www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology This is a topic about Catholics who try to corrupt the moral teachings of the Church.

I s anyone as sick and tired as I am of people trying to to create their own version of of how the Catholic Church should operate. I don't know how much of a problem it is in the Eastern Churches, but as a Roman Catholic who is invloved in the local Church, I find many enemies trying with all their might to destroy everything Jesus stood for. Somebody once said, "I'm not worried of the enemies the Church has without, but I am terrified of the enemies the Church has within." I'm tired of priests not speaking out against abortion, birth control, gay marriage, and the ordination of women priests. Does any one have any answers?

God Bless,
seminarian@mtangel

Yeah; hang in there and get ordained and be a great priest!

Seminarian,

Well, it's been going on for 2000 years.

I, for one, have a great parish priest who regularly and forcefully speaks out against gay marriage, homosexual activity, abortion, denial of the Real Presence, etc.

The only thing I have yet to hear him explicitly mention is that artificial birth control is evil. He's never denied this at all; simply not touched on the topic (at least in the Masses at which I've been present).

Take solace in the fact that we have a Pope who is not quite as willing as some previous ones to sidestep some of these important issues and who isn't afraid to impose consequences. I'm not saying Pope Benedict does this in everything at all times, but he seems pretty good at it, especially in the light of only being Supreme Pontiff for half a year.

Logos Teen

Take courage. God will prevail!
We have his word on it.
Stephanos I

It would be well to be a bit patient with your priest - he does, after all, have the grace of office, which in turn should give him a heightened sense of responsibility. A sermon to an entire congregation is often NOT the best place to discuss disedifying topics.

Incognitus

How about priests teaching that we love God with our whole mind and heart and strength? How about priests teaching that we love our neighbor as ourself? How about priests teaching that we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners, comfort the mourning, become a peacemaker?

I don't hear too much teaching on those topics either. Looking back at the Gospels, these seem to be the things that Jesus was preaching and teaching about. Don't see a thing about birth control, or women priests, or gay marriage. I thought that the priest was an alter Christus?

Amen, John!

I am very proud of my priest who preaches on the gospel and Holy Tradition and does not preach politics of either left or right.

"At the Last Judgement, I will not be asked how many prostrations I made and how great was my ascetic practice. I will be asked if I clothed the naked, fed the hungry, visited those in prison. That is all I will be asked"

-St Maria Skobtsova

And perhaps the flipside to that is those who may believe that on judgement day, that if they fed the poor and comforted the sick, that God will simply turn a blind eye to there support for abortion and homosexuality.

Thank you to all who posted. And I want to thank especially those who understand what I am talking about. For the others who disagree I'm sorry, your right. There are no important political issues of the day. Everything is going so great in the US and around the world. Yeah, issues that the effect the moral of the Church have no bearing on what Jesus said in the Gospels. The Cathechism of the Catholic Church really means nothing, perhaps we should not even read it. After all,i t only talks about many differnent issues that describe how we should live our life (yeah including specific moral issues such as gay marriage and birth control). I'm sorry, I guess there is no right and wrong in the world and that everything is sailing along smoothly. Why don't we just become like the pagans of our time and believe that there is no wrong choice, just as long as you don't kill someone in first degree murder!

Yours Truly

Nope--just hoping to hear the words of Christ, that were just chanted in the Holy Gospel, expounded on by the priest.

Agendas? We've all got them, whether we're on the right, left, or middle.

Condemnation of abortion and homosexuality is NOT an agenda ! It's an unchangeable teaching of Christ's church.

"How about priests teaching that we love God with our whole mind and heart and strength? How about priests teaching that we love our neighbor as ourself? How about priests teaching that we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners, comfort the mourning, become a peacemaker?"

Thank you! Come to our parish and you will hear such preaching, regularly.

The fact that many priests prefer to avoid certain quite specific topics when preaching does not mean that they are "soft" on these topics. It may very well mean that Father does not consider that those same topics are suitable for public sermonizing unless some recent and specific event makes such a sermon absolutely unavoidable. Would you really want sermons from which the children present will learn the graphic details of abortions? Well, I have no doubt that tape recordings and even, God forbid, videos are available - but I would regard showing such things to young children as a serious form of abuse.

Incognitus

In the Catholic Church in America, one is far more likely to hear the peace and justice social gospel preached (the one you seem to want to hear) than the "Repent (of your SINS, some of which are X Y & Z) and Believe," and "Go and SIN NO MORE" variety.


That would be a reasonable argument, from a protestant.

Fortunately, us Catholics, and our Orthodox brethren, have enough sense to know that Culture of Life issues are just as important as the peace and justice issues, and that Tradition Plus Scripture make up the complete deposit of faith, not scripture alone.

And that opposition to birth control, or women priests, or gay marriage, is just as much part of the desposit of faith as your peace and justice social gospel.

Thank you.

It is so sad that one needs to even make such a self-evident statement on a forum such as this.

It would seem a sign that the Great Apostacy is upon us.

Nobody is talking about excluding Jesus' teachings from the Bible. Obviously that is the most important thing to do. But, do you thin k Jesus wants us to ingore issues such as the killing of the most innocent in our society? I don't think so. Let's talk about Nazi Germany. Things probaly would of turned out a lot better if people, including priests spoke out against the Nazis. Let us pretend that everything is ok. Everything is just fantastic. Why don't we go to Church every Sunday (Which obviously we should, because God deserves our worship and without Him we can do nothing) not talk about how we can apply the Gospels to injustices in the world, and go on and live our lives and do nothing to change our surroundings. What a great idea. Let don't bring peace to God's world. Let us not right wrongs. I live in an area where the priests don't speak out against anything, they have no opinions. In fact, a few priests have opionions which differ from the Church that Jesus started and maintains. The people are confused every wich way I look. Nobody is leading them.