How certain are you about Catholicism?

[cecelia]

I’m as certain about Catholicism as I am that I am a woman. That I am a woman is immutable, fixed in time and space–and after awhile, a long while I hope , eternity, and comprised of an unchangeable womanly essence. If that doesn’t demonstrate how certain I am of Catholicism than I don’t know what is…unless you account for the fact that I’m black…so I can say that I’m as certain of Catholicism as I am that I am black…case closed…

 

[dcdurel]

BayCityRickL:

From my point of view, I don’t know how we Catholics can be real certain of what the Church teaches.

I’ve just been communicating with my bishop about my concern that some priests and sisters in the diocese have been saying things which contradict the Catechism. The bishop, though, has no problem with that and he advises me to check the latest Catholic Encyclopedia and recent biblical commentaries.

If that is true, and I assure that it is, then no Catholic can know if the doctrine they cling to is still in vogue. Certainty is one thing that none of us can have. We are followers of uncertainty in its purest form. I’m telling you, if the Catechism makes assertion A, then “not A” is just as good (that is, check the latest biblical commentaries, and NOT the Catechism). That’s what the Bishop says. The letter landed in my mailbox the other day. What a Church.

According to paragraph 1182 of the catechism, the Sunday Mass is supposed to be a “communion of faith” – but when I perceive it is not such a communion, then I’m outta there, folks. When John Paul II’s Fidei Depositum is optional and relative, then no one can be certain, no one.

Catholic Church teachings are not determined by biblical commetaries or the Catholic encyclopedia. Jesus gave authority to teach and preach ONLY to Peter and the apostles, and they handed that authority ONLY to their successors, the Pope and those bishops in union with the Pope. Only the Pope and those bishops in union with the Pope have authority to authentically interpret the word of God in scripture and Tradition. These teachings have been handed down in Tradition and are summarized in the Catechisms of the Catholic Church.
The Church NEVER changes her teachings, because Church teachings come from God. And God cannot change His teachings. What is true is always true.

We must remember that all heresies in 2000 years of Christiansity have come from Catholic biblical scholars and Catholic theologians. They cannot be trusted.
And Father Hardon says none of these heresies would have spread if it was not for the complicity of bad bishops. Thus, while all saving truth is found in the Catholic Church, there are members within the Church who are not in union with the Pope who are always teaching error. That is one reason the Popes are always writing encyclicals in which they are constantly refuting the errors put out by dissident theologians and scripture scholars who are bent on justifying their own sins. And of course, these dissidents gravitate toward Catholic centers of learning, such as Seminiaries and Catholic colleges, in order to push their heretical views.
On jugdment day Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats.