Questioning teachings and traditions

[Arbie]

I seem to have lost my way. I am a cradle Catholic and married a wonderful woman who converted to Catholism 5 years ago. During her conversion, I began to read and study the faith along with her. I discovered so many wonderful things about the church that I have continued to educate myself ever since. My dilema is that recently, the more I read, study, research and pray I find myself questioning many of the Catholic traditions and teachings. Please keep in minds that I am a Catholic to the core, I would not even consider another religious denomination. I find the stance on contraception (NOT ABORTION) rediculious, I find the stance on confession silly (communial penance when I was younger made sense to me). There are many of these issues that recently have me thinking that I don’t have a chance for salvation.

I am guessing that I will see many replies from folks that will try to prove that my objections are legitimate church traditions, My issue is not with legitimacy, my issue is with a questioning of the traditions. Any advise?

 

[rayne89]

You are right contraception is not a “church tradition”. Anymore then being against abortion is a “church tradition”. These are moral questions that the church has given a definitive answer on -and if you take the time to study the writings on it you will see it is clearly reasonable.

Communial penance was never supposed to be the norm. It was/is only supposed to be used incases where the priest can not hear individual confessions and the need is dire and was always required to be followed up with individual confession as soon as it was available.

Now since you really weren’t interested in debating the particular issues. As far as questioning goes as long as you are make a serious effort to pray for the Grace of understanding, and making a reasonable effort to seek out sources that can help you with understanding you are on the right track.

If you believe the Catholic church is the church founded by Jesus Christ. Then it can not have somethings right and somethings wrong when it comes to teachings that are spoken infalliably. Mind you some things that are spoken from a pope are not taught infalliably, but are opinion. Certainly opinion worthy of consideration but still opinion. The two teachings you spoke of are infalliable teachings.

If at this moment you can not understand these particular teachings you must then make an act of faith. "Jesus I do not understand these teachings but since this is Your church that You established I will be obediant to all the teachings of Your church and I pray that You open my eyes and my heart and help me to understand and believe.

You may want to consider these two teachings that you have singled out are often difficult and require sacrafice on the part of the faithful.

For instance in individual confession requires humilty. You may be required to disclose things that you would never utter to a single soul. This can be very embarressing and uncomfortable to many of us.

Not using contraception -again requires great sacrifice to be open to life and be ready to give up time, energy and material wealth. If there is sufficient reason to practice NFP -this requires self-control and denial of immediate needs.

Are you rebeling against these teachings because you find them to difficult to embrace or because they truly are not logical to you.

Pray for an increase in your faith. Spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. Study the writings of the church. If you do not already pray the rosary consider taking up this devotion. And don’t lose heart. If you truly are trying to embrace your faith the Holy Spirit will guide you to all truth.

God Bless.

 

[StCsDavid]

Just hazarding a guess…please don’t be offended…but do you need to confess that you’ve been using contraception? I just found it interesting that those were the two traditions you were struggling with.

I would suggest you pick up Theology of the Body and maybe a some of the books by Christopher West.

 

[Arbie]

Thanks for your responses, however; you have misunderstood my original writing. I anticipated defenses of the 'examples" I stated, I fully understand the teachings and traditions, I simply have begun to question them.

The reason why I am questioning things is not because I contracept (which I do not) or that I haven’t been to confession. Remember, I stated that I am a practicing Catholic. I simply seem to be questioning the validity of them.

Perhaps this is the best way to put it - Should I die today, will I be denied along with all of our Protestant brothers and sisters eternal life simply because of the questioning and/or denial of said same?

 

[Ghosty]

Remember that contraception is specifically spoken against in Genesis 38, and implicitely spoken against by God’s first command to humankind in Genesis 1.

As for confession, there’s no absolute reason that confessions can’t be done and absolved publically, but that’s not the traditional practice. There’s no absolute prohibition against private confession either, and the vast majority of people prefer that. It also allows the priest to give much more directed advice for counseling and penances, which public confession would not allow for.

That’s my :twocents:

 

[mhansen]

Arbie:

Perhaps this is the best way to put it - Should I die today, will I be denied along with all of our Protestant brothers and sisters eternal life simply because of the questioning and/or denial of said same?

Whoa, whoa, whoa!! I was about to tell you that it’s OK to question. It’s a normal, healthy part of our spiritual journey, but then I saw THIS!

How can you call Protestants our “brothers and sisters”, yet state that they will be denied eternal life? Who are you to judge in the place of God?

I think you have a lot more to question than your response to Catholic teaching.

 

[allhers]

First of course, pray in all things, and then, since you are a praticing Catholic, confess these things in confession, ask for advice and then take it. I remember one time hearing a Priest on EWTN who had converted from one of the Protestant denominations and he said that whenever he has a problem with any of the teachings of the Catholic Church that he studies until he see’s where he went wrong.

*note to Ghosty, there are reasons that confessions cannot be done and absolved publically (see rayne89’s 2nd paragraph on post #2 above.)

 

[Della]

The Apostle Paul exhorts us to “put on the mind of Christ”, and what is that–it is the teachings of Christ’s Church.

When teachings do not make sense to us, it is because we are not able or willing to accept things we can’t or won’t understand of the Church’s teachings. Only you and your confessor can know if you are not able or not willing to understand them.

Every generation of Catholics has had to fight going along with the spirit of the age, and the spirit of our age is “do what you want or whatever makes you feel good”, which is not what Jesus or his Church teaches us, is it.

I suggest you read all the words of Jesus to get a sense of what he asks of us as his followers. I think you will come to the conclusion that he expects us to believe him and to do as his Church asks of us, as well because his way is truly the way of life while the ways of our age are ways of death.

 

[tcay584]

Arbie:

Thanks for your responses, however; you have misunderstood my original writing. I anticipated defenses of the 'examples" I stated, I fully understand the teachings and traditions, I simply have begun to question them.

The reason why I am questioning things is not because I contracept (which I do not) or that I haven’t been to confession. Remember, I stated that I am a practicing Catholic. I simply seem to be questioning the validity of them.

Perhaps this is the best way to put it - Should I die today, will I be denied along with all of our Protestant brothers and sisters eternal life simply because of the questioning and/or denial of said same?

Listen. You only have to answer one question…Did Jesus die for you or not? Ok, let’s say He did, for the sake of argument. He knows your heart, your soul, your personality. Don’t you think He saw something in you that He loved? You may question. God gave us all brains. He expects us to use them. However, how can you, and this is a question of pride, take the teachings of over 2000 years and come up with something more sensible? It’s a great thing to question. But try this exercise…think of every reason for the opposing opinion… then come to your answer. One can always take a particular side, and defend it to the death…but if you never knew the other side, you never knew what you were arguing against. Come back and argue the other side, Then, in good conscience, make your decision. So many people come from one side or another…never even trying to see the other opinion. Don’t fall into that trap. God gave us brains…use it!

 

[Arbie]

mhansen:

Whoa, whoa, whoa!! I was about to tell you that it’s OK to question. It’s a normal, healthy part of our spiritual journey, but then I saw THIS!

How can you call Protestants our “brothers and sisters”, yet state that they will be denied eternal life? Who are you to judge in the place of God?

I think you have a lot more to question than your response to Catholic teaching.

you are way off topic regarding my personal issue, however; protestants don’t publicly confess nor do they believe contraception is wrong, therefore, according the the Catholic church, will be denied.

 

[Arbie]

tcay584:

Listen. You only have to answer one question…Did Jesus die for you or not? Ok, let’s say He did, for the sake of argument. He knows your heart, your soul, your personality. Don’t you think He saw something in you that He loved? You may question. God gave us all brains. He expects us to use them. However, how can you, and this is a question of pride, take the teachings of over 2000 years and come up with something more sensible? It’s a great thing to question. But try this exercise…think of every reason for the opposing opinion… then come to your answer. One can always take a particular side, and defend it to the death…but if you never knew the other side, you never knew what you were arguing against. Come back and argue the other side, Then, in good conscience, make your decision. So many people come from one side or another…never even trying to see the other opinion. Don’t fall into that trap. God gave us brains…use it!

Thanks - This helps me. Thanks for not trying to “convince” me of anything. - God bless and thanks again!

 

[Della]

Arbie:

you are way off topic regarding my personal issue, however; protestants don’t publicly confess nor do they believe contraception is wrong, therefore, according the the Catholic church, will be denied.

No, not if they did not know it was mortal sin. One cannot be held culpable of mortal sin unless: one knows what it is, does it anyway, willfully wanting to do it. Unless they meet these 3 requirements, they are considered innocent of the sin.

 

[Della]

Arbie:

Thanks - This helps me. Thanks for not trying to “convince” me of anything. - God bless and thanks again!

The way we are to determine what is right is not by what appeals to us, you understand. But, by looking at it with a well formed conscience and full understanding of what the teaching means and consequences for not believing in it/practicing it. There are rules even in questioning.

 

[mhansen]

Arbie:

you are way off topic regarding my personal issue, however; protestants don’t publicly confess nor do they believe contraception is wrong, therefore, according the the Catholic church, will be denied.

Pardon me, but I don’t believe I am. In order to question Church teaching, you must first understand Church teaching. And since you’ve made a statement such as this, and the one above it, it seems to me that you are not all that familiar with Church teaching.

So, I merely state this to ease your conscience regarding your “questioning”, as you cannot question that which you do not know.

So, put your soul at ease, and don’t give it another thought.

Mike

 

[gardenswithkids]

Arbie:

My dilema is that recently, the more I read, study, research and pray I find myself questioning many of the Catholic traditions and teachings.

May I ask what are you reading, studying, and researching? Not everything written by Catholics presents the Catholic teachings, and I have run across a lot of dissenting information that falsely claims to be Catholic. If you are reading, studying and researching information that contradicts the Church teachings, stop doing that. If you are reading information that just doesn’t present the Catholic Church teachings in a way that you can understand, find something that explains it in a way you can understand it.

Keep praying. This may just be a test of faith that you are going through. We don’t have to intellectually understand everything about the Catholic Church to be Catholic. We baptize babies without their understanding of the grace being poured out upon them. And the best Doctors of the Church still couldn’t explain fully the mystery of the Trinity. I also suggest you confess these doubts about Church teachings in the Sacrament of Confession, and if you’ve been reading material that encourages this questioning, confess that too.

One last thing, according to the Catholic Church, Christ is the One who judges. We can not know for certain what His judgement will be on those who contracept, but contracepting with full knowledge that it is sinful, it is far worse than someone who contracepts in ignorance. (As already pointed out, there are conditions for a sin to be considered mortal sin.)

I’ll say a prayer for you.

 

[rayne89]

Arbie:

you are way off topic regarding my personal issue, however; protestants don’t publicly confess nor do they believe contraception is wrong, therefore, according the the Catholic church, will be denied.

If the do not do these things out of ignorance they will not be denied. Remember * “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”*

CCC
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

 

[sirknightron]

Peace be with you

T or traditions are a part of the word of God as you know and someone has to have authority over the whole word or else we could all decide for ourselves what we want to do. The Church speaks for God and those who do not accept her Authority and that is why there are those who live in protest. (Protestant curches)
As the Vatican has said the cafiteria is closed. No pick and choose what you like. Either you do or do not accept.
As in Revalations it says that there is no sitting on the fence. The Church and we as parents say “you live in my House you go by my rules”.

I may not know as you may not iether all of the reasons why some things are as they in the Church , but this is why we are to pray for those of Authority to be guided to all truth. We do not have access to all that they do. The Jews did not understand everything about Jesus either but a few followed and trusted Him completely. It seem harsh but it is love that guides the Church.

Ron

 

[Arbie]

sirknightron:

Peace be with you

T or traditions are a part of the word of God as you know and someone has to have authority over the whole word or else we could all decide for ourselves what we want to do. The Church speaks for God and those who do not accept her Authority and that is why there are those who live in protest. (Protestant curches)
As the Vatican has said the cafiteria is closed. No pick and choose what you like. Either you do or do not accept.
As in Revalations it says that there is no sitting on the fence. The Church and we as parents say “you live in my House you go by my rules”.

I may not know as you may not iether all of the reasons why some things are as they in the Church , but this is why we are to pray for those of Authority to be guided to all truth. We do not have access to all that they do. The Jews did not understand everything about Jesus either but a few followed and trusted Him completely. It seem harsh but it is love that guides the Church.

Ron

Well Said - Thanks Ron

 

[muledog]

Arbie:

I fully understand the teachings and traditions, I simply have begun to question them.

If you fully understand what the Church teaches regarding artificial contraception, how can you call that teaching “rediculous?”

 

[Ruthie]

Arbie, I’m a new Catholic, starting RCIA next week, who has been doing a lot of studying.

When I was led to Rome, I knew I would have to accept all she taught, whether or not I understood it. It sounds like that’s what you are doing, too, since you are obeying the Church in spite of your questions.

I contracepted most of my life. I was never “open to new life.” The Church’s stand made no sense to me. I chose to accept the teachings, and to have faith that I would understand them later. I studied, and that happened, and I now know how and why she is right!

Nah, I’m not going to get into it; you don’t want that. I just want to share my hope with you.

Faith isn’t an easy street. We’re told to take up our crosses and follow Jesus. Right now, your questioning is your cross. Hang in there, and have faith. I’ll pray for you.