If a "good, faithful, holy priest" told you ____ was okay, WHY are you asking US what we think?

[setter]

That is between your mother and God! Who else would it be between?

If she is Catholic, then she needs to include the teaching of the Church in matters of faith and morals to inform and well form her conscience.

Doesn’t make it any less wrong.

Only God knows the degree of culpability – you cannot deceive God, nor is His mercy and justice limited.

Secondly, there are plenty of debates about the interpretation of the CCC, not only that but it does somewhat differ from past CCCs. Go look at the thousands of posts on infant baptism, people call JP2 a heretic and so forth. There are broad and narrow interpretation of the Bible AND of the CCC. So all things must be considered.

The simple answer is still the same …sin is sin is sin. I sometimes get the impression that so many folks spend more energy of trying to mitigate the culpability for sin, rather than trying to exert an equal amount of energy figuring what is sin, the consequences of offending God by their sin, and how to cooperate with grace to sin no more – as Jesus directs to the repentant soul. It is denying the cross and refusing to die to self-desire and self-will that gets in the way of deeper conversion.

Thirdly, sometimes one must choose between the lesser of evils. A great example is between mildly pro choice candidates and hard core pro choice candidates, if both run.

Not when there is a third non-sinful alternative, which is most often the case in matters of morality.

 

[Cranch]

We cannot second guess or contradict Priests. They know way more than we do. They understand way more than we do. They have the authority to teach and council, we don’t.
They have powers and graces that we don’t have. And most of all, they have more of the facts of most situations than we do.

I take a backseat to no one when it comes to respect for our Catholic priests and their vocations, but when a priest teaches error it must be corrected. Priests are human and sinners like the rest of us. And contrary to your assertions, many have not been instructed well. From a review of Michael Rose’s now famous book Goodbye, Good Men: Many of the ideas being taught in seminaries today, Rose wrote, “go way beyond the scope of even these ‘mainstream’ errors of Modernist doctrine. Aggressive feminist theories often put forth by religious sisters devoted to liberation theology and various incarnations of Jungian psychology make it clear that some faculty members who are entrusted with the formation of future priests do not support the Catholic priesthood as the Church defines it. In fact they do not support the Church, her hierarchy, her Eucharist, or her liturgy.”

Tragically, throughout the U.S. today, men taught these heretical doctrines are spreading error, distorting the liturgy, sowing doctrinal confusion and changing the faith of countless Catholics.

On page after page Rose documents instances of deliberate distortion of church doctrines - lapses most often defended not only by seminary officials, but also by the bishops of the dioceses they serve. Most of the abuses are simply mind-boggling.

 

[marybee]

Blue Rose, I noticed that all the sins you mentioned involved sex in some way too. Sex is a taboo subject in the Church and always will be!

 

[aaronjmagnan]

It totally depends on the context of the priest’s response.

For instance, I have heard of priests telling people that cohabitation is okay…but sharing the same bed is an opportunity for sin, and unless one is under control of the divine will he or she should live away from his or her mate.

Another instance…I have heard of a priest saying masturbation was okay…if it was done while drunk or half asleep. In the former case, one should avoid drinking as an opportunity for sin, and in the other case one should create good habits of prayer when awaking and when going to sleep.

In either of these instances on could say “The priest say it was okay!” looking for solutions for the problem.

But where the human will goes after that depends on the person’s desire for conversion.

God bless,
Aaron

 

[migurl]

With all due respect, if the CCC says something is intrinsically evil, I don’t think there is much room for “interpretation”. A priest is supposed to support what Rome teaches and contraception has, is, and always will be wrong. Also, one cannot chose to practice contraception with the excuse that it is better than abortion, some things are always wrong no matter what. With these things the CCC is very clear about.

 

[Holland]

While priests are definitely better educated in theology, the person in the pew does have a body of knowledge they depend on and know pretty well. Most people know when something isn’t done correctly during Mass, or if something odd is going on during Confession. If you have priests and bishops who don’t trust or like what is coming out of Rome and are very vocal about it, the result is a part of the congregation won’t trust its leaders. If you don’t trust your leader you will be asking a variety of people their opinion on what you should be doing. People really do want to trust and obey the priests in their parishes. If obeying and being an active particapant in your parish means leaving behind the body of knowledge you have and know to be true, you will find yourself in a damned if you do or damned if you don’t situation. Many of these priests are good, holy people with the best intentions. For the life of me, I have yet to figure out what has happened in the Church to cause all this unrest. I do know this, leadership happens from the top down and as long as this unrest continues among the priests and bishops you will have people who will come to forums like these and ask for advice.