The Pillar has a “live update” of its original article on DI by various theologians. You can read it HERE.
It is a good and comprehensive moral document. It is very strong and unambiguous, odd for Pope Francis, in many places especially at it concerns what God has defined a the crown of His creation being humanity, created in His image and likeness, male and female he created them.
While some areas could have been tweaked better for clarity, there isn’t much to complain about. For Pope Francis, we dodged a bullet of grotesque ambiguity. That’s a miracle!
HERE’S MY EXCEPTION:
I think the document speaks about sin only twice. That’s the fly in the ointment for me. Let me explain.
I understand that this document is aimed not only at Catholics but to a worldwide audience of believers and nonbelievers. Thus it is an apologetic for the Church’s teaching on the dignity of life trying to convince the skeptical in worldly terms and appealing to the moral good in people often tainted by politics, polls, and how people feel about this, that or the other. In other words, there are for many Catholics and for most non-believers no moral imperatives set in stone that can’t change with the times and people’s opinions.
While I understand this approach and appreciate it to a certain extent, I think the Magisterium of the Church has to declare moral teachings that affect the world not only in the here and now, but as a preparation for heaven or, failing to follow the narrow road of God’s salvation, affecting people not only here but in the afterlife in terms of either damnation or salvation.
Yes, the Kingdom of God is here but not yet. That’s the irony of salvation. And yes, in this life, we must be workers for Christ in bringing heaven to earth as a sign of the salvation that awaits us.
There is no warning to the world, the flesh and the devil, that failing to promote the dignity of life in all its aspects not only damages the world in which we live bringing death and destruction to those who are defenseless, but will affect the final destination of the choices they make that harm the common good and the most innocent but also the guilty, and that destination is damnation or the fires of hell.
There is no “soteriology” in this document as I understand the study of salvation apart from trying to make life better in the here and now.
And to that end, post-Catholics like our current President Biden, are idealists too, in terms of the political ideologies which become like a fake religion in the moral realm. All that they promote that is opposed to this document, DI, they think too they are improving the world, by allowing a woman to kill her baby up to the end of her pregnancy and even afterward. They think it will create a better world to euthanize those who are compromised in any way to include assisted suicide. They think that a non-binary approach to huaman sexuality and making the choice of being sexually what ever someone feels they are is for the common good.
They are wrong, dead wrong. And for a Catholic president and any Catholic who buys into the political agenda of certain political parties throughout the world who promote these post-Christian evils, eternal damnation awaits.
There needs to be a better call to eternal salvation in Jesus Christ in this document and it is lacking. It reads like just one more political statement in a world of multiple moral, immoral or amoral political ideologies.
36 comments:
Biden repudiated it yet fake catholic bishops and priests will vote for him. Reasons.
Speaking of Biden who just defied a Supreme Court Ruling on student loan cancellation:
Biden literally stood there in Madison and boasted that no matter what the highest court in the land says, he won't abide by the ruling? They call Trump a dictator? They try to Jail people for pushing back on this administration while they3 blatantly break the law.
TJM, as I understand you are an attorney, I am astounded that apart from offering us your personal opinions on the moral imperative not to vote for a certain political party or political candidate, you offer no magisterial teachings on this. I suspect because none exists. Your position condemns you as it concerns President Trump. You seem to indicate something which when its logic is extended to its conclusion that Catholics can only vote for orthodox Catholics in a political race as that guarantees Catholic Christendom.
Trump is not a good example of Christianity nor Catholicism. For you to vote for him fulfills the accusations you make against clergy or laity that vote for Biden. Trump is pro-choice, that is clear. Trump is a sexual addict and amoral in this realm. That is clear. Trump is a pathological liar as are most politicians, no one can question that. Trump is a dangerous narcissist and that should concern all people of good will. Trump and most politicians panders to those whose votes he wants. His flip flop on abortion is a clear sign of that because the majority in this country want women to make the choice about keeping or eliminating a child in the womb. He dances around the issue.
Thus for the Catholic voter, by your logic, you can only vote for a faithful Catholic. Yet usually we don’t have Catholics or good Christians running for high office, we have to deal with Biden type Catholics or Trump like “Christians.”
The vote is a matter of conscience and picking sometimes the lesser of two evils. As it concerns Biden and Trump, they are pretty much equal in amorality and immorality, except Trump panders to orthodox Christians while Biden panders to the nones and post-Christians. It’s six of one or a half dozen of the other.
TJM, I would expect you as an attorney to make sound, logical and reasonable arguments about who one may vote for in a political election. Yet you rely on feelings and emotions and politics. I am shocked by that.
Fr. ALLAN McDonald, well, you've gone and done it now, big time. And I am proud of you.
Now, we will hear, once again and without support, the assertion that there are and can be no proportional reasons that justify voting for anyone but Trump.
(You know TJM's argument has never been about faith, right?)
Biden professes to be a good, faithful Catholic and many of our upper and lower clergy either tacitly or publicly agree ( e.g., he's never denied Holy Communion). Non-Catholic Trump, with his many worts and blemishes, would be the better option.
And people say there are no such things as miracles.
While all of you are waiting on the discussion offramp of America politics, some of us might like to steer around your lane and focus on the "road" this post was originally on, regarding this "holy, holy, holy (pardon me while I take a deep breath) document.
The title alone is cause for concern. I think even the most philistine among us can figure out that it means something along the lines of "infinite dignity"...but the infinite dignity of WHO? If it's a reference to God, all well and good. If it's a reference to mankind...uh, not so fast. I THINK (could be wrong--I often am) that St. Thomas Aquinas asserted somewhere in his writings that ONLY GOD had infinite dignity. In fact, I believe we've been taught for a few centuries that mortal sin strips a man of his dignity. Surely, someone far smarter than myself can either clarify this or set us straight--we'll see. But something happened at the press conference where "Cardinal" Fernandez ("Cardinal kiss-kiss", if you will) discussed this new, oh-so-long-awaited-for document with the press.
Like an assassin prepped for a gunfight, Fernandez came armed with 2 weapons: The Code of Canon Law (booklet) and documents from the never-to-be-questioned Second Vatican Council. He began by quoting Canon 752, "Religious submission of the intellect and will MUST be given to the doctrine which the Supreme Pontiff or the college of bishops declares concerning faith or morals when they exercise the authentic magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim it by definitive act, etc."
O.K. Let's take another deep breath. Can we think of ANY previous press conference held in the Vatican where it is opened by an authority figure reminding those present that, "Before I even share anything, you are bound to obedience to accept it uncritically"? Well, maybe that happened some time in the past, I'm not a history expert.
So, if we take that into virtually every other realm--work, relationships, our local parish--what would we think if ANY authority figure began a meeting by, instead of sharing the information, he (or as increasingly seems to be the case "she") begins by asserting authority? "Before we get started, I need to remind you that I am in charge and you will obey!" That desperate and insecure assertion of authority, that alone would certainly taint the entire attitude of those present. It would certainly beg a number of questions. And it is absolutely, certainly UTTERLY TYPICAL OF THE DESPERATE ADMINISTRATIVE STYLE of this pontificate. This alleged pope and his cronies never tire of reminding us that whatever they present is "irreversible" which seems to suggest that they KNOW there will be opposition and they have doubts themselves that their novelties are irreversible.
If that constitutes a suspicion of "style" then I tend to agree with the blog owner. Then entire administrative style of this pontificate is the kind of style that leads most marriages into divorce, leads most businesses into bankruptcy and may even lead souls into...oh, let's not go there. Seriously.
Jerome, we all know the current powers that be in the Vatican are likely of the lowest intellectual wattage in all of Church history, and least educated.
That is why I say that if this document is anything approaching sound and reasoned, that it is a true miracle.
Of course, Cardinal Heal Me With Your Mouth Baby then must come out and remind everyone that they are gods, so, maybe he was cut out of the actual writing, and asked a seminary class to compose the thing so that there would be logic and some clarity?
Robert Royal summarizes this new document quite well with the observation that what is good is not new, and what is new is not good.
To me, it shows the strong tendency of this papacy and its inner circle in always drawing false equivalencies....whether that of man's dignity to that of God, or that of assorted sins against creation being one and the same.
Always poorly reasoned and expressed by these brain trust lightweights, because same as protestants, they cherry pick while failing to see abandoning one small part causes collapse of the whole.
I think the best that can be said about this document is that it is not as bad as they normally are, which still is a miracle.
Bob: My expectations from the Vatican have become extremely low. That didn't happen overnight. They earned it. There are so many verbose, redundant documents, teachings, statements, encyclicals, memos and other texts that, to the average Catholic who has to earn a living, seem to be little more than vain bloviations from men seeking status. Maybe I'm wrong. But it begs the question: Is all of this REALLY necessary. I think our bishops, cardinals, secretaries to bishops and cardinals, apparatchiks and other professional Catholics would, at very least follow the dictum physicians are supposed to follow: First, do no harm.
MY apologies for my failure to use question marks when appropriate.
In hope of redeeming my last post, I'll ask again, IS ALL OF THIS REALLY NECESSARY?
Jerome, the heart of the religion, and the reason for the existence of the sacraments and Church, is that of loving God in totallity and being united in that love now and forever.
Back when this papacy stated in its idiotic encyclical on prayer that those dedicated to a life of prayer needed to get a REAL job, they lost me right there and I have ignored it utterly ever since.
True enough, even a blind pig sometimes finds an acorn, but it's still a pig, and the Vatican has become the supreme stye.
An oddity others haven't pointed out (much) yet: DI says "For Jesus, the good done to every human being, regardless of the ties of blood or religion, is the single criterion of judgment." No citations given, not even to "recent magisterium." I guess it's enough for it to just be asserted.
Nick
Positive assessments of Dignitas Infinita continue to flow worldwide. Pope Francis/Cardinal Fernández have hit a grand slam in regard to Dignitas Infinita.
Not surprisingly, Dignitas Infinita has been trashed by the Homosexual Lobby, as well as the "usual suspects" (those who loath to say anything positive in regard to Pope Francis). The Homosexual Lobby will not permit truth to interfere with its Culture of Death agenda.
Therefore, it is not surprising that said lobby has attacked Pope Francis/Dignitas Infinita.
But then, the Homosexual Lobby, denounced in 2013 A.D. by His Holiness, has a history of having trashed Pope Francis' Culture of Life pronouncements.
Then there are the, if you will, "usual suspects" who, from the dawn of Pope Francis' Pontificate to date, have not permitted anything to interfere with their, dour, depressing, anti-Pope Francis agenda/narrative. Not surprisingly, said folks have trashed Dignitas Infinita.
The important bottom line is that regardless of opinions, good or bad, related to Dignitas Infinita, Jesus Christ speaks through Pope Francis. Holy Mother Church has guaranteed that he who has heard Pope Francis, as well as bishops who have taught in communion with His Holiness, has heard Jesus Christ.
Thanks to the promise of Jesus Christ, Pope Francis' Magisterium is unassailable.
Therefore, may those who have waged war against Dignitas Infinita embrace said beautiful, orthodox document.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
LOL
Nick, the good Samaritan parable comes to mind, but this church as a social worker eco-warrior mentality papacy is blind to the fact you cannot properly love others, and without own selfish needs intruding, unless you first love God enough that own greed is minimized or lost entirely....
to do otherwise is putting the cart ahead of the horse, and essentially phony, and we all know how saccharine is phony concern, where the recipients KNOW they are soon forgotten in the do-gooder's busyness, and that ain't love.
Mark, I am waiting for you to say, "Resistance is futile. Your individuality will be assimilated. Resistance only prolongs the inevitable. Your thoughts are irrelevant. You will be assimilated or destroyed."
.
Now that the bloghog has emitted the first troubling odors of his fan-fiction for his surrogate grandpa, let's look at how "orthodox" this document is.
Pargraph 2 (FOR THE FIRST TIME IN CHURCH HISTORY, THE CHURCH CITES AN AUTHORITY-LESS SECULAR DOCUMENT)This ontological dignity and the unique and eminent value of every man and woman in the world was reaffirmed authoritatively in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948.[3] As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of that document, the Church sees an opportunity to proclaim anew its conviction that all human beings—created by God and redeemed by Christ—must be recognized and treated with respect and love due to their inalienable dignity.
REALLY?
Aside from the consistent evil that the UN promotes on a daily basis, are Catholics required to hold that everyone has "inalienable dignity"?
Well, previous popes have affirmed St. Thomas Aquinas' position that ONLY Jesus Christ has infinite dignity and His Mother through His merits. That's it.
And the all-too-neglected Pius XI included these observations in his encyclical Lux Veritatis:
From this dogma of the divine maternity, as from the outpouring of a hidden spring, flow forth the singular grace of Mary and her dignity, which is the highest after God. Nay more, as Aquinas says admirably: "The Blessed Virgin, from this that she is the Mother of God, has a certain infinite dignity, from the infinite good which is God." (Summ. Theo., III. a.6.) Cornelius a Lapide unfolds this and explains it more fully, in these words: "The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God; therefore she is far more excellent than all the Angels, even the Seraphim and Cherubim. She is the Mother of God; therefore she is most pure and most holy, so that under God no greater purity can be imagined. She is the Mother of God; therefore whatever privilege (in the order of sancti*ing grace) has been granted to any one of the Saints, she obtains it more than all" (In Matt. i. 6).
Dang! He quoted Thomas Aquinas AGAIN! And then, I can't help but think of another one of those annoying rigid saints, St. Vincent of Lerins, who, in Chapter 2 of his Commonitorium wrote this:
"Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient [unanimous] definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors."
In short, it wouldn't matter if the National Catholic Register, The Wanderer, The National Catholic Reporter, Our Sunday Visitor, Uber-homo-holy Pastor Jimmy Martin S.J., Cardinal Fernandez, the entire college of cardinals and every superior general of every religious order were thrilled and offering "positive assessments" of this troubling (sadly typical) document. All that matter is what the Church has always held as truth.
Darn! The past is such a rigid taskmaster! Guess I better go listen to Missa Bossa Nova one more time!
Father McDonald,
Priests and bishops voting for Biden are evil. Sad day when Fr K lauds you. I would feel dirty and take a shower
Rorate Caeli today published Roberto de Mattei's article in regard to Dignitas Infinita.
The article stated:
"However, if it is true that the words of Benedict XVI and John Paul II on nonnegotiable values are an important aid against the dictatorship of relativism, without necessarily meaning adherence to every act or statement of these Pontiffs, the teaching of Pope Francis must also be welcomed when it is along the lines of his predecessors, as is the case in the latest document."
Wow!
Even Pope Francis-hating Rorate Caeli recognized that in regard to the outstanding document Dignitas Infinita, the usual bashing and trashing of Pope Francis would prove preposterous and absurd.
New Catholic may be THE extremist among Pope Francis-hating extremists. But this time, to his credit, New Catholic has distanced himself from his fellow extremists in question.
It was a given that two groups would trash Pope Francis/Dignitas Infinita.
-- The Satanic anti-Culture of Life Homosexual Lobby.
-- Pope Francis-hating extremists who, even in light of the tremendous document Dignitas Infinita, would prove incapable of breaking even for one day from their horrific, depressing, Bergoglio-is-a-God-hating-evil-heretic-who-has-been-planted-to-attempt-to-destroy-the-Church false, evil narrative.
New Catholic will return another day to spew venom at Pope Francis. But at least for one day, even New Catholic realized that he could not sustain his Pope Francis-hating extremism in light of tremendous document that is Dignitas Infinita.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
As I was reading more fan-fiction, I couldn't help notice something that got me thinking...
I played football for four years. My coaches yelled at me. They challenged me. They pushed me hard. They used language that many of today's snowflakes might call "abusive". I have also, at various times of my life, gone to therapists to discuss troubling things that I felt stuck in. A couple of those therapists raised their voices and spoke fairly sternly to me and one even rebuked one of my assertions. Yet NEVER once did I ever think that any of these people "hated" me.
Back when I was a college-educated liberal and fancied myself "enlightened", I had another friend, a college-educated conservative, who I argued with almost every time I saw him. Yet again, never once did I think, even for a moment, that he "hated" me.
Oh, I know what hatred is. I've felt it. But I've also misread other things and called them hatred. My most frequent commission of that error was in my elementary (parochial) school days. If my mom or dad yelled at me or punished me, I would complain that they "hated" me. If a nun or lay teacher demanded more from me than I was giving, I assumed that they "hated" me. Bad grades? It's the teacher's fault. He or she "hates" me. I even had a priest slap the side of my head on a school field trip (I was acting like a jerk) and shout at me to "knock it off!" in front of my classmates. Of COURSE I just "knew" that he hated me, even though, years later, I grew to love him as one of the kindest men I knew.
And so we come to our response to criticism and questioning as adults. Every president I can think of from my lifetime, especially Nixon, Reagan, Obama, Trump and Biden, have all faced intense criticism from their political opponents. But HATE? I suspect some of their political and journalistic opponents actually DID (or do) hate Nixon and Trump, but as for the rest--it's just politics and people doing what they do when they disagree.
Does the editorial staff at Rorate Caeli REALLY hate Bergoglio? I seriously doubt it. Do his more vocal critics like Taylor Marshall or Timothy Gordon or even Cardinal Burke HATE him? That's a hard sell, since everyone in the Catholic sphere that I've heard criticizing him always reiterates that it's our duty to love the pope, regardless of who he is and reminds us to PRAY for him. That's not the language of hate. Maybe they're doing what Jesus prescribed, hating the sin and loving the sinner (if we dare call the pope a sinner) or maybe they're just following the dictum of good journalism: criticize IDEAS, not people.
Either way, I suggest we drop this puerile reliance on calling Bergoglio's critics "Francis-haters".
For our next lesson, we could address how even MORE insanely childish it is to label everyone we disagree with as an "extremist".
I would also add, as a post-script, that dismissing criticism as "hate" is always a great excuse to avoid confronting the ideas we disagree with.
"Oh it doesn't matter what you say, after all YOU HATE me!"
Getting personal is a great way to avoid the substance of an argument. I ought to know--I've done it enough times!
"Dignitas Infinita: Not a perfect text, but a strong one" By Dr. Jeff Mirus
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/dignitas-infinita-not-perfect-text-but-strong-one/
Perhaps it is better than too late, but I pray that Pope Francis sees in the almost universal reception of DI that Catholics who he considers his enemies are not really his enemies but would have supported him wholeheartedly from the beginning if his papal teachings had been as clear as this one.
I wonder what influence the debacle at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with the ideological Gender Theorist crowd that blasphemed God, committed sacrilege and desecrated that Cathedral and a Liturgy of the Church played in cleaning up the pope’s pastoral language as it concerns “todas, todas, todas!” Even Cardinal Gregory in Rome praised the limits the Church places upon aberrant behavior and that there are rules for proper behavior which the Church can’t change.
But at any rate, if Pope Francis had only been as clear and orthodox in all of his teachings as he is in this one, pleasing faithful Catholics rather than the worldly ones and the world itself, the Church would not be in the disarray that Pope Francis has fomented.
Now, he must rescind the silly document of blessing couples who publicly embrace abberent lifestyles. Get rid of the footnote in Amoris Laetitia too.
Mark, Bergoglio as Pope Francis has proved to be a petty tyrant, oppressor, and vengeful against those who simply disagree with him, or especially against those he even THOUGHT were against him, and a reign of terror inside the Vatican with only yes-men surviving.
If you expect me to give him a standing ovation for finally putting out a decent mostly coherent document, as if he were a child with mental disability who finally tied one shoe...well, maybe you are right if that is the proper way to deal with people with mental problems...but, I doubt it would do anything but make it worse.
Bob, I am more than happy to extend a standing ovation Pope Francis with for his having issued the stellar document that is Dignitas Infinita. I give thanks unto God whenever our holy Popes reiterate Church teachings as I, in turn, hear the voice of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
========
Perhaps it is the first time that this, or that person, has encountered the teachings that Dignitas Infinita contains. It may be that Dignitas Infinita has returned a fallen away Catholic to the Church.
Or, said document may have bolstered a Catholic who is weak in the Faith.
From 1978 A.D. to 2005 A.D., I never tired of having heard Pope Saint John Paul II reiterate this, or that teaching, for the 20th...30th...50th time. That applied as well to Pope Benedict XVI endless declarations related to this, or that, teaching.
I give thanks unto God that Pope Francis, via Dignitas Infinita, promoted for about the billionth time Holy Mother Church's teachings related to the Culture of life.
Bob, I will render a standing ovation to a Pope, or any Catholic, who stands with God and His True Church.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark, I will not remain seated during your ovation, but will head for the door, for two reasons....
The Church is radically shrinking in the west due to lack of spiritual direction and spiritual life in general.
Those growing up under the latter Mass are not hangimg around but are quitting entire, far less is it engendering religious vocations which are shrinking faster than the Catholic population in general.
The only religious orders with booming vocations are those who know the old rite fosters an interior life, especially in the cloistered orders where they most closely follow the Gospel precepts. They are the hidden beating heart of the religion, and without people dedicated to a life of prayer, the religion is dead.
And what does THIS pope do? Why, he goes after the old rite and cloistered orders tooth and nail. If ever a pope could cause rejoicing in Hell, this one is making a fine stab at that standing ovation. Anyone is free to join that ovation, but I am looking for the EXIT sign.
After reading all of this gushing praise for this document, I can only imagine what's next. Perhaps we'll get an encyclical commemorating the glories of the French Revolution.
Stay tuned. In this pontificate ALL is permitted.
Bob,
Indeed, setting aside the (now fractious) debate over the Latin Mass, it is mind-boggling how much negativity has been directed toward the contemplative life and orders these past eleven years. Prayer is at the heart of the Church's mission; prayer must precede action; but instead of encouraging that, we get "make a mess" and "todos, todos, todos (except you horrible people who just sit around and pray all day)." Hell must be rejoicing at the weakening of the Church's prayer life.
Nick
Bob, you look for the exit. So be it.
I will, as Holy Mother Church teaches, offer "standing ovations" to holy Pope Francis, as well as each brother and sister in the Faith.
Satan seeks to devour us. Therefore, Holy Mother Church exhorts us to protect each other from Satan via encouragement...to stand for each other.
As we learn from Sacred Scripture:
-- "Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do."
-- "We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works. We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near."
-- "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong — that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith."
-- "Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up."
Bob, count me in when it comes to offering "standing ovations" to support my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Bob, don't waste your time. The bloghog is virtue-signalling to himself.
North Korean levels of sunshine-pumping. Just don't be the first one to stop clapping, MT!
Nick
Mark, your faith is all in the institution and its persons and rules, while my faith is in who established the institution for a purpose, which is that of uniting each and every person possible to God. To the degree the institution and its members does not do this, it errs and fails and will be held accountable.
And this pope has failed most miserably, openly combats that which has proven through the ages as the most effective means of accomolishing its goals, and which pope fixates on apparently the only thing he knows, which are worldly concerns frosted with holy sounding phrases.
This is a pope who would have told St. John of The Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and The Little Flower to get a REAL job like running a soup kitchen or something....you listen to him out of institutional loyalty, while I will listen to who founded the institution.
Jerome, I must admit knowing it a waste of time, as Mark will only quote documents having nothing to do with points I made....
What is so funny is him quoting all that scripture and any seeing person can see that Francis has done the exact opposite of those scriptures in every instance.
Yet, Mark's fidelity is to that person because of the institutional rules, while he ignores all the people who have corrected popes when they erred.
Mark demands that all real Catholics are defined by the ability to turn off their brain/eyesight and simply follow rules. He would have been a wonderful Roman parishoner in any of the corrupt papacies, maybe even an Inquisitor.
Bob, we are in monumental disagreement with each other. You and I are confident in our ways.
It is clear that neither of us will move in the other's direction. But I thank you for the exchanges during the past couple of days that we've had with each other.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Bob said..."...you listen to him out of institutional loyalty, while I will listen to who founded the institution."
Bob, the institution's holy founder has taught us that he is heard via the Pope. Therefore, I listen to Pope Francis to hear our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the manner in which Jesus Christ established His True Church.
Thanks to the promise of Jesus Christ, Pope Francis' Magisterium is our sure and certain guide to orthodoxy. Pope Francis is our sure and certain teacher, governor, and sanctifier.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Bloghog Jerome Merwick, you are correct that Bob is wasting his time...if, if, if he desires to convert me to his anti-Catholic declarations related to his rejection of teachings that pertain to the Papacy. But I am certain that Bob is aware that I will not embrace his anti-Catholic teachings in question.
Bloghog, for that matter, I will never embrace the many preposterous, anti-Catholic beliefs that you have promoted here.
========
By the way, I do not use the term "Bloghog" in hateful fashion. When Mister Merwick first referred to me as "Bloghog," I viewed that moniker as recognition that Father McDonald has permitted me to have posted numerous comments to his blog.
In turn, my reference to Mister Merwick as "Bloghog" constitutes recognition in regard to his many contributions (even though I usually do not agree with him) to Father's blog.
I also find a bit of humor, all in fun, via the employment of said term.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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