~ Mr.Public Opinion, Coo-ees from the Cloister
Amen brother!
Friends, readers, and countrymen, the reality is that most people don't realize that the goal of ecumenism is NOT an endorsement of religious pluralism, but the unity of the Church. And there is only ONE Church, and that is the Catholic Church. Every religion is NOT the same, and while it's laudable and necessary to learn about other religious, it's important to our salvation (ALL OF US!) to work for unity, which is a nice theological way of saying it is our job to help others find their way INTO the Church.
No, this is not a popular position, which is, in fact, one of the many reasons why everyone hates us. And people hate to be disliked which is why they embrace the lies of pluralsim instead of narrow gate which is Truth. (It's only the narrow gate because so few enter it God saw no need to go to the expense of installing an industrial garage door. He already gave His Only Son...what more do you want?)
So, let me say it again: Ecumenism, striving for unity, does not mean Catholics should embrace other beliefs; it means that Catholics are to work to bring those of other religions into the CATHOLIC faith!
Period. Deal with it. More importantly...live it.
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8 comments:
The "Catholic" folks who took over the RE classes at our church when I finally got fed up believe: "one religion is just as good as another" and "there are many paths to God."
Poor kids!
Excellent post. Probably the best I have ever read on the subject.
As a former Anglican, now a Roman Catholic, I'll just say this once:
Anglicans feel, understandably so, as peevish when Catholics say that Anglicanism exists purely so that Henry VIII could have a go at Anne Boleyn, as Catholics feel when protestants claim (wrongly) that Constantine founded the Roman Catholic church, rather than it being (as catholics believe) founded by Jesus, upon the Apostles, and in particular, Peter.
There are many Catholics with such good sense as to avoid making such a mess of history, and alas, there are a great many, perhaps more, who do not mind historical "reductio ad absurdum".
What I find bizarre is the liberal faction within the Catholic church that seems to want Roman Catholicism to turn into Anglicanism.
I do think we could solve two problems at once, if those who believe in scripture and the authority of sacred tradition could all congregate as Roman Catholics, and those who believe in neither, could find a common home in modern anglicanism, which has nothing but the name in common with the earlier versions of that religion.
W
Excellent! End of discussion.
"So, let me say it again: Ecumenism, striving for unity, does not mean Catholics should embrace other beliefs; it means that Catholics are to work to bring those of other religions into the CATHOLIC faith!"
Truth. ;)
Ecumenism ought to be without compromise on our part. The goal is to get everybody back together into one faith, but that one faith is the Faith, not some conflation of all faiths. Can you imagine what would have happened had the Church attempted such compromise with the Montanists? Or the Arians? The Cathari? The would be nothing recognizable left of the Church today. Why then does it seem like so many want to do so with the modernists and the Protestants today? I seem to recall certain warnings against such lukewarmness...
Leave the light on for the Anglicans; give them a country welcome. But as Warren pointed out there are some things which are neither kind nor necessary to drag up in every discussion with them.
I gotta be honest. I loved the paragraph and all, but I was just hankerin' for some polemics. Which I've caused.
But I really wanted to use it as a springboard to make my point about what Ecumenism REALLY means.
Did I do it well? Nope. Is it surprising? Nope.
But the fact remains that King Henry wasn't a great guy, he got pissed at the Church because the Church wouldn't give him what he wanted to he led a whole bunch of people into schizm.
And we look at the Anglican "communion" and see nothing but disaster and splintering.
For centuries they've been in a canoe without a paddle. That's a fact.
My heart goes out to them, it really does. There are many who are watching their "church" fall into ruins around them, and they are coming into the Catholic Church.
Yes, we welcome refugees, but it saddens me that they are FLEEING.
I hope you all understand what I mean.
:-(
Oh yeah.
Even when I was an Anglican we used to joke, "an Anglican clergyman is always a gentleman, if he's also a Christian, well, so much the better."
:-)
W
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