Questions about Doctrine

[Della]

The first book to roll off the first printing press, invented by a Catholic, was the bible. Several decades later was the reformation and the “media” in those days burst with more printing presses as the reformers were getting their bible out. The church, as usual was slow to get on the band wagon.

Catholic bibles were sometimes chained to the pulpits due the fact that books were extremely expensive and the priests needed a way to protect them from theft. This is where the origin of the misconception that Catholics are not allowed to read the bible came from.

Sorry for the history lesson.

Also, the idea came from the fact that the Catholic Church declared bad translations of the Bible as forbidden reading, and for good reason. But, Catholics have always been encouraged to read official translations. The Church put out a German version long before Luther, as well other vernacular versions.

 

[Tammy08]

Thank you all. You have been most helpful!

 

[1ke]

Tammy, religious or not you do not need a reason to establish parameters regarding interaction with your children. Even if you were an atheist, you would still have the right to demand that adults not use profanity in front of your children, and that family members respect your boundaries.

Family members unwilling to respect my boundaries are not welcome in my home. That is how it is.

 

[couponfit]

Greetings. I am protestant and have been having conflict with my mother-in-law for several years. She is a non-practising Catholic, hasn’t been to church for many years and I don’t think what she is telling me about the faith is true.

You see when I have written her some letters in the past explaining to her from scripture why it is not okay or acceptable to use profanity, especially at my children. She’s also, in the past, offered to pass on dirty magazines to my husband and we just tend to offend each other with our behavior.

She is angry that I have confronted her with scripture and claims that followers of Catholicism are discouraged to read the Bible, that it is only intended for the priest.

She also told me that I do not have to go to church all the time and is offended that I do.

She says people are never supposed to talk about their faith outside of a church, a wedding or a funeral. Your not supposed to talk about God in public places because it offends them.

Personally I don’t think the Catholic church teaches what she believes and I think she has just been angry at God for losing loved ones (in death) for a lot of years.

I don’t know how sin is dealt with among Catholics. Is there a way that I can confront her about her immoral behavior (profanity talk etc) that will sink in?

She’s justifying her actions with her own views that contradict our collective faith. Although since she prefers that you avoid scripture, then I would suit her needs. I knew a priest who would deliver homilies on pro-life without ever once referring to the bible but rather refer to the constitution and other concepts. He was very familiar with the Bible but would instead use secular explanation because his audience was secular and he often spoke to multi-faiths and non-believers outside of church. The point he made was that right is right and life is life, and no matter what perspective one has or whether we use science, law, liberty or the church to explain this.

Leave your bible down when you write to her and write to her on the level she cannot refute. Let your words come from your heart and use common sense. With or without the bible you are right, because the bible only affirms what is universally right to begin with.

On another topic, and I mean this with respect to you, maybe you should let your husband do the talking to his mother. I wanted to tell my mother in law quite a bit that was on my mind on our wedding night. My best man took me aside and said something very profound, he was in seminary studying to be a priest, and he said, “your wife will see this as an attack on you”. Do you really want your husband to write to your Mom and quote the scripture? Do you really want your husband to be the one to take the lead on issues that your Father’s actions and tell your Father how to behave in your home? The reality is that this would really bother you in most cases, even if you say it wouldn’t. You must discuss to your husband and let him be the one to talk to his Mother on these matters. And if you are still not satisfied then I would then handle it in a mature way by simply not putting effort into providing her the privilege of access that you likely do on your own. Maybe your husband won’t say anything! But then if that’s the case he probably won’t take effort to put his Mother and his kids together hardly at all.

 

[couponfit]

I am an older, older Catholic.

I cannot speak for every area, but in my area, Catholic families always had a large family Bible.
What happened within the school system is that we learned Catholic doctrine without referring to chapter and verse. We learned the main points of Scripture by listening to our teacher’s explanations and listening to sermons. When I finally got around to opening a Bible, I was totally amazed at finding the base for Catholic doctrine in black and white. It wasn’t that we were forbidden to read the Bible, it was that we learned Catholicism from the doctrinal or Divine Revelation point of view.

Further, if you look at most doctrines, there is so much scripture and explanation behind it. A single doctrine could have 30 verses behind it. Plus, there are manifestations of Mary that and miracles of the Holy Spirit that help affirm our faith although we believe the revelation is completely ceased by the Bible for salvation, the truth is affirmed by the miracles. So in addition to the Bible we use evidence of that the Bible is proven correct through actuality. If there were 3 conclusions form 40 verses in the bible that conflicted we would take great time to discuss it, and look for evidence which explanation is most explicit by look at miracles and fruit and acceptance. Remember there are more Catholics and Orthodox Christians in the world than Protestants and other christians so we have a lot more evidence to ponder and many more individuals to discuss what this all means while reading and interpreting the scripture. You’re priest does the same thing as our council of bishops and cardinals do, but we do through a large scale process, that allows for great clarity and discernment and discussion as we explore the explicit implication of God’s revelation.

Our teachings can take a few hundred years to centuries to develop too. We have 7 levels of teaching, from opinion that is probably correct and appears correct to that which is divine revelation. The point that many get confused on with Catholics is that the Holy See doesn’t really tell us what to believe. It’s not like in 1854, the Holy See set out for the first time that we all need to believe in Immaculate Conception. In fact such teachings were part of the Holy Church written since perhaps as early as the 300’s. In the early 11th century there was great debate on the matter as a teaching. So teachings move up a ladder of level of universal undeniability and acceptance. Some topics are taught but open to study and better definition and understanding.