VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Celibacy "remains obligatory" for Roman Catholic priests, Pope Benedict XVI stated Tuesday in a long-awaited text that also urges Catholic lawmakers to oppose laws favouring divorce, abortion and euthanasia.
"I reaffirm the beauty and importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God," reads the apostolic exhortation, the first of Benedict's papacy and second in importance only to an encyclical.
"I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition," the pope wrote in the document reflecting the conclusions of an October 2005 synod of bishops....
Really? You seem to be denying everything that makes a person uniquely Catholic and yet claim to be a Catholic! Just attending Catholic services doesn't suffice.
How dare you tell me I'm not a gun supporter! Of course I am! I just deny the following beliefs, that's all.
1. I should own a gun. 2. Americans should be allowed to own guns. 3. Guns are good for the general population. (Crime control, etc.)
Even though I seem to be anti-second amendment, I regularly attend NRA meetings. Its the height of stupidity for you or anyone else to claim that just because I deny the above I'm not a gun supporter!
Disclaimer: I am a second amendment supporter. I only said what I did to make the point.
You are indeed intelligent in that you see the unscriptural nature of Catholicism. However, you seem to want to deny those aspects and yet avoid the "stigma" of the title "Protestant". (Which, of course, I don't think carries any stigma, but you get my point) Some of the denials you make have leveled the charge of heresy to people and sentenced them to the stake. You should read "Foxes Book of Martyrs". Obviously, previous Popes thought those dispensable beliefs were important.
GG:I am not and never will be excommunicated from the RCC because my priest and bishop will never become cognizant of the fact that I do not believe all RCC doctrines because it is none of their business what my beliefs are. My beliefs are between me and Jesus. And I was Baptized on 13 January 1963 in a Catholic Church in the Upper Middle West of the United States when I was less then a month old. I attend and belong to the RCC and I do not attend or belong to any Protestant Church and thus I am not a Protestant and there is nothing else that I can logically be but Catholic.
Kyle Smith:It is the height of stupidity for you and anybody else to assume that all RC's believe all RCC doctrines. And it is pretty stupid to state that because I do not believe all RCC doctrines that I can not claim to be a Catholic. Well guess what? I am going to claim to be a practicing Catholic regardless if I do not believe all RCC doctrines because if I attend Mass every weekend then I am a practicing Catholic. A practicing Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant is someone who attends the worship services of their church every weekend. That is the definition of a practicing Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant.
You are just one of many in a long line that have been telling him that he can't claim to be a Catholic and deny the things that he does. It is nice to agree with you at least once even though we are coming from two different sides.
I'm reminded of that scene in Airplane when that lady is freaked out and there is a line of people waiting to tell her to "snap out of it".
Oh contrare mon frare! With your very own hand, you admit to denying the beliefs of the Catholic faith. This excommunicates you by your own words. Hence, you are NO LONGER, IF YOU EVER WERE, a Catholic. You are so fouled up, you may not even be a Protestant. You are an odd duck, in a religion of one. Neither fish nor fowl! You have not the Authority nor the education to understand that you can't just drop entire dogma's from your belief system and remain a catholic in good standing. As it stands...YOU are the one, who will be standing before the "MAN", trying to explain, why you shouldn't wind up as a boiled sausage at the devil's next soiree. Christ will not look kindly at a cafeteria christian, who says to his face, "I'll have some of that, but done of that other stuff that your pushing". Wake up JY....its your behind at stake!
I am not a Protestant and I consider it an insult to be called a Protestant. I am a Catholic and have been a Catholic ever since I was Baptized on 13 January 1963 in a Catholic Church when I was less then a month old. The unscriptural parts to the Mass are: (1)The statement "We acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins". (2)The statement "and I ask blessed Mary ever virgin and all the angels and saints". (3)The statement "May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His church". (4)The mention during the Eucharistic Prayer about the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints. (5)The doctrine that the bread and wine are the actual body and blood of Christ.
I know for certain that those parts to the Mass above are unscriptural because I am being guided by the Holy Spirit to know which parts to the Mass are unscriptural. You did not receive Christ as your Savior when you received your 1st Holy Communion because the bread and wine are not the actual body and blood of Christ. If you had received Christ as your Savior by praying to Him and asking Him to become your Savior then you would not believe the unscriptural Catholic doctrines and unscriptural parts to the Mass.
Sure JY, just as soon as you identify all of the unscriptural parts of the MASS and Catholicism, and tell me how you know this to be 100% true. I hope that you aren't going to use Prot propaganda and theology to prove this btw. I don't want to go Prot like you did! Dear Lord, please become my personal Lord and Savior. I know we did this years ago when I took my 1st Communion and again 10 years ago, I wrote the date in my bible "just for the record'...but my Protestant buddy JY doesn't think anyone else believes in you but him. Thanks!...Now he bore me to tears with some other anti-catholic non-sense.
The only reason that the RCC wants priests and nuns to not get married is because the RCC wants to control the personal lives of the priests and nuns and to control the finances of the priests and nuns.
Lance, GG and other RC's on here:Repent of and renounce the unscriptural RCC doctrines and the unscriptural parts to the Mass and embrace and receive Christ as your Savior by praying to Christ and asking Him to become your Savior or else when you guys stand before Christ after you guys pass away then He will tell you "Depart from me you workers of iniquity into the Lake Of Fire prepared for the devil and his angels". You guys have been warned about the eternal consequences of not receiving Christ as your Savior.
FR Our 'friend' illustrates just how willfully blind someone who has had a "Genuine False Conversion Experience" can be. And how salvation is so a matter of the heart and not merely the intellect. Can we say it? It is the heart of the unsaved that needs to be changed or no matter the amount of Truth they hear will ever matter to such a one.
JY, If you were so all fired dedicated to Jesus Christ you would be in His word and learn from Him what is obedient to Him. You certainly would not justify yourself in staying in the false religion of Rome.
But hey if you were born again and had as a child of God the discipline of God in your life you'd probably have an appreciation of such things but as the natural (unsaved) man does not comprehend the things of the Spirit of God it is no wonder you hold to Religion rather than to Jesus Christ and His Word.
John Yurich, The intent of catholic was "universal church" not Roman. Martin Luther-I am truly thankful to God for him and he is dear to me and although his motif "justification by faith" was correct everything he espoused was not. He still was only a man and I also happen to disagree with his position on baptism. Maybe having two lives to live(he died in his mid-fifties as did Calvin) he would have denounced infant baptism,etc. Creeds may be good but our Lord expects us to pray from the heart. How can you go to an idol altar and receive a so-called blessing from a man who denies that Jesus Christ totally satisfied God's demand for sin and once a sinner believes in Christ's full atonement he is "forever purified" positionally before Almighty God? All protestants do not pray the Lord's Prayer during their worship services. Once again the eucharistic prayer is "blasphemous"!!!
I know that catholic means universal and Catholic means the Catholic Church. And if making the Sign Of The Cross was unscriptural Luther would never had retained the practice in the Lutheran Church because Luther had received Christ as his Savior. In Luther's Small and Large Catechisms Luther wrote before praying to "Bless thyself with the Sign Of The Holy Cross". The Apostles and Nicene Creeds are scriptural except for the statement "We acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins". And I do not go to Individual Confession. I do however go to Communal Reconciliation Service where sins are confessed directly to Christ and then everybody goes up to the altar where the Priest or lay individual lays hands on and gives a blessing. I also every night when I go to bed rededicate my life to Christ and ask Him to forgive any sins that I may have committed during the day. There is nothing unscriptural about the Lord's Prayer. All Protestants pray the Lord's Prayer during their worship services. The only unscriptural parts to the Eucharistic Prayer are the part about transforming the bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood Of Christ and the part that mentions the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints.
What say ye to that Jonathan Yurich? And please don't tell us about your brother's church. We don't care. What do you say in response to Scriptural answers?
Hey, John Yurich, 1) In case you were wondering "catholic" in the creed means universal church, not to mean Roman at all. 2) Where is this symbolic sign mentioned in the scripture? 3) The Lord's prayer is a good example prayer and okay to pray once in a while but God hates vain repetition and wants us to use our own words fromn the heart. Also, though they might be sincere God hears none of the papal peoples prayers because scripture says He does not hear the prayers of the wicked. John, you don't attend confession I hope? 4) God requires repentance not an established rite. Proverbs tells us we need to confess our sins to God only and then forsake them through repentance. 5) You yourself have shown that this eucharistic prayer is blasphemous. I agree with Michael. The entire mass scene is abhorent to a holy God.
The scriptural parts to the Mass are: (1)Apostles and Nicene Creeds (2)The Sign Of The Cross (3)The Lord's Prayer (4)Penitential Rite (5)Prayers to Christ (6)The Eucharistic Prayer(Except for the part that mentions the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints) that contains the words of Christ the Last Supper.
John Yurich, By you staying in the rcc for such a long time is a little bothering to me(I sympathize some because I to was saved out of the rcc 22 years ago). I was wondering what aspect of the adulterous mass to you consider biblical? II Corinthians 5:17
Let me just state one more thing too Johnny Y (who is a liar by the way, because that's about the 3rd or 4th different name you've ever used on this forum.) You used to talk about being logical. Can't you ever come up with something original to say on these sites besides the same old drivel that you have not changed for the past 4 years. You seem to have no logic and nothing substantive to say except that "your brother who belongs to some other church says such and such." Grow up and bring something substantive to the table or quit wasting everybody's (including your own) time.
Rev. Colin Mercer | 11/19/2012
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