Can Catholics disagree about moral issues?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jenniferolg
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jenniferolg

Guest
I found this answer to someone else on a question/answer site…

"You are free to disagree with the Church teachings on moral issues (not doctrinal issues such as the Trinity or Divinity of Jesus). But as a mature Catholic, I suggest study on your own or seek helps of learned theolgians who really studies these issues.

There’s good theology and bad theology. Don’t follow bad theology that only increase hate and doubt."

They were referring to Church teachings on same sex marriage, birth control and divorce…

Thanks,
Jennifer
 
Jenniferolg said:
I found this answer to someone else on a question/answer site…

"You are free to disagree with the Church teachings on moral issues (not doctrinal issues such as the Trinity or Divinity of Jesus). But as a mature Catholic, I suggest study on your own or seek helps of learned theolgians who really studies these issues.

There’s good theology and bad theology. Don’t follow bad theology that only increase hate and doubt."

They were referring to Church teachings on same sex marriage, birth control and divorce…

Thanks,
Jennifer
Click to expand...
Incorrect. There are some moral issues, a good number, that allow no variance on them,including the ones you mention.

This board is so littered with mis spent energy on these topics. Let’s not start new debates about them. They are, formally, settled matters. This won’t stop some Catholics from trying to find wiggle room in them.
 
Jenniferolg said:
I found this answer to someone else on a question/answer site…

"You are free to disagree with the Church teachings on moral issues (not doctrinal issues such as the Trinity or Divinity of Jesus). But as a mature Catholic, I suggest study on your own or seek helps of learned theolgians who really studies these issues.

There’s good theology and bad theology. Don’t follow bad theology that only increase hate and doubt."

They were referring to Church teachings on same sex marriage, birth control and divorce…

Thanks,
Jennifer
Click to expand...
No, After all the Church is infallible on issues of faith and morals.
 
Jenniferolg said:
I found this answer to someone else on a question/answer site…

"You are free to disagree with the Church teachings on moral issues (not doctrinal issues such as the Trinity or Divinity of Jesus). But as a mature Catholic, I suggest study on your own or seek helps of learned theolgians who really studies these issues.

There’s good theology and bad theology. Don’t follow bad theology that only increase hate and doubt."

They were referring to Church teachings on same sex marriage, birth control and divorce…

Thanks,
Jennifer
Click to expand...
It seems like this person is confusing doctrine and discipline. Everything about morals is under doctrine because right and wrong are objective and can’t be changed. Discipline, things that can and do change within the Church, are things like how something is done or performed, like whether priests can be married, the some of the words used at Mass, but not something on morals. People are free to disagree with discipline, just as me and my family disagree with the recent word changes at Mass. Despite being more true to the Latin, we feel that some of it is just bad English and makes understanding some of it, from an outsider perspective with no guidance, more complicated. But that is another topic for another day. However, I still recite the new Missal because I want to show my unity with the Church, and it is easier to say the same thing with a group of people than to try and recite something different than everyone else.
 
Jenniferolg said:
I found this answer to someone else on a question/answer site…

"You are free to disagree with the Church teachings on moral issues (not doctrinal issues such as the Trinity or Divinity of Jesus). But as a mature Catholic, I suggest study on your own or seek helps of learned theolgians who really studies these issues.

There’s good theology and bad theology. Don’t follow bad theology that only increase hate and doubt."

They were referring to Church teachings on same sex marriage, birth control and divorce…

Thanks,
Jennifer
Click to expand...
Yes you most certainly can. It’s done on this site all the time. 😉

You may personally disagree with the Church’s teachings on faith and morals, but you would be wrong. So what you have to do is believe that the Church has it right. Eventually you will come around…I did.🙂
 
One must distinguish between “moral issues” that are Teachings of the Church (such a abortion, contraception, theft etc)

and various “moral issues” that are not … where there may be differing judgments in applying the moral principles by well formed and faithful consciences…these often are in matters falling into prudential area…(I may judge that one ought not go to such and such a movie --and another might judge that I am not seeing the principles correctly etc)

(they ought for example seek out good counsel – sound moral theologians etc)

And of course there may be various judgments (at least for a time) about a particular new matter that arises – even among Faithful Moral Theologians.
 
Bookcat said:
One must distinguish between “moral issues” that are Teachings of the Church (such a abortion, contraception, theft etc)

and various “moral issues” that are not … where there may be differing judgments in applying the moral principles by well formed and faithful consciences…these often are in matters falling into prudential areas.

And of course there may be various judgments (at least for a time) about a particular matter among Faithful Moral Theologians.
Click to expand...
ding, ding, ding 👍

Jenniferolg, the issues you mentioned in the OP are all formally defined by the Magesterium and all Catholics owe assent to these teachings. There is some very slight room for development of the teaching. For example, divorce as a grave wrong is defined teaching but the Church has developed its understanding and teaching about situations where separation, even up to civil divorce, may be necessary to safeguard the wellbeing of one spouse or the children. That development only came about due to discussion within the Church.

For the most part, those moral issues where prudential judgement and disagreement are valid tend to be matter of “how” rather than those of “allowed/not allowed”. An example of this would be that all Catholics are morally reguired to aid those more unfortunate than ourselves. There is a huge amount of perfectly legitimate disagreement between Catholics about the best way to do this.

BTW, even in matters of discipline, disagreement is not permission to disobey. 🙂
 
teenphilo1 said:
No.

What website, might I ask?
Click to expand...
It was yahoo answers. I googled Catholic Answers and it came up as a hit so I opened it. Someone was complaining about an answer about divorce, same sex marriage, etc he/she had read on CAs. That was the answer one poster had given. It was a shock to me, but she spoke very authoritatively so I thought I’d check it out.
 
edwest2 said:
Hi Jennifer,

There are no short answers to these questions. While theologians may be engaged in discussing certain issues, they are not the ones to look to for guidance.

On same-sex marriage:

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html

On artificial birth control:

vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

On divorce:

catholicscomehome.org/answers-divorce.php

Peace,
Ed
Click to expand...
Thanks Ed!
 
So everyone here believes that the magisterium is infallible?
 
anon70069040 said:
So everyone here believes that the magisterium is infallible?
Click to expand...
Is this a trick question?

Catholics believe that the Magesterium has the authority to teach infallibly. That’s not the same as saying that everything that comes from the Magesterium is infallible.
 
Corki said:
Is this a trick question?

Catholics believe that the Magesterium has the authority to teach infallibly. That’s not the same as saying that everything that comes from the Magesterium is infallible.
Click to expand...
Nice little escape clause.
 
I was under the impression that you could struggle with the doctine but you werent allowed to speak against the teachings,and that the bishops could only be considered infallible in their teachings when they were acting on behalf of the pope.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top