12 Claims Every Catholic Should Be Able to Answer

Catholic Educators ^ | Deal Hudson

[NYer]

THE AUTHOR

Deal W. Hudson is the former publisher of Crisis magazine. He is now Executive Director of The Morley Institute for Church and Culture. He was associate professor of Philosophy at Fordham University from 1989 to 1995 and was a visiting professor at New York University for five years. He taught for nine years at Mercer University in Atlanta, where he was chair of the philosophy department. He has published many reviews and articles as well as five books: Understanding Maritain: Philosopher and Friend (Mercer, 1988); The Future of Thomism (Notre Dame, 1992); Sigrid Undset On Saints and Sinners (Ignatius, 1994); and Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996) and his autobiography, An American Conversion (Crossroad, 2003).

Copyright © 2003 Deal Hudson

[NYer]

Something to ponder and reflect upon over this long weekend ... and bring back to the office on Tuesday ... when you meet up with the secularists :-).

Enjoy!

[wagglebee]

Great article!

[Victoria Delsoul]

I'm bookmarking this thread, thanks.

[Diego1618]

Something to ponder and reflect upon over this long weekend .

The example used of the contradictions between Exodus 20 (The Sabbath Day Instituted) and Romans 14:5 is erroneous and makes no sense.

In Romans 14:5 the subject is vegetarianism and fasting. The Sabbath is not mentioned once. The original Greek says [One judges a day to be above a day; Another judges every day to be alike. Each in his own mind let be fully assured.]

The Apostle Paul was attempting to settle a dispute between those who ate meat and vegetables and those who ate only vegetables. Verse 6 says [He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; And he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. He is also trying to settle the matter of a particular fasting day.

The early Christians in Rome were sometimes afraid to eat meat because it may have been sacrificed in the pagan temples to the Romans gods before it got to the market.

In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul explains the "Eating Food Sacrificed To Idols" problem and tells the folks not to judge anyone for doing that.....in other words, idols are nothing, so what's the big deal. Do what you want, (my interpretation). Still there were people who felt uncomfortable about eating that food...and not knowing if it had been sacrificed, chose to eat only vegetables. Paul said "That's fine too".

In Luke 18:12 Jesus spoke of a Pharisee who claimed to fast twice a week and give 10% of all he got. In Matthew 6:16 Jesus says, [When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.] So.....fasting among the Jews and early Christians, sometimes twice a week, was very common. It was also, according to the Apostle, a disputable matter, [Romans 14:1]

You can go through the entire chapter in the original Greek and not find mention of the word Sabbath. Paul is telling them if they want to fast this day.... or that day, it is up to them. If they want to eat only vegetables.... that is fine too.

[DBeers]

Yes -I have dealt with and opposed all twelve at one time or another -even here on FR.

[freedumb2003]

Why would someone set up this strawman?

These arguments are no help to anyone of faith.

It is like establishing a set of arguments against a 6 year old.

How sad.

[Salvation]

**Yes -I have dealt with and opposed all twelve at one time or another -even here on FR.**

So amazing to do it here on FR too!

[x5452]

Personally I'm looking for a more detailed response to 5. Just got asked this by a non Catholic.

[kerryusama04]

Dang, Diego, can't any of these ever be short?

[kerryusama04]

Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:14-16) It’s interesting that nowhere does James (or Jesus) tell us to confess our sins to God alone. Rather, they seem to think that forgiveness comes through some means of public confession. And it’s not difficult to understand why. You see, when we sin, we rupture our relationship not just with God, but with His Body, the Church (since all Catholics are interconnected as children of a common Father). So when we apologize, we need to do so to all parties involved — God and the Church. Think of it this way. Imagine you walk into a store and steal some of their merchandise. Later, you feel remorse and regret the sinful act. Now, you can pray to God to forgive you for breaking His commandment. But there’s still another party involved; you’ll need to return the merchandise and make restitution for your action. It’s the same way with the Church. In the confessional, the priest represents God and the Church, since we’ve sinned against both. And when he pronounces the words of absolution, our forgiveness is complete.

That sure doesn't sound like "confess your sins to us so that we can pay off families and victims to keep our sins hidden."

[PetroniusMaximus]

"Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”"

So does your priest confess his sins to you also?



Psalm 32:5
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "— and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

[mware]

As a convert to Catholicism I found going to confession to be the most difficult adjustment. As I grew in my faith it began to make sense to me. If I had difficult in telling these sins to my priest I could not image what it must be like to have to someday confess my sins to God.

Confession has helped me on more than one occasion to turn from sin

[PetroniusMaximus]

"I could not image what it must be like to have to someday confess my sins to God."

Why wait till "someday", what's preventing you from doing so now?

[mware]

I was referring to the final reckoning.

What I was attempting to explain is that to sit down and tell the priest the sins I have committed is a very difficult task. As difficult as it is, can you image what it is going to be like on the final judgment when you have to tell those sins to God.

In my case at least it is an incentive to try harder not to commit those sins again.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Thanks for the Post!!

Though I have one question--is the Church's position on Abortion clearly infallible?

[Clemenza]

Bump. Sending to my lapsed parents.

BTW: Wasn't Deal fired from Crisis due to flirting a little too much with female staffers?

[tlRCta]

As to the stance on abortion: Yes, it is to be held by all the faithful. I'm not sure where exaclty you would find the first explicit condemnation of abortion, but it's something that has always been believed by the Church.

To give you an idea of how the Church considers abortion:

"Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the cononical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life..." (CCC, sect 2272)

[rzeznikj at stout]

I know how the Church condemns abortion--I was just wondering whether or not it is clearly held to be an infallible teaching.

But thank you for the information nonetheless.

[A CA Guy]

#13 While here at the school, your child will be nearly forced into taking accordion lessons.

Hey, it happened to me anyway!

Umm paa paa my @$$.