Mrs. Don-o's Letter to Bishop about Catholic Doctrine on the Death Penalty

"Glad to see you questioning that which cannot be questioned..."

Thank you, trebb. But I'm hoping everyone can see the wry paradox here. Yeah, I'm "questioning that which cannot be questioned." But I'm in fact, defending with all my strength that which cannot be questioned: Scripture, Tradition and the Papal Magisterium.

There was a materially-heretical idea that floated around amongst European Catholics called "Ultramontanism". Historically, this was the 19th century Northern and Western European Catholics' tendency to see all truth as coming from the other side of the mountains (in this case, from Italy on the other side of the Alps) --- as if the pope, specifically, were some kind of all=purpose oracle, and his every opinion --- and those of his closest advisors --- was to be taken as dogma.

As I said, this, even when well-intended, was a kind of material heresy: an honest error, not an attempt to deliberately get it wrong. But it was and is an error.

The Pope has no warrant to proclaim anything "authoritatively" unless it's already part pf the "deposit of faith," which means papal authority is largely a "theology of repetition." He can explicate what's already there in Scripture and in the Apostolic Tradition (what the Church believed from Apostolic times) but he can't pull new rabbits out of his papal tiara.

If he does --- if he tries to frame his own fuzzy or erroneous opinions as if they were dogmas of the Church --- the "charism of infallibility" is Christ's promise that he won't be able to pull it off. If "the gates of hell shall not prevail" --- and that's Christ's promise --- it logically entails a key papal inability to make an eternally-binding dogma out of the Opinion of the Day.

Infallibility is the opposite of Ultramontanism: it's a limit on papal authority. It's the Holy Spirit playing defense.

So sometimes you have to oppose papal opinion in order to defend the authentic Magisterium.

That's why I'm trying to do.

Here's a Two-Minute Explanation (YouTube) that might make you laugh out loud.

Thank you for your kind and measured response - i guess I am of the mind that they made it too complex and afforded too much power to the Priests - much as the pharisees were an "elite" group instead of actual teachers.Were told that we are to obey our leaders/rulers too because they are here with the authority of God...not only have they entailed folks like Hitler/Stalin/Lenin/Che/Castro/Idi Amin,Chavez, etc., but how unified is any church against or for our Presidents?

I have trouble believing it needs to be that complicated for one to find/secure salvation - the Bible seems to have sufficient information/instructions and I would love it if more religions would actually teach from it and concentrate on the contrast/import of God transitioning us from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

Of course, I also believe that Prayer is most useful as a personal contact relationship with God - I find it hard to believe that He will change His mind and alter what is transpiring in others because x-amount of people pray for some specific event - and even less belief that praying to dead mortals can be preferable to praying directly to God and Jesus.

I have no problem believing that our fears of someone desecrating God/Jesus/Host are a total waste - some things cannot be desecrated/tainted by humans...they can be hated and disrespected, but that harms the humans rather than God - the Holy Spirit can be blasphemed, but it does not suffer from such blasphemy or heresy...the human perpetrators are the ones who suffer.

I choose to live in His Grace - warts and all, because when He admonished Peter for calling unclean, what He had made clean, and when Paul (Galatians 5) admonished those still trying to be justified by their own actions that if they tried to live under some of the law, they then had to abide by the impossible (or Jesus would not have had to die for us) task of obeying the whole law.

I guess that's part of my story and I'm sticking to it.....:-)

God Bless

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