Swearing to God

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My question is this. I am currently going through RCIA and my mother a devout Southern Baptist argues with me alot about the Catholic faith.

A few months ago she said “There is a female Catholic priest on t.v. right now, I knew they allowed women priests.” I quickly switched to the channel in which she was referring and it was an Episcopalian female ‘priest’.

Anyways, today my family and her were going to eat dinner and she said “My sister has a newspaper article that she wants you to see, talking about women priests.”

I said, “Mom, that must be Anglican, or Episcopalian, because there are no female Catholic priests.” She said, “Yes, there are, its women Catholic priests.”

I got agitated quickly with this, I said “Mom, I know that’s wrong and I am so sure of it that I swear to God on my child’s life that the Roman Catholic Church isn’t ordaining women as priests.”

My question is did I commit sin here? I have been defending the Church sometimes upto 2 hours on the phone in discussions. This is a never ending thing and my frustration was obvious. I do not want to sin. I was just trying to point out how strongly I knew the newspaper article to be wrong or not talking about Catholics.
 
dnar said:
My question is this. I am currently going through RCIA and my mother a devout Southern Baptist argues with me alot about the Catholic faith.

A few months ago she said “There is a female Catholic priest on t.v. right now, I knew they allowed women priests.” I quickly switched to the channel in which she was referring and it was an Episcopalian female ‘priest’.

Anyways, today my family and her were going to eat dinner and she said “My sister has a newspaper article that she wants you to see, talking about women priests.”

I said, “Mom, that must be Anglican, or Episcopalian, because there are no female Catholic priests.” She said, “Yes, there are, its women Catholic priests.”

I got agitated quickly with this, I said “Mom, I know that’s wrong and I am so sure of it that I swear to God on my child’s life that the Roman Catholic Church isn’t ordaining women as priests.”

My question is did I commit sin here? I have been defending the Church sometimes upto 2 hours on the phone in discussions. This is a never ending thing and my frustration was obvious. I do not want to sin. I was just trying to point out how strongly I knew the newspaper article to be wrong or not talking about Catholics.
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Matt. 5:37

Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. No need to take such oaths, even though it must be most difficult to have such conversations. Sinful? Maybe. Confess it and forget about it.
 
dnar said:
My question is this. I am currently going through RCIA and my mother a devout Southern Baptist argues with me alot about the Catholic faith.

A few months ago she said “There is a female Catholic priest on t.v. right now, I knew they allowed women priests.” I quickly switched to the channel in which she was referring and it was an Episcopalian female ‘priest’.

Anyways, today my family and her were going to eat dinner and she said “My sister has a newspaper article that she wants you to see, talking about women priests.”

I said, “Mom, that must be Anglican, or Episcopalian, because there are no female Catholic priests.” She said, “Yes, there are, its women Catholic priests.”

I got agitated quickly with this, I said “Mom, I know that’s wrong and I am so sure of it that I swear to God on my child’s life that the Roman Catholic Church isn’t ordaining women as priests.”

My question is did I commit sin here? I have been defending the Church sometimes upto 2 hours on the phone in discussions. This is a never ending thing and my frustration was obvious. I do not want to sin. I was just trying to point out how strongly I knew the newspaper article to be wrong or not talking about Catholics.
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The Catholic Church has never had, does not have and never will have female priests.

As for your oath I do not believe you committed a sin but if you want to be sure check with your priest.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

CCC 2154 Following St. Paul, the tradition of the Church has understood Jesus’ words as not excluding oaths made for grave and right reasons (for example, in court). “An oath, that is the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and in justice.”
 
Wow, that’s pretty frustrating.
Introduce your mother to google.

I doubt that would count as sinful- although Jesus said the oaths would be unnecessary if you’re living your life righteously, I doubt that makes them sinful.
 
Newbie2 said:
Matt. 5:37

Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. No need to take such oaths, even though it must be most difficult to have such conversations. Sinful? Maybe. Confess it and forget about it.
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That passage in Matthew continues on to say, “anything more is from the evil one”.
It will not hurt you to go to confession on this. And then if you tell us, we’ll all know.
You are sure to receive power in there (grace) that will help in your frustration. Two
hours on the phone is a long time.
 
Thank you for defending the faith! It doesn’t sound like a sin to me, but you should check with a priest to be sure. I have Southren Baptists in-laws, and it is almost impossible to have any kind of civil discussion with them about the Catholic Church. They believe all the misinformation and urban legends that are out there, and nothing is going to change their minds. Over the years we have just avoided talking about all religious topics to keep the peace. Every once in awhile, someone will ask a real question, and then I can take the opportunity to talk about the Church, but until the Holy Spirit moves these people to leave their prejudices behind, and draw them into His Church, we have to wait it out and pray, pray, pray. :rolleyes:
 
I think according to Augustine, he said something like this: To swear falsely is definitley sinful and actually really sinful. Therefore, the man who never swears at all will be better off because he never has the concern of whether he sinned or not.

However, this in my opinon implies that swearing in of itself is not inherently sinful and if done for correct purposes, and you are sure you are 100% without a doubt telling a fullness of the truth and nothing less, than it would not be sinfful.

In your case you were 100% telling the truth and therefore, while it may have been imprudent to swear in matter you did, I highly doubt it was sinful.
 
I thank you all for replying to my question. I did in fact go to confession and confess this just to be on the safe side.
 
dnar said:
My question is this. I am currently going through RCIA and my mother a devout Southern Baptist argues with me alot about the Catholic faith.

A few months ago she said “There is a female Catholic priest on t.v. right now, I knew they allowed women priests.” I quickly switched to the channel in which she was referring and it was an Episcopalian female ‘priest’.

Anyways, today my family and her were going to eat dinner and she said “My sister has a newspaper article that she wants you to see, talking about women priests.”

I said, “Mom, that must be Anglican, or Episcopalian, because there are no female Catholic priests.” She said, “Yes, there are, its women Catholic priests.”

I got agitated quickly with this, I said “Mom, I know that’s wrong and I am so sure of it that I swear to God on my child’s life that the Roman Catholic Church isn’t ordaining women as priests.”

My question is did I commit sin here? I have been defending the Church sometimes upto 2 hours on the phone in discussions. This is a never ending thing and my frustration was obvious. I do not want to sin. I was just trying to point out how strongly I knew the newspaper article to be wrong or not talking about Catholics.
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Hi. You do not have to swear when defending the Church. Swearing takes its toll on you not to mention how stressful it can be. And yes, we are not allowed to swear too. You seem to be a sincere person and just wanting to get across the truth that you feel should be known.

You can do only so much in defending the Church. If it is a verbal discussion you may want to use your vocal skill in verbalize your stance and give your explanation clearly and objectively. That is as much you can do. If your listeners do not agree or do not believe, there is nothing you can do either. God will do the rest. You can pray for them because in prayer God will bless you and give you peace and perhaps the wisdom to continue if you should still be in dialogue with your listeners. God also could touch them and change their hearts.

If you are not that good in talking, the best possible way in evangelization for an ordinary Christian is by the way you live your life – is it according to the teaching and value of the gospel? Nothing can beat that.

It is always difficult to convince a member of the family, let alone moms, about faith and religion. They simply would not listen to their little baby. But if you truly have changed in your life because of your belief and if they can see how sincere you are in practicing it, their hearts will be softened. Any moms would want to see their children to be good Christians.

God bless you.
 
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