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Grex > Agora47 > #75: Help! Is there a Catholic in the house? | |
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| 25 new of 66 responses total. |
jiffer
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response 15 of 66:
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Oct 10 01:36 UTC 2003 |
Actually, a lot of the old dogma has changed. You don't have to talk with
God through a priest, you are now encourage to read and study the bible (I
go to a study class every Wednesday), and there have been a few more changes
in the American Catholic traditions just recently within the last years or
so. Europe has been following this new papal decree that I cannot remember
what it is called other than calling it the GERM. It is nice having a father
is is going through the catholic deaconate program, and a few closely priestly
friends.
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cross
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response 16 of 66:
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Oct 10 03:43 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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albaugh
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response 17 of 66:
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Oct 10 04:43 UTC 2003 |
Wasn't there this Abbott Hoffman who wrote "Steal This Bible!"? ;-)
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mcnally
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response 18 of 66:
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Oct 10 05:48 UTC 2003 |
re #10:
> A friend of mine who grew up Catholic told me that in some Catholic
> churches, you're not 'allowed' to read it; it has to be taught to you
> in church ("spoon fed" was the word she used). Is this true?
If this was ever actually true (I doubt that it was officially prohibited,
though for many hundreds of years the Church certainly didn't make it
easy for the laity to read and intrepret the bible for themselves..) it
certainly isn't official Catholic doctrine any longer, nor has it ever
been in my lifetime. The Church has such a long history I won't rule it
out but I can't guess how far back you'd have to go to find an official
policy against laity reading the bible.
It's hard to say with certainty whether your friend was mistaken about
the policy she though existed in "some Catholic churches" or whether she
was familiar with some wacky backwater that considered itself Catholic
but operated at odds with the rest of the Church (because despite the
Church's insistence that it is one single universal church there can be
quite a wide variation from place to place) but the policy she describes
is pretty much directly at odds with the direction the Church took in
the twentieth century and some high-profile changes it made to get the
laity more directly involved in the practice and interpretation of the
religion, particularly the abandonment of the Latin Mass and many of
the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
re #12:
> Although, come to think of it, I believe it's part of Catholic dogma
> that all communication with God must go through the priest/cardinal/pope
> because they're closer to God.
Not to the best of my knowledge, and totally at odds with my experience
in the Catholic Church, though perhaps it bears some resemblance to the
pre-Reformation Church of 500 years ago. But frankly this sounds like
the same grade of information about Catholicism that I'd expect from a
Jack Chick tract.
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gelinas
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response 19 of 66:
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Oct 10 06:30 UTC 2003 |
Not a Catholic Bible, but the New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha
might meet the need. It's an edition of the Revised Standard Version, and
so does not carry the imprimatur, but it should have all the books found in
the Septuagint.
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michaela
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response 20 of 66:
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Oct 10 10:17 UTC 2003 |
An "approved" Catholic bible will have a little three or four letter
abbreviation in the front. I can't remember what the letters are, but my mom
said it's one way to distinguish a "Pope-approved" bible from the others.
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jiffer
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response 21 of 66:
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Oct 10 11:18 UTC 2003 |
Actually, you may also want to look for the IMPRIMATUR (approval) which will
be on one of the first pages with the copyright info.
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michaela
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response 22 of 66:
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Oct 10 11:56 UTC 2003 |
That's it! They abbreviate that sometimes. :) I knew it had an "i" in it.
Thanks.
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gull
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response 23 of 66:
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Oct 10 14:13 UTC 2003 |
I've always liked the NIV Bible, but I don't know how the Catholic
church feels about it. Also, Jack Chick calls it the Devil's Bible, and
I consider Jack Chick hating something a good sign. ;>
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lynne
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response 24 of 66:
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Oct 10 15:06 UTC 2003 |
re 18: Actually, the source for the #12 quote was the PHS humanities class,
which indeed dealt with Catholicism primarily before the Protestant
revolution. I took the class some 9-10 years ago, hence the vagueness, but
am quite sure that this was a long-standing church policy. I am pleased
to hear that it is no longer the case. Why is such an extensive papl
hierarchy still in place, if the original function has been dropped and
Catholics are now encouraged to think and worship for themselves?
(Who is Jack Chick?)
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polygon
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response 25 of 66:
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Oct 10 15:25 UTC 2003 |
Jack Chick is the author of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of really nasty
little evangelical Christian comic-book-style pamphlets which you used to
see everywhere, left in little stacks in phone booths and hotel lobbies
and so on. Google on JACK CHICK for vast amounts of commentary, satire,
and even an official site.
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cross
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response 26 of 66:
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Oct 10 19:56 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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gull
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response 27 of 66:
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Oct 10 20:12 UTC 2003 |
If you're trying to get people to think favorably of something, France
probably isn't the best country to compare it to. ;>
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jp2
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response 28 of 66:
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Oct 10 20:36 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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lynne
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response 29 of 66:
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Oct 10 22:05 UTC 2003 |
The reasons I would have for taking catholicism to task (assuming I ever
bothered to do so) would be less concerned with centuries-old discontinued
practices and more concerned with head-in-the-sand current issues, such
as the "condoms don't prevent HIV transmission" stance mentioned previously
and the widespread practice of ignoring/permitting/abetting child
molestation by priests, which was exposed just a year or two ago.
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jp2
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response 30 of 66:
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Oct 10 22:54 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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lynne
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response 31 of 66:
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Oct 10 23:36 UTC 2003 |
<tries to bite lip, but misses> It may be accidental that they're spreading
propaganda with 0.1% truth to it?
Sorry. Couldn't resist. They were claiming, as a blanket statement, that
condoms do not prevent HIV transmission. No qualifications to it at all.
I'm not sure I've ever even seen a sheepskin condom for sale; I don't think
they make up a significant percentage of those available, although this
may be different in less-developed countries. I think they're made of
sheep intestine, anyway. In fact, I'm a little grossed out at the literal
thought of a sheepskin condom. Mmmm. Woolly.
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tsty
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response 32 of 66:
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Oct 11 04:58 UTC 2003 |
you prefer ribbed instead?
we should all remember this?
<<sorta sorry, but not really>>
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jp2
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response 33 of 66:
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Oct 13 00:49 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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krj
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response 34 of 66:
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Oct 13 20:11 UTC 2003 |
Let us know what Bible you get.
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goose
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response 35 of 66:
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Oct 15 16:21 UTC 2003 |
RE#26 -- Do you have a URL for that Ron Jeremy/Jack Chick thing?
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flem
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response 36 of 66:
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Oct 15 18:19 UTC 2003 |
I guess it's true that catholics are encouraged to read the bible on their
own now, however... It is still the official position of that church that
to *understand* the bible, you must have divine guidance through the
revelations given to the catholic church. So, while you are allowed to read
the bible, you are strongly discouraged from actually forming your own opinion
on it.
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cross
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response 37 of 66:
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Oct 15 21:07 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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flem
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response 38 of 66:
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Oct 16 14:32 UTC 2003 |
I stand corrected, cross. Apparently I hallucinated the first 20 years of
my life.
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lynne
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response 39 of 66:
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Oct 16 16:20 UTC 2003 |
<giggles at #38>
I think #36 is a pretty standard approach in many churches. They've settled
on their interpretation of the Bible; they want you to go along with them
and not rock the boat with actual thought. Hence my general disillusionment
with organized religion. Faith in God is one thing; faith in someone that
read the Bible x hundred years ago and declared an arbitrary and
absolute interpretation of it is another thing entirely. I was really
surprised to read the Bible for the first time (specifically the Old
Testament) and see how different it was from church-recommended lifestyles.
In particular, I've always been puzzled as to why the Catholic church puts
so much emphasis on Mary, who all things considered was a fairly minor
player in the New Testament.
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