| Re: Why are SUVs and Christianity similar?
no spam wrote:
>>>> My parents were Catholic when I was born and gave it up because of the
>>>> weekly donation issue. It seemed to them that the church was out for the
>>>> money and people were trying to buy their way into Heaven.
>>> Had to drop in here. Your up bringing is the problem. The Catholic
>>> church, in most non-catholic's opinions, DOES NOT follow the true
>>> teachings of Christ and therefore are not a true Christian church.
You're just describing the centuries-old rift between Catholics and
Protestants (some of whom, primarily Lutherans, still accept the primacy
of the Pope). If I were Catholic I'm sure we could get into a heated
debate about it.
>> The Pope is just the figurehead of the church and does not make many
>> decisions. It is the Cardinals that tell the Pope what to say.
Nonsense. It is Catholic dogma to excommunicate anybody who challenges
the Pope's primacy. The *nature* of his primacy can be debated, but his
primacy is seen to have been passed down by Christ himself and cannot be
questioned. Certainly there are politics in the church -- how's that for
understatement? -- but John Paul II, for example, made a significant
number of Cardinals (including his eventual successor) unhappy by his
actions on a fairly regular basis.
As I said, I'm not Catholic myself, but I've spent enough time with
practicing Catholics to have learned a thing or two....
> IIRC, the church still says he and his rulings are perfect and must be
> followed.
No. Catholics believe the Pope is infallible, but not impeccable. These
words have a very specific meaning in this context, and they do NOT mean
the Pope cannot make a mistake. Infallibility signifies the ability to
declare, without error, a teaching that is the direct result of divine
intervention, while impeccability signifies that one is free of sin.
Therefore, it would be more correct to say that the Pope is God's
messenger on Earth (or something along those lines). He is not
infallible in everything he says and he is not without sin, therefore he
is not perfect.
Therefore, the only teachings of the Pope regarded as anything
resembling "perfect" are those that fall under the category of
infallible speech. This is a very rare event -- as I recall, there are
only about a half-dozen occasions in the entire history of the Catholic
church that a Pope has spoken infallibly, the last time being 1950.
Thus, any good Catholic would tell you that NOTHING the last several
Popes said was "perfect".
> Heck most of the Catholics I know don't even follow their own
> rules.
Most of the "religious" people I know, regardless of faith, don't follow
their own rules.
That said, there's actually a process by which Catholics can formally
question some of the tenets of the church without being excommunicated.
I forget what it's called, what can be questioned, and the details about
how it works, but it's an involved enough process that I'm guessing the
people you're talking about are merely lapsed to some degree and not
"officially" questioning the church.... :-)
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