Gay marriage //complicity in sin // honoring parents

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What would some of the great saints have done? Would St Augustine keep hanging out with his sinner friends after he was a Christian?
 
Shame on anyone who would walk away from their parents and siblings and shun them. The Church does NOT teach that.
I’m still waiting to be shown any teaching to the contrary in the CCC.
 
Montrose said:
Shame on anyone who would walk away from their parents and siblings and shun them. The Church does NOT teach that.
I’m still waiting to be shown any teaching to the contrary in the CCC.
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Perhaps you’re taking it to an extreme. Maybe not shun them entirely, but be guarded that they don’t drag you down when you are with them.
Because if someone is really trying to live a holy life, people will try to drag you down. Down to you-know-where!
 
The Church teachings are in the CCC. Show the teaching in the CCC that backs up your claims.
It is what the Church actually teaches that matters. Please show me the teaching.
What is written by some saints is not the Church teaching.
 
27lw said:
Perhaps you’re taking it to an extreme. Maybe not shun them entirely, but be guarded that they don’t drag you down when you are with them.
Because if someone is really trying to live a holy life, people will try to drag you down. Down to you-know-where!
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Still waiting to read the Church teaching. Tell me where it is in the CCC.
 
Hanging out with sinners doesn’t mean we take joy in their sins. We are more likely to be actively praying for them to stop sinning and encouraging them in their non-sinful pastimes, like hanging out with us.
 
In other words you are unable to come up with anything in the CCC or any official Church document.
I rest my case.
 
This makes no sense. The CCC is meant to contain all the teachings a Catholic needs to know to live a good Catholic life. You’re suggesting the Catholic needs to go hunting for other moral teachings to have the full picture. Nope, that’s not how it works.

As Montrose said, the works of saints are meant to be helpful guides, but are not Church teachings. Good thing too because we have dozens of saints and they don’t all agree with each other on everything.

As for the Bible, the Church interpretation of Scripture is found in the CCC. Not in our individual interpretations.
 
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You’re acting like a Sola Scriptura Protestant.
Those passages were concerned with the reputation of the early Christian Church and also with setting behavior standards for people who were relatively new Christians.

They don’t mean that if I have a friend with a drinking problem, I’m not allowed to spend time with him when he’s sober, or even watch out for him while he’s drunk, such as be the designated driver to keep him from worse sins.

As for “unequally yoked”, the Catholic Church will marry a Catholic to a Protestant or even a non-Christian if the right criteria are met. Yoking also doesn’t refer to mere friendship in any interpretation I’ve seen.
 
Someone mentioned a friend with a drinking problem. That’s a pretty mild example. A good Catholic perhaps, who struggles with a legally controlled substance.
What about hanging out a lot with people who are open womanizers? Or openly racist? Or whoever you consider a sinner? Would you hang out with a famous alt-right blogger if you knew them from high school, let’s say?
Or a cousin who is a skinhead racist?
Would you go out for a beer with an unrepentant priest convicted of pedophilia crimes but said things were consensual? At your local favorite watering hole?
Would you invite a famous “Karen” to lunch? An anti-masker? Someone who threw a fit and was exposed on the internet?
Someone who called the cops on a black person for no reason?
Someone from Westboro Church?
One of the cops who beat someone to death?
Would you eat with them publicly? Would it be prudent to?
Would Jesus have done so? Would st. Pio? Would st. Augustine?
Pope Francis would, but his status as pope almost ensures that we will see that as “look! The pope is eating with the lowest of the low”.
We don’t have the same status so people would just say “wow! What a lowlife! I can’t believe 27lw is having lunch with him / her.”
 
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Given that you’ve just put up a couple dozen different situations, and a person would need to make an individual prudential decision with respect to each based on all the facts of the situation, there’s no one right answer that applies to all people and all situations.

I can say I’ve definitely hung out with some of the types of people on your list, for non-sinful activities, and would do so again in the same circumstances. In other circumstances, or with other people, I might choose not to hang out.

God gives us a conscience and gives us graces such as prudence so we can make these decisions as they come up. At my age, I don’t need a black letter rule saying “don’t hang out with this or that or the other type.” I’m capable of making my own thoughtful and prayerful decisions, and we all should be capable and not need some other Catholic telling us what to do beyond the guidance provided by the official Church catechism.
 
I’m glad your decisions worked out for you.

As I said, we all should be capable of making these decisions on our own with the official Church guidance. As in, the Catechism. And if necessary to go beyond that, a chat with the priest.
 
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27lw said:
Everyone is quick to say “well, Jesus ate with sinners” but the reality is that none of us is Jesus.
Is it more helpful to use mere mortal saints as a guide? Saints from a morally corrupt ancient Roman empire, for example?
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In the new testament whenever Jesus went to eat with a sinner His disciples would say “No, don’t associate with him! He’s a tax collector!” and Jesus would always explain to them why that attitude is wrong.
 
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