A Council of all Christendom?

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If there was a worldwide Council of all Christendom and all respective leaders were to weigh in, and vote over every issue in Christianity, wouldn’t the Catholic Faith prevail just because of numbers of leaders?

I’m not suggesting, of course, that this is how even the Catholic faith works, necessarily, but outside of Catholicism, what does determine the final decision within Councils?
 
rcwitness said:
I’m not suggesting, of course, that this is how even the Catholic faith works, necessarily, but outside of Catholicism, what does determine the final decision within Councils?
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That varies greatly on who you’re talking to. Some faiths believe that a council (of their own members) can clarify interpretation of doctrine, some believe such councils as just having authority over Earthly policy, some reject councils outright.
 
jane_doe said:
That varies greatly on who you’re talking to. Some faiths believe that a council (of their own members) can clarify interpretation of doctrine, some believe such councils as just having authority over Earthly policy, some reject councils outright.
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Right, but that’s the point. What if each of these issues were voted on? Even the ones you give. It would still all be prevailed by the Catholic Church, no?
 
I guess that would largely depend upon the terms of the council.

If all of these independent protestant groups had their own representatives, then I suppose they might outnumber Catholic representatives since there are so many.

Then again, many of these independent churches are fundamentalists who think Rome has cooties. So good luck getting them to attend. Maybe only happens via skype lol
 
Lenten_ashes said:
I guess that would largely depend upon the terms of the council.

If all of these independent protestant groups had their own representatives, then I suppose they might outnumber Catholic representatives since there are so many.

Then again, many of these independent churches are fundamentalists who think Rome has cooties. So good luck getting them to attend. Maybe only happens via skype lol
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I think there are still more Catholic leaders than the rest put together. At least that is according to the number of Christians.

And yes, of course it would never happen. Even from a Catholic position. Because we don’t just vote on Truths. But if we did, it may just end up in the Catholic belief.
 
rcwitness said:
I think there are still more Catholic leaders than the rest put together. At least that is according to the number of Christians.

And yes, of course it would never happen. Even from a Catholic position. Because we don’t just vote on Truths. But if we did, it may just end up in the Catholic belief.
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You might just barely be right. For now the RCC has a very slim majority over the rest of Christianity on total numbers (50.1% of all Christians to be precise).
 
rcwitness said:
Right, but that’s the point. What if each of these issues were voted on? Even the ones you give. It would still all be prevailed by the Catholic Church, no?
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You’re assuming that a Methodist would acknowledge Catholic priest as authoritative evaluator of doctrine, on par with their preists. Would you acknowledge an Evangelical as an authoritative evaluator of doctrine on par with a Catholic Cardinal?
 
jane_doe said:
You’re assuming that a Methodist would acknowledge Catholic priest as authoritative evaluator of doctrine, on par with their preists. Would you acknowledge an Evangelical as an authoritative evaluator of doctrine on par with a Catholic Cardinal?
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Right. The qualifications of leaders who are eligible to vote would have to be decided.
 
rcwitness said:
Right. The qualifications of leaders who are eligible to vote would have to be decided.
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The first thing which would have to be decided would be why to meet and what the end product would be. Again, not all faiths view councils as having any authority whatsoever.
 
jane_doe said:
The first thing which would have to be decided would be why to meet and what the end product would be. Again, not all faiths view councils as having any authority whatsoever.
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The end result would be an assent to a universal Church. And again, not even the Catholic Church would do this, even if they knew they would win by numbers.

It’s really just a thought which came from learning there are more Catholic Christians than all the Christian denominations combined. And that is based on number of members in general.
 
Never, ever going to happen. Even if a council like this could be organized, whenever a decision is made that a group disagrees with, they will simply go off and do their own thing. Then, we will be right back where we started.
 
ctb95 said:
Never, ever going to happen. Even if a council like this could be organized, whenever a decision is made that a group disagrees with, they will simply go off and do their own thing. Then, we will be right back where we started.
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ok. I’ll cancel the invitations. 😦
 
ctb95 said:
Never, ever going to happen. Even if a council like this could be organized, whenever a decision is made that a group disagrees with, they will simply go off and do their own thing. Then, we will be right back where we started.
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Which is really where I think the heart of the issue would lie.

Lets say you get everyone together that claims the name Christian and the first item on the agenda is the nature of Christ. Say 90% agree to a trinitarian view of Christ. I don’t think LDS, Oneness Pentecostals, and other non-trinitarians are simply going to say, “yep, you’re right and we accept it because we voted”? No, they will continue to hold to their beliefs like Arians, Sabellianist, and others over the last 1900 years.

The problem is not about building consensus so much as it is a matter that people, in general, only recognize the authority of those they already agree with.
 
Padres1969 said:
You might just barely be right. For now the RCC has a very slim majority over the rest of Christianity on total numbers (50.1% of all Christians to be precise).
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But Padres, remember all the postings here, and there have been many, that argue the question, ‘Who is counted as a Catholic?’ The consensus opinion is that anyone who has been baptized a Catholic is counted in the roles of members. In the real world, people have left the Catholic church (sometimes angrily), people have ignored the church, people have converted to another faith, and those numbers are not reflected in the census.

So 50.1% in real time? Probably not so much.
 
rcwitness said:
Right, but that’s the point. What if each of these issues were voted on? Even the ones you give. It would still all be prevailed by the Catholic Church, no?
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Which issue would everyone be voting on?
 
ComplineSanFran said:
But Padres, remember all the postings here, and there have been many, that argue the question, ‘Who is counted as a Catholic?’ The consensus opinion is that anyone who has been baptized a Catholic is counted in the roles of members. In the real world, people have left the Catholic church (sometimes angrily), people have ignored the church, people have converted to another faith, and those numbers are not reflected in the census.

So 50.1% in real time? Probably not so much.
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membership does not remain after one leaves a parish. I would imagine they are counting members, not where someone is Baptized. And if someone leaves the parish for another church, they become a member there, and would then be counted there.
 
rcwitness said:
membership does not remain after one leaves a parish. I would imagine they are counting members, not where someone is Baptized. And if someone leaves the parish for another church, they become a member there, and would then be counted there.
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The point is that the baptismal records are believed to be the official count. If that record follows you to a new parish, no problem. But if that baptized person converts to a Pentecostal church, or even to Islam, and requests that the church expunge the record in the membership count, that does not happen. In other words, a baptized person cannot leave the Catholic church as far as the official numbers are concerned.
 
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