Originally posted by patricivs:
No interest in converting believers from [b]another denomination! Since when was the Catholic Church a denomination? I find this kind of statement from a so called expert problematic.
God bless,
Patricius
[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: patricivs ][/b]
Patricius,
I whole-heartedly feel you. I have even read catholics on the pay roll of the Church, representing the Church, make statments like: "no one likes sheep steeling" in regards to Protestant/Catholic conversion of one another in North America and Latin America. I find this kind of outlook to be a failure in the proper disposition of the conciousness of what it is to be Roman Catholic. It is my view that much of the problem of Roman Catholcism in the West regarding it's loss of people, is many fold yes, but very much a direct result of the failure of the Catholic Bishops to come from out of the Middle Ages in mind set, and recognize a higher educated population that is no longer a blind illiterate peasent class that can hardley think for it's self. What needs to take place is the Church to start putting forth a better effort to teach the faith from childhood on up and to take example of the Buddhist and try to impart on each adolesant those things that will help him/her experience God in the actual/physical not just in the intellectual and thus the teaching of how to actually make discernment on your own as to what daily path is of Christ and Church and of what many daily paths that come along are not. This then would be worked inconjunction with the pronouncements of the Bishops. As it is now catholics are expected to relie on 95% percent pernouncemnts of the Bishops and 5% of their cognition. An example can be given of this by the rather arrogant and idiot, desire of the Bishops (or some Bishops) Brazil to want to make a declaration of the use of condoms by Brazilian prostitutes, that decaration being that there use is a sin and should not be used. When with all the AID's and life struggles that make up Brazil (as with every other nation on earth) the Brazilian Bishops should have been making a strong declaration that Brazillian Catholics are to / should be depending heavily on consul from spiritual directors/confessors. And leave the sin of condom use of prostitutes between the said prostitute her/his confessor/spiritual director and God.
The Church also has so much internal dissent that it's influence and corruption is eating away at the body of Christ, and breaking down it's defense to Protestanizism. This internal dissent needs to be taken care of. If the Church were to... give me... in ten years I would have the Church in almost entirely clean up of this. As for the Priests who wish to continue in sex with children, and for the Priest in Africa who wish to rape the Nuns and take on dozens of concubines, and for the dissenters of the Church who wish to internaly transform the Church into behavioural Protestants left to Church democracy, for them all... I would crack their backs on the rack.
