Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

A reference page for my friend

Posted: December 17, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, personal
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At game night this week I was informed that a friend of mine who is not religious is considering becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.

I live across the street from 3 generations of Jehovah’s Witness, they are some of the nicest people in the neighborhood and their imminent departure in my opinion is a huge loss to the entire block.

That doesn’t mean to say that theologically they aren’t out there, they ARE, but having the theology right is small comfort if you don’t follow through.

I’m a little torn about it because I know enough about the theology to see the gaping holes, and they have the weakness of all protestant sects in terms of history, origins of the bible and the church fathers. But my friend is not very religious and in the 30 years I’ve known him never has been, maybe he needs to walk before he runs.

But when I asked him about it, and made my own objections to the theology known, he came back with the “Catholic use of Father” business. No offense to my pal but that old chestnut is pretty weak.

So for his benefit I include links here here here and here debunking it but I will only directly quote Fr. Ray Suriani who does the best job of the lot:

“But the real question is: In doing this, did Jesus intend for his words in verse 9 to be understood literally? Or was he speaking in a figurative way? If he did mean them literally, of course, then you’re absolutely correct in your assertion, and we Catholics should stop calling priests ‘Father’ immediately!

“However, it seems to me that if Jesus did intend a literal interpretation, then he certainly would have followed his own rule. That sounds reasonable, does it not? He wouldn’t have given his disciples (and all of us) a commandment—not to call anyone on earth ‘father’—that he didn’t intend to keep himself.

“But you see, when we examine the wider context of this verse (i.e., the rest of the New Testament), what we find is that Jesus did not observe this rule himself! For example, in this very same chapter of Matthew (in verses 30 and 32 to be exact), Jesus uses the word “father” to refer to men here on earth! Speaking to the scribes and Pharisees in verse 30, our Lord says, ‘And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Then, in verse 32, he says, ‘Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.’

He then points to a few other points in the new testament where this takes place:

“Jesus did the same thing at other times in his ministry: he referred to people on this earth as ‘fathers’. Just read your King James Version and see!

“And so did the writers of the New Testament! St. John, for example, addresses ‘fathers’ more than once in the second chapter of his first letter.

“St. Paul calls Abraham ‘the father of us all’ in chapter 4 of his letter to the Romans. And then, in 1 Corinthians 4, he goes so far as to speak of himself as a father—a spiritual father—to the Corinthian people. Can you imagine? Of course, that makes perfect sense to every Catholic, because St. Paul was a priest! As a priest, he was a spiritual father to all the people in the various churches he founded.

“The bottom line is this: If Jesus intended a literal interpretation to his words, ‘Call no one on earth your father’, and if violating the words of Jesus is a sin, then you’re forced into a position where you have to say that Jesus himself sinned! You also have to say that St. John and St. Paul sinned when they wrote the words of Sacred Scripture.

Bottom line: This is a bogus argument!

My friend is a great guy. I’ve known him since we were about 15. He is a fine fellow and he will be no less fine if he decided to become a Jehovah’s witness. I’m proud to call him my friend today and I’ll be no less proud to so till the day we die!

Be careful what you pray for

Posted: December 5, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, personal
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Today my pastor wasn’t available so I needed to go to another church for confession.

Lucky for me the wife had some shopping to do near a church this afternoon so I went with her; dropping her off as Marshalls and went down the road to St. Leo’s figuring I could pick her up when done. I was worried as they tend to have a line but as it turned out an extra priest was on so I was in and out of fairly quickly.

After saying my penance prayers in the church I headed down to the road happy that my wife wouldn’t have to wait for me but thinking the penance I was given seemed small.

When I got to the department store the wife was still having trouble deciding what to get in terms of a gift sweater. Once I was there she had me going back and forth with her looking through woman’s sweaters, every one I suggested didn’t make the cut, wrong materials, wrong style, wrong cleaning instructions etc, etc etc…

I learned two important things today:

God has an excellent sense of humor

When God wants to show you mercy, take it, don’t question it!

Here endth the lesson!

The many ways the Irish Church Scandal is horrible

Posted: November 29, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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It goes without saying that the scandal in the Irish church is reprehensible and in some ways even worse than the similar scandal in the American church a few years ago. Legally and morally it is simply horrible.

In terms of a Victory for Satan it is one on many levels:

First it is the victory of the actual sin.

Then there is the victory of the sin of corruption of the individual priests involved and the violation of their vows.

Then there is the victory in the corrupution of their superiors failing to act and abeting their sin and again violating their vows.

Then there is the corruption of the police and the sin of persuading them not to act in name of the church

Then there is the sin of creating scandal in the church.

There is the effect on the people who might reject the truth of the church due to anger over the scandal.

and finally there are those who might not even consider the church due to the news of all of this.

All of these sins and all of the potential for lost souls can be traced directly to the actions of both the priests and their superiors who let them get away with it. It is just as much an assault on truth as the climate change stuff is.

Consider this: If at the very start, the first report in the 60’s instead of giving in the temptation (and it was actual temptation they gave into) they took decisive action, what would have been the result?

The scandalous behavior would have been stopped.

Others tempted to sin would have thought twice.

The scandal would have been brief and confined to a couple of priests and most importantly.

Many innocents would have been spared.

But if’s and buts mean very little, unfortunately the church in Dublin the priests and Bishops and Cardinals involved forgot two things first their scripture:

Thus says the LORD: ‘I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'” 2 Samuel 12:11-12 emphasis mine

And second the whole reason for the church to SAVE souls. At the first report it is the job of the superior to attempt to save the souls involved, covering things up doesn’t do it.

It is ignorant Catholics like Lawrence O’Donnell…

Posted: November 23, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, internet/free speech
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…who went through the Catholic school system and are culturally catholic but actually don’t know and don’t believe the tenants of the church who do the most to help people justify and ignore sins.

What he doesn’t know or more likely won’t acknowledge is that unlike people in a parish who might privately not agree with one or more tenants of the church, Pat Kennedy has publicly proclaimed his opposition to church teaching on a subject of intrinsic evil. For it is written:

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea”.    Mark 9:42

Yet O’Donnell proclaims the Bishop who actually bothers to do what he SHOULD do for the sake of both Kennedy’s Soul and his own (since as a Bishop it would be a dereliction of duty to not address it.) he is marked as a “political hack” on both TV and radio.

Now if you want to argue that there is a political aspect to what the Bishop says fine, to call him a hack and say he is misrepresenting Catholic belief, only a person who doesn’t actually believe can say that with a straight face. I suspect he will continue to make these proclamations and keep his regular spot on Morning Joe and MSNBC while Bishop Tobin continues to do what he thinks is right for the soul.

Eventually the day will come when they both find out who is right and who is burnt. I presume O’Donnell doesn’t worry about and/or believe this is an issue. That is his privilege for the rest of his days.

After that he’s on his own.

You know lets do a quick three prayers for O’Donnell, an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory Be. He may be a pain in the neck but you know what, his soul is just as worth saving as mine and I’d like to see both of us arguing politics some day when we are both done here. Maybe he can send an e-mail to Almightly Answers.

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