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I would like to see you guys discuss:

To What Degree does the Bible Matter to Catholicism?

"I have repeatedly offered $1000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says: 'No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church. Priest Thomas Enright, CSSR, President of Redemptorist College, Kansas City, Missouri, in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, and printed in the American Sentinel, June 1883, a New York Roman Catholic journal.

(1) There was once a New York Sentinel newspaper in NYC. It was unaffiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.

(2) There has never been a Catholic journal in NY called "The American Sentinel."

(3) There is nor record of a Redemptorist College in Kansas City in 1883. Redemptorists of that region have been attending the Redemptorist Colllege in Waterford, WI for at least 70 years. There is a St. Louis University in St. Louis, MO that has an association with the Redemptorists, but no Redemptorist College (it's a Jesuit university).

(4) The St. Louis Province of Redemptorists was founded in 1875 - when the first American Redemptorist professed his vows - with jurisdiction over Kansas City and most of the American west. It seems unlikely that the Redemptorists got a whole college up and running while they were still raising funds for parishes, and unlikely that they would start by founding a college anywhere other than where they were headquartered.

It seems even more unlikely that there would be no record of such a college.

(5) The Redemptorist website has no record of any Fr. Thomas Enright. They have records on Redemptorists in America going back to the Revolution.

Your source is a fabrication.

And, even if it were not a fabrication and Thomas Enright was a real Redemptorist, Thomas Enright's personal opinion is not and can never be Church teaching.

Had this fictional Enright existed, he would have conceded that his opinions were entirely his own and subject to correction by anyone more knowledgeable than he.

I would like to see you guys discuss: To What Degree does the Bible Matter to Catholicism?

Why?

It seems to me that, if you're truly interested in learning about this subject, you'd simply go to the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" and read what the Catholic Church, officially, says.

After that, if you're deeply interested, you could read the source documents identified by the footnotes in the CCC. After that, if you're exceptionally interested, you could begin reading the sermons of the Greek and Latin Fathers, most of which are reflections on Scripture, in its many senses.

I fail to see how the discussion of a group of laypeople would edify you about "Catholicism" in some way that the official - publically available, in English - teachings and historic understandings of the Catholic Church would not.

Hi Kerry; thanks for the question.

Well, continuing along the lines of what was discussed in other threads, maybe we should step back and see exactly what the Bible is and where it came from.

The Catholic Church produced the Bible. The Bible didn’t produce the Catholic Church. It is a document of and by the Church. The Bible is the most important document that it has produced, obviously, but, again, the Church alone is responsible for its content. And, unlike all other earthly entities, it alone has the authority to interpret it. Now who is it responsible to? To the One who gave it the authority to produce the Bible in the first place.

Now where did the Church get its authority? Jesus Christ. Protestants and all other non Catholics don’t have the authority because it was never given to them. Rather, they had - and have - the ability to join or rejoin the organization that has it. The Church is open to all who would follow Jesus. By His rules, not yours. The Church got its marching orders from Him and Him alone. Predating the Bible and definitely predating the mutilated versions that non Catholics often prefer.

The only reason that we can believe that the Bible is the Word of God is because the Church tells you. Not because of your inner feelings or whims or what a televangist tells you.

And this little article is suspect because of the language used. The Catholic Church does not say things like: The Catholic Church says: ‘No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.’ And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church.

Don’t think so.

However, the Church never abolished the Jewish Sabbath Day. It had no authority to do so. The Church, although we acknowledge our Jewish roots and reverence the Jewish people as the first chosen to hear the Word of God, has no authority over Judaism. She DID, however have the authority to create a new Christian Holy Day. The First day of the week, in weekly memory of the Risen Lord. And she did so. I see nothing wrong with it and everything right with it.

And, to neatly wrap up the post so as to comply with the rules concerning topic drift, the Church, over the millennia has delved deeply into which parts of the Bible are to be taken literally and what are to be taken figurately. The Catechism, on line and freely available to all who would access it, can address each of your questions as they arise. The knowledge, of which I am sometimes woefully lacking, is there for anyone to see.

To What Degree does the Bible Matter to Catholicism?

I'll take the obvious bait. Obviously, a whole bunch. The Catholic faith is obviously one that traces all of its beliefs to Scripture, either explicitly or implicitly. It certainly doesn't trace it to any other book. Of course, others can disagree about the Church's interpretations and appeals to Scripture.

However, the Catholic faith is not one that ties itself completely to the Bible, in that everything must be pointed out explicitly like a paint-by-numbers coloring book.

Of course, if one were to read the Catechism, they would see that the Bible is referenced many times. And if one were to go to a Catholic Mass, they would find at least 3 readings from the Scriptures (from the Old Testament, Gospel, and the Epistles and sometimes Acts/Revelations), along with the Psalms, the Our Father, and the Last Supper.

I have repeatedly offered $1000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says: 'No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church.

Interesting. Do you feel the same way about circumcision? What gives the Catholic Church of Acts 15 the RIGHT to do away with the necessity of circumcision? I imagine all of those "sola scriptura" Jews were up in arms at that one, too. And yet, here we are, following a command that had absolutely no Scriptural precedent at the time...

Regards

"I have repeatedly offered $1000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy.

We are no longer under the law, but grace...

If you chose to live by the law, you will be judged by the law...

Since we are under grace, we are not obliged to keep the Sabbath...

Sunday is not a holy day...No more than Tuesday or Friday...

Church on Sunday works out good because most of us work the rest of the week and Saturday is fishing day...