Conflict between me and my faith

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I should start out by saying that I do not advocate leaving the Church and do not intend to disrespect her.

I absolutely love the Church. Enough to be a student preparing to be a Catechist hopefully as a career, to give you perspective.

But I have a suspicion that a certain Catholic doctrine is ‘wrong’. And by ‘wrong’, I mean I am thinking it might be prudent to alter or change it. Obviously this causes cognitive dissonance because I want to be loyal to the Church. I will do my job and teach the doctrine and dogma of the church.

I’m not going to mention what it is for the sake of staying on topic.

So I guess I have no actual question. I’m just kind of confused and scared. I just wanted to ask what your thoughts are and ask for any advice you have.

Thank you for reading! God bless!
 
82738273 said:
I just wanted to ask what your thoughts are and ask for any advice you have.
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Doctrines and dogmas can neither be wrong nor changed.

So, if you believe a doctrine is “wrong” then you have more studying to do to understand it and bring your understanding into conformity with reality, because it cannot be wrong.

I would ask, however, if you are certain the issue is a doctrine and not a discipline? Disciplines are changeable. And while you must be obedient to the current discipline, you can certainly have ideas about how you might prefer things to be.
 
82738273 said:
But I have a suspicion that a certain Catholic doctrine is ‘wrong’
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Then examine your suspicion. Where is it coming from? Is it coming from a place of love of the Church, or is it coming from a place of loving the world?

Even the disciplines of the Church are there for many reasons, none being arbitrary. It is unlikely that you find the chink in the Church’s armor.
 
Like said already, study the issue, then if it is truly a doctrine or dogma, and you still disagree with the Church, then with humility and faith admit to God that you are having difficulty. Of course, pray to Him throughout. If you cannot understand a doctrine, trusting that the Church, guided by Christ, knows better than you and to accept her guidance is the humble and right thing to do, in my opinion.
 
I’m affraid that in not being specific about the subject of the disagreement, though you are trying to avoid going OFF topic, we cannot really get ON topic. The substance of your concern is really needed to ascertain how serious the rift might be, and for others to perhaps help you resolve the conflict.
 
Should one who denies a dogma or doctrine of the faith be a catechist?
 
First, is what you are concerned about truly a “doctrine” or a “dogma”? Or is it just a discipline, or is it perhaps not even an official position of the Church at all? Try to confirm this. 1ke already addressed it well in her post.

Second, let’s assume you have done research and find that it is indeed a doctrine or a dogma. In that case, you must abide by the doctrine or dogma, and you can pray to God to please help you with your doubt. Discussing it with a priest or spiritual director might also help you to see things in a different way.

It’s normal to have doubts from time to time. We all do. There are things I doubt right now, but I feel quite comfortable putting them in the hands of the Lord and saying, “This is above my pay grade and I trust you to guide your Church to teach your will.” At this point I avoid doing things in my personal life that would lead me into temptation in an area where I have doubts. I went through enough of that when I was younger and at this point I would rather have a good relationship with the Lord than dwell on a doubt here and there.
 
MiserereMeiDei said:
Should one who denies a dogma or doctrine of the faith be a catechist?
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If he’s actively denying it and teaching others to deny it, then no.

But you can’t tell a person to never have doubts. There are a lot of great saints who had doubts, sometimes persistent doubts that they managed to overcome. Doubt has a way of creeping in.

In addition, we don’t even know what this doubt is about, so it’s hard to judge. A catechist who doubts the Real Presence or the Trinity or one of the four Marian Dogmas is much more of a concern than a catechist who doubts Pope Francis’ current teaching on the death penalty.
 
Can you define the difference between doctrine and discipline?

Like a common debate now is the idea that if priests should be able to be married in more circumstances.
Is it a discipline or doctrine that condoms are forbidden? (Neither of these are the doctrine/discipline in question)
are these doctrine or discipline? I’m just trying to understand.
 
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Where is the best place to find the difference between discipline, doctrine, and dogma?
 
Since you don’t want to reveal the issue here (where our regular posters would probably tell you straightaway), I would suggest you discuss with your priest or spiritual director.

Answering your post above, having priests be unmarried is an example of a “discipline”. It should be noted that the Catholic Church does already have a number of married priests right now, and has had them at certain times in the past as well, so it is clearly not a doctrine or dogma that we cannot have them.

The forbidding of condoms (at least when they are used for birth control) is part of the general prohibition on artificial means of birth control and thus would be a doctrine.
 
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82738273 said:
Can you define the difference between doctrine and discipline?
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Doctrine is the teaching of the church on faith and morals. A doctrine is part of the deposit of faith.

Disciplines are ecclesial laws or practices, established by the authority of the Church, but not a teaching on faith and morals and therefore able to be changed.

Priestly celibacy in the Latin Rite is a discipline.

The intrinsically evil nature of contraception is a doctrine of the faith, a sin against the sixth commandment.
 
I would suggest asking someone knowledgeable to address your questions.

I have had occasions where someone tells me the Church is all wrong for what she says about a certain issue. I always ask what the person thinks and what the person thinks the Church teaches. More often than not I’m able to reassure them that what the Church actually says is very different from what they thought the Church taught.

Perhaps you will find yourself in the same position.
 
The Church’s teachings aren’t wrong, so it would be wrong to change them. That’s exactly what the Protestant reformers did t the Protestant Reformation. Do not try to change it. I hope this helps!!! God bless!!! 😃
 
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