Did you not read the New Advent article? The debt was paid by Christ on the cross to God and His perfect judgment.
THAT is what your Roman Catholic church teaches.
And for once, Rome is correct.
For some peculiar reason, you've put yourself outside of Rome AND historic, orthodox Christianity.
In all sincerity, stfassisi, read New Advent. The excerpt came from the chapter on Atonement.
“”For some peculiar reason, you’ve put yourself outside of Rome AND historic, orthodox Christianity.””
Baloney!I understand it as a MYSTERY of unfathomable love that our finite humans minds cannot fully comprehend- which is in line with Church teaching and historical orthodox Christianity.
The new advent article shows opinions of the semantics of Atonement .There are many, from Aquinas to Scotus to Augustine etc...
It all boils down to God owed us NOTHING and His love conquers sin.
The following was written by Cardinal Ratzinger(Pope Benedict XVI)
For the believing Christian who sees in the cross not a historical accident but a real theological occurrence, these statements are not mere edifying commonplaces in terms of which one must refer to the historical realities. Rather these affirmations penetrate into the core of the matter. This core consists in the drama of human sin and divine love; human sin leads to God’s love for man assuming the figure of the cross. Thus on the one hand sin is responsible for the cross, but on the other, the cross is the overcoming of sin through God’s more powerful love. For this reason, beyond all questions of responsibility, the passage of the “Letter to the Hebrews” (12:24) has the last and most important word to say on this subject, namely, that the blood of Jesus speaks another — a better and stronger — language than the blood of Abel, than the blood of all those killed unjustly in the world. It does not cry for punishment but is itself atonement, reconciliation.