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Cool Quote I Read Today


Nihil Obstat

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Nihil Obstat

Interested to hear what you guys think.


"The Church is intolerant in principle because she believes; she is tolerant in practice because she loves. The enemies of the Church are tolerant in principle because they do not believe; they are intolerant in practice because they do not love."


I heard it sourced to a certain [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Garrigou-Lagrange"]Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange[/url], considered by some to be the best 20th century Thomistic theologian/philosopher.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Garrigou1.jpeg[/img]

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The church was intolerant because it had to hold on to its power. Now that that church has no power, it is quite tolerant (now it wants to hold on to its prestige).

Edited by Era Might
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I'd draw a distinction between being uncompromising and being intolerant. When you're uncompromising, as the early Christians were, you give yourself up to be burned at the stake. When you're intolerant, you're the one doing the burning.

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Nihil Obstat

I'd draw a distinction between being uncompromising and being intolerant. When you're uncompromising, as the early Christians were, you give yourself up to be burned at the stake. When you're intolerant, you're the one doing the burning.

You know as well as I do that when we talk about the Church we make a distinction between the Church as a divine reality, and the people who make it up. I know you do not believe that anymore, but your criticisms only apply to people.

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You know as well as I do that when we talk about the Church we make a distinction between the Church as a divine reality, and the people who make it up. I know you do not believe that anymore, but your criticisms only apply to people.

 

I'm not sure then who is being referred to as "intolerant in practice"...

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Anyway, I still think the quote takes a rose-colored view of things, though when I read it I thought it said "intolerant" on both sides of the statement.

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Nihil Obstat

Anyway, I still think the quote takes a rose-colored view of things, though when I read it I thought it said "intolerant" on both sides of the statement.

:idontknow: I could say that your statements are unrealistically cynical, and all we would have are a pair of disagreeing opinions.

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:idontknow: I could say that your statements are unrealistically cynical, and all we would have are a pair of disagreeing opinions.

 

Well of course, but I didn't ask what you think of my opinion, you asked what we think of Garrigou-Lagrange's. :P

Edited by Era Might
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Nihil Obstat

I should have said that I want other Catholics' opinions of it. ;)

 

Nah, seriously though. I do respect your opinions. I just feel that I have almost no common ground with you. We have radically different perspectives on nearly everything.

Edited by Nihil Obstat
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Probably not as different as you think. I'm actually quite conventional in my day to day spiritual life. I just have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when a topic comes up that angers me, as matters of a historical and social nature tend to. I get angry because I do care about the church...if I didn't care I would just stop thinking about it. I've been thinking about restricting my Phatmass comments to things of a spiritual nature...I started a thread on Tantum Ergo today, I'm trying!

Edited by Era Might
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Nihil Obstat

Probably not as different as you think. I'm actually quite conventional in my day to day spiritual life. I just have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when a topic comes up that angers me, as matters of a historical and social nature tend to. I get angry because I do care about the church...if I didn't care I would just stop thinking about it. I've been thinking about restricting my Phatmass comments to things of a spiritual nature...I started a thread on Tantum Ergo today, I'm trying!

Are you considering yourself Catholic right now?

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