Posted on 05/24/2013 2:25:17 AM PDT by DaveMSmith
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Holy Father is full of surprises, born of true and faithful humility. On Wednesday he declared that all people, not just Catholics, are redeemed through Jesus, even atheists.
However, he did emphasize there was a catch. Those people must still do good. In fact, it is in doing good that they are led to the One who is the Source of all that is good. In essence he simply restated the hope of the Church that all come to know God, through His Son Jesus Christ.
Francis based his homily on the message of Christ to his disciples taken from the Gospel of Mark. Francis delivered his message by sharing a story of a Catholic who asked a priest if atheists were saved by Christ.
"They complain," Francis said, "If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good." He explained that Jesus corrected them, "Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good."
The disciples, Pope Francis explained, "were a little intolerant," closed off by the idea of possessing the truth, convinced that "those who do not have the truth, cannot do good." "This was wrong... Jesus broadens the horizon." Pope Francis said, "The root of this possibility of doing good - that we all have - is in creation."
"Even them, everyone, we all have the duty to do good, Pope Francis said on Vatican Radio.
"Just do good" was his challenge, "and we'll find a meeting point."
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
But the eternal torment of the devil is not death, and the everlasting punishment the lost go into as those who are cast into the same place is not simply annihilation, but in contradistinction to the eternal experience of the elect, it is torment. Horrifying but just and real, which the Scriptures presented it as.
!:)
Isn't he infallible. :-)
Not sure why that was posted to me, but I happen to agree with you. The Pope seems to be saying something contrary to Catholic teaching. Catholic teaching has always held that we are made children of God through Baptism (and obviously atheists have not been baptized). I honestly don’t know what to think about this homily. I certainly have questions, but not about the Catholic Faith.
And round and round we go......
See #129. Aren’t you getting a little carried away? I’m flattered that you keep such close track of my comments, but this is a little wired.
I agree. I know I have sent in suggestions that the forum limit the number of characters in a single post but they don’t want to do it. So we have to endure spam posted by some. I skip over the spam posts. Always.
OMG!
You posted post 76 in defense of atheism and I responded to you, try to lay off the little act and song and dance routine.
To: Tanniker Smith
I’ve heard atheist here on FR say that they can do good, without believing in God.
I don’t see why not.
76 posted on 5/24/2013 6:03:48 AM by stuartcr
The question isn’t about a mild mannered-individual growing up in a culture shaped by religion. Can an atheist society thrive for generations, has it ever?
If America was suddenly sprayed with a chemical that removed all belief in God, and made everyone 100% purely free of any concept of God and a soul and an after life, and removed all residue and traces of any connection with that past, I don’t think that the result would be positive.
I saw someone posting entire tomes into a prayer thread once so out of curiosity I copied one of the posts into a Word document. 24,000 words. Not the whole thread mind you; one post. Just ridiculous. Since 99.9% of posts like that will never, ever be read a courteous poster would just put a link. People like that make reading FR on the phone almost impossible at times.
What would you like to hear? I have no idea if there has been a purely atheist society, so how could I know if one can survive for generations?
Tell me of one and I will google and tell you how long it lasted.
Ok, after all that stuff happens, you don’t think it would be positive.
???
No, he isn’t.
In fact, iirc, the Roman Catholic church doesn’t claim the Pope is infallible every time he speaks. My understanding is that he is only infallible if he speaks in a particular way on particular matters. Not being Roman Catholic, I don’t pay too much attention to the ins-and-outs of that belief.
The Bible is clear. There is no person who is good ENOUGH to earn their way into heaven. All our [own] righteousness is as filthy rags. We ALL need a savior and that is found in Christ Jesus. There is but one mediator between men and God, the man Christ Jesus.
If the Pope said anything else, and there is now evidence that the media got yet another thing wrong, the Pope is in error.
I know. I know. I was just making a joke. No man is infallible ... including the Pope. He is the head manager of the Catholic Church and that’s about it.
LOL, still defending atheism.
All this time and you still want to stick with your pro-atheist statement and leave it at that.
I’m cool with that, but you don’t seem to be.
See 129...and read it
That's a more meaningless post than the one I responded to.
I did read it, and I responded, and you pretended to never understand post 110.
You jumped on the thread to mock Christians and defend atheism in your usual girlish, passive-aggressive manner that comes off as childish and here you are.
Your lame attempt to defend atheism was weak.
I know
Stuartcr, you are in pretty good company:
"For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all." - Romans 2: 13-16
If you’re cool with, why keep telling me?
If you think I’m mocking Christians and defending atheists, like I said earlier, ok...it really doesn’t matter.
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