it desires.

RCs can protest all they want, but their church is riddled with pederasts and they have yet to figure out why.

The rest of us see it pretty clearly.

[Quix]

Thanks for your kind reply. I can sleep now. LOL.

I agree with you entirely, BTW.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your testimony, dearest sister in Christ!

I prefer clarity.

The title "Mother of the Incarnate Word" requires no footnotes.

[Mad Dawg]

Then why didn't they just leave it at that? Why go with the obviously provocative title "Mother of God" that they rightly acknowledged would cause confusion and misunderstanding?

I don't know about the rightly acknowledging part, and I don't know about the "they" part.

The issue at Ephesus and Chalcedon was "What does it mean to say Jesus was the Son of God?" Was he truly human? Was He really Divine? Was all of him human except his mind, his will? Or was he just pretending to be human while he was really God? Was his suffering on the Cross just pretend? If it was, how can we say he was human? If it wasn't, how can we say he was divine?

It was in response to questions like these that the councils said that his divinity and humanit were so bound up with one another that the two natures were united in one person. And they had been so united, and the divine nature was so truly divine that in conceiving, gestating, and giving birth to Jesus, Mary conceived, gestated, and gave birth to someone who was God. So the title "Theotokos" was given to Mary in the course of a discussion about the Christ.

I don't know all that much about Ephesus, but I'll bet you can find the "Chalcedonian Definition" on line. It's worth reading.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

You may disagree with Father Baker, but the same kind of statements have been made in the RCC catechism and various edicts from Rome. Look them up. They litter the internet.

With over a billion Catholics

Yes, we've all heard that number. I used to believe it. But then I learned that this billion figure includes the names of every Roman Catholic who has left the church, my husband included. As we were taught last week on FR, "once a baptized RC, always a baptized RC. You can't leave it." lol. No matter how hard you try.

So like everything else in Rome, the membership rolls are inflated by a ridiculous amount. Because my husband, like millions of others, is no longer affiliated with Rome, a fact for which he thanks God daily.

I will fiercely refute it. If that makes you uncomfortable, too bad!

lol. Uncomfortable? No. Not in the slightest. Your comfort is your own business. Whereas the business of Christians is to preach the Gospel in truth. And that makes me very comfortable.

[Running On Empty]

There are no “defects”-— and that what you write is “from your heart” is what Christ sees.

Can we ever understand how much He loved his mother?

You are my dear sister in Christ

[Mad Dawg]

What is the point of your question about "kepha"

Well you obviously have more than average knowledge about Semitic tongues. And you obviously disagree with thinking of Simon bar Jonah being thought of as some kind of rock.

So I was trying to get a grip on your thinking. And it certainly seems that Jesus called Simon Kepha(s).

So I was starting at the beginning in hopes of understanding your thinking on this issue.

I expected we would reach a point of disagreement, but I didn't know where that point was.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

So how can there be a "different" God?

I didn't say there is a different God. I said there is one God.

It is the Roman Catholic church that says muslims pray to the same God Roman Catholics pray to.

And that may be true because Rome appears to be almost as lost in error as the muslims. Maybe neither of them knows the true Lord God Jehovah.

But I do know for a fact that muslims do not pray to the same God that Christians pray to. Muslims pray to what they think is the true God, but they are deceived.

Are you understanding the distinction now? One God. One truth. Several deceivers. Many deceived.

[Mad Dawg]

Thanks.

The gift of this forum, or one of them, is that it helps us understand the extent of the tragic estrangement from our brothers and sisters.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

. If an individual constantly tells lies, one is branded a liar.

Then stop lying.