That the Roman Catholic Church has morphed into a gigantic organization; it is not the Body of Christ.
Also, excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church is a bit less of a drama than you and other non-Catholics suspect. It has long been the case that "Catholics" such as Sebelius and Christopher Dodd and Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray and Nancy Pelosi and so very many more in our public life have incurred automatic excommunication (latae sententiae under Canon Law). It is not necessary to do a formal auto da fe (however colorful and just and exemplary) nor to do a public ritual of bell, book and candle.
Before you are tempted to say that Canon Law is a tradition of men and not Scriptural, check Matthew 16: 13 et seq. and particularly verses 18 and 19 as to Petrine power and authority. Pope Benedict XV issued a codification of Canon Law during the World War I period and the current codification was issued by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s.
The Roman Catholic Church in our time comprises about 20% of living persons. To the best of our knowledge, each and every one is a sinner. It is a gigantic organization but regrettably not as gigantic as it ought to be. One would expect that a Church founded by your Savior and mine would grow and prosper over time. Yet His Father gave us free will and allowed human beings to choose sin without divine intervention to override our free will.
The relationship between your reference to the size of the Roman Catholic Church and your unsupported editorial that "it is not the Body of Christ" is not at all obvious. Is this expression of your imagination based upon your own personal interpretation of Scripture (abbreviated here by many of us as YOPIOS) or is it supported merely by the traditions of (non-Catholic) folks?
You and I are siblings in Christ and, in traditional terms, we Catholics regard you as being among our "separated brethren." You are trying somehow to persuade us to YOPIOS. Well-catechized Catholics are quite resistant (and quite understandably so) to the attempts of those who do not share the fullness of our Faith to get us to trade-in the Mass, the sacraments and the teaching Magisterium, inter alia, for the "Scriptural" fad of the week.
I am posting as I am because you have been unusually persistent in your criticism of the Church to which I belong. None of this is personal but none is to invite you to offer your opinions as to the imagined shortcomings of my Church either.
When we squabble here over the differences which separate us as to doctrine and dogma, we do so for the entertainment of our enemies who are our Savior's enemies as well. In the world in which we live, we have not earned the right to so squabble in the public square. Let us vanquish our mutual enemies and those of our God. The and only then ought we to take our discussions to the public square for the entertainment of the heathens.
Also, excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church is a bit less of a drama than you and other non-Catholics suspect. It has long been the case that "Catholics" such as Sebelius and Christopher Dodd and Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray and Nancy Pelosi and so very many more in our public life have incurred automatic excommunication (latae sententiae under Canon Law). It is not necessary to do a formal auto da fe (however colorful and just and exemplary) nor to do a public ritual of bell, book and candle.
Before you are tempted to say that Canon Law is a tradition of men and not Scriptural, check Matthew 16: 13 et seq. and particularly verses 18 and 19 as to Petrine power and authority. Pope Benedict XV issued a codification of Canon Law during the World War I period and the current codification was issued by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s.
The Roman Catholic Church in our time comprises about 20% of living persons. To the best of our knowledge, each and every one is a sinner. It is a gigantic organization but regrettably not as gigantic as it ought to be. One would expect that a Church founded by your Savior and mine would grow and prosper over time. Yet His Father gave us free will and allowed human beings to choose sin without divine intervention to override our free will.
The relationship between your reference to the size of the Roman Catholic Church and your unsupported editorial that "it is not the Body of Christ" is not at all obvious. Is this expression of your imagination based upon your own personal interpretation of Scripture (abbreviated here by many of us as YOPIOS) or is it supported merely by the traditions of (non-Catholic) folks?
You and I are siblings in Christ and, in traditional terms, we Catholics regard you as being among our "separated brethren." You are trying somehow to persuade us to YOPIOS. Well-catechized Catholics are quite resistant (and quite understandably so) to the attempts of those who do not share the fullness of our Faith to get us to trade-in the Mass, the sacraments and the teaching Magisterium, inter alia, for the "Scriptural" fad of the week.
I am posting as I am because you have been unusually persistent in your criticism of the Church to which I belong. None of this is personal but none is to invite you to offer your opinions as to the imagined shortcomings of my Church either.
When we squabble here over the differences which separate us as to doctrine and dogma, we do so for the entertainment of our enemies who are our Savior's enemies as well. In the world in which we live, we have not earned the right to so squabble in the public square. Let us vanquish our mutual enemies and those of our God. The and only then ought we to take our discussions to the public square for the entertainment of the heathens.
Hey super! Glad you have the right to think that way. A billion of us disagree with you, but when it comes to all things spiritual, we promise to go right on not telling you what to do. And we promise to do our best to ignore people like you when you tell us that your own faith is the only what that got it right. Its been working just fine for us for 2000 years now, and (for all its flaws) the Catholic Church continues to be the primary force of God on this planet. No matter how much that bothers you. Please go on practicing Christianity however you define it, and you have my word that no real Catholics will be coming along to tell you how you got it wrong. Don't worry: We accept that its too much to ask for people like you to return the favor.
The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ, whether in Rome or anywhere else.