Questions about being Catholic

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Mine is tomorrow. 🤣 Yay I get to be 25 once AGAIN!!! Just FYI… I’ve been that for a long time now… Heehee

Thanks!!
 
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Well,
I have tried to find out why we Catholics aren’t agreeing on politics and other life issues.
Because if we open our Spiruts to be Jesus, we should have same philosophies.
Take Trump. He is a sinner. He had immature behavior while debating. But, he was going to be pro life snd pro Israel. The DEMS have been attacking Christianity a lot. We are in a 20 trillion natl debt. I wanted a business man. He has been crass sexually. That shouldn’t upset DEMS. Look at Bill. Researching HRC, go to Clintons Crimes in Arkansas and watch ppl report their crimes. I watched Trump eye a group of girls w that TEEN USA PAGENT. He was stuck in Fraternity behavior of panty raids, groping and peeking.
His behavior in debates was using NY STREET SMARTS calling candidates names. He said he wouldn’t study. He presented himself as a raw candidate. There is a swamp. Govt needs cleaning. If ppl can’t list the good things he has done, they aren’t Christian. Harboring hate is not Jesus. Ministers are behind Trump. He’s keeping his promises which I support. I need to sleep.
Pray and reevaluate your heart.
In Christ’s Love
Tweedlealice
The BIBLE SAYS. RESPECT GOVT LEADERS.
 
misstherese said:
Look into modern condemned heresies. Americanism was condemned by Pope Leo XIII.
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It looks like Americanism is basically a belief in the separation of church and state? So are you then a heretic if you believe in the condemned doctrine of separation of church and state for the USA?
 
How about a professor who teaches two classes, and in one class, he teaches history and benefits of vaccinations, and in the other class, he denounces vaccines as nothing but hoax by pharmaceutical industry?

What a courageous professor to teach diversity of viewpoints to discern whether vaccines are beneficial to humanity or not.

Imagine that same professor working his clinical duties and telling parents of a newborn that vaccines are pointless, harmful junk.

Forget the inconsistency and confusion. It’s harmful to allow opposing viewpoints where one point is wrong and dangerous.

One would hope another doctor would advise the parents correctly and help the parents make the right decision about taking the best available course of option for their child.
 
Did you mention Leonardo Boff? If this is the case, I urge you to reconsider this path you took.

He is one of the main agents of the heresy called liberation theology…
 
Blessings
BEATS ME! Assuming (opps) it means ISOLATIONISM, it shouldn’t need Papal interference. MAGA isn’t isolationism. We want immigrants but merit based. We are globally, trying to beat ISIS, ALQUEDA, TALIBAN, etc.
We want a rest, if Satan would stop generating demons…
Isolationism won’t last. Our security is at risk. Hitler rises again. Does his spirit of evil never stop.
In Christ’s Love
Tweedlealice
 
Blessings,
What condemned doctrine is separation of church and state? The first amendment was taken over by atheists and emphasis was on that line. The second line was forgotten. The separation clause is fine when balanced w the second clause.
Why did the forefathers add this!!? It was b/c the King would change his religion and force it on the ppl. Govt can’t force a religion on the ppl. It can’t stop our practicing it.
In Christ’s Love
Tweedlealice
 
tweedlealice said:
What condemned doctrine is separation of church and state?
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Please read this and tell me what is this heresy of Americanism that has been condemned by the Catholic Church ?
misstherese said:
Look into modern condemned heresies. Americanism was condemned by Pope Leo XIII.
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It seems that what is being condemned by the Magisterium here is the American doctrine of separation of Church and State. No? What else is the heresy of Americanism except the doctrine of separation of church and state?
 
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NuclearReceptor said:
It’s harmful to allow opposing viewpoints where one point is wrong and dangerous.
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I’m really glad I live in a country where we have the First Amendment instead of one run by people who think like you.

As Evelyn Beatrice Hall (not Voltaire) said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’m really glad I live in a country where we have the First Amendment instead of one run by people who think like you.
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We’re talking about Church Magisterium and Catholics who are bound to obey in terms of faith and morals, not PTA meetings, where diversity of opinions might be beneficial.
 
While you are correct on some counts (some of the stuff the OP is talking about is faith/morals) , diversity of opinions is nessecary for progress in the Church. Every major Church council (pivotal events in the history of Christendom) was a result of differing opinions. The Church would be very much lacking without Jerusalem, Nicea, Constantinople, Trent, V1 and 2, etc.
 
Maximilian75 said:
(some of the stuff the OP is talking about is faith/morals)
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I assumed that’s what we were talking about…S/he does not agree with the Church on some pretty important issues.

Didn’t mean to include global warming, universal healthcare, etc in all of that
 
Um, folks, maybe instead of encouraging a fellow Catholic to remain outside the Church we should instead address the OP’s points. Here is my attempt.
ProgressiveCatholic said:
I am a progressive Catholic. I am currently going to the United Church of Christ because, ironically, it’s a place where I can live out my Catholicism (Congregationalism is in line with the theology of the Church described by such theologians as Schillebeeckx and Boff). I would rather, however, be a Catholic in the Roman Catholic Church. That doesn’t seem possible here. In the Lincoln diocese, I can’t be a Catholic–

who understands the moral theology of Amoris Laetitia and embraces it;
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Presuming your understanding matches the Pope’s, you seem to have good backing on this one.
who believes in the seamless garment of life and wants to build the kind of social safety net which makes abortion unnecessary rather than fruitlessly try to make it illegal;
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Plenty of other Catholics, including me, are with you on this one. Check out the New Pro-Life Movement if you have not already.
who strongly disagrees with St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body but strongly agrees with Todd Salzman’s Sexual Person;
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I do not know anything about Mr. Salzman’s work, so I cannot rightly comment on this one. I don’t think anyone is bound to the Theology of the Body if it is not helpful to them. Obviously if anything Mr. Salzman writes goes against Catholic teaching, it would be bad to insist on that part.
who supports the rights of gender-nonconforming people to make decisions based on their conscience and form legal partnerships (honestly, I wouldn’t use the word “marriage,” but I didn’t make the law);
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Much as with serial monogamy and cohabitation, on this topic the Church is likely going to have to come to terms with what is legal being different from what she considers moral, and that it’s okay for Catholics not to crusade against the legal part. So I would say you are in the vanguard but not entirely out of line on this one
[cont]
 
who sees Courage as shame-based and destructive, Dignity as sentimental and unmoored, and wants a balanced teaching on same-sex behavior, perhaps like that the German bishops are formulating;
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I am unfamiliar with the German bishops’ approach, though I agree (and I don’t think we are alone) that there needs to be a better Catholic approach to LGBT folks that, without altering Catholic teaching, treats the people as all people should be treated.
who supports the sensus fidei and the use of contraception (hey, if Amoris Laetitia can be heretical, so can Humanae Vitae);
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Okay, this is the first point on which you are definitely at variance with Catholic teaching. You have a lot of company, but that doesn’t mean you’re right. Your belief on this matter shouldn’t stop you from being a practicing Catholic in any diocese as long as you don’t go around proclaiming it (though you should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if you are personally engaged in ongoing use of artificial contraception).

Neither HV nor AL is heretical, and I wouldn’t recommend that anyone who considers themselves a Catholic say that.
who is a Democrat who votes for Tim Kaine and Joe Biden and sees Trump as the Antichrist and who will never, ever vote Republican;
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Some will tell you that it is always a sin to vote for a candidate that supports legal abortion, but in fact the error is in voting for them because they are pro-choice. I certainly found sufficient reason to vote against Trump, and find more and more evidence that I was right every day. (Nor has he even done the first thing against abortion, save to go after social programs in a way that will probably make abortion a more common choice.)
who believes Anglican, Lutheran and other Protestant sacraments and orders to be valid, as per Declaration On The Way;
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I don’t know what the Declaration on the Way is. Is it a Magisterial document? As far as I know, the Church recognizes valid sacraments only in those churches that maintain apostolic succession and something resembling the Catholic belief in the sacraments. Since God is not bound by the requirements He gives us, it would be permissible to believe that He gives grace through the sacraments and sacrament-like rites of other Christians, but as Catholics we have no way of knowing that such rites have the intended effect, because the objective measures of validity are missing. Certainly their baptisms and marriages are valid, but ordination and anything that relies on it is questionable at best, except for those cases in which a church has deliberately pursued a restoration of its apostolic succession.
 
who believes women should be deacons and have positions of leadership in the Church (I am ambivalent about women in the priesthood–I understand the arguments as to why the priesthood is limited to men);
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Given that you aren’t pushing for women priests, this seems an acceptable (if presently minority) Catholic position. That women could hold a deacon-like position (perhaps without being ordained) or even the office of cardinal (which is a human invention not intrinsically linked to ordination) are positions that have considerable historical and theological support.
who supports amnesty for undocumented immigrants;

who is against the death penalty;

who wants comprehensive background checks for gun sales;

who supports universal health care as a pro-life issue;
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Plenty of bishops back you up on these. The Church does not declare that we either must or must not embrace any of these positions, but they are consonant with basic Christian morality and simple prudence.
who is against nuclear war and believes someone who votes for a candidate or who supports an elected official who threatens nuclear war has committed a mortal sin;
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I don’t think very many Catholics are for nuclear war in a positive sense, even if they do not argue for disarmament.

The second part about voting is a little more iffy but, I think, defensible on the same grounds that similar things are said about abortion. As with abortion, though, a distinction should be made between supporting a candidate because of that position and supporting them despite it. Also there is a distinction between a candidate who actually says “elect me and I’ll start a nuclear war” (which I don’t think even Trump has been foolish enough to do) and a candidate who simply has that option on the table for extreme situations (all of them since 1945, as far as I know).
and who sees global warming as a more fundamental life issue than abortion since ALL unborn children will die if they don’t have a planet to be born on.
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This seems a consistent position.
Which one of these statements keeps me being Catholic?
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The contraception one and the belief in valid sacraments (other than the obvious ones, I presume) outside apostolic succession come closest, but I don’t think any of them puts you in a worse position than a great many other faithful Catholics.

The fact that you don’t have a lot of other Catholics that agree with your positions in Lincoln does not mean you can’t be a Catholic there, nor that Christ’s Church does not reside there. You might be more comfortable in a parish where more people see eye to eye with you, but that doesn’t make either you or your fellow Catholics in Lincoln not Catholic.
 
Whether the members of CAF like to admit it or not, the opinions of the OP align with how many people in the pews on Sunday think as well. Maybe not on all the points, but on many.
 
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