Posted on 06/21/2014 6:51:12 PM PDT by ebb tide
In 2014, how can grown men write this with a straight face?
International Theological Commission of the Catholic Church
The Church had one Pentecost. One. The Church does not need new foundations, she is not a country in search of new constitutional orders. Enough is enough: 50 years of collapse of the sensus catholicus, collapse of Catholic life in all countries where the Church was firmly established in Europe and the Americas, near-disappearance of all Catholic communities across the Middle East (in this case, mostly through no fault of the hierarchy, but still indicating that speaking of a "new Pentecost" is a mockery), collapse of vocations and religious life, that is enough. The only communities holding up are those of some regions in Africa -- and precisely those that preserve the faith of the original missionaries and that reject dialogue with the wicked immoral spirit of the contemporary world -- as well as those tiny congregations around the world making their best to worship as the Church always did and teach what the Church always taught.
The delusion must end: Vatican II was not a new Pentecost. A renewal of the Church can only come from the "old" Pentecost, the first and only Pentecost, whose living word is Apostolic Tradition straight from the Lord -- "Paraclitus autem Spiritus Sanctus, quem mittet Pater in nomine meo, ille vos docebit omnia, et suggeret vobis omnia quæcumque dixero vobis." (Jn 14: 26: "the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.")
____________________ [Note: This is not a dismissal, of course, of the whole document -- recalling the consultative and advisory nature of the commission. As every committee-based document of the past five decades, however, it is often confusing and unclear. In any event, there is one excerpt in particular that should be highlighted: "The magisterium and theology must work constantly to renew the presentation of the faith in different situations, confronting if necessary dominant notions of Christian truth with the actual truth of the Gospel, but it must be recalled that the experience of the Church shows that sometimes the truth of the faith has been conserved not by the efforts of theologians or the teaching of the majority of bishops but in the hearts of believers." (n. 119)]
Says who? You?
Meanwhile every time you scream “heretic”, another lurker thinks, “This is Catholicism? No thanks.”
...I take it you’ve failed to see the unprovoked attacks launched by Protestants on this forum....
...time to visit the eye doctor...
“Is it your position that non-Catholic Christians are practicing false religion?”
...the thread is days old, I realize, but in case you’re lurking about, I’ll take a stab at that, speaking as what I call a ‘traditionalist’ Catholic...
...it is not my opinion that you and others are practicing ‘false’ religion...you invoke Christ; such invocation requires a more substantive response than a blithe charge of apostasy...but my notion of worship requires a bit of introspection as well, as I seek the most perfect expression of it, in order to satisfy an innate desire for meaning sought out of human endeavor...my gut tells me the closest expression of perfection we’ve attained is the Catholic Mass as it existed prior to the innovations in 1965, and beyond...
...however, it falls to better brains than mine to determine who is practicing falsity and who is not...though that doesn’t stop me from offering opinions...and my noggin says that falling short of perfection, or even the closest thing to perfection, is a far cry from falsity...and since I am not in possession of the secrets of existence and being, I cannot in truth castigate anybody as practicing false religion, even if the rites of that worship call for standing on your head and baying at the moon...in other words, I acknowledge, I may be wrong about the nature of religion, and my idea of perfection as rotten as a month old tomato...
...all told, then, my belief being that the preconciliar Catholic Mass represents the truest virtues of Christianity, requires me to hold that any worship other than that is that much more imperfect, which certainly includes the rite that Catholics today claim to be ‘the Mass’, and naturally, any Protestant service, and thus ‘bending away’ from Christ and His highest ideal...but false? No. As stated, not achieving perfection is not practicing falsity, and true belief in the Triune Godhead cannot, in my studied opinion, put one’s salvation in jeopardy...
...I know I’ll not please everyone with this answer, but who seeks that...and my prior comment about your eyesight stands, as only a blind man could miss the viciousness of some Protestants on this forum toward the RCC...
‘Church is used two ways in the scriptures...One is the collective, spiritual Body of Christ...The other is various called out assemblies of believers, churches...’
‘Says who? You? ‘
All you gotta do is read it...I realize you won’t find it in the catholic bible, your catechism...But you’ll find it in the word of God, the bible...
...time to visit the eye doctor..."
I appreciate and respect your remarks on faith in your other post, but I suggest it's you who needs an eye exam. I refer you to post #15.
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