Catholic Questions

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Gregory7

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These questions were asked of me on a messageboard. I am wondering if one of you who is more knowledgeable than I am on these subject’s could answer them ? Thank you
  1. why do you worship Mary whilst God forbids the worship of idols…
  2. Why is the Pope infallible when only God is infallible as the Pope is human…
 
Gregory7 said:
These questions were asked of me on a messageboard. I am wondering if one of you who is more knowledgeable than I am on these subject’s could answer them ? Thank you
  1. why do you worship Mary whilst God forbids the worship of idols…
  2. Why is the Pope infallible when only God is infallible as the Pope is human…
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  1. Do you worship Mary? I don’t know of anyone that does… I know of many people who give her great honor, as she is due, but I know of noone that praises her as God… There’s a good article on “Saint Worship” and it’s rebutle here catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.asp
  2. The Pope’s infallibility is extremely limited and has only been used twice so far that I am aware of. People often take the infallible statement and think it apply’s to every thought and action that the Pope does. This is obviously wrong. There is a good article on this here: catholic.com/library/Papal_Infallibility.asp
Hope this helps 🙂
 
  1. None of the saints, including Mary are worshipped. They are given respect and honour, worship belongs to God alone! When you pray to a saint, you are praying and asking them for their prayers of intercession. So you are essentially asking the saints to pray to God for you, just as you might ask a friend to pray for you. Mary is given the utmost respect because she is Jesus’ mother, she is honour as our mother, as we are commanded to honour our mother and father. There is a distinct line between honour and worship.
  2. The pope is only infallible on matters of faith and morals. The pope is a sinner, the pope goes to confession, that pope is human. What is believed surrounding his infallibility is that when speaking on matters of faith or morals he is guided by the Holy Spirit and such statements are infallible.
 
To clarify the above post question #2, the pope is only infallible when making a declaration on matters of faith or morals. As cemiller pointed out this doesn’t happen often.

As to question #1 we do not worship Mary. We love her as the Mother of Jesus and our mother, we esteem her as the epitome of a disciple of Jesus, we honour her as the Queen of Heaven.
 
Gregory7 said:
These questions were asked of me on a messageboard. I am wondering if one of you who is more knowledgeable than I am on these subject’s could answer them ? Thank you
  1. why do you worship Mary whilst God forbids the worship of idols…
  2. Why is the Pope infallible when only God is infallible as the Pope is human…
Click to expand...
Hi, Gregory.
  1. A common misconception of Catholics is that we “worship Mary”. We do not worship Mary; we HONOR her. The same way you honor your mother and father, which is a Commandment of God, that is the way we honor our heavenly mother, who was given to us by Jesus from the cross.
  2. The Pope, as Christ’s representative on earth, is infallible in matters of faith (not in predicting winning lottery numbers) because we, as Catholics, believe that Jesus, when He gave the keys to the Kingdom of God to Peter as our first Pope, would not leave Peter as an orphan to fend for himself, but would supply the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and enlightenment in matters of faith and keeping the faith going. Here we are, more than 2,000 years later, still going strong (whether people believe it or not) and getting persecuted to death for not waivering in our convictions. We are the only faith that has been consistent and unchanging for more than 2,000 years. Quite impressive, if you ask me. NO PROTESTANT FAITH CAN MAKE THIS CLAIM.
The Catholics are not solo scriptura, but we have the Magisterium and Sacred Tradition in addition to what is writtin in the Bible. This is why we’re not all over the board in our beliefs. We have a doctrine and everyone understands and believes it the same way. We don’t have different people making different interpretations and branching off in different directions. We are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic faith.
 
Gregory7 said:
  1. why do you worship Mary whilst God forbids the worship of idols…
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No catholic has ever worshipped Mary, ever. To do so would be idolatry.

The problem here is that said questioner probably belongs to one of those sects that is so devoid of liturgy that they think that prayer in all forms is adoration and that music and a sermon are the source and summit of christian worship. It’s sad, really.
  1. Why is the Pope infallible when only God is infallible as the Pope is human…
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Christ tells the Apostles, “he who hears you, hears Me, he who rejects you, rejects Me.” He tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide the church into all truth. He tells us that the apostles, and specifically Peter, have the authority to bind and loose. Christ tells the apostles that just as the Father sent Him, so He sends the apostles. We are told by St Paul that the church is the pillar and bullwark of truth. All of these state one thing: that the church established by Christ speaks with His authority and is therefore infallible.

Why is the Pope infallible? Because God told us, even in the scriptures, that the church is protected from teaching error by virtue of the fact that those who hear the teaching voice of Peter (ie, the pope, speaking from the office of St Peter) hear the very teaching voice of God. The pope, being the steward-head of Christ’s church, teaches with the authority of the church and therefore with the authority of God when teaching on matters of faith and morals.

This person probably thinks that we consider the pope to be impeccable (without sin), which is not the case. We think that the pope speaks with the authority of Christ when speaking ex cathedra (in the limited cases that this can occur) precisely because this is very clearly stated by the Bible.
 
Gregory7 said:
These questions were asked of me on a messageboard. I am wondering if one of you who is more knowledgeable than I am on these subject’s could answer them ? Thank you
  1. why do you worship Mary whilst God forbids the worship of idols…
  2. Why is the Pope infallible when only God is infallible as the Pope is human…
Click to expand...
Others have already addressed the first question.

To add what has been said about the second question, let me point out that all Christians believe that humans recorded Sacred Scripture under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit ensured that such people wrote without error scriptural matters pertaining to faith and morals. The Holy Spirit is likewise at work with the pope and the Magisterium in defining and interpreting what was written in Sacred Scripture (as well as what is revealed in Sacred Tradition).

If all Christians readily admit that God can make certain humans write Scripture without error, then it should not be hard to accept the idea that God can also make certain humans define & interpret Scripture without error.
 
cemiller said:
  1. Do you worship Mary? I don’t know of anyone that does… I know of many people who give her great honor, as she is due, but I know of noone that praises her as God… There’s a good article on “Saint Worship” and it’s rebutle here catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.asp
  2. The Pope’s infallibility is extremely limited and has only been used twice so far that I am aware of. People often take the infallible statement and think it apply’s to every thought and action that the Pope does. This is obviously wrong. There is a good article on this here: catholic.com/library/Papal_Infallibility.asp
Hope this helps 🙂
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I’m quite sure that any of the pope’s definitive decrees are infallible. It’s used for defining dogmas such as those two times, but it is infallible even when he’s just talking to a kid.
 
Well, it’s kinda funny but in my view if someone can confuse the honor of Mary with the worship of Mary, then I would be mighty concerned about what their idea of worship is. The fact is that we do not worship Mary, that is a lie. EVERY official document of the Church that deals with the worship of God alone reaffirms this. You could show them from our Catechism the section that deals with the subject and maybe that would help, although I’ve found such people who have bought into this lie usually have scales on their eyes. If they have been to the Mass, which is where a Catholic worships, you might want to ask them how much of it (the Mass) had to do with Mary. I think twice and very briefly: in the Creed and usually in the prayers of the faithful. The request to ask our Mother, given to us by Jesus on the cross, to hand our prayer to the Lord through her hands is NOT worship. It is intercessory prayer which the Bible talks about in Tobit 12:12 where the angel Raphael reveals that he heard the prayers of Tobit and interceded on his behalf. Sadly, the reformers hacked this book out the Bible (one might ask on whose authority) about 1200 years after it had been put in the Bible by the Church. So, many protestants do not know that those in heaven have been given the power to hear our prayers that they may present them to God for us.

The same Spirit who guided the writers of the Bible guide the Pope. Ask the person how St. Paul, St. Peter, etc could have written down the inerrant Word of God. When they say that the Holy Spirit guided them, tell them that we believe He is still guiding the Church. The Pope is only infallible in certain circumstances having to do with guiding the Church in the faith. He is not infallible in everyday life. Just has God guided the writers of Scripture to write only the truth, He continues to guide the Pope to teach only the truth. Jesus promised the Spirit to the Apostles to guide them in all wisdom and remind them of all that He said. Additionally, Jesus gave special authority to the Pope when He gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and earth to Peter (the first Pope).
 
Gregory7 said:
These questions were asked of me on a messageboard. I am wondering if one of you who is more knowledgeable than I am on these subject’s could answer them ? Thank you
  1. why do you worship Mary whilst God forbids the worship of idols…
  2. Why is the Pope infallible when only God is infallible as the Pope is human…
Click to expand...
Just FYI to those who do not know. Catholics do indeed “worship” Mary if one understands that the word “worship” comes from “worth ship” or give honor to a person. If you’ll check out the link below you will see that magistrates to this day can be referred to as “Your Worship”. Catholics are forbidden to adore Mary. It is a mortal sin to do so.

Annie

judiciary.gov.uk/you-and-the-judiciary/going-to-court/what-do-i-call-judge
 
also, find out if they understand what ‘infallible’ means. A lot of people get confused and think it means ‘impeccable’ (without sin). it doesn’t. If they do understand it correctly, then they need to know it doesn’t mean every word the Pope ever says in his Papal career is infallible, but that the charism is only employed in specific circumstances.
 
I would sincerely like to thank all of you for your help. The guy I am dealing with has something against the catholic church, but I am working on him. 😃
I really appreciate your wealth of knowledge on these subjects. And I enjoy reading and learning from the different subjects on the messageboard. God Bless you all.
 
Gregory7 said:
I would sincerely like to thank all of you for your help. The guy I am dealing with has something against the catholic church, but I am working on him. 😃
I really appreciate your wealth of knowledge on these subjects. And I enjoy reading and learning from the different subjects on the messageboard. God Bless you all.
Click to expand...
You’re welcome, Gregory. CAF is certainly full of good info. However, be careful with this guy. If he really has something against the Catholic Church, make sure you don’t “cast your pearls to swine”, as they say, and open up the faith to ridicule. Sometimes people just aren’t open to the truth no matter how well it is presented.
 
A man does not become pope because he is infallible since, as your friend points out, men are not naturally infallible but a man becomes infallible when he becomes pope because when he becomes pope, as Peter’s successor, he begins sharing in the same supernatural gift of infallibility given to Peter by our Lord Jesus Christ, mentioned in Luke 22:32.
 
Annie39 said:
Just FYI to those who do not know. Catholics do indeed “worship” Mary if one understands that the word “worship” comes from “worth ship” or give honor to a person. If you’ll check out the link below you will see that magistrates to this day can be referred to as “Your Worship”. Catholics are forbidden to adore Mary. It is a mortal sin to do so.

Annie

judiciary.gov.uk/you-and-the-judiciary/going-to-court/what-do-i-call-judge
Click to expand...
Eh… the etymology of the word would seem to make it so, but since the 1300’s the word has come to mean “reverence paid to a supernatural or divine being”. We can’t ignore the evolution of the english language or we’ll confuse the dickens out of people!
 
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