The only "authority" is Jesus Christ....He IS the Word made flesh....and he is certainly able and has protected His Word for Centuries regardless of the Catholic Leadership's efforts to keep it from the people.
Posted on 04/19/2015 6:26:38 AM PDT by 9thLife
Even in this Easter season, there are those who would nervously employ the secular convention of saying that they want Christ but not his Church, and that they can confess their sins to God without confessing to a priest. This ignores what Jesus did when he rose from the dead: he constructed the Church through his teaching during the forty days before the Ascension, and the first thing he did when he appeared to the apostles was to give them authority to forgive sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Saint John wrote that not all the books in the world could contain what Christ did in those forty days, but the Gospel accounts tell all that he wants us to know. The power of what he taught the apostles in that brief time, with the wounds still in his body, is clear in the fact that all of them, save John himself, died brave deaths proclaiming the Resurrection.
Such dying, predicted by Christ, has perdured through all subsequent ages in one way or another. Last week, Pope Francis marked the one hundredth anniversary of the massacre of about 1.5 million Armenian Christians by the Turks, abetted by Imperial German staff officers serving with the Ottoman Empire. The Pope said that “it is necessary, and indeed a duty” to “recall the centenary of that tragic event . . . Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it.” The greatest number of killings occurred on appalling death marches of hundreds of miles where the Turks drove women, children and old people (most of the young men had already been massacred) into the Syrian desert. There was no food or water given to the victims along the way—and this was done by design.
Saint Paul, converted by the risen Christ, had evangelized his Turkish homeland. Despite centuries of persecution by Muslims, in 1914 some 15% of the Turkish population was Christian. Today the Christian community is practically non-existent. Persisting in its denial of the persecution, the Turkish government condemned the honesty of Pope Francis by withdrawing its ambassador to the Holy See. That exercise in denial was not singular. In 2010, a declaration was introduced in the House of Representatives calling the systematic eradication of the Armenians a genocide. The Obama administration blocked it.
The mentality that denies the Resurrection, also denies the consequences of such denial. The Resurrection is not about spring flowers and butterflies, and Jesus made that clear by retaining the wounds in his glorified body. Christ triumphed over Satan, and to deny that is to give Satan a leg up in the governance of nations and the attitudes of people. The dominant religion of Turkey maintains that Jesus was not crucified. If not crucified, then not risen. And if not risen, then mankind has license to sink to its lowest depths by crushing life and spreading death.
**Tell you what, Religion Moderator, I’ll just post my Catholic posting on another forum.**
You’ll be back. They always return.
I’m sorry but “pinging all the other inmates on his floor” made me lol, I’m still chuckling.
That was funny, I don’t care who you are!
Please check your Bible again. Specifically the Book of JOHN.
JOHN 20
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19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Bye
(grin) "my chains are gone, I've been set free"
Just a correction; it’s Fr. George Rutler (not Charles)
All the rest you wrote I agree with ;-)
Where do you guys get this half-baked idea that it takes an intellectual to know and understand scripture??? You certainly don't learn that from knowing and understanding scripture...
The vast majority of extant texts out there are from the 8th-10 Centuries...They come from the Majority Texts which your religion acknowledges are not Catholic texts...The majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls which were written Centuries before your religion was invented agree with those 10th Century, non Catholic texts...
You need to peddle your false bible history to Catholics, not on a public forum where people know better...
Hey, we'll miss ya...Come back again, when you can't stay so long...
For everyone, I suggest the underused "ecumenical" label--if you are able to follow the instructions. If you're a professing Christian who likes the Bible, I'd say that part of following the instructions is as simple as putting Romans 12:17-21 into practice.
http://freerepublic.com/~religionmoderator/
Religion Forum threads labeled “Ecumenical”
Ecumenical threads are closed to antagonism.
To antagonize is to incur or to provoke hostility in others. Unlike the “caucus” threads, the article and reply posts of an “ecumenical” thread may discuss more than one belief, but antagonism is not tolerable.
More leeway is granted to what is acceptable in the text of the article than to the reply posts. For example, the term “gross error” in an article will not prevent an ecumenical discussion, but a poster should not use that term in his reply because it is antagonistic. As another example, the article might be a passage from the Bible which would be antagonistic to Jews. The passage should be considered historical information and a legitimate subject for an ecumenical discussion. The reply posts however must not be antagonistic.
Contrasting of beliefs or even criticisms can be made without provoking hostilities. But when in doubt, only post what you are “for” and not what you are “against.” Or ask questions.
Ecumenical threads will be moderated on a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” basis. When hostility has broken out on an “ecumenical” thread, I’ll be looking for the source.
Therefore “anti” posters must not try to finesse the guidelines by asking loaded questions, using inflammatory taglines, gratuitous quote mining or trying to slip in an “anti” or “ex” article under the color of the “ecumenical” tag.
I don’t know what you’re doing on this forum.
You’re making sense...
and—charitably-—invoking charity.
;-)
But I think it was inmates in the asylum he was referring to rather than the prison.
The fact the catholic Priesthood then and today remains heavily laden with sin should tell you something.
Perhaps you are not familiar with the work that Pope Benedict did in cleaning up the seminaries. I can send you my long list of links as proof if you wish.
Applicants for the priesthood must now undergo a two day psyche exam, be interviewed numerous times, parents interviewed, parish priest interviewed, recommendation from friends as to the character of the applicant — and the list goes on.
Please, could you stop posting the false information?
The only "authority" is Jesus Christ....He IS the Word made flesh....and he is certainly able and has protected His Word for Centuries regardless of the Catholic Leadership's efforts to keep it from the people.
....”the work that Pope Benedict did in cleaning up the seminaries”....
Since you brought it up....that has nothing to do with the problem remaining and ‘active’ today. Francis has already clearly stated he will ‘not’ judge homosexuality.....the gay community celebrated...and the Priests breathed a sigh of relief.... So you really don’t want to bark up that tree.
Besides it isn’t who is coming in that’s the problem...it’s the ones still being protected and active...and those sliding in under the radar.
“For the LGBT Catholics in the United States and around the world, this new document is a light in the darkness — a dramatic new tone from a church hierarchy that has long denied the very existence of committed and loving gay and lesbian partnerships,”.... Chad Griffin, president of Human Rights Campaign, the biggest LGBT rights organization in the U.S.
In my opinion you are basing your statement on the MSM which misinterprets what the Pope says.
But if you wish to believe the lamestream media, so be it.
Well you’re opinion is just that...and wrong. My information comes from catholic sources as well as non-catholic sources.
Do you really want to go there Salvation? Because I can and will....and as much pay attention that those sources are catholic.
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