Posted on 07/17/2013 8:05:06 AM PDT by Gamecock
If you're Christian, you might believe the keys to salvation are faith and good works. But a little Twitter might help get you to the Pearly Gates too.
You can now reduce the time your everlasting soul has to spend in purgatory by following tweets from Pope Francis and Catholic World Youth Day, an event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that the pontiff will attend later this month.
The policy is a form of indulgence, a centuries-old tradition in the Catholic Church in which the temporal punishment for absolved sins is relieved. Since it's a plenary indulgence, a believer gets total remission of sins and relief from penitence.
But that doesn't mean you just click on "follow" and sin at will, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
"Get it out of your heads straight away that this is in any way mechanical, that you just need to click on the Internet in a few days' time to get a plenary indulgence," the daily quoted Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, as saying.
"What really matters is that the pope's tweets from Brazil, or the photos of World Youth Day that will be posted on Pinterest, should bear authentic spiritual fruit in the hearts of each one of us."
"Then even a youngster who is a very long way from Brazil and feels involved by a video, a simple text message, or an e-mail will be truly taking part in the World Youth Day and will receive the gift of the indulgence."
The report quotes a Catholic decree concerning World Youth Day that says the faithful "can obtain the plenary indulgence...by the new means of social communication."
It went on to quote Paolo Padrini, a Catholic scholar known as the "iPriest" for always being online.
"Imagine your computer is a well-laden table where you can find tweets from Pope Francis, videos on YouTube, clips on Corriere.it, and Facebook postings from your friend in Brazil. That is the dinner that will nourish your spirit.
"Sharing, acting in unison, despite the obstacle of distance. But it will still be real participation and that is why you will obtain the indulgence. Above all because your click will have come from the heart."
Totally ridiculous.
I’ll just read Hebrews 10:10 and know I’ll take the direct route to heaven, thanks. But glad to see the Pope on Twitter.
Rape being a mortal sin, your little thought experiment here won’t merit you anything but Hell.
What if I ask for forgiveness after the fact?
Don’t know that an indulgence is not a permission to commit sin, nor a pardon of future sin.
What about those of us that are not Twits?
Bilge.
My problem starts with this first sentence. We are saved by grace, through faith, for works. Works are NOT a key to salvation. Works are the fruits of salvation. Our works do not earn us salvation.
You have a Bible, you tell me. Did the Son of Man have the power on earth to forgive sins? Did the Son of Man grant the power to his Apostles to forgive or to retain sins?
I guess we’ll just burn.
Well, we are clearly on the same page there. :-)
Wrong. Never happened.
Answer me this. Has Christ made satisfactory atonement for every single sin ever committed, past, present, and future?
Yes.
Is Christ’s atonement an infinite, inexhaustible treasury of grace upon which the faithful can draw with absolutely no limit?
I think it results in a more accurate an comprehensive understanding to not try to separate the two, faith and works. When we do we get into an either/or that doesn’t exist in reality.
Wrong. Never happened.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120921180933AAegzkz
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_Roman_Catholic_Church_sell_indulgences
“You can now reduce the time your everlasting soul has to spend in purgatory by following tweets from Pope Francis and Catholic World Youth Day, an event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that the pontiff will attend later this month.”
This sort of Roman/Pagan nonsense is why I am a Christian, not a Catholic.
G-d’s Grace is not something any priest can give you.
Faith is something we are given. Works is something we do. Of course they are separate.
Does one exist without the other?
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