Interesting - I never knew that! I knew that the Catholic Church taught things that were not in scripture, but I was under the impression that it was because it was divinely learned through the Pope. Thanks!
Well, the quote went on to see that it is ok to disagree on things such as the War on Terror or sports. I think limbo may fall under this as well.
No problem! I'm pretty sure that a miniscule percentage of Catholic beliefe is stuff divinely learned through the Pope. " Infallibility is not a substitute for theological study on the part of the pope. What infallibility does do is prevent a pope from solemnly and formally teaching as "truth" something that is, in fact, error. It does not help him know what is true, nor does it "inspire" him to teach what is true. He has to learn the truth the way we all do—through study—though, to be sure, he has certain advantages because of his position. " http://www.catholic.com/library/Papal_Infallibility.asp
Yeah but just about anything could be claimed as vague; for instance anything that is described as a mystery; oh the Eucharist is a mystery? Guess I can disagree that its really Christ's flesh and blood!
The fact that you could even have these legalistic conversations about Catholic doctrine is what led me away from the Catholic church to one that gets it's truth solely from the Bible. It took me many years and many time through the Bible to "sift out" the things in Catholic doctrine that just did not seem to reflect what the Bible says.
One of my fond memories of Catholic school in the 50's is one tenet with regard to limbo. Currently many Evangelicals question whether Cahtolics are "Christian" because they haven't been so-called "born again". I always get a laugh out of this by remembering how we were taught that the Catholic Church was the one true Church and the best a Protestant could hope for was limbo, not heaven as they had not accepted the one true church. This was in the days before the Vatican II Council and Ecumenicalism. Funny story. One of my old neighbors. Nicest family guy you could meet. For years he helped the old lady next door do errands, take out the trash etc. One day she started to cry that she was so sad that he was going to Hell, since he hadn't accepted Jesus Christ. Mike is Jewish.
Since its inception, the Catholic Church (as well as other denominations) has drastically changed its teachings many, many times. It doesn't surprise me. I'm non-denominational now. I spent 9 years in private Lutheran school as a kid, and have visited and researched almost every other Christian denomination. I've been going to Catholic church with my wife for over ten years (she's Catholic). I can say, firsthand, that the methodologies and procedures (and many of the beliefs) of the Catholic denomination are completely whacked.
Ditto Complicated? Can be. Confusing? Perhaps at times. But certainly not whack. Don't even start with that! I still can't see that the bread and wine is literally, physiclaly turned into Christ's body and blood. To me, it's more of a metaphysical thing. Peter Griffin: Wow, is that really the blood of Christ? Preacher: Yes. Peter Griffin: Wow, that guy must've been wasted 24 hours a day, huh?
Definitely not meant to be metaphysical, definitely meant to be a mystery; if it where metaphysical it would only exist in the mind; and if it only existed in the mind it'd be Protestant.
Let's see, the computer...you...lamp...I love lamp But seriously take your Bertrand Russell back to Descartes and tell him I want my money back for his crappy philosophy I had to read in epistemology.
Yeah, that statement is too broad. I guess what we can say for sure is that on issues of faith and morals the Church has the final word (although they come to it through reasoning that can be debated and understood). But on other things, say the death penalty, people can disagree. Antonin Scalia has been pretty public on disagreeing with the Church on that matter.
