Edward Morrissey and Elizabeth Scalia have written an open letter to their fellow Catholics reminding us that the foundation of our faith and of social justice is the sanctity of human life, and its origin. I highly recommend that all Catholics read th…

My frustration at Mass

I believe you, Ed. I encourage you to have a look at the websites below when you get a chance. These folks live in the UK. There are a couple small things we differ on, but no two people agree on everything anyways. The most important thing is that they are true Bible-believing Christians who are preaching the Gospel:

“My conversion from a practising Catholic to a Bible Believing Christian is primarily down to the change that I witnessed in my father’s life. One day I heard him listening to an old time American preacher. I remember saying to him: “Why are you listening to this? You’re a Catholic and we’re good people.” He responded by saying to me: “It isn’t enough for me now. I need something else. And I am not a good person.” Now, I must say that for a person who went to church every day, was on most church committees and had even penned a book about our church (which sold very well), this amazed me. This was to be a major turning point for my father and little did I know, for me too.”

http://www.excatholicsforchrist.com

http://www.youtube.com/excatholics

Gotta run and most likely won’t be back on tonight. I have a sick kid. Went to the doctor earlier and came home for a nice nap. Alas, she is now awake and wants her mommy. ‘Night all:)

Jvette on October 20, 2008 at 8:06 PM

God bless, Jvette.

I’m praying for your daughter to get well soon.

Of course, when the Dallas Morning News did the write up about the letter last weekend when it started circulating, they found every liberal Catholic who got pissed and walked out of their particular parish in the middle of Mass to interview for the article who sniffed about how the Catholic Church was endorsing one candidate over the other and that was a violation of the Church’s tax-exempt status. Funny, I don’t recall hearing a single candidate’s name mentioned once during any of the three Masses I attended this weekend.

Why? No one’s talking about killing you and your family. Yet.

jim m on October 20, 2008 at 6:36 PM

It’s but a tiny step from accepting the killing of unborn life is an inalienable right to the decision that Grandma’s best years are past so it is time to put her down “for her own good.”

The only thing I can’t understand why the pro-murder crowd insists on the doing the act before birth. Surely, the same crowd that sees nothing wrong with killing a fetus viable outside the womb can see the value in giving the new parents an obligation free 90-day trial offer before deciding if the child is a “keeper” or not.

So, without a total ban on abortion, our rights to vote, free speech, free religion, to own property, to marry, to raise our family as we see fit, to be employed, etc. are of little or no practical value?

Have you not noticed the slow erosion of each of the rights you equate with the right to life? When a society has determined that some have a greater right to life than others, it is not a far jump to then determine that some have a greater right to all civil rights than others, and that any and all rights are contingent on the whim of the state and subject to its greater good than to that of the individual.

You seem to feel the right to life is inconsequential compared to your right to vote, raise a family, practice religion and free speech. Could that be because you have already been granted the right to life?

There’s a reason that the first two commandments following those regarding God and worship of him are about mothers and fathers and life. Honor thy mother and father, parents are important. Thou shall not murder. Life is important. The rest are the ones which lay out the way we are to treat each other once life has been secured.

For that same reason, life is the first in the list of rights enumerated by our founding document.

I don’t like the phrasing of “our” and “their” churches. If anything it is God’s churches. Beyond you are wrong that the sacrament of communion in Protestant churches is of lesser significance just because the concept of transubstantiation has been rejected. Communion is every bit as meaningful and significant in a Protestant church as it is in a Catholic church.

The Eucharist is the purpose of the church. To spread God’s word. And there is only one word, Jesus. The Eucharist is intimately intertwined with the Church, one cannot exist without the other. The Eucharist gives the Church it’s purpose, the Church is the conduit for the Eucharist. Can the same be said for any other? Every Mass, every devotion, every prayer, every bit of theology is geared toward the worthy reception of the Eucharist. There is no comparison.

If I were to attend a Protestant church, would I be asked to refrain from partaking in the communion service(providing I was there when one was held)? NO. Is every bit of worship designed to draw people to the communion table? NO. Is the only reason one attends church to celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist? NO. There is no comparison.

What I don’t understand is Catholics’ absolute NEED for information from the ‘official church’ to formulate their opinion on something.

Thakery, you are correct, you don’t understand. Everyone forms an opinion based on knowledge received from outside sources. No one is immune to the influences around them throughout life. Catholics are not incapable of forming an opinion and acting upon it. That should be patently obvious from this thread. Faithful Catholics understand that the world is a complex place, that issues we face are easily muddled with opinions from a variety of sources. That is why we voluntarily turn to the ancient wisdom of her teachers and form our conscience accordingly. The truth sets us free. We don’t have to agonize or “spin” to know what the right thing to do is or how to behave as a Catholic. This is a freely chosen association.

What Ed writes about here is his utter disappointment and disgust that the very men who have taken a vow to lead us on our Christian path, the very men who should have as their most important mission, the preaching of the truth, who are responsible for the souls to which they minister, will not stand up for the truthful teachings of the Church.

Father Corapi has often said he will not go to hell for us. He proclaims the truth. One is free to listen and heed or listen and ignore, but one is assured of hearing the truth of the church’s teachings.

When good and evil compromise, evil always wins.

Until the clergy a certain blogger stops trying to pander to their congregations MSM counterparts and value inclusiveness over truth over making first class, non-impugning ass kissing comments, those lessons will never be taught.

I’m going to start charging for doing you’re editing,Ed.

So, without a total ban on abortion, our rights to vote, free speech, free religion, to own property, to marry, to raise our family as we see fit, to be employed, etc. are of little or no practical value?

Defend your statement, neuquenguy. It strikes me as teenage drama queen material.

politicians who campaign on their membership in the Catholic Church and support abortion are stunningly ignorant of their faith at best, and hypocrites at worst — and Catholics who claim that they can support abortion and these politicians are as well.

Actually, the politicians, and those who advertise they are voting for Obama are heretics at worst, as they don’t even pretend to believe what the church teaches.

At any rate, I had a similar experience at a local parish where the priest was presenting a class on the USCCB’s document, ‘Faithful Citizenship”. Four weeks I went to this and it was basically a waste of time. He was asked point blank, what would be a proportionate reason to vote for a pro-abortion candidate? He wouldn’t give a clear answer; he just kept repeating that other grave moral issues include racism, terrorism, torture, healthcare… It was infuriating. I wish I had been able to read Bishop Vasa’s (of Baker Oregon) comments, that there is none in this election. I suppose I need to forward that to the priest. Of course, I really shouldn’t need to instruct a priest on this, but that is what some of our seminaries seem to be putting out these days.

Some of those voting might just be ignorant, but it doesn’t take a lot of work to learn the Church’s position. I have little patience with Catholics who willfully chose to ignore the obvious. However, I suppose if you have priests who never present the Truth and who are little more than sociologists, and liberal ones at that, as opposed to shepherds, and nothing is ever done to correct the Ted Kennedy’s of the world, people can be confused. That’s why this is all a scandal. It is leading people astray, and many of the priests and bishops have this on their heads, or worse, their souls.

Hell is paved with the skulls of priests. –St. John Chrysostom.

You would think that would scare them into doing their jobs, if nothing else encourages them to do so. Sometimes I wonder if some of them even believe in Hell. I pray for them.

1.Life: without the right to life all other rights are moot.

neuquenguy
.
Why? No one’s talking about killing you and your family. Yet.

jim m on October 20, 2008 at 6:36 PM

Some of us care about more than our pocketbooks. I wonder how many people in 1939 were more concerned with the economy or healthcare than with what Hitler was doing in the death camps.
In case you didn’t get it, I am talking about the murder of millions of babies in this country. For me, that is the number one issue.

neuquenguy

Why? No one’s talking about killing you and your family. Yet.

Really? So I can’t be for the right of free speech without being pro-life? I can’t be for the right of free voting without being pro-life? I can’t be for the right of free exercise of religion wihout being pro-life?

What sort of stupidity is that, esther?

But silence on the abortion issue can be construed as implicit agreement.

pt on October 20, 2008 at 1:17 PM

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93T8BR80&show_article=1

NoDonkey on October 20, 2008 at 4:37 PM

I have noticed that not only Obama in his adds, but sever “catholic” witters have been going through incredible contortions to try to make the idiotic argument that Obama is in effect the pro-life candidate. Unfortunately there a lot of ignorant “catholics” that buy it.

NoDonkey on October 20, 2008 at 4:37 PM

Nice.