What is required belief and what isn't?

[gerryran]

I notice that some very orthodox people will question the church’s teaching on allowing communion in the hand or the Novus Ordo version of the mass. I know as Catholics there are some things we are required to believe (or at least stay silent if we don’t) and some things he don’t have to believe. How do we tell the difference? Sounds like communion in the hand is ok to disagree with, eh?

 

[AlanFromWichita]

If you ask for generalities, you might get some converging answers.

If you ask about specifics, there seem to be just as many answers to that question, along with individual sets of ifs, ands, or buts, as there are people who say the criteria are obvious, important, and well-defined.

The way I figure is you keep striving to understand the Church’s teachings, even though as you say people’s personal opinions influence the objectivity of the answers up to the highest levels.

Of course, we are “forbidden” to form our own conscience so it’s impossible that these people all have their own personal opinions. Each person sees the world from their point of view, and what they view as “absolute fact” looks entirely different from another’s point of view.

I figure a safe strategy is never to claim not to believe anything that another Catholic feels strongly about, but just ask them about it and hope someone else will join in if it needs correction (but then again is the corrector correct?) or go research it yourslef, or ask for references and if they don’t have them don’t worry too much about it.

The way I figure, if Communion in the hand is evil, than really we as individuals may as well give it up because we are being led to the sea by the Pied Piper.

Alan

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

A good place to start would be by reading books etc that are approved by the Church. The more you learn about a subject, the easier it will be to discern if something is required belief or not.

The Catholic Answers home page has a lot of great teachings… these forums are also a good place to learn, but you will always be subjected to people’s opinions…and many times they will be in conflict with what the Church teaches.

Malia

 

[Pug]

gerryran:

I know as Catholics there are some things we are required to believe (or at least stay silent if we don’t) and some things he don’t have to believe. How do we tell the difference? Sounds like communion in the hand is ok to disagree with, eh?

Sometimes people have a hard time telling the difference (between revelation and mere practices, etc). For example, some do not know that married priests exist, and you can tell this by the line of reasoning they use. An easy thing for basics is to read the CCC. There is no official “list” out there. Um, well, I do think some enterprising person has placed a list of doctrines stripped from the Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma on the internet.

Basically, you want to hold with faith the things that the Church teaches as revealed. Also, you should have faith about what God revealed in scripture and various other, sort of dependent things, like the canon of scripture. Knowing what the Church teaches as revealed takes time and effort. No one ever hands you a brochure, unfortunately (or not). God has provided well enough for us to come to know him, I’m sure about that. Seek him, and you will find him, even if it takes too long from a human perspective.

But maybe you are really asking about communion in the hand? I assumed this was a general question. Okay to disagree with how? Most parishes in the world distribute on the tongue.

Oh, eek, the CCC is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sorry for using the abreviation without explanation!

 

[MariaGorettiGrl]

Sounds like communion in the hand is ok to disagree with, eh?

Right. With things like communion on the hand or tongue or holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer or not, people can have their own opinions. But neither option is sinful. You don’t know a person’s motivation for, say, receiving communion on the hand, so it wouldn’t be right to go up and tell them that they’re doing it wrong and they should do it your way.

Novus Ordo version of the mass

But that gets into a bad area. Councils are highly dependent on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If the Pope and everyone has a council and declares that now all Catholics have to walk on their hands (then I’m in trouble!), we gotta start doing that even if we think it’s silly. Since the Pope and everyone held a council and decided upon the Norvous Ordo mass, that’s what people should be doing. It is a sin to reject the guidance of the Holy Spirit and replace it with the guidance of people who were not at the council and not necessarily guided by the Spirit.

So, while there’s no list, it’s one of those “best judgement” calls. If your actions go against what the majority of the church is doing, chances are you’re wrong.

 

[aaronjmagnan]

Check out the catechism…