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Can the Church Survive?
Time magazine's cover line is, "Can the Catholic Church
Save Itself"? In the spread, author Frank McCourt is quoted:
"The church is going to lose children and families, and
it's doing this to itself. If this all continues, the church
will disappear."
On this thought, a Catholic might say: If the church disappears,
it will be God's fault. Christians believe that God founded the
church. If it is to disappear because of scandalous behavior
by a cohort of American priests, then perhaps the whole idea
of Christianity was, after all, an epiphenomenon -- one that
lasted a very long time, and engaged the loyalty of scholars
and martyrs, but proved of insufficient stamina to survive the
triumphant claims of secular concerns.
It becomes clearer every day that the fraternity of American
critics has discovered sin. The broader community was initially
aroused by a president who bent under the demands of libido,
but they struggled for, and attained perspective by, impeaching
him not for sin but for clerical felony. The uproar today has
substantially to do with clerical ineptitude. The bishop who
did not report the priestly abuser to the police is being held
responsible for incremental abuses, much as a parole board might
be held responsible for letting out someone who then re-engages
in crime. You can't sue a parole board, but you can sue a diocese,
and this is being widely done.
The consequences of such suits can be dire. A lawyer persuades
a jury that the damage done to a plaintiff when he was 14 years
old entitles him to $5 million, $10 million, $15 million, and
the jury goes along. Perhaps the plaintiff has spent years in
psychological therapy. Perhaps he is just plain angry, as in
the case of Frank Martinelli of Connecticut, who was paid a million
dollars and then said he'd have asked for nothing at all if he
had just gotten an apology.
But people are asking for new distillations of policy.., Almost
everywhere we are told that Catholic reliance on it for its clergy
should end. Perhaps it should, though we are left wondering why
this should have taken 20 centuries to discover; yet there is
no obvious appetite to probe what it is in these years that anachronizes
the call to celibacy. There is no reason to suppose that the
libido was less active in the year 1902 than today. What is acknowledged,
but not very deeply explored, is the quite general conviction
that sex is king.
Then there is the accompanying question of homosexuality, or,
more reliably mentioned, homophobia. Fifty years ago, in my own
college with an undergraduate body of 5,000 male students, one
could not recall a single homosexual. Now they are expected to
march in the St. Patrick's Day parade. And we know, too, that
there were indeed homosexuals on campus back then. They were
certainly not encouraged to give rein to their impulses, or perhaps
better said, they were intimidated in the matter.
Resentment is firm against homosexual advances toward children,
but the question is not explored whether that crime -- which
was then, continues to be, and will be in the future, a sin --
has increased in proportion to the toleration of the practice
at an adult level. At the civil level, we gravitate to the conclusion
that Episcopal responsibility for order in religious communities
cannot be relied on anymore. Cardinal Egan of New York has said
that henceforth he will relay all reported abuses to the police,
but advises that he will do so only when the family of the aggrieved
consents: It is by no means proved by the scandals that every
adolescent boy or girl is willing to take the stand to describe
what happened, and submit to the cross-examination of the insurance
company's lawyer. What certainly will happen is an end to the
forlorn conviction by many dioceses that psychological counseling
was all that is required to protect against the recurrence of
the crime.
The dominant sadness of the day is the bereavement of the
Catholic community over the triumph of sinful temptations in
so many men prepared to give over their lives to the spiritual
service of others. Which teaches us -- what, exactly?
Father Andrew Greeley accosted the question some years ago, commenting:
"The question is not whether the Catholic leadership is
enlightened but whether Catholicism is true.
A whole College of Cardinals filled with psychopathic tyrants
provides no answer one way or another to that question."
And the most direct answer to the question posed by Time magazine
on its cover: "Search for the perfect church, if you will;
when you find it, join it, and realize that on that day it becomes
something less than perfect." ( Source: http://www.shagmail.com/unsub/buck.html
(4/2/02))
What Are Some of The Roman Catholic
Unbiblical Teachings?
The Council of Trent, which has been affirmed by many modern
councils, including Vatican II in the mid-1960s, stated: "If
anyone shall say that the ungodly man is justified by faith only
so as to understand that nothing else is required that may cooperate
to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is in no wise
necessary for him to be prepared and disposed by the motion of
his own will . . . let him be accursed" (Canon 9).And "If
anyone shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence
in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ's sake, or that
it is that confidence alone by which we are justified . . . let
him be accursed" (Canon 12).
The Bible teaches: "But after that the kindness and love
of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by
the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior;
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 2:4-7)
Rome has not changed its views on salvation. The sacraments are
still necessary. Consider what the New Catholic Catechism says
about SALVATION:
"The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for
salvation. . . . The Church does not know of any means other
than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this
is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received
from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are 'reborn
of water and the Spirit.' God has bound salvation to the sacrament
of Baptism..." New Catholic Catechism, 1257 "The Church
affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant
are necessary for salvation. . . . The fruit of the sacramental
life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers
in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the
only Son, the Saviour." New Catholic Catechism, 1129
When Rome speaks of salvation by grace, it does not mean the
free grace of the apostolic gospel. It has perverted the meaning
of grace by intermingling sacraments and works. Contrast Romans
11:6. "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no
more grace: otherwise work is no more work."
THE BIBLE should be sufficient. but the Vatican II Council said
this: both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and
honoured with equal feelings of devotion and reverence"
(Vatican Council II documents, p. 682).
"Howbeit in vain do they worship me; teaching for doctines
the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of
God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and
cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto
them, 'Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may
keep your tradtion.'"
Even though PURGATORY is unscriptural, the Vatican II Council
made this statement: "The doctrine of purgatory clearly
demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away,
punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be
expiated or cleansed. They often are. In fact, in purgatory the
souls of those who died in the charity of God and truly repentant,
but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their
sins and omissions are cleansed after death with punishments
designed to purge away their debt" (Vatican
II documents, p. 75).
Even though Romans 3:23 states that "all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God", the Roman Catholic
Church officially teaches in its New Catechism: "'Finally
the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original
sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was
taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the
Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more
fully conformed to her Son ...' The Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection
... 'In giving birth you kept your virginity... You conceived
the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from
death' (Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion, Feast of the Dormition,
August 15th.)." New Catholic Catechism, 966 If that were
true then Mary would have been "the only begotten daughter,"
which is no where to be found in the Bible. Virginity is
not equal sinlessness.
The faithful are to be instructed by Priests, not by personal
interpretation. Priests are the sure depositary of the infallible
decisions of an infallible Church
When the Bible teaches: "But the anointing which ye have
received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man
teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you,
ye shall abide in him"(1 John 2:27). This verse instructs
us that the Holy Spirit Himself is our teacher. He will enable
the child of God to understand and interpret doctrine, to discern
truth from error. If someone tells us that we cannot understand
doctrine for ourselves, he is calling God a liar. ( Partial excertps
taken from Way of Life Newsletter by David Coud ). |