R
Ron_Conte
Guest
First, learn the Catholic Faith, by study and practice over a long period of time.
I am frequently astonished at how many Catholics go around ‘teaching’ what they think is Catholic doctrine, when their ‘teaching’ is manifestly contrary to Catholic teaching, or contrary to sound theology, or just ignorant and baseless nonesense. Yet they phrase their assertions and explanations with the uttmost confidence, as if all that they say (though plainly erroneous) is well-established Catholic doctrine. One baseless assertion follows another. Or if they give a theological argument, it is filled with errors. And no amount of reasoning, no theological argument to the contrary, and no set of quotes from Scripture or the Magisterium can convince them otherwise.
This reportedly occurs in some RCIA classes. It occurs with some persons who travel around giving talks in parishes. And it is rampant on the internet.
These persons sin by teaching without first learning, by refusing to be open to learning more from Catholic teaching, and they also sin by leading astray other persons, presenting their own serious errors on doctrine as if these were Catholic teaching. In many cases, they succeed in teaching these false idea to others, who then erroneously think that they are adhering to sound doctrines.
One of the main causes of this problem is ignorance. The individual has not bothered to study Catholic theology over a long period of time. Even worse is the individual who merely thinks up an answer from his or her own mind, without any basis in Tradition, Scripture, Magisterium, and then presents this conclusion as if it were certain.
Another problem is that some individuals, after a limited amount of study, decide that they know the whole Catholic Faith, and so they are not open to learning anything new. This occurs often in online discussion groups, where (even a majority of) the posters on a topic each merely state their own opinion or belief, often as if it were incontrovertible fact, with no willingness to learn anything new. (Often such posters have thousands of posts to their discredit.)
The field of theology is comparable to the field of medicine. It is a vast field of knowledge requiring many years of study in order to gain some expertise even in one part of that field, and requiring a willingness to continually gain new knowledge, correcting one’s prior errors or limited understanding.
I am frequently astonished at how many Catholics go around ‘teaching’ what they think is Catholic doctrine, when their ‘teaching’ is manifestly contrary to Catholic teaching, or contrary to sound theology, or just ignorant and baseless nonesense. Yet they phrase their assertions and explanations with the uttmost confidence, as if all that they say (though plainly erroneous) is well-established Catholic doctrine. One baseless assertion follows another. Or if they give a theological argument, it is filled with errors. And no amount of reasoning, no theological argument to the contrary, and no set of quotes from Scripture or the Magisterium can convince them otherwise.
This reportedly occurs in some RCIA classes. It occurs with some persons who travel around giving talks in parishes. And it is rampant on the internet.
These persons sin by teaching without first learning, by refusing to be open to learning more from Catholic teaching, and they also sin by leading astray other persons, presenting their own serious errors on doctrine as if these were Catholic teaching. In many cases, they succeed in teaching these false idea to others, who then erroneously think that they are adhering to sound doctrines.
One of the main causes of this problem is ignorance. The individual has not bothered to study Catholic theology over a long period of time. Even worse is the individual who merely thinks up an answer from his or her own mind, without any basis in Tradition, Scripture, Magisterium, and then presents this conclusion as if it were certain.
Another problem is that some individuals, after a limited amount of study, decide that they know the whole Catholic Faith, and so they are not open to learning anything new. This occurs often in online discussion groups, where (even a majority of) the posters on a topic each merely state their own opinion or belief, often as if it were incontrovertible fact, with no willingness to learn anything new. (Often such posters have thousands of posts to their discredit.)
The field of theology is comparable to the field of medicine. It is a vast field of knowledge requiring many years of study in order to gain some expertise even in one part of that field, and requiring a willingness to continually gain new knowledge, correcting one’s prior errors or limited understanding.