I’m not sure what your getting at exactly.
I’m basically expressing the hesitation that many outside of the RCC faith have about having certain beliefs I have to confess if I’m to join the RCC, when the Catholic church claims that salvation resides in said church. When salvation is tied to church membership, and then that church says I have to believe certain things about another human other than Jesus, then salvation is tied to “another name.” You and I could confess (and do confess) all the same things about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, yet that alone is not sufficient in the eyes of the RCC for me to be in full communion. Again, that wouldn’t be a problem if the church didn’t tie membership directly to salvation.
Whether one is a cradle Catholic or a new convert, not everybody has the will, or the competence, or the time, to study and immediately understand every doctrine and devotion.
The profession of faith requires the believer’s assent: “I do”. It requires giving your person over to Christ.
I have given my person over to Christ… and that’s kind of what I’m getting at. I’ve been baptized, and we can stand shoulder to shoulder and recite the Nicene creed together and mean it, and yet that’s not enough from the Catholic position.
There is, by direct teaching, more to it than that (please someone do correct me if I have this wrong). When there is someone like me who would be considered an “armchair theologian” who has studied about God and read scripture since I was tiny, and who has a working knowledge of the CCC, the responsibility of what I confess and embrace goes up because I’m a person interested and capable in this area. The assent, if done in ignorance may be ok, but once you realize what you are assenting to, there has to be some type of agreement, even (I believe) from the perspective of the church. So I have to “fully and faithfully believe” something about Mary, such as the assumption.
Just like a marriage. If you are married, did you know what you were getting into when you said those words “I do”? Probably not, but you make the commitment anyway. The fullness of your marriage commitment, and all the devotion required, were revealed to you over time, am I right? You give your assent, your trust, to Christ, through his Church. Full understanding comes with time.
It is a good analogy. When we know something about our future spouse, when we say “I do” we are accepting it on some level. There will be things I will learn along the way, but some I already know. I’m absolutely sure there are some converts to the RCC and cradle Catholics that don’t know the Marian dogmas, but those like me, do, so we are put in the position to confess and accept something about Mary, which feels much like tacking on another human name under which I must be saved, again because salvation is tied to church membership.
I’m not trying to be difficult
but rather to share something that I see as in issue; in essence, to get down to the point, it seems like there are more and more hurdles set up over time and through the years to “make it” to the place where one is in communion with the RCC. I do believe, however, that recently we’ve seen some of the hurdles being removed (or redefined or explained differently) in the general name of ecumenism, which is really really interesting to see.
