[sitetest]

Dear Wrigley,

Okay, I'll calm down. Don't want to pop a blood vessel. ;-)

But I still don't see the point. That some Catholics do nutty things or have nutty ideas or do evil things or have evil ideas is no more surprising to me than that some Protestants do similarly.

"I told poly that I tend to believe him when he tells me it is not official church teaching that Mary is worshipped."

Gee, thanks. Beat us some more, why don't you. ;-)

C'mon, Wrigley, you tend to believe it? Could you be a little less decisive about giving Catholics the benefit of the doubt that we do not teach idolatry? Go read the Catechism of the Catholic Church! You can find it on-line. The Catechism offers a reasonably-concise 700 page treatment of what it is that Catholics officially believe. And worship of Mary, according to this official statement of Catholic belief, is verboten.

I tend to believe that you are sincere and don't quite realize the attitude of bias which comes across in your tending to believe that we are not idolators.

But next time I will be more gentle when I tend to believe that you are a brother in Christ deserving of the benefit of the doubt, even when you apparently accidentally push Catholic hot-buttons.

sitetest

[Wrigley]

I tend to believe him because I see the veneration of Mary leading some to actually worship her. I believe that if I were to walk into a RC church tomorrow and asked them about the churches position on Mary, I would be told that the church does not worship her.

Can you not see how that veneration could lead to worship?