The woman taken in adultery

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Well in 1985 Cardinal Ratzinger (Prefect of CDF) in a letter to a Genovese priest confirmed the 1959 drecree with the explanation the original decision was not taken lightly. In 1993 Cardinal Tettamanzi as General Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference wrote to the Italian publisher saying that the readers are not allowed to consider the topic as of supernatural origin. it does not appear that Mons. Tettamanzi did not go into the issue of doctrinal errors or danger for morality. On top of that an Episcopal Conference or individual bishops do not have the authority to change a decision expressed by the Holy see and so we should assume that the 1959 and 1985 documents stand. Pius XII died in 1958. Any document to the contrary is welcome.
 
fhkjds said:
Something has always bothered me about the story about the woman taken in adultery. Jesus shows up and saves the day and stops the woman from being stoned. But the reason why the woman was going to be stoned was because of the Jewish law that God gave to the Israelites.
  1. So how is God saving the day by stopping the woman from being stoned when his law was the reason she was going to be stoned in the first place?
  2. Why did God give that law, to stone women taken in adultery, later just to show up as Jesus and tell people not to do it?
----fhkjds
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1 ) The Law of Moses was not always in the Perfect Spirit of the Law of GOD. Was Jesus the equal of Moses? or Superior? No matter how Holy Moses was - he remained a man. The Law was perfected by the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ is GOD.

Therefore , when the Israelites sought to Stone the Woman - Jesus never one time said that they could not lawfully do so. Thus he didnt break the law of Moses or even change it. What he said was , He who is without Sin - let him cast the first stone. Because each man was a hypocrite with many sins on their own souls worthy of the same punishments due to her. So the Lesson being - Judge not lest ye be judged with the same measure you insist on for your neighbor. Why do you think no one stepped up to throw? In addition - he told the Woman that he would not condemn her for that sin provided she go and sin no more. Hense the lesson of repentance. Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord. So Jesus did not say for the Israelites not to stone the woman. He merely pointed out that in order to judge in Truth - one must be holy themselves in order to be able to judge in truth , knowing that if a Holy Person was doing the judging - they too would not be stoning the woman either , not because she didnt deserve punishment - but because their Holiness would open their eyes to Charity and to repentance and to Love of Neighbor for love of GOD if one is doing the will of GOD in their life.

Pax
 
Well said, Robert Burns.

Being that most Catholics demonstrate a perfectly inverted view on private revelations (not speaking specifically of Maria Valtorta or Medjugorje or John Leary or anyone here, just the general phenomenon) I’d like to briefly share a little dilly to set the record straight:

Declarations

Since the abolition of canons 1399 and 2318 of the former Code of Canon Law by Pope Paul VI on 14 October 1966, in the decree of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, A.A.S., 58, p. 1186, publications about new apparitions, revelations, prophecies or miracles, et cetera, have been allowed to be distributed and read by the faithful without the express permission of the Church and without the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur.

In Chapter II, No. 12, of the Second Vatican Council’s “Lumen Gentium” is stated that, “The Holy Spirit…distributes special gifts among the faithful of every rank…such gifts of grace whether they are of special enlightenment or whether they are spread more simply and generally, must be accepted with gratefulness and consolation, as they are especially suited to, and useful for, the needs of the Church…Judgments as to their genuineness and correct use lies with those who lead the Church and whose special task is not indeed to extinguish the spirit, but to examine everything and keep that which is good.”

“Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But prove all things; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).

This is not a recommendation but a directive!

Pope Leo X said, “When it is a question of prophetic revelations the Pope is the sole judge” (Fifth Lateran Council, 1513).

“In cases which concern private revelations it is better to believe than not to believe, for, if you believe, and it is proved true, you will be happy that you have believed, because Our Holy Mother asked it. If you believe, and it should be proved false, you will receive all blessings as if it had been true, because you believed it to be true” (His Holiness Pope Urban VIII, 1623-1644).

Pope Benedict XV expressed himself as follows on private revelations: “The approbation of revelations implies nothing more than, after mature examination, it is permissible to publish them for the unit of the faithful. Though they do not merit the same credence as the truths of religion, one can, however, believe them out of human faith, conforming to the rules of prudence by which they are probable, and supported by sufficient motives that one might believe in them piously.”

The Church does not oblige us to believe in any particular prophecy as a matter of faith, but we are indeed obliged to believe that prophecies may be made even in our own times [lest we court Modernism, the denial of the supernatural], for this is in the Gospel: “The Holy Spirit will speak to many in the latter days.” (The abstract concept of time is absent in the Bible. This is related to the absence of time in heaven.)

Supernatural Phenomena

No private revelation is indispensable to the faith.

The revelation ended with Jesus Christ. Saint John wrote in the Gospel, “There is much else besides that Jesus did. If all of it were put in writing, I do not think the world itself would contain the books which would have to be written” (John 21, 25).

The Second Vatican Council decree on the Lay Apostle states that the Church law permits not only to believe in the supernatural phenomena but always to state their belief to others. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (¶ 67) states, ‘throughout the ages, there have been so-called ‘private’ revelations…It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to live more fully by it in a certain period of history.’

Every person has been given a special mission with sufficient graces to complete it. One of these gifts is prophecy which can be about words of faith as well as things to come. [This refutes another branch of Modernism which wants us to think of prophecy as mere exhortation.]

In all ages men have been divinely instructed in matters expedient for the salvation of the elect…and in all ages there have been persons possessed of the spirit of prophecy, not for the purpose of announcing new doctrines, but to direct human actions’ (Saint Thomas Aquinas: Summa: 2:2:174: Res. et ad 3).

According to Pope Benedict XIV, 'neither angels nor devils can foretell future events, which are the proper objects of prophecy, unless communicated to them by God. Neither can man of his own nature know the future unless God communicates it to him’ (Pope Benedict XIV, Heroic Virtue, III, 144,150).
 
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