Where to begin?

[Lampo]

The church to which you presumably belong is headquartered in Rome. That is where the leader of your church, the Pope, resides. If I were a Roman Catholic in good standing with the church, and I visited Kentucky and were looking to attend mass I would look in the phone book for a Roman Catholic church as opposed to, say, a Catholic church run by the Old Catholics. Perhaps you do not like the term, but it is hardly my own invention.

You didn’t answer my question. Which is more accurate? RCC or CC? Yes, the Vicar of Christ resides in Vatican City. On official Church Documents, does it refer to itself as the Roman Catholic Church or Catholic Church? Why not refer to something what that something refers to itself as? You’d rather go by the publishers of a phone book? Sounds about right. Is our catechism titled the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church or the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Check out these official Church documents so you know what the Church refers to herself as.
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_ben-xvi_apc_20091104_anglicanorum-coetibus_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19921011_fidei-depositum_en.html

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1986/november/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19861119_dacca-bangladesh-chiesa-cattolica_en.html

…and about 30,000 more! Be accurate.

 

[Lampo]

If I estimate what is sinful to be good,

That’s not what I’m saying. Sin is not good. I think everyone agrees to that. It’s obvious.

You’re right. Sin in itself is not good. We sin to meet what we think is for our own good. I’m going to assume that you sin. I apologize to you if you don’t sin. Whatever that sin is, you do it because you are desiring something that seems good to you. At the same time, you know that it is *ultimately *not good for you.

 

[jmcrae]

If I estimate what is sinful to be good, then I reject what God has said and thus reveal my sinful nature. Let us use your example of stealing. God said “Thou shalt not steal.” If I say to myself, however, “I want to steal anyway because it brings to me pure enjoyment,” then I am seeking my own enjoyment in spite of God’s express command to the contrary.

Actually, in real life, the thief is much more likely to say, “I have a need that Moses did not anticipate when he made that rule 4,000 years ago. God will understand my need to steal.”

Most people don’t sin for fun - they sin because it gets them something they think they need, quickly, without a lot of bother.

People lie, not because they enjoy fooling other people, but because it’s easier to tell someone what they want to hear, than to tell them things that might make them angry or disappointed.

They steal because they “need” something that is either not available for sale, or not available at a price they can afford. Or because they need money for something else.

People do violence to other people to make them stop doing something else, that the person thinks they need to stop doing - and to send a message that “this will not be tolerated. I hurt people who do this kind of thing to me.”

These things are sinful. God forbids them. But people do them because it’s easier than doing the right thing, or else because they don’t see themselves as having a choice in the matter.

There was an incident in a school yard last week where one boy was mercilessly and never-endingly taunting another boy. In the end, the boy who was being taunted, after complaining for some period of time about the taunting, simply starting beating the living daylights out of the boy who was doing the taunting.

Believe me, he stopped taunting the other boy. Of course, the other boy got in trouble - but the desired result was gained. He sinned (he hit his friend really hard) because he didn’t see himself as having another choice. Negotiation was simply not working. Did he sin? Yes. But not “for fun” - it was because he desired a good (that the other kid would stop taunting him) that he couldn’t seem to get in any other way.

 

[Lampo]

I think the key might be happiness. Man’s greatest good is happiness. That is why we sin. We are associating happiness with good. When we sin we are seeking some happiness. Ultimate happiness lies with the Lord.

 

[Tomb54]

I think the key might be happiness. Man’s greatest good is happiness. That is why we sin. We are associating happiness with good. When we sin we are seeking some happiness. Ultimate happiness lies with the Lord.

I would like to put my 2 cents in here; I have heard it describe as “when we seek the less goods of this world over the greatest good which is God then we sin.” Since God made all things and said it was good therefore these good things (lesser goods) are what we think make us happy like Lampo says.

As for the Catholic Church’s name it is not roman put that is what since the Reformation it has become known as. Most Catholic belong to the Catholic Church of the Latin Rite, which most people use Roman to make it easier to refer to it. (I guess like a nickname)