Forum Rules
"If you wish to reference an article on the web, link to its web address
"I realize you were posting material that was asked of you that does not represent your view. The purpose of the threads is discussion, so if you can point your readers to your source it improves the experience.
not everything, but you are right that your credibility has suffered from some of your assertions.
I would hope that faith formation would last a lifetime.
Fran, you are making erroneous assumptions about what I know, and what I believe. It is very difficult to have a dialogue when you do this. This practice has complicated this entire discussion. You have never once asked me what I meant by my words. Instead you have assigned me a position that I do not hold, and have tried to argue based upon this strawman.
Yes, of course. I am glad we can agree on something!
We are having a semantics problem, Fran, because of the way you are defining Church. I am responding to the Thread title.
As a Catholic I believe that the Church founded by Christ was intended to be sheperded by Bishops. One Bishop in particular is the Successor of Peter, whose See is in Rome. He is responsible to feed and care for the entire flock. So you see, I cannot separate the Succesor of Peter in Rome from the church down the street.
It is you, Fran. I never took such a position, but you did create a strawman by assigning it to me. It is one of the reasons we are not making very good progress with each other.
No, that is a strawman you created.
It would be best if you did give it up. A much more productive exchange can occur when you actually listen to the other person, rather than assigning them a point of view.
When one is validly baptized, one becomes a member of the One Church founded by Christ. I agree that many reject the faith into which they were bapitzed. They may be poorly formed in their faith, heretics, apostates, cafeteria Catholics, Protestants, or separated from God through mortal sin. Those who reject the Teachings of the Church have forsaken their Catholicity, to one degree or another. In the CCC we read:
834 Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church of Rome “which presides in charity.” “For with this church, by reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord”
That means that the faithful are not at liberty to pick and choose which doctrines they want to accept, and which they won’t. It is ONE FAITH, and every thread is woven together.
And may I say that it has been a unique experience to be schooled by a person who claims to be a Catholic and a Catechist who does not believe that the Church founded by Christ is Catholic!