Posted on 05/17/2007 10:08:04 AM PDT by Gamecock
Reading Francis Beckwith's interview with David Neff in Christianity Today, reminded me of how idyllic the Roman church can seem in the minds of those who embrace it (Click here: Q&A: Francis Beckwith | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction).
But then this news report appeared today which gives a much different picture of the supposed glories of Romanism (Click here: Pope to canonize first Brazilian saint - Yahoo! News).
All discussion of justification, the authority of Scripture, and reciting the Creed aside, the Pope is heading to Brazil to canonize Antonio de Sant'Anna Galvao, a Franciscan monk who is credited with 5000 miraculous healings. Over 1 million people are expected to be in attendance. The healings supposedly come as a result of swallowing rice paper pills prepared by the monk over two hundred years ago. According to the AP news report . . .
"The Vatican has officially certified the medical cases of two Brazilian women as divinely inspired miracles that justify the sainthood of Galvao. Both of these women spoke of their faith with The Associated Press, claiming that their children would not be alive today were it not for the tiny rice-paper pills that Friar Galvao handed out two centuries ago.
Although the friar died in 1822, the tradition is carried on by Brazilian nuns who toil in the Sao Paulo monastery where Galvao is buried, preparing thousands of the Tic Tac-sized pills distributed free each day to people seeking cures for all manner of ailments. Each one is inscribed with a prayer in Latin: `After birth, the Virgin remained intact. Mother of God, intercede on our behalf.'
Sandra Grossi de Almeida, 37, is one such believer. She had a uterine malformation that should have made it impossible for her to carry a child for more than four months. But in 1999, after taking the pills, she gave birth to Enzo, now 7. `I have faith," Grossi said, pointing to her son. I believe in God, and the proof is right here.'
Nearly 10 years before that, Daniela Cristina da Silva, then 4 years old, entered a coma and suffered a heart attack after liver and kidney complications from hepatitis A. `The doctors told me to pray because only a miracle could save her,' Daniela's mother Jacyra said recently. `My sister sneaked into the intensive care unit and forced my daughter to swallow Friar Galvao's pills.'"
So, if you "return home" to Rome, you get the whole ball of wax, including the beatification of saints who give out Tic-Tac size rice-paper pills which supposedly heal. And Pope Benedict XVI will be there to bless it all.
By the way, confessional Protestants affirm the historical evangelical doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, and the full authority of Scripture. And yes, we even recite the Creed every Lord's Day and we use a biblical-text based liturgy which is quite similar to that described by Justin Martyr in the second century.
Too bad Dr. Beckwith didn't consider a confessional Protestant church before embracing Romanism. Now he's stuck with Antonio de Sant'Anna Galvao and his rice-paper healing pills.
Jesus used mud and spit to heal a blind man, the bleeding woman touched His garment and was healed, etc. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Saint Antonio de Sant’Anna Galvao pray for us.
My goodness, Gamecock, you’ve finally shocked me with non-Christian acts by Catholic “healers”! Next you’re going to tell me that they bent down and made a paste out of mud to rub into the eyes of a blind man! (/sarcasm)
>> I believe in God, and the proof is right here. <<
Note, of course, that the witness did not say, “I believe in the magical power of writing prayers on pills.” No, the witness is fully aware that the healing came from God.
>> “That was no miracle,” said Roberto Focaccia, an infectious disease expert at the hospital where Daniela was treated. “Statistics show that an average of 50 percent of these patients die and the other 50 percent recover completely. She was lucky to be among the 50 percent who survive. “It worries me,” he added, “that so many people think that these small pieces of paper can replace the treatment available in any decent hospital in Brazil.” <<
Several points to be made to this idiot:
1. The Church is not alleging the case he refers to is necessarily a miracle. Out of 5,000 attributed miracles, the Church officially recognized two of them.
2. The Church plainly urges all people seeking miraculous cures that the ordinary action of God’s work is through man, and that the rejection of modern medicine is of no spiritual benefit. The Catholic Church firmly opposes Christian Science.
3. His assertion (or “accusation”) of the witnesses’ attribution of the “miracle” to the mere matter of the pills is plainly rebutted.
4. Can anyone truly fault someone for being thankful to God for being one of the “lucky ones,” so long as she does NOT encourage others to forego other means of cures?
So, if you "return home" to Rome, you get the whole ball of wax, including the beatification of saints who give out Tic-Tac size rice-paper pills which supposedly heal. And Pope Benedict XVI will be there to bless it all.
Ah, but at least the Catholic Church is too intellectual and sophisticated to believe in all those phony Biblical events like creation in six days or Noah's Ark or the Tower of Babel or Jonah's Fish. Can't you see the profundity of post-Biblical, non-Biblical, and anti-Biblical supernaturalism? [/sarcasm]
How do you know any of this happened? After all, it's in your "bible" and therefore probably never really happened, right?
Amen.
"Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain." -- John Calvin
do you need a hug?
In case you haven’t noticed, he is Christ.
Why? Do you think giving me one would make your picking and choosing which miracles actually happened and which are mere myths any less illogical or hypocritical?
This is very biblical, actually. In Acts 19:11-12 we read, “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.
So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” If God can work miracles of healing through pieces of cloth that had touched the hands of a holy apostle, why should He not work miracles through pieces of paper that had touched the hands of another holy man? Indeed we read also in Acts that people would be cured if Peter’s shadow passed over them.
I don’t get it: what is so unbiblical about miracles? Or is it just “Roman” miracles? By the bye, the word “Roman” if used to mean Catholic is a pejorative term, just like “Romish”, “Romanist”, “papist”, “papistical”, etc. That kind of epithet is best left back in the times of the religious wars. The official name of the Church is “Catholic Church”, not “Roman Catholic Church”. Anglicans say “Roman Catholic”, because they regard themselves as catholic too, and for that reason the term is sometimes used even by Catholics of themselves. In Catholic parlance the term “Roman Church” is sometimes used, but when it is it does NOT refer to the whole Catholic Church but rather to the Church of the city or diocese of Rome. That is why Cardinals are called “cardinals of the Holy Roman Church”, they are in theory officials of the church of the city of Rome, which is why they elect the bishop of that city (the pope). Let’s stop the insulting use of “Romanism”, etc., please. If you mean Catholic say Catholic.
"Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way." -- Psalm 119:104
lol. Someone should heal the top of his head.
That makes more sense than the Catholic position of believing in post-Biblical miracles but insisting that the miracles of the "old testament" are nothing but "mythology."
Not being a chr*stian, the ban on hatred doesn't even apply to me!
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