Free Republic

Yeah, I’m pretty desperate at this point in time. I know in my heart that prayers are all that will help. I’ve had a few as we speak so it’s a lot easier to ask for help.

God bless you you as well.

Thanks. Please, please, please, keep me in your prayers.

“This pope’s patristic teaching is nothing short of extraordinary. What a blessing it is for all of us to be living at a time when, for the first time in nearly 700 years, a true Father has arisen in The Church!”

Totally agree...I LOVE this Pope more than any other - though I’m not sure that it’s taken 700 yrs. :)

I love that channel and wish it was on 24/7. I watch it starting at 8pm. Wonderful programming.

>>Has the Pope invited Jesus in to his life?? I hope so!!! <<

ROTFLMAO - ignorance is bliss...

“St. Thomas Aquinas was very clear that gluttony is a mortal sin in need of confession, and that means drinking or eating beyond necessity, or otherwise putting the stomach before the Lord.”

“I find that kicking a habit is much easier when my suffering is understood to be potentially redemptive for others, and not just myself.”

It’s one of the seven deadly sins...Drinking like I do is the same thing. I’ll try the beads and offering it up. I’d given up ETOH for years and just went back on it thinking I was cured after so many years. One is never “cured” - I’ve got an addictive personality if there is such a thing...

Personally, I have a hard time asking anyone for anything as I take the independent spirit to the extreme. A good thought though...

“HEADLINE: Church declares that people who listen to Abba tribute bands have no taste and should stay off of our premises. Have a nice day.”

LOL

Here they're saying it's RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION: Sandra Davis, the "high priestess" of Crystal Cauldron group in Stockport, Greater Manchester, said she was shocked to be told that the pagan group was not considered to be compatible with the church's "ethos".... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5560105/Witches-coven-claims-religious-persecution-after-church-hall-ban.html

Sorry, I forgot to post the link:
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/

This may be just a first, rather extreme, "test case". the Equality laws make it difficult for Churches who let their halls out to the public to specify that groups hiring must be "compatible with the ethos and teachings of the Catholic Church," as Fr Joyce insisted. It is possible (at the moment) to restrict lettings only to Church or related groups rather than making a Church hall available for let to the general public. That constraint in itself shows how equality laws restricting the Church's activity by interdicting a perfectly reasonable source of income that would normally contribute to the common good for ordinary local groups.

“This is a little personal — but I will go ahead and share it. I had been addicted to pornography for a long time. When I started going to Confession and confessing the pornography, I started to literally lose interest in porn. It just started to become boring and uninteresting to me. I’d even go to a porn site and find myself wandering to a non-pornographic site out of boredom. That just seems to be a special grace, and from my personal experience, did not flow from a fear of having to confess the sin again. Obviously I had already screwed up by going to the porn site. The amazing thing is that the desire and motivation to stay there was gone! Amazing.”

You’re one brave individual. Thanks!!! I haven’t been hooked on porn, always a good idea to say - yet - but ask me about ETOH...

“Did you baptize yourself too? Performed your own marriage ceremony? Do you act as priest/minister at your own self-oriented self-worshipping masses/services? Did you create yourself while you were at it? Just cut out everything since YOU are the center of the universe.”

Excellent points!

It took me a long time as well. My advice - make an appt with a priest you respect and like, and have at it. Good luck! :)

They do closed confessionals in most parishes. I hadn’t been in years until fairly recently as much of the secular/protestant movement infiltrated and I started to think the same way. So if I went to a funeral or wedding I’d ask God to forgive me and go to Holy Communion because I asked God for forgiveness I knew it was okay. Ha! Lies! I recently returned to the Church and go to confessions at least monthly. Love, love, love it. The Catholic Church is right and has been for 2,000 years.

This picture taken from the British Daily Mail - looks like Iran...

“Let me bring up your pedophile PRIESTS. Yeah, they’re part of that infallible apostolic body, right? I should trust in that pedophile to interpret Scripture for me, right? That pedophile has, as you say, “authority,” right?”

Welcome to a collection of news reports on ministers who have sexually abused children:

ALL Protestant denominations - 838 Ministers (known cases)

147 Baptist Ministers

251 “Bible” Church Ministers (fundamentalist/evangelical)

140 Anglican/Episcopalian Ministers

38 Lutheran Ministers

46 Methodist Ministers

19 Presbyterian Ministers

197 various Church Ministers
http://reformation.com/

Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year (known cases)

By Rose French
June 18, 2007

The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.

The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down — the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.

[...]

But he believes these are just the “tip of the iceberg’’ because churches don’t have to report abuse cases to the registry and aren’t likely to.

“The problem we’re having is that churches just weren’t sending the names,’’ Trull said. “In the normal scenario, they just try to keep it secret. We’re going to have to be more proactive and let them know if they don’t come forward, they’re helping to perpetuate this problem.’’
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2007/06/18/80877.htm

Now you say -> “I’ve never said that non-Roman Catholic pastors are infallible. Indeed, every one that I’ve met is a sinner.”

And who said priests were infallible? Your whole response is full of suppositions and self-aggrandizing. No one was discussing priests until you brought up the strawman because you’d gotten yourself into a corner and couldn’t debate your way out of it. So what did you do? Run for cover and start yelling pedophile priests in an attempt to shut us up.

A Berean? HA!

So, you don’t have a leader?

This is a quick read...
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/modernism/modnsm.htm

MIRARI VOS (On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism) -Pope Gregory XVI - August 15, 1832
http://www.saint-mike.org/Library/Papal_Library/GregoryXVI/Encyclicals/Mirari_Vos.html

Quanta Cura - Encyclical of Pope Pius IX -December 8, 1864
Covers errors of Pantheism, Naturalism, Indifferentism, Latitudinarianism, Socialism, Communism, also errors concerning civil society, the Church, natural and Christian ethics, Christian marriage, the Pope’s civil power and modern Liberalism.
http://www.saint-mike.org/Library/Papal_Library/PiusIX/Encyclicals/Quanta_Cura.html

Quod Apostolici Muneris - Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII
On Socialism - Promulgated on December 28, 1878
http://www.saint-mike.org/Library/Papal_Library/LeoXIII

Libertas Praestantissimum - Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII
on the Nature of Human Liberty - June 20, 1888
http://www.saint-mike.org/Library/Papal_Library/LeoXIII/Encyclicals/Libertas.html

Centesimus Annus-Encyclical Letter - Pope John Paul II
Commemorating the Centenary of Rerum Novarum May 1, 1991 (Re: Pope Leo XIII Encyclical May 15, 1891)

State and Culture
[...]
44. Pope Leo XIII was aware of the need for a sound theory of the State in order to ensure the normal development of man’s spiritual and temporal activities, both of which are indispensable.(89) For this reason, in one passage of Rerum Novarum he presents the organization of society according to the three powers – legislative, executive and judicial – , something which at the time represented a novelty in Church teaching.(90) Such an ordering reflects a realistic vision of man’s social nature, which calls for legislation capable of protecting the freedom of all. To that end, it is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the “rule of law”, in which the law is sovereign, and not the arbitrary will of individuals.

In modern times, this concept has been opposed by totalitarianism, which, in its Marxist–Leninist form, maintains that some people, by virtue of a deeper knowledge of the laws of the development of society, or through membership of a particular class or through contact with the deeper sources of the collective consciousness, are exempt from error and can therefore arrogate to themselves the exercise of absolute power. It must be added that totalitarianism arises out of a denial of truth in the objective sense. If there is no transcendent truth, in obedience to which man achieves his full identity, then there is no sure principle for guaranteeing just relations between people. Their self-interest as a class, group or nation would inevitably set them in opposition to one another. If one does not acknowledge transcendent truth, then the force of power takes over, and each person tends to make full use of the means at his disposal in order to impose his own interests or his own opinion, with no regard for the rights of others. People are then respected only to the extent that they can be exploited for selfish ends.

Thus, the root of modern totalitarianism is to be found in the denial of the transcendent dignity of the human person who, as the visible image of the invisible God, is therefore by his very nature the subject of rights which no one may violate – no individual, group, class, nation or State. Not even the majority of a social body may violate these rights, by going against the minority, by isolating, oppressing, or exploiting it, or by attempting to annihilate it.(91)
[...]
http://www.saint-mike.org/Library/Papal_Library/John_PaulII/Encyclicals/Centesimus_Annus.html

A few examples.

The Catholic Church first took note of Modernism and defined it on September 26, 1835.

I would say it’s diverse like the Pro-life movement. I believe they’re like-minded people who are probably using these already established parties as a vehicle in order to fight Islam and their Marxist governments. Not unlike the pro-life movement which is also diverse.