I, as a Catholic, am on no crusade to harm the Catholic Church. I am learning what it means to be a Catholic again. You shall not pray for the errors of anyone for you are not error-free.
First, congratulations on your return to the Catholic faith. For whatever reason you converted, this is the most wonderful, indeed heavenly, place on earth, and the Catholic Faith is the most beautiful and true creed in the world. Sure, we are all human, and do not fully reflect our King and High Priest, Jesus Christ, but we are guided by his Holy Spirit who protects the Church from falsehood and lies, most fully through the Pope, who is the successor of Peter.
Christ foresaw the strive and disagreement, that would arise if he “left us fatherless” (John 14,18). Human pride and ignorance would quickly cause God’s truth to be twisted into heresy, and so he left us His Spirit - in the Church as a whole, but most especially in the Magisterium of the Pope, the successor of Peter. When important discussions concerning faith and morals arise, and it is obvious, that the Church must either take a definitive stand or be torn apart, God has supplied us with an infallible Shepherd.
As you said we are all ignorant to some degree… especially people like you and I, who are new in the faith… and are left open to the flaming arrows of the devil, who is called the father of lies. We can not arrive at Truth simply by reason, but must rely on authority in many cases - like we did when we were told what day we were born, or when we had to learn to read.
It is not a question of whether there should be authority in the Church - there always will be. The question is whose authority is the ultimate authority that the lesser authorities can be measured against.
It would seem, that, despite you came in good faith into the Church, those who were supposed to show you what the Catholic faith is, have been misleading you on several counts. They, in turn, may be in good faith too, but being in good faith doesn’t mean being in True Faith. It is the unhappy situation today, that many - even among the religious - have compromised the Truth. They have admitted changes and distortions of the faith, to appear more “modern” or politically correct. The orthodoxy of any Catholic, religious or layman, depends on how well their beliefs correspond to those of the Roman Church and the Roman Bishop, the Pope. If they do not, and we are made aware of this, but refuse to change our minds,
we are in heresy by definition.
You seem pretty certain of your views, but can you really justify that certainty? As a Youth Minister, you are in a place of authority. Many young people will believe what you teach them simply on that authority… Can you handle that burden on your own? No disrespect, but you can’t even quote a few verses to back up some of your opinions on the Old Testament… are you prepared to teach universal truths based on your own reasoning?
I am a third semester Theology student, I know my way around the Bible (grew up Protestant), I have a pretty firm grasp of Philosophy, and have been in apologetics for the last 7-8 years. But I know, that I wouldn’t feel comfortable even instructing children if I did not have the authority of the Church to rely on.
People on this forum become frustrated, because, though poorly instructed yourself, you are put in a teaching position in the Church.
That means potentially teaching grave falsehood to those entrusted in your care.
You may not mean to harm the Church intentionally. Parents who refuse to have their children medically treated may not mean harm either. But error is the greatest enemy of the Church, whose Master said “I am the Truth”. And falsehood is mortal…
Do not teach until you have been immersed in truth yourself. You can not give, what you don’t have. Study the Catechism daily with a prayerful, and obedient heart, which is the attitude of the saints. Pray the rosary. Then you will find the Catholic Faith, not theological opinion.
