I/we have been taught a great many things by Holy Mother Church. Much is good and useful (What! church teachings can be useful???). But some of it is - well - open to question. For one thing, any book of Church teachings carries the usual Latin pronouncements of freedom from errancy. But, who says that the words are free from errancy? Why, the Church does! For that matter, one of the rare infallible papal statements concerned the infallibility of the Pope. Oddly, I have never seen this one questioned. Sometimes we speak of trinity and talk in circles. In this modern world the Vatican and all that flows from it has been open to question (not the same as doubt) since the publication of Humanae Vitae. Humbly I join with the numbers of Catholics who now question. After all, we are merely looking with new eyes upon the same institution that brought us the Inquisition, the Reformation, and limbo.
And so, this blog is dedicated to anyone who wishes to expresses his or her concerns regarding Catholic teaching and/or Sacred Scripture.
Dear Lord: let it not be only me.
2 comments:
Were you around during the Reformation? Me neither. But as I recall, it all started when Luther questioned the authority of the Church to grant indulgences. I think what he said was that the Church had not the authority to grant salvation. If I understand present-day teaching, the Church agrees with that and lets that authority rest with God alone. It is one thing to show the way to salvation and quite another to possess the authority to open the gates for souls. We, in fact, reaffirm that principle when we say that "God is the judge of that person". Whew! I am sure glad that I don't have to make any of those calls! God is welcome to that one.
But here's my problem: If the Church cannot grant salvation (it can't) then it follows that neither can it pronounce condemnation. That seems very obvious to me. Now, what is the difference between grand theft auto and missing Mass on Sunday? Why, the crook doesn't receive eternal damnation of his immortal soul from the judge. You see, the Church that I grew up in was very fond of making a rules and then tacking on "under pain of mortal sin". It has taken me 60 years to sit up say "Wait a minute! They can't do that!" A church which cannot grant salvation cannot confer condemnation either. That church can certainly say that, if a moral principle is violated, a person is risking the very fires of Hell, but it cannot claim to actually send that person there. Yet, it has always seemed to me that our Church has told us that, if its rules are broken, we shall forfeit our souls. (That isn't really true either since we are also taught that our souls will live forever.)
I guess I really see a Church with some real power and authority issues here. It would be nice if the Church would "gird its loins" and give up the control movements and simply relax and be a divinely inspired guide to salvation. I just can't find the passages in the NT wherein Jesus says that he will start a church that will make the journey as complicated as possible and will rule with fear. Maybe my Bible is missing some pages. How about yours?
This quote is from this coming Sunday second reading:
"Brothers and sisters:
For freedom Christ set us free;
so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery."
Slavery?? How does this apply to my life in this modern world? The ,"shoot from the hip" answer has always been: "This refers to the slavery of sin such as: (name your poison.) Now, I have a strong tendency to take a non-traditional perspective so I will look at it this way:
Slavery is a lack of freedom. If a person lives in an environment that is totally ruled in detail by law, then I would suggest that he has lost his freedom. Jesus only gave us two laws but the RC Church has an enormous book called Canon Law http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09056a.htm
When I think of it, I wonder if we as Catholics, have not become slaves to our own Canon Law. It is one thing for civil law to legislate civil penalties for violations and quite another for the Church to infer eternal hellfire for violation of its laws. So this is a different slant on Paul's writings regarding slavery. Does the Church guide or does the Church imply a loss of freedom (ie., slavery)? Certainly civil law is intended to force a certain level of safety and security. But what about Canon Law? Does it force or does it guide? Does it deal with a group or does it deal on an individual level? For that matter, what ought a church to do - force or guide? What would Jesus do?
My only point is that this week's second reading ought to make us think. Think about what it means to us today.
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