Sentinel

I just read another post asking `Why do Catholics worship the dead body of Padre Pio and could not give an answer as the member who asked, has blocked me simply because I am Catholic,how many more has he blocked I wonder?

I can only request that this person looks up the meaning of honor and then worship, and then stop Catholic bashing.

I know I risk annoying other members by posting this but isn`t it ridiculous for this person to block those best able to give an answer?

The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. This tract will provide some examples of this consistent witness from the writings of the Fathers of the Church.

As the early Christian writer Tertullian pointed out, the law of Moses ordered strict penalties for causing an abortion. We read, "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely [Hebrew: "so that her child comes out"], but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Ex. 21:22–24).

This applies the lex talionis or "law of retribution" to abortion. The lex talionis establishes the just punishment for an injury (eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life, compared to the much greater retributions that had been common before, such as life for eye, life for tooth, lives of the offender’s family for one life).

The lex talionis would already have been applied to a woman who was injured in a fight. The distinguishing point in this passage is that a pregnant woman is hurt "so that her child comes out"; the child is the focus of the lex talionis in this passage. Aborted babies must have justice, too.

This is because they, like older children, have souls, even though marred by original sin. David tells us, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5, NIV). Since sinfulness is a spiritual rather than a physical condition, David must have had a spiritual nature from the time of conception.

The same is shown in James 2:26, which tells us that "the body without the spirit is dead": The soul is the life-principle of the human body. Since from the time of conception the child’s body is alive (as shown by the fact it is growing), the child’s body must already have its spirit.

Thus, in 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion "is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors . . . I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church" (Evangelium Vitae 62).

The early Church Fathers agreed. Fortunately, abortion, like all sins, is forgivable; and forgiveness is as close as the nearest confessional.

This is for purely information purposes as it is asked so mant times here;

The Greek roots of the term "Catholic" mean "according to (kata-) the whole (holos)," or more colloquially, "universal." At the beginning of the second century, we find in the letters of Ignatius the first surviving use of the term "Catholic" in reference to the Church. At that time, or shortly thereafter, it was used to refer to a single, visible communion, separate from others.

The term "Catholic" is in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, and many Protestants, claiming the term for themselves, give it a meaning that is unsupported historically, ignoring the term’s use at the time the creeds were written.

Early Church historian J. N. D. Kelly, a Protestant, writes: "As regards ‘Catholic,’ its original meaning was 'universal' or 'general.' . . . in the latter half of the second century at latest, we find it conveying the suggestion that the Catholic is the true Church as distinct from heretical congregations (cf., e.g., Muratorian Canon). . . . What these early Fathers were envisaging was almost always the empirical, visible society; they had little or no inkling of the distinction which was later to become important between a visible and an invisible Church" (Early Christian Doctrines, 190–1).

Thus people who recite the creeds mentally inserting another meaning for "Catholic" are reinterpreting them according to a modern preference, much as a liberal biblical scholar does with Scripture texts offensive to contemporary sensibilities.

A lady goes to her parish priest one day and tells him, "Father,

I have a problem. I have two female parrots but they only know

how to say one thing." "What do they say?" the priest inquired.

"They say, 'Hi, we're prostitutes. Do you want to have some

fun?" "That's obscene!" the priest exclaimed, "I can see why you

are embarrassed." He thought a minute and then said, "You know,

I may have a solution to this problem. I have two male parrots

whom I have taught to pray and read the Bible.

Bring your two parrots over to my house and we will put them in

the cage with Francis and Job. My parrots can teach your parrots

to praise and worship. I'm sure your parrots will stop saying

that...that phrase in no time." "Thank you," the woman

responded, "this may very well be the solution."

The next day, she brought her female parrots to the priest's

house. As he ushered her in, she saw this two male parrots were

inside their cage, holding rosary beads and praying.

Impressed, she walked over and placed her parrots in with them.

After just a couple of seconds, the female parrots exclaimed out

in unison, "Hi, we're prostitutes. Do you want to have some

fun?"

There was a stunned silence. Finally, one male parrot looked

over at the other male parrot and said, "Put the beads away,

Francis, our prayers have been answered!"

An office worker at Manchester airport(England) was suspended for 3days after a Muslim colleague complained that he had placed a picture of Jesus in the staff room.

The Muslim worker said that the action of his colleague was `highly provocative`

The suspended worker pleaded that he meant no harm to anyone and apologised for his actions and maintained that if the Muslim worker had informed him of his annoyance he would have removed the image.

Now the interesting fact is that not one Atheist or Protestant worker complained at all to British Airways except a Muslim.

I have noticed that a little group of die hard fundies are lively today on here spreading their gospel of venom against anything Catholic, I have to wonder if moderate Protestants find them an embarresment at all or has the past 40yrs of the Ecumenical movement been simply a waste of time, not to mention the hard work of the council of world churches.

Here is a small selection of letters that the Pope recieves from kids;

1. Mr.Pope, my Mother told me that when I was born a Stork brought me, this happened again when my brother was born too, Mr Pope sir, could you ask Jesus to allow my Mother to have a normal birth next time.( 9yr old girl)

2.Dear Pope, yesterday going to school a big cloud followed me,it scared me, tell God not to do that anymore.(10yr old girl)

3.Holy Sir, When I go to sleep at night I have dreams and sometimes they are bad and frighten me,please can you have God send me better movies every night,thank you.(12yr old boy)

4. Holy Pope, what is it like when you die? I just wanna know but I don`t want to do it! (11yr old girl)

(extracts from the `incredible book of vatican facts`)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8M4_IlbaZHA&mode=relate...

Hi everyone, I have a pretty fast broadband connection (2megs) and have no problems with the vast majority of websites, I can download pretty large files in little time but when it comes to Yahoo and especially Q&A`s I regularly have problems.

The most annoying one is the length of time it takes for my answers to register,I could easily go make a coffee and be back before an answer goes through and sometimes it stalls for so long I have to restart.

Anyone else experience problems such as this but only with Yahoo?

name calling is very prevalent in R&S and it seems to go with the territory but is it really necessary to call people `Retards`

It is very inapropiate when many people suffer from mental retardation and I am sure that there are quite a few members of this forum have family members who suffer from this condition, Christian and Atheist alike.

I have been reading in today`s newspaper that sales of the movie` Oldboy` have gone thru the roof since the revelation that killer Cho Seung Hui was inspired by this violent film.

Christians do not differ from others in habitat,language or custom,they live among Greeks and barbarians wherever life has placed them, they follow local custom in dress and diet , but their way of life is seen as strange to many.

they live in their native land as citizens and share everything with their fellow men,yet are treated as aliens,they marry and have children but do not practice abortion,they share tables but not beds.

They live in the flesh but not according to it,they dwell on earth but regard Heaven as their city,they follow established law and love all, yet are persecuted ,they are condemned and put to death, yet are very much alive.

Briefly,what the soul is to the body,Christians are to the world,as the soul is present in all the body`s parts so are Christians in the world`s cities.

The soul loves the flesh and members which hate it,so do Christians love those who hate them,God has set them in the world as His sentinels, and they may not leave their posts.

Which came first,atheism(the synthesis of lies) or Satan(Father of all lies)?

Okay I have to ask this, isn`t this the prevailing attitude of some Protestant denominations that all Atheists are evil and that there are no Catholics in Heaven, can the answers to this be truly honest rather than angry denials,let`s see!

Here are some pretty intelligent arguements against evolution,well worth checking out.

www.epm.org/articles/

evolution.html

What is your response to this?

Here are some pretty intelligent arguements against evolution,well worth checking out.

www.epm.org/articles/evolution.html.

What is your response to this,Christians and Atheists alike?

Yahoo has recently removed all personalized Avatars from Q&A probably because it was the only way to stop porno avatars,how do you all feel about this?

Why all the slurs and bias against Atheists, I am Catholic and have among my friends 3 Atheists who rarely if ever speak about religion and are gentle people even around Christians, are they persecuted because of the anger and foolishness of immature people who are merely judgemental by nature? and by the way they would not dream of coming onto a forum such as this just to be abusive to anyone.

I know that some of us Christians can be judgemental towards Atheists but also what about those who use Atheism on this forum just to be downright nasty?

okay, I asked the question did the vatican institustion seperate itself from the Catholic church by signing the documents of Vatican ll.

I gratefully acknowledge the answers received, perhaps my question was too vague so, Vatican ll was called as a pastoral council which would define no dogma but would interpret Catholiscism in the light of the modern era.

I cannot give a lot of examples here as it would take up to much space but let me site the example of Atheistic communism.

All the Popes from Leo Xlll to Pius Xll have condemned this with Papal bulls and pronounced it Anathema, and this is an everlasting pronunciation of Papal authority,and unchangeable, and yet Pope John XXlll authorized the infamous Metz agreement which promised not to mention Communism at His forthcoming council against the wishes of the majority of the assembled Bishops and signed the decree to accord with the representatives of Atheistic communism.

did this not in fact, go against those previous Popes

Do you think that the Vatican institution severed itself from the Catholic church by signing the documents of Vatican ll?