Must one believe EVERYTHING The Church teaches in order to be a Catholic?

[CatholicHoser]

Matt 16_18,

ok, i get it. i was wrong. i mixed up infallibility and impeccability and i’m not as smart as most other people on these forums. but it’s not because of my lack of faith in Jesus or because i don’t want to be a good Catholic. i’m desperate to be a good Catholic.

i feel bad about my 4 am post, that’s why i retracted it with a later post. i’m only human, not impeccable. i really want to be a good Catholic and follow the Church. i am really trying the best i can.

i just want to be a simple good Catholic. Ever since i joined these forums my simple life and faith have had nothing but turmoil. all my best,God bless you all, but i’m outta here.
-b

 

[Ghosty]

I’ll just address the points you raised directly, as others are dealing with the more general.

1. Galileo. I can never get over this. The Church excommunicated Galileo, for, God forbid, teaching the Earth revolved around the Sun. When was poor G let off the hook? to my knowledge, 1992. The Church, as a human institution, was flat out wrong.

Actually, the Church was not wrong in finding Galileo guilty. If you think that the problem was just that he was teaching that the Earth revolved around the sun, you don’t know enough about the case. Jesuits had been teaching that in their universities for decades before Galileo came along, and the theory was developed by Copernicus, an official in the Catholic Church. Galileo was found guilty of teaching this in contradiction of Scripture, meaning that he was specifically saying that this proved the Bible wrong. The Church apologised for treating this old and obstinate man harshly (and he wasn’t treated all that harshly honestly), but has never apologized for finding him guilty. He was guilty, and guilty of heresy at that. He actually confessed to it, and was not given the punishment due to an unrepentent heretic.

1. Usury and the corruption that pervaded the Church during the Renaissance. Wrong!!!

This has nothing to do with moral teaching, and in fact has nothing to do with any kind of teaching. It’s an example of people in the Church violating Church teaching as a matter of fact. By believing this was wrong, you are actually supporting Church moral teaching.

1. Treating people the way the Church did during the Inquisition. Wrongo!!!

Actually, the Church provided free lawyers to the accused, had physicians present to ensure that torture did not go too far, and did an investigation on ALL witnesses called against the accused and removed any testimony that was found to come from personal bias. The Inquisition was barbaric by modern standards, but it was actually a HUGE leap forward from contemporary standards, and was arguably the largest step towards the legal system we have today in Europe and the U.S. You can’t blame the Church for not leaping immediately from the “Right of Kings” to execute anyone they felt like to a gigantic legal structure and judiciary. The Inquisition was an intermediate step, and a HUGE stride towards justice.

1. In our own modern times, I believe, the incredibly soft response against the American sex abuse scandal. The fact Cardinal Law was allowed to say a public memorial Mass for the Pope in Rome. Wrong again!!!

Well, Cardinal Law is a different matter entirely. If he repented and sought Confession, then he has every right to preside over a public Mass. The reason he was called back to the Vatican in the first place was likely to remove him from his previous administrative role, and to keep a close eye on him. That being said, the soft response by the American Bishops (and it’s THEIR responsibility, not the Vatican’s) on the sex abuse scandal is again a point in FAVOR of Catholic morality, because Catholic morality dictates that they should have had a much swifter and stronger response. The Church can’t be faulted for the fact that people within the Church failed to uphold its values.

Hope this clears some things up. God bless!

 

[CatholicHoser]

Dear Ghosty,

Thanks for handling me so kindly. You cleared a lot of things up and made me feel much better.
Like I said, I really look to be the best believer in the Church that I possibly can. I admit that I’m not nearly as knowledgable about Galileo, the Inquisition, etc. as many others on these forums. For example, I didn’t know that Galileo’s intent was to prove Scripture wrong. Now I understand better. Please forgive me.
When I percieve an injustice, it makes me angry. That’s why I sounded so angry in my previous post. I took it out a bit on the Church when I should have just learned about the situations more (I thought I knew it all but obviously I didn’t!) or just directed my feelings to the sin itself and not the Church in general.

I’m sorry again. Lessons well learned for me. I’m on a journey as much as anyone else in these forums, but I’m not as far along as others. But I’ll keep on following the path, and keep on following the Catholic faith that I love.

 

[Ghosty]

CatholicHoser: No apologies necessary. You were being sincere, and going off the best information you had. In fact, I commend your pursuit of justice! It’s clear to me that your frustration comes from a SUPPORT of Catholic morality, not from opposition to it, so I can’t hold it against you at all.

Things like the Galileo affair are very often misrepresented, and unless you take the time to do serious digging on your own, you won’t know the truth. That’s no fault of yours, believe me. I was dumbfounded when I did in-depth studies on Galileo. I was actually an atheist arguing against the Church at the time, and when I found what he was actually tried for, and the reasons for the trial, I couldn’t believe it. I still disagreed with the Church’s stance on Scripture, but I couldn’t argue that he wasn’t guilty of the crime they put to him. The Inquisition is another one of my personal turn-arounds, and I’ve now become a HUGE fan of the Inquisition process as a stepping stone in history. Usually we just hear about the horrors that the Inquisition did, like torture, but we rarely hear about the context. Torture was being used capriciously before the Inquisition, it was even used as SPORT in some places. The Inquisition didn’t do away with it, which ideally they would have, but they put such restraints on it that they damn near made it a moral practice. In fact we still use elements of alternative Inquisition torture to extract confessions today, such as “good cop, bad cop”; in the times of the Inquisition, however, “bad cop” simply meant the guy with the Rack. We also have the Inquisition to thank for the notion of freely-appointed defense attorneys, due process of law (meaning that any irregularities invalidate the trial), and cross-examination. I went from hating the Inquisition to feeling it was one of the most brilliant legal developments in human history. It’s very easy to get stuck judging the TIMES of the Inquisition and applying general aspects of that society to the Inquisition itself, which would be like saying that our legal process today is inherently invalid because there are racists in the system.

Again I commend your search for truth and your passionate defense of Justice. No complaints here

 

[TobyLue]

Bajolyn

TobyLue,

Thanks for the links. I tried them, but couldn’t get them to work.

Sorry, here they are again, the first link was missing a letter.
saint-mike.org/Apologetics/QA/Answers/Faith_Spirituality/f0312230612.html

on the second one I tried it and it was OK. If not able to get it try these steps. Go go
www.saint-mike.org/apologetics/
click on the q&a forum at bottom of page
click on index list of forums
click on to old forum archive
click on faith and spiritual forum
click on TO archive Links
drop all the way down and click on year 2000
drop down to Papal Decree’s on Feb 20 2000.

 

[TobyLue]

I learned this prayer as a child and still pray it every night

Act of Faith

          O My God

I firmly believe that thou art one Got in Three Divine Persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
I believe that thy Divine Son became man and died for our sins
And that he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe these and **all **the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, Because thou has revealed them, who can never deceive nor be deceived.

Now if I should have some trouble with any teaching I just ask the Lord to help me with my unbelief…

 

[jjwilkman]

hlgomez:

YES!

Pio

i don’t know how to do those little pictures, yet

but i give you a big thumbs up!
yes