SCRIPTURE, PLEASE!
Catholic Christians make extensive use of relics, including bones, of saints. Yet there are no relics of Mary's body. This is a testament to the universal belief that her body is not on earth.
Don't dig yourself a hole you can't get out of, because someday her remains may be unearthed or discovered .
Which would absolutely destroy the very foundation of the Church as inerrant. Which would be a monumentally world-changing event.
People survive change.
So. Everyone you know and trust, including your own eyes and ears, and the Holy Spirit which guides you to Truth while reading Scripture, would have been proven to have been wrong. And this "wouldn't affect" your faith or beliefs. And on top of this, the one Church that you know from you private reading of Scripture to be "wrong" on some many things is proven right, despite your own person reading of Scripture that says otherwise. And this wouldn't give you pause
Dave, I don't know how to answer you here. I put my faith in God and I deal with what he opens my eyes to. I have discovered things from yall on this post that I wasn't aware of before , that I have to accept as truth because it is grounded in scripture but I think I understand now though why you fight so hard not to examine your beliefs. If I understand you correctly you are saying that if just except any error was made then your whole church and belief falls? How frightening that must be.
Cindy, that "hole" has already been dug. In 1950, the belief in the Assumption of Mary was made a dogma that must be believed by all Catholics in good conscience. This is one of the few, clear, unequivocal uses of papal infallibility.
If remains of Mary were found and authenticated (though I can't imagine how they could be authenticated), it would be the end of the Catholic church. The Pope would have been proven wrong on an explicit item that he explicitly stated as a matter of faith under his protection from error.
This would lead the ABC evening news.
The Catholic Church would have to give up its claims to being the one true Church, led by an infallible Pope guarding the keys of hte kingdom handed down from Jesus to Peter.
At best, after much grovelling and renouncing of other "errors," we might end up as the western province of the more collegial Orthodox Church.
This is no small matter.
Dave, I don't know how to answer you here. I put my faith in God and I deal with what he opens my eyes to. I have discovered things from yall on this post that I wasn't aware of before , that I have to accept as truth because it is grounded in scripture but I think I understand now though why you fight so hard not to examine your beliefs. If I understand you correctly you are saying that if just except any error was made then your whole church and belief falls? How frightening that must be.
It is not frightening at all. It is simply impossible for the Church to err. But it does explain why the Church's detractors try so hard to find tat one chink in the armour. Because, yes, any error in faith or morals defeats the entire Church.
As for not wanting to "examine" my beliefs, I think you might be mistaken. We can, in all faith, freely examine anything. I have never seen another viewpoint or denomination that offered what the Catholic Church does.
Finally, my astonishment was at your willingness to brush off something as significant as the question of Mary. Maybe you are free to adapt, but if it were me and my theory on just reading the Bible and listening to the Spirit had been proven to be so wrong on Mary's Perpetual Virginity, I would question my methods and all of the like-minded fellow Christians who were so wrong for so long on the issue.
And I might look into the Church that was right.
SD