J
JamesCaruso
Guest
If you misunderstood the context of my statement, let me explain it to you. The Church does not extend membership to individuals who do not wish to follow Christ’s commandments. The Church requires Catholics to profess a litany of tenets of the faith and teachings of the Church and to recognize the infallible teaching authority of the Church. While the Church may invite anyone to come to Mass and pray, worship God, and listen to the scriptural readings and homily of the priest, it does not welcome anyone into Church membership unless they agree to profess the tenets and teachings of the Church.The vast majority of Catholics of child bearing age use artifical birth control… and they are all invited. The vast majority do not attend weekly mass - the Easter/Christmas ones are ALWAYS warmly welcomed and invited back.
I don’t know what you are talking about… my Priest practically begs us to invite our friends and neighbors to mass. He never once says only those who are willing to follow His commandments. He says all are welcome at mass.
The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts. Sometimes that happens quickly - sometimes it’s a life long process. I’ve never once heard of someone being asked to leave their Church because they were a sinner. Have you?
Where do you come up with this?
I’ll take your points one at a time., but I promise to answer all of them.
First of all, you say all are invited. I ask you to be more clear. Invited to what? Invited to come to Mass and pray to God, and to listen to the scriptural readings and homilies? I would invite the devil if I thought that would do any good. That is not the same as saying the Church invites everyone to join it on their own terms. If that is your perception, you have sadly missed the point of Catholicism. The Catholic Church prescribes what its member must believe. For example, a person cannot be a Catholic and refuse to believe in the divinity of Christ. It is a tenet of the Catholic faith. When a person becomes a Catholic he professes this truth. If he openly refuses to believe it, he is refused entry into the Church. That is not to say that the Church does not invite atheists, but it does mean that an atheist may not be a valid member of the Catholic Church. Atheists are only welcome into membership in the Church if they repudiate atheism and accept the divinity of Christ, among many other requirements.
Many Catholics practice artificial birth control. The Church in Humanae Vitae made it perfectly clear that the use of contraception is a grave sin. This practice belies an individual’s profession of Catholicism. It is also a denial of the Church’s infallibility in its teaching authority. Some Catholics may want to refashion the Church to agree with their own notions, but that’s not the way it works. It would not matter if 99% of American Catholics practiced birth control, those who advocate the use of contraception have no right to call themselves Catholics. The Church will still be a vibrant organization, especially through those third world countries which accept all of its teachings without reservation or exception. I would go further to say that those priests and bishops who defend the use of contraception have no right to call themselves Catholic.
As for Catholics who only attend Mass on Christmas and Easter, you are clearly talking about a welcoming back to church to pray, worship God, and take instruction. There is always a welcome mat for these, and as I said before, no one is excluded from this kind of welcome. However, Catholics who do not practice their faith by attending Sunday Mass are advised by the Church to confess this as a grave sin and, if they have not done so, to refrain from reception of Holy Communion. If their intention is to continue in their sin, they have no right to call themselves Catholic, except in the sense that their baptism into the Church is irreversible, that is, they are still Catholics, but fallen away Catholics.
You are correct that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts and that sometimes it is a lifetime process. At the same time, a Lutheran cannot call himself a Catholic because he does not accept all the tenets and teachings of Catholicism. There is a difference between (1) accepting the teaching of the Church of what is sinful and then falling into sin, and (2) not accepting the teaching of the Church and doing the same sinful things. In the latter case, apparently the Holy Spirit has not yet convicted the person that they should become a Catholic, because they do not accept all the teachings of the Catholic Church which is a prerequisite for their calling themselves a practicing Catholic, If they are already Catholic they are only so in the sense of being a fallen away Catholic (their baptism into the Catholic Church makes them a Catholic forever, even if they fail to accept the teaching and tenets of their faith; conversely, if they are not a Catholic, not accepting the teachings and tenets of the Catholic faith bars them from membership) .
Where I came up with this is the teaching of the Catholic Church in the Catechism and other documents of the Church. Where do you still think I misspeak?
