I agree and I fear those leaders in our Catholic Church that are entertaining tampering with church teaching and scripture trying to figure out how to incorporate “inclusion” of certain lifestyles into church teachings.
I’ve read lately about the delving into scripture by leaders to really try to understand exactly what scripture says about homosexuality in that quest for inclusiveness. After reading this in shock, I read all of the scripture pertaining to homosexuality in the Bible and it’s very plain. Sin is sin and homosexuality is not only a sin it is described as an abomination. I do believe that someone can be blessed by a priest-that priest will not know whether you are or not gay, unless it is someone the priest knows.
But the crux of it is, are we going to cherry pick sins for the sake of inclusiveness? At that point, are we going to remove the strict requirements for sins such as divorce??
If someone confesses their sinful lifestyle, prays for forgiveness and amends their life, then the arms of Christ are open wide. This goes for any sin down to the most venal.
This is dangerous and stands to divide the church if they continue down that slippery slope.
I hear what you are saying, MichaelB. At the same time, many of us go to chruch to hear the word. This is a form of preaching. Also, Jesus instructed his disciples to travel and preach. I am shy myself, so it is difficult for me to approach others and try to share faith with them uninvited. But Jesus did not wait for an invitation, and he encouraged his disciples to preach. He said if they don’t want to hear, just keep going, but he didn’t say we shouldn’t try to extend God’s mercy to others.
Abortion is murder, plain and simple. Whether a child is inside his mother, or outside…he is alive, a living spirit soul, in a tiny body. God has given that baby life. It is not in our rightful power to kill the child.
Sex is not a form of entertainment. It’s for receiving a soul, for delivering that soul to God. This is a difficult subject, with strong feelings on both sides of the line. But murder is murder. And there are so many married couples who are so much desirng to adopt a child.
When there is a separation of church and state…we have abortion clinics.
I truly believe that homosexual people, male or female, cannot help themselves for feeling attraction to people of their own gender. But that doesn’t mean that they have the freedom to act on it. There are so many temptations that arise in our hearts in the course of our lives. But that doesn’t mean we act on them. This is what religious life is all about. Self-discipline, with the help of the strength that communion with God affords. Let these people be friends. There is nothing wrong with that. But when religion begins to endorse what God has condemned, that is the beginning of hell on earth.
Also, the Catholic Church, in the 1400’s through the 1800’s organized “The Inquisition” Estimates of the number killed by the Spanish Inquisition," which Sixtus IV authorised in a papal bull in 1478, have ranged from 30,000 to 300,000 . Some historians are convinced that millions died." So although the church is against abortion, it also authorizes and encourages wholesale slaughter of people of other religions. Similarly, Estimates for deaths during the First Crusade ( launched in response to a call by Pope Urban II in 1095)
vary, but it’s generally accepted that tens of thousands of people, both Christian and non-Christian, soldiers and civilians, died due to disease, starvation, and fighting.
The question raised is "What Catholic teaching or doctrine do you find most challenging…). My conviction is that people who have the humility to recognize God’s dominion, regardless of their specific cosmology, rituals, etc. should all be loved and respected, and that God accepts their worship. After all, Jesus appeared a mere 2000 years ago. Does this mean that prior to that time, for hundreds of thousands of years, no one could approach God with a feeling of veneration and love in their hearts?
The Trinity shoud be addressed logically for all to be able to see The Holy Spirt as The Family of One God in being.
We are all sons and daughters of God fulfilled through both natures, Spirit and Life becoming again in all, rationally.
In all generalization, from preexisting eternal beings and Gods in the Trinity from The Father through the Mother for the Son all becoming the Christ in all mankind becoming again One Holy Spirit Family One God in being.
Logically, we are created from The Father and Co-Redemption is “Born Again” Baptized through the New Eve becoming Transformed into immortalty and from Sacrifice and Penance through Jesus conceived in the Holy Spirit Family of God through the flesh of Jesus in The Christ for all in the New Adam all mankind becoming again “Saved” glorified and transfigured One Holy Spirit Family One God in being, OMNILogically.
Logically Forefathers of The Trinity looked at the Logic of the Trinity as a person all wrong when Tertullian and Praxeas 1st and 3rd century Forefathers of the Trinity only see the Holy Spirit as a person. The Holy Spirit is The Family of God becoming again in all One God in One Holy Spirit Family. And they both missed in logic the fulfilled intelligence existing before creation with the Mother of God, Mary, The Immaculate Conception, Queen of Heaven and God of Mercy existing together with the Father and the Son in One Holy Spirit Family One God in being.
The difficulty in obtaining an annulment. Shouldn’t confession and penance for the breaking sacrament of marriage be enough?? The denying of the Holy Sacrament seems harsh. There are many divorced and remarried Catholics that have gone through all of the hoops to get an annulment just to be denied and as a result, denied the Holy Sacraments. Just my opinion y’all.
I understand what you are saying, and we need to also be reverent to what the Bible says about Marriage. The problem is, if someone is technically still Married to someone else in the eyes of the Church and in light of Sacred Scripture, then these individuals in new Marriages could be continuing to live in sin (committing adultery).
Annulments are not the same thing as “Catholic Divorce,” a common misconception among many.
There was a fun episode of “The Pillar” Podcast where they were trying to figure out whom President Trump is technically Married to : )
As far as divorce and annulments, it’s the act of remarrying that is sinful. And a valid marriage cannot be annuled. I’m civilly divorced but still married since my spouse is still alive. It’s a very lonely existence and the thought of being alone for the rest of my life without any possibility of intimacy is horrible. But, it’s not up to me. I just have to trust in God.
You mean the rest of your spouses life (Sorry, my dark humor coming out. I am not implying that you should be hoping for his/her death nor plotting anything sinister so that you can be free to Marry again.)
I know that we have talked about how there are other ways to not feel alone, but I cannot begin to understand the loneliness that you are undergoing. I Pray that in your obedience, that you find the peace you so desire.
Some of the most ignorant of the Catholic Christian Faith are former Catholics. To which denomination have you deconstructed to? Or are you a “just me and my Bible” kind of Christian? Genuinely curious.
