Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bralick@finglas.entmoot.cs.psu.edu (Will Bralick) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: One of the best kept secrets in the Catholic Church Message-ID: Date: 1 Oct 90 00:59:00 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Self Similar Lines: 53 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ames!ultra!!spetter@uunet.uu.net (Scott Spetter) writes: > >At one point in the discussion, it was pointed out that if we, as >Roman Catholics, feel a serious conflict between something mandated >by the Church, and what we feel in our hearts, we should pray about >the issue. The Bible should be consulted, and we would be wise to also >seek the advice of some people more versed in the mandate and the >rationale behind it. If these steps are sincerely followed, and we >still feel the conflict, we MUST listen to the words that come from >our own hearts. Sorry. If your conscience is properly formed then you will not experience any conlict between the words of your heart and the teaching of the Church. That is not to say that you will _like_ or _prefer_ what the Church teaches. You are obliged to properly form your conscience. >This is considered one of the best kept Catholic secrets, although I >assure you, there is no one in authority within the Church actively >trying to supress this information. Well it sounds like it is in extreme conflict with the doctrine of the authority of the Church -- it sounds like just what my protestant friends do when they are confronted with an issue. >It is a sort of 'elastic clause' in Church doctrine. Exactly why I am extraordinarily suspicious of it. > When I first learned >about it, it did a great deal to reaffirm my own comfort with the Church's >position. I have never expected to be `comfortable' with the Church's position. I have expected to be challenged by it; but even when in disagreement with it to follow it to the best of my ability (which is not as good as it should be sometimes), and if I fail, I try, try again. >I hope that if this is new information for you also, that it will give >you a positive thought about our Church, be you a member, a fellow >Chrisitian, or just an interested bystander. No, I see it as just another attempt to limit the teaching authority of the magesterium. It is symptomatic of the problems in the Roman Catholic Church in America. Regards, -- Will | If no set of moral ideas were truer or bralick@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu | better than any other, there would be no bralick@gondor.cs.psu.edu | sense in preferring civilised morality to with disclaimer; use disclaimer; | savage morality... -- C.S. Lewis