You are assuming the CC it 100% accurate. I admit I am not always accurate.
I’m not always accurate either, but I trust the Church’s teachings.
Tell me please, which is the correct CC understanding: it is sinful to eat meat on Fridays vs it is no longer sin to eat meat on Fridays? Well, first of all this is a discipline, not a dogma or doctrine. Disciplines can change and what’s more, they can change based on the pastoral teaching of the individual bishops. Suppose Bishop X has a large flock most of whom are vegans or vegetarians; Bishop Y has a large flock most of whom are heavy steak eaters. If Bishop X says, “abstain from meat on all Fridays for a penance” it would be NO PENANCE for most of his flock who don’t eat meat anyway. Whereas for Bishop Y, for most of his flock it would be a penance for his meat-loving people to abstain.
It was never actually the ‘eating meat’ part that was sinful. Heck, if eating meat was a sin, we wouldn’t abstain ONLY ON FRIDAYS, would we? No, the thing was, **bishops had the responsibilities to help their flock to choose ways in which to grow closer to God. What does Scripture tell us to do to follow God? I believe that three core principles mentioned several times are “Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.” We hope that Catholics are always praying (and in fact, we have ‘indulgences’ for reading Scripture and lots of scripture available. But many people do not read well, especially the young and the poor, so making a ‘set amount’ of reading would be difficult. As for almsgiving, we hope people do that too, but some people are very rich and others very poor, so making a ‘set amount’ of money to donate would be difficult. That leaves fasting. Well, until we had a great ‘jump’ in the ‘vegetarian’ group, the food in the Western World which most people craved was MEAT. And so, giving up meat on ONE day a week was a real sacrifice, whether you were young or old, rich or poor. And again, it is the issue of obedience here at stake. Catholics were not punished because they ‘ate meat’ (which they could eat with impunity any other day of the week) but because they DISOBEYED THE BISHOP’S PASTORAL JUDGMENT. Remember, Christ told His apostles “What you hold bound, is held bound”. . .meaning that what bishops ask is NOT to be deliberately disobyed. **Which catholics represent the correct teachings of God: charismatic catholics or non-charismatic catholics? Excuse me? Say, sugar, which Anglicans represent the ‘correct teachings of God’ --High Church or Low Church? I think you’d say BOTH. . .why do you try to erect a fence between charismatic and noncharismatic Catholics? They don’t teach DIFFERENT TRUTHS, they teach different ways of understanding, none of which CONTRADICT truth in so far as they conform to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Individual people may self-identify as one or the other and have incorrect understandings; doesnt’ mean that their Faith is wrong, only their personal understanding.
We are brothers and sisters in Christ NOT because of the church we belong to but because we’ve been adopted into the Family of God through the Blood of Jesus.
One reads the entire book, word for word,cover to cover. The other reads the book but skips a paragraph here and there. They both know what the book is about but which one knows the book better. As Catholics, we believe the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth. I believe this because without any kind of teaching authority, who could say what the truth was. We might have all ended up worshiping trees like my ancestors in Germany. Surely, Jesus left us some institution that would keep us from wandering off on our own. I believe that you know the Truth as God has shown it to us, I just believe that Jesus left us the Catholic Church, free from error, with the absolute fullness of truth, so that our feeble minds can comprehend Him as best we can without worry that on our own we might get the message totally wrong. Sorry for the rambling and I’m sure it doesn’t make much sense but it’s the best I can do. 