IF WE CAN’T HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS
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Sometimes I wonder why we have these forums if we can't express different views without being treated like lepers. If we always have to conform, it's silly to invite discussion. We simply need to parrot the catechism.
God gave us a brain, and I gratefully use mine. This means that I sometimes find myself at odds with the church. For example, the Pope condemned the use of condoms in Africa recently. Yet, the church declares it must stand for life from conception until death. Condoms have been shown to save lives. Isn't there a contradiction there. We all know that abstinence is to be preferred, but we need to live in the world as it exists and promote policies that fit the reality.
Perhaps I am too influenced by American democracy where different opinions are welcome, part of our great system. Maybe the church simply doesn't want those who aren't 'yes people'. Open and honest discussion, even debate, moves individuals, organizations and the Church toward new understandings. I have read the revered Church Fathers, who lived before the telescope and microscope of today, and I certainly wouldn't want to have to believe everything they believed. New information should produce new insights.
I recall how I revered St. Thomas Aquinas. Then one day in reading his Summa Theologica I read how he thought heretics should be handled. Turn them over to the civil authorities to be executed. Are you are familaar with the "Syllabus of Errors" by 'blessed' Pope Pius IX. I certainly hope this abominable document doesn't reflect the Church of today, and it certainly doesn't mirror the views of most USA Catholics.
But, back to our thread. I'm inclined to think that Jesus did not have siblings, but it wouldn't upset my faith for even a second if Mary and Joseph had additional children.
Roy, its not that the Catholic Church wants people to have blind faith. It doesn’t. It wants people to use their full force of reason to find the truth.
Now lets use some reason here. The church’s teaching on Faith and Morals is a direct reflection of the teaching of the Apostles, painstakingly passed down from Bishop to Bishop and then to the people for 2000 years. It has been contemplated on and defended by literally millions of Catholic Theologians over that horizon, including some of the most brilliant scholars like Augustine and Aquinas and frankly Benedict XVI. Now how can any individual, reasonably believe that his own interpretations of the Bible could be more correct than those propagated for 2000 years by all those people and with all that divine authority. The Catholic way is to recognize our own limitations and to trust that the Holy Spirit has truly guided the Church to the truth. We humbly understand that our own revelations and interpretations carry no weight when balanced against that of the Church.
So we don’t debate the Church on issues of Faith and morals, we accept the truth and mold our actions to it. This is not to say we don’t think. We do. We just put our efforts into learning the truth instead of trying to create new truths, which is of course a fool’s errand.
As for the Pope saying that condoms contribute to the problems in Africa, well my friend, they also contribute to problems in America. You might say to me that condoms protect users from STDs and unwanted pregnancies. Well, I would tell you that they also provide a sense of unwarranted security that leads people to engage in dangerous sexual behavior thinking it has no ramifications. This second factor overwhelms the first. Did you know that CDC statistics say that average use of condoms will reduce the likelihood of pregnancy for a couple in a given year from 85% to 15%. That seems great, right? Well, not if it induces many more people to have sex, thinking the odds of avoiding pregancy are now in their favor. Now, studies indicate that 50% of highschool seniors are having sex. So if you have a class of 28 kids, 14 are having sex (7 couples) and 1 of them will get pregnant each year. For every single classroom. That is why 25% of our births are to teenagers and we have 2 Million abortions a year. We also have 25% of our teenage girls with an STD (50% of the sexually active). A third of all US births are now out of wedlock.
Now compare that with the statistics 50 years ago, before birth control was readily available. High school pregnancies were virtually unheard of, less than 5% of births were out of wedlock, and STDs were far less prevalent. And abortions were illegal and rare as well.
So how could this be? Why did the advent of birthcontrol drive unplanned births, abortions, and STDs out of control, the opposite of what was intended? Well the simple and undeniable reason is that people believed that birth control eliminated the possibility of unwanted pregnancies and STDs when in fact, they only reduce those possibilities. Plainly put, people thought there were no longer ramifications to having sex, and acted accordingly, increasing the incident of unmarried and risky sex to a rate much higher than the reduction in pregnancy and STDs created by the use of birth control methods.
This was predicted by Pope Paul VI when he condemned the use of birthcontrol in the 1960s and unfortunately, he was very prophetic.
As for Thomas Aquinas, he was a man of his age and in that time, people who led others into error were dangerous and needed to be either corrected or if they persisted, in their obstinance, executed. Remember, the Jews stoned people for blasphemy and adultery. Different societies have different philosophies. It is wrong to judge them out of context.
As for the Syllabus of errors, which ones do you object to. They all seem correct to me.
