Different approach

[Lady_Love]

So, I have been using facebook as a means of evangelization and I often get sucked into debating controversial issues such as abortion and homosexuality. I have found a much more effective way of addressing certain issues that arise. For example: The old lie that the Catholic Church is anti-woman. Well, instead of combating the issue myself I have been researching and posting quotes from John Paul’s encyclical on the dignity of the vocation of marriage. When it comes to abortion and contraception, I post quotes from Humanae Vitae. For the homosexual marriage, I post from many of the churches writings on marriage.

I am no longer interested in combating my friends in what ends up as ego battles. Instead, I am just posting the truth right from the Pope’s own mouth. Their prejudices no longer have a leg to stand on. I love my faith!

 

[dchezik]

So, I have been using facebook as a means of evangelization and I often get sucked into debating controversial issues such as abortion and homosexuality. I have found a much more effective way of addressing certain issues that arise. For example: The old lie that the Catholic Church is anti-woman. Well, instead of combating the issue myself I have been researching and posting quotes from John Paul’s encyclical on the dignity of the vocation of marriage. When it comes to abortion and contraception, I post quotes from Humanae Vitae. For the homosexual marriage, I post from many of the churches writings on marriage.

I am no longer interested in combating my friends in what ends up as ego battles. Instead, I am just posting the truth right from the Pope’s own mouth. Their prejudices no longer have a leg to stand on. I love my faith!

I’m glad you’ve come to your senses! You’re using unbiased objective truth right from the Pope’s mouth.
Here’s some more things said by Past Popes you may find interesting:

1992: Catholic Church apologizes to Galileo, who died in 1642
[Well, better late then never!]

In 1610, Century Italian astronomer/mathematician/inventor Galileo Galilei used a a telescope he built to observe the solar system, and deduced that the planets orbit the sun, not the earth.

This contradicted Church teachings, and some of the clergy accused Galileo of heresy. One friar went to the Inquisition, the Church court that investigated charges of heresy, and formally accused Galileo. (In 1600, a man named Giordano Bruno was convicted of being a heretic for believing that the earth moved around the Sun, and that there were many planets throughout the universe where life existed. Bruno was burnt to death.)

Galileo moved on to other projects. He started writing about ocean tides, but instead of writing a scientific paper, he found it much more interesting to have an imaginary conversation among three fictional characters. One character, who would support Galileo’s side of the argument, was brilliant. Another character would be open to either side of the argument. The final character, named Simplicio, was dogmatic and foolish, representing all of Galileo’s enemies who ignored any evidence that Galileo was right. Soon, Galileo wrote up a similar dialogue called “Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World.” This book talked about the Copernican system.

“Dialogue” was an immediate hit with the public, but not, of course, with the Church. The pope suspected that he was the model for Simplicio. He ordered the book banned, and also ordered Galileo to appear before the Inquisition in Rome for the crime of teaching the Copernican theory after being ordered not to do so.

Galileo was 68 years old and sick.Threatened with torture, he publicly confessed that he had been wrong to have said that the Earth moves around the Sun. Legend then has it that after his confession, Galileo quietly whispered “And yet, it moves.”

Unlike many less famous prisoners, Galileo was allowed to live under house arrest. Until his death in 1642, he continued to investigate science, and even published a book on force and motion after he had become blind.

The Church eventually lifted the ban on Galileo’s Dialogue in 1822, when it was common knowledge that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Still later,** there were statements by the Vatican Council in the early 1960’s and in 1979 that implied that Galileo was pardoned, and that he had suffered at the hands of the Church. Finally, in 1992, three years after Galileo Galilei’s namesake spacecraft had been launched on its way to Jupiter, the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing**.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#Church_controversy

Yes, I can see why you love your faith!

 

[Edward_H]

So, I have been using facebook as a means of evangelization and I often get sucked into debating controversial issues such as abortion and homosexuality. I have found a much more effective way of addressing certain issues that arise. For example: The old lie that the Catholic Church is anti-woman. Well, instead of combating the issue myself I have been researching and posting quotes from John Paul’s encyclical on the dignity of the vocation of marriage. When it comes to abortion and contraception, I post quotes from Humanae Vitae. For the homosexual marriage, I post from many of the churches writings on marriage.

I am no longer interested in combating my friends in what ends up as ego battles. Instead, I am just posting the truth right from the Pope’s own mouth. Their prejudices no longer have a leg to stand on. I love my faith!

That’s a neat idea. The words, expressions, concepts found in Church documents have been very carefully developed and chosen. They are strong, and true, and well put.

Sometimes I have found for some people these passages are so strong and clear that they are too distant for these people to grasp. It’s like it’s been so long that they have come across anything that substantial that they choke on it. I don’t know how to say it.

Sometimes I have found that with friends…and we can typically only engage in apostolate with people who are friends, is to engage them with some “proxy topics”. Instead of directly talking with them about God or matters of doctrine, talk about some substantial topics that are one step removed from God, points of moral theology, etc.

For instance, talk about family, or justice, the use of freedom, retirement plans (in other words pointing to longer time lines, their end). I’ve found talking about these topics help deepen friendships and provide a base for more spiritually oriented conversations.

 

[cargau]

I’m glad you’ve come to your senses! You’re using unbiased objective truth right from the Pope’s mouth.
Here’s some more things said by Past Popes you may find interesting:

1992: Catholic Church apologizes to Galileo, who died in 1642
[Well, better late then never!]

In 1610, Century Italian astronomer/mathematician/inventor Galileo Galilei used a a telescope he built to observe the solar system, and deduced that the planets orbit the sun, not the earth.

This contradicted Church teachings, and some of the clergy accused Galileo of heresy. One friar went to the Inquisition, the Church court that investigated charges of heresy, and formally accused Galileo. (In 1600, a man named Giordano Bruno was convicted of being a heretic for believing that the earth moved around the Sun, and that there were many planets throughout the universe where life existed. Bruno was burnt to death.)

Galileo moved on to other projects. He started writing about ocean tides, but instead of writing a scientific paper, he found it much more interesting to have an imaginary conversation among three fictional characters. One character, who would support Galileo’s side of the argument, was brilliant. Another character would be open to either side of the argument. The final character, named Simplicio, was dogmatic and foolish, representing all of Galileo’s enemies who ignored any evidence that Galileo was right. Soon, Galileo wrote up a similar dialogue called “Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World.” This book talked about the Copernican system.

“Dialogue” was an immediate hit with the public, but not, of course, with the Church. The pope suspected that he was the model for Simplicio. He ordered the book banned, and also ordered Galileo to appear before the Inquisition in Rome for the crime of teaching the Copernican theory after being ordered not to do so.

Galileo was 68 years old and sick.Threatened with torture, he publicly confessed that he had been wrong to have said that the Earth moves around the Sun. Legend then has it that after his confession, Galileo quietly whispered “And yet, it moves.”

Unlike many less famous prisoners, Galileo was allowed to live under house arrest. Until his death in 1642, he continued to investigate science, and even published a book on force and motion after he had become blind.

The Church eventually lifted the ban on Galileo’s Dialogue in 1822, when it was common knowledge that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Still later,** there were statements by the Vatican Council in the early 1960’s and in 1979 that implied that Galileo was pardoned, and that he had suffered at the hands of the Church. Finally, in 1992, three years after Galileo Galilei’s namesake spacecraft had been launched on its way to Jupiter, the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing**.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#Church_controversy

Yes, I can see why you love your faith!

If you are going to make a commentary about a papal statement, at least try to take a more scholarly approach than running to wkipedia.

This is clearly an anti-Catholic based summary of the history of Galileo and the Church…

 

[Edward_H]

I’m glad you’ve come to your senses! You’re using unbiased objective truth right from the Pope’s mouth.
Here’s some more things said by Past Popes you may find interesting:

1992: Catholic Church apologizes to Galileo, who died in 1642
[Well, better late then never!]

In 1610, Century Italian astronomer/mathematician/inventor Galileo Galilei used a a telescope he built to observe the solar system, and deduced that the planets orbit the sun, not the earth.

This contradicted Church teachings, and some of the clergy accused Galileo of heresy. One friar went to the Inquisition, the Church court that investigated charges of heresy, and formally accused Galileo. (In 1600, a man named Giordano Bruno was convicted of being a heretic for believing that the earth moved around the Sun, and that there were many planets throughout the universe where life existed. Bruno was burnt to death.)

Galileo moved on to other projects. He started writing about ocean tides, but instead of writing a scientific paper, he found it much more interesting to have an imaginary conversation among three fictional characters. One character, who would support Galileo’s side of the argument, was brilliant. Another character would be open to either side of the argument. The final character, named Simplicio, was dogmatic and foolish, representing all of Galileo’s enemies who ignored any evidence that Galileo was right. Soon, Galileo wrote up a similar dialogue called “Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World.” This book talked about the Copernican system.

“Dialogue” was an immediate hit with the public, but not, of course, with the Church. The pope suspected that he was the model for Simplicio. He ordered the book banned, and also ordered Galileo to appear before the Inquisition in Rome for the crime of teaching the Copernican theory after being ordered not to do so.

Galileo was 68 years old and sick.Threatened with torture, he publicly confessed that he had been wrong to have said that the Earth moves around the Sun. Legend then has it that after his confession, Galileo quietly whispered “And yet, it moves.”

Unlike many less famous prisoners, Galileo was allowed to live under house arrest. Until his death in 1642, he continued to investigate science, and even published a book on force and motion after he had become blind.

The Church eventually lifted the ban on Galileo’s Dialogue in 1822, when it was common knowledge that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Still later,** there were statements by the Vatican Council in the early 1960’s and in 1979 that implied that Galileo was pardoned, and that he had suffered at the hands of the Church. Finally, in 1992, three years after Galileo Galilei’s namesake spacecraft had been launched on its way to Jupiter, the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing**.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#Church_controversy

Yes, I can see why you love your faith!

What does an atheist have to offer with respect anything related to morality, spirituality, the transcendent, or the substantial? You make the same error that some people in the Church made with respect to Galileo! You have no standing in the matter!

And there are many fuller and more objective treatments of Galileo around than what is easy to find on Wikipedia.