[metmom]

Where the plain meaning of Scripture is just that plain, Catholics are indeed allowed their own understanding. If the words are not plain and if there has been no official interpretation; there also Catholics are allowed their own personal understanding.

That puts you at odds with a lot of Catholics.

[bonfire]

So....YOPIOS is alive and well in the Catholic church.

I would LOVE to see a site that spells which verses they must submit to and which are open to their own interpretation.

Can’t be that difficult as a simple search on the Vatican website “Prayers to Mary” took 5 seconds.

Yes, I’m confused!!

[lastchance]

Well that is the official teaching on how to read the Bible.

Another example is that Catholics are perfectly free to believe in a literal 6 day creation. They are free to believe in evolution provided they don’t think it was the result of random natural selection in which God has no sovereignty. So we can put with limits our own interpretation of Genesis 1. We also must believe that Adam & Eve were real persons and from them we inherited sin.

[daniel1212]

You are correct, but so is the RC.

Some info on the Imprimatur: http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2006/08/imprimatur-watch-what-youre-reading-my.html

“As far as I have been able to document, only seven passages of Scripture have had their senses partially (not fully) defined by the extraordinary magisterium. These definitions were made by the Council of Trent…”

“The liberty of the Scripture interpreter remains extensive. Taking due consideration of the factors that influence proper exegesis, the Catholic Bible interpreter has the liberty to adopt any interpretation of a passage that is not excluded with certainty by other passages of Scripture, by the judgment of the magisterium, by the Church Fathers, or by the analogy of faith. That is a great deal of liberty, as only a few interpretations will be excluded with certainty by any of the four factors circumscribing the interpreter’s liberty” — Jimmy Akin, Catholic Answers http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0101bt.asp)

Robert Sungenis: In fact, most of what Catholics believe and practice today has never been stated infallibly. Most of our faith and morals comes from the Ordinary Magisterium, and the Ordinary Magisterium is rarely singled out as infallible dogma. There have been only two definite instances of the exercise of papal infallibility. Of course, the Church could go back and analyze various teachings of past popes in order to decide whether one or the other was teaching infallibly on a given issue, but she has never done so, and thus there is no list of infallible papal teachings. — http://www.catholicintl.com/articles/Dave_Armstrong_Teaching_Falsehoods_About_Galileo.pdf

But at least they don't get as physical about Bible verses as compared to what their interpretation my allow: he Battle of Bethlehem: 100 rival priests clash at church built to mark birth of Jesus.