I respect your opinion, but I have to disagree.
As a life long catholic (and former alter boy) I take offense at the hypocrocy of the RCC.
1) I have traveled the world and have seen people laying hungry on the steps of a church full of gold statues. Why not use some wealth for the betterment of the people? I’m not talking about a meal, I’m taking real help. I seem to recall - “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat every day”
2) Politicians who protect abortion should be forbidden to take communion. How come Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy was given last rights? He wasn’t worried about all those innocent lives he helped snuff out by advocating abortion. What about Polosi? She was given an audience with the Pope. Don’t tell me politics has no influence on the Papacy.
3) Freemasons give a million dollars a day to charities. I have organized toy drives and other events. OK, I don’t do it through the church, but the needy get help. Maybe the chuch isn’t happy that they are not getting the cut?
4) The RCC sponsors hospitals and so do Masons. Most people do not know that the Shiners, as in Shiners Children’s Hopsitals, are Masons. If the RCC and the Free masons could look past their differences, we could help so many more people. Put the BS aside, lock arms, and get things done!
5) Don’t lecture me about “You need to be all in or all out”. Don’t tell me I have to swallow everything that Rome says. I live my life by being the best I can with a strong moral and ethical compass. If I followed as a robot, I would not be using the brains, reasoning, or compassion that God gave me at birth.
6) The priest that married my wife and I also baptized my two sons. Now he owns a gay bar in Deleware. Does this mean I’m not married or that my two sons were not baptized? I think not.
Like I said, I respect your opinion, but I disagree with the church. It doesn’t keep me from attending church or going to confession. I have NEVER done ANYTHING as a Freemason that needs confessing. I don’t have all the answers, but I can only call them as I see or have experienced them. My faith in God is strong and I thank him every day for my family and everything else - including the hard lessons.
PS - No man stands taller than when he is bending over to help a child.
PSS - If there is Mason Ping list, please add me.
FRiend, I am not stating an opinion. I am quoting an objective fact: the consistent teaching of the Church since 1738 (note: the objective part is that this is the teaching; it is for each of our individual judgments whether we assent to that teaching or not)
And the last document I cited above (post #17) says the following:
Therefore the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enrol in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
That is substantively the same as was initially declared back in 1738 (approximately 21 years after speculative masonry began). If you are interested, you can read the pertinent quote from that Papal Bull in post #17, above.
You said, As a life long catholic (and former alter boy) I take offense at the hypocrocy of the RCC.
As I said in post #19, I really don't want to get into an argument about whether the AF&AM (or any Masonic body) is a "good," "bad," or "hypocritical" organization. So I really don't want to go there. I have known many, many people in my life who were members of the Craft -- most (but not hardly all) were fine, upstanding members of the community. And one would have a hard time not seeing the community projects (the one that comes most to my mind is the network of Shriner hospitals). And it is not to say that the leadership in the Church, particularly within the American Church, is spotless and without blame. You could take a look at any number of my posts within this forum to recognize that.
Having said that, being a faithful Catholic and being a practicing Freemason are mutually exclusive. That is not according to FReeper markomalley's opinion, that is according to the teachings of the Church, including the two small quotes I've given in this thread.
You go on to say, Don’t lecture me about “You need to be all in or all out”. Don’t tell me I have to swallow everything that Rome says…
I'm not lecturing you one way or the other. You inserted yourself in this conversation, not me. If you choose to stand in opposition to a teaching of the Church, that is between you and your God. As long as you don't cause a scandal, I don't personally want to get into your personal life one way or the other. But it does seem rather odd that you criticize the Church of hypocrisy for not denying communion to politicians who don't assent to the teachings of the Church while proudly proclaiming your own defiance.
You then say, It doesn’t keep me from attending church or going to confession. I have NEVER done ANYTHING as a Freemason that needs confessing.
I'm glad being a Freemason doesn't keep you from going to church. I would be surprised to find that any action you took would need confessing. But, again, since you spoke of anger toward pro-choice politicians not being immediately and unceremoniously booted from the Church, if these politicians honestly believe that they have voted for a pro-abortion piece of legislation, while maintaining the position of "I'm personally against abortion and would never do it, but I don't want to impose my religious belief on others" (the usual pro-"choice" cop-out), have they done something that requires them to go to confession?
You are, in essence, advocating the "supremacy of conscience" theory: if you don't believe it's wrong, then it's not wrong. And that is the same justification used by 100% of the pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians. Not telling you what to do here, FRiend, just pointing out that the line of thought you have expressed is identical to the one expressed by pro-choice Catholics.
Oh, and by the way, as for the gay former priest, you, as a former altar boy, I'm sure are familiar with the expression, ex opere operato (if not, you can Google it). So, as long as the sacraments were administered validly at the time, I wouldn't worry about it.
As far as a Masonic ping list, I think you should check with TheThirdRuffian or uglybiker. They could, I'm sure, get you hooked right up.
I've been a Catholic all my life, and been all over the world. I have never once seen a Church with gold statues in it. I have never seen a picture of a Catholic Church with gold statues in it. Can you please name a few examples of Catholic churches with gold statues? You've made an accusation, back it up.
Besides that, in the Roman Rite, even a lay person could perform a wedding (Canon 1112.2) because the bride and groom confer marriage on each other. (In the Eastern Rite the priest is the minister of the sacrament)
So, no one would tell you and your wife they are not married.
Anyone, even an atheist, can perform a baptism, as long as the formula is correct.
If you really are Catholic, then the Masons are effecting you more than you think, because they are telling you stuff about the Catholic Church that is completely false. How come you implicitly trust all the bad things said about the Catholic Church by Masons, but you distrust everything the Catholic Church teaches?
I wish the Catholic Church would use it's energies to excommunicate the baby killers like Pelosi and Biden.
30% of the members of Congress are Catholics and most of them are for abortion.
It would also be great if the Catholic Church used some more energy in focusing on the greatest threat Christians face today which is Islam.
I won't belabor what went on in the Vatican during the 15 hundreds, and so on.