Really? Well, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that- given all the heterodox things I’ve heard you say on these forums. Correct me if I’m wrong… but your approach to religion seems to be YOUR approach. You don’t seem to care much about how the Church works, but moreso how you think it should work. That’s just what I’ve observed… correct me if I’m wrong.
In my faith life, I’ve learned that I’m not an authority on anything. The Church is the authority, either I conform my life to the Church’s teaching, or I might as well just go to a New Age religion, or become a secularist.
Even on this thread… there is a point where the priest HAS in fact messed up. One time I went to confession and I was given no penance.
There’s a fine line between having a problematic priest, and succumbing to the Donatist heresy. If the priest is elderly or perhaps forgetful, then it’s probably the Donatist heresy. If the priest thinks he needs to make confession less intimidating so he always does it drastically different than he’s supposed to… then you have a problematic priest.
Lastly, I bolded the “I think” because a lot of what you post boils down to: “I’m a doctor, I have a unique view because of my experience, so I’m going to share that view here”. Shouldn’t you try to express the Church’s view, and not your own?
I have no interested on talking about me. Simply you said that you have theological studies, so i said mine. Forget about what I said.
I wonder who, for you, is the Church!
I am not the Church, I guess that none of the 1 billion Catholics is the Church.
So who is the Church? I cannot say the Church’s view without knowing who, for you, is the Church.
So, I am heterodox, and you are orthodox? I do not correct you, maybe you are right, maybe I am heterodox simply I am surprised for such a sweeping judgement…
Up to now, I am expressing my own views and I tell everybody that what I say are my own views. So I am surprised that you say that I tell my own views when I state that what I said are my own views.
As for the views of the Church, I let the Pope take care of it. It is in good hands. No. I am too small to say the Church’s doctrine. When I want to know the Church’s teachings, I go for the great Doctors of the Church, to the Councils, to the Popes.
Me, the official teaching. Come on, I am a nobody !
But I think, what can I do and as far as I think, I tell my views till the day the authorities of the place, the Moderators, kick me out. God gave the a head to think and a heart to feel and up to my death, I will use them at His service.
As for the frail priest, either he is able to hear confession and I suppose he knows what he is doing or he is out of his mind and cannot find the way so he would not be there.
I remember the beloved Pope John Paul II, in his last years, the effort he did do go to the end. I never watched for his correct words in 70 languages. I watched his bravery, his courage in the midst of suffering, his love for His people. I miss him.
To bring here the old extinguished heresies like the Donatism, isn’t it too much?
Even a priest deprived of faculties for hearing confession can forgive sins!
But you did not answer my question: is your business to correct priest or do our job as a faithful in the audience? And if the priest does not say the Eucharistic formula as you think it should be done, you should go up and correct him?
Moreover, you do need penance to have your sins forgiven. So what? Maybe your are such a good person that the priest thought that you did not deserve not even the smallest penance…
