Lucky you. You have a good bishop there. Even the one before Bishop Soto was good about RCIA.
I don’t know of many theological writings on "how easy"it is. But I take exception with your comment “only God can know for sure”. This is simply not logical.
What is voting other than forcing your beliefs on other people? That is the entire point of voting. When you vote for a politician it is so he will impose upon the entire population a set of rules which you largely agree with. Those rules can run from the mundane like requiring dog tags to serious crimes like murder (which abortion of course is). For all levels of law they are enforced by the state through the use of force whether that be the taking of money for fines, physical assault in order to compel compliance, imprisonment, or even death. How is it OK to force your belief in things like requiring dog tags but not something much more serious, the taking of innocent human life? I’d be as worried about the lack of understanding about what voting actually means in the first place. Whenever I hear that statement, and I hear it a lot, I realize the person has either very muddled thinking or just has not done much thinking to begin with.
Good thoughts, exnihilo!
I can’t help thinking your conversation got confused. You seem to be talking about two separate issues at once.
Here’s the search engine for the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and more specifically what the Catechism says on abortion. Note: #2272
You mentioned the CAtechisms that you gave the students. My priest mentioned the catechisms too. We have only opened up our bibles (not exaggerating) 2-3 times (and only when the deacon or seminarian was teaching, as well as for one guest speaker) and I’m the only one who has (or at least brings) a CCC to each class. I spoke with the leader of the program about two months after it started about the lack of use of the bible and CCC, and he didn’t like the idea of using the CCC because “the thing about the catechism is that it’s so big.”. I brought this up to my priest, who said what I’ve wanted to hear for the longest time from the program, and that was “RCIA really only needs two books; the CCC and the bible.” We were given one book to read for RCIA and I felt it was too vague on all the important subjects.
I was luckier than I realized in my RCIA class. I received a Catechism (that great big green book) for free.
We got loaner bibles at the beginning and our own big green one at the acceptance rite.
You don’t get a Catechism at the beginning of the class? I really think you should…supposedly, once you are done with the classes you are well-versed in Catholicism. What’s the point of giving out Catechisms afterwards? You should be given one to read along and assist you throughout the process.
Actually, sometimes they actually do have to dumb everything down. In my class, we had people with Ph.D’s or Medical degrees but we also had people who had dropped out of high school.
As far as I know, they aren’t giving us catechisms at all. We only got a NAB at the acceptance rite, and even with that, I can count on one hand how many times the normal teachers have asked us to open it up.
Your pastor is the one who implements the course curriculum for your parish. You have a rigjt to be taught the faith properly. And the bishop and your pastor have the obligation to see that you are taught the faith properly.
I agree. However, the priest that I talked to has only been here for two years, and the head pastor has been here for less than a year, so the parish has been undergoing some changes with priests lately. The new pastor has seen that there are changes that have been overdue. I believe that they are making changes as quickly as possible.
You are probably correct and are wise to see thinks this way. Often times, a new pastor comes to a parish, and maybe there are overdue changes needed and people get frustrated that he doesn’t fix everything right away. It is difficult. First of all, it may be very apparent some of the problems to those who have been at the parish a long time, but the pastor still has to get his bearings, so-to-speak. He has to carefully examine everything that is happening, and not rush to judgement. He has to prioritize the changes he finds are necessary. And he has to do things in a very pastoral manner, there may be things that are done wrong, but the lay volunteers are very well meaning and do not realize things are wrong; perhaps they are doing things exactly as they were told and are sincerely trying to do their best. He does not want to alienate these fine people.
In matters of faith and morals, that goes to the top of the list. Whoever it is that’s teaching RCIA now, and telling you what you say they are teaching re: abortion, don’t have the Church teaching in mind but their own agenda. The pastor could easily step into a class and correct the errors. There is no excuse for leaving error uncorrected in the minds of your fellow classmates. They are going through a discerning process too. Therefore, one needs to have everything on the table, accurately presented, to make a truly informed decision. Easter is coming up fast.