I received this in an email from a protestant. I was hoping someone could help.

[z_0101]

Ask for historical proof.
If the Vatican had been ordering Christians to have their tongues “nailed to the roofs of their mouths” such acts would have been recorded in every US History book in the country. Remember, the US was founded upon and by the Protestants that had a true and absolute hatred for the Catholic Church (ibid (CAM) America’s Catholic Colony )
The **religious toleration **that was a hallmark of most of the colonies did not extend to Catholics. Most of the **inhabitants **of the colonies had grown up in a world filled with animosity for the Church of Rome and were conditioned to fear and despise the Catholic Church by Elizabethan propaganda and England’s struggle against the Catholic powers of Europe. **Not surprisingly, then, anti-Catholic laws, disabilities, and hatred permeated almost all of the English colonies. **One remarkable exception was Maryland.

Thus if such acts as presented by your friend’s rhetoric actually occurred, I assure you, they would have been printed and plastered for all to see for hundreds of years with supporting proof.

Yes, don’t try to defend the Church in this case, have your friend defend his absurd propaganda.

It might be helpful to know which specific faith your friend is part of. Although there are common threads protestants have against the Catholic Church each has a different take: The Mormons have “the great apostasy,” JW always hit me up with “the one world overlord” and take so many things out of context, etc. The last time I had a sit down with JW group I had both a KJV and DR translations of the Bible - they just were not ready to handle a Converted Agnostic-Catholic. Usually they scamper along, but this time - well over an hour of conversation. They left their track and took along a few Lighthouse CDs all in all a good day for both sides I think - maybe one of them heard the Lord (can only pray so).
In any case, by knowing which faith, we can understand the foundation of their objections and show them where the truth lays by meeting them where they are.

peace be with you.

 

[z_0101]

Aside from this thread, the only mentions of the “Doctrine of Lea” I can find online are message board posts by a guy calling himself “Jeremiah,” who seems to be a rabidly anti-Catholic ex-Catholic. He refers to a book about historical Catholic persecution of Jews, but I cannot find other references to that book.

Usagi

Three search engines and I didn’t even turn up Jeremiah’s site (surely just the key wording).
I’ll have to look again. However, it would seem to me that if there was such a book, Hitler and others would have used it against Pope Pius XII to discredit the Catholic Church as would many other mainstream and fringe groups.

People throw rocks at shinny things.

 

[Belshazzar]

Henry Charles Lea was an American historian who wrote about the inquisition. He was not Catholic nor did he produce any doctrines.

 

[Hodegetria]

What is wrong with people these days that they send each other emails instead of TALKING?

Why don’t you talk to your friend?

Agreed. Such an insulting email deserves a phone call, especially if your friend knows you’re Catholic. But have a PLAN before you call, maybe even a written list of points.

The most important point to make is that you can’t refute LIES. Tell the sender that the email was full of LIES, so she is misinformed. Tell her how the Catholic Church not only preserved the Bible throughout the centuries, but also decided what books go in the Bible in the first place.

As far as Catholics not being Christians, (Another LIE) some Catholics don’t consider Protestants “Christians” at all, but heretics, but I think that’s going a bit too far… I do tell people who want to argue about my Church that ALL the Protestant denominations are some version or derivative of the first, one and only True Church, the Catholic Church, and if they’re honest, they can’t deny that.

The problem when defending our faith is, they can say one sentence and it takes us half an hour to explain why it’s wrong… Another place to start is who has the authority to interpret the Bible? We have the Magesterium, they have 1,000’s of denominations. Hmmmm…

The important thing is not to fight over it, if you can’t have a civil dialogue, just ask the person not to send you such emails.

 

[Kaninchen]

Just thought I’d mention - again - that he’s probably trying to refer to the doctrine of ‘latae sententia’.

 

[YADA]

Just thought I’d mention - again - that he’s probably trying to refer to the doctrine of ‘latae sententia’.

It may be as you say - but the concept of latae sentential is automatic and would not include any of the actions [nailing tongues to roofs of mouths nor execution of others … just saying … it would make the person behind the email possess even less credibility then the **zero they exhibited in the email already … just my humble opinion

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latae_sententiae

 

[Ignatius]

*The Vatican in their Doctrine of Lea has been clear from the beginning they were not Christians. They were and are Catholics. Do not confuse the two. The Vatican which has never done away with the Doctrine of Lea which gave them such power as to burn Jews and Christians at the stake for their faith - did so in order to protect their own teachings which were not and are not based on the Bible. The teachings of the Roman Church are not found in the bible and therein it is not a Christian religion.

The history of the Vatican was that they ordered the tongues of Christians who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ - to be nailed to the roofs of their mouths so they could no longer spread the Gospel. That is the history of the Roman religion.*

Is there any refutation that is concise to these claims? If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

There is no such thing as a “Doctrine of Lea”.
Why don’t you just throw it in the trash?
Barring that, make them back up their false contentions.

 

[Ignatius]

Might it be ‘latae sententia’?

What makes you think that? Even so, Latae sententia is not a doctrine. If they can’t get their facts straight, they have no credibility.

Also, why should he have to guess at what error the other person is propagating?

 

[MarkInOregon]

Just thought I’d mention - again - that he’s probably trying to refer to the doctrine of ‘latae sententia’.

I’m not sure doctrine is the proper term to use with regards to this? Isn’t it a sentence or penalty under Canon Law and not a doctrine?

The peace of Christ,
Mark

 

[Ignatius]

Just thought I’d mention - again - that he’s probably trying to refer to the doctrine of ‘latae sententia’.

What makes you think that? Latae sententia is not a doctrine. If they can’t get their facts straight, why waste time arguing about it.

Also, why should he have to guess at what error the other person is propagating?

 

[Kaninchen]

What makes you think that? Latae sententia is not a doctrine. If they can’t get their facts straight, why waste time arguing about it.

Also, why should he have to guess at what error the other person is propagating?

Why are you getting so excited about it? It isn’t your problem, I was pointing out to the op that his interlocutor was probably making a garbled reference to latae sententia, what he does or doesn’t do with that suggestion isn’t up to you.

 

[Ignatius]

Ignatius;12665143:

What makes you think that? Latae sententia is not a doctrine.
why should he have to guess at what error the other person is propagating?

Why are you getting so excited about it? It isn’t your problem, I was pointing out to the op that his interlocutor was probably making a garbled reference to latae sententia, what he does or doesn’t do with that suggestion isn’t up to you.

Peace, I’m not at all excited. I was just pointing out that the person seeking information has the burden of presenting their information accurately, otherwise they will get an erroneous answer. You know the old saying from computer science - GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out).

 

[CarmelJerome]

Sometimes in charity we must say to someone that they are an idiot. The Father’s had no hesitation in pouring scorn on people claiming foolish things. Inventing and passing on lies is the work of the devil.