GAH! I didn't start this...

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Catholictothecore' date='Feb 22 2005, 08:49 PM'] The township I live in is under 500 people. I'm part of the the largest Catholic family, and there is only one other. Most of my friends all go to the same church, which is lead by the same, untrained, unordained, anti-(as well as ex)-Catholic. I don't want to convert any of them at the risk of hurting their feelings, and we just don't do that tactlessly. But this "preacher" is really making them all anti-Catholic; it seems to be the only thing they can agree on! I just want to calrify for them what the Church actually says, instead of what he says the Chuch says.

Also, I have a tendency to talk a lot. I have a problem where I know what I want to say in my head, but I have trouble verbalizing, so it takes me much longer to say something that it should. Also, I don't think I read my CCC enough to really be doing this, talking to them, I mean. Should I just stop? How can I when no one else Catholic seems to be willing to talk, and this preacher is making them so narrow-minded to what I'm saying? [/quote]
Start by reading the stuff in our reference section.
The nature of authority is always the one point they can never refute, since they really don't have any authority to interpret the bible. Only the Church founded by Jesus Christ [thats us] has that authority.

So start asking them who put the bible in charge of Christianity, and why is their preacher right and all the other ones wrong.

I also have a cult church down the street so I know what you are going thru.

Edited February 24, 2005 by cmotherofpirl

[Catholictothecore]

thanks, everyone.

[phatcatholic]

tell us how it goes bro

[Catholictothecore]

well, usualy, it's not that often the topic comes up. We can get along just fine, but there are many topics that I ahve to bring God into, cause he is there. Like, when they ask me what I plan on doing for college. I say seminary. They say "you know, bible says were all priests...."

(bugle sound) that's usualy the "off-and-running" mark.

I think that the only way I'm going to do any real good is to pray for them. Honestly, I think that about a lot of things. Pray for me!

[jezic]

See they are not really wrong. We are all priests in part, but the Ordained priesthood is special. God has granted the church many graces. The church dispenses these in a special way to priests who become configured to Christ in such a way that being present for Jesus in the Sacraments is possible.

[journeyman]

that one shouldn't set you off . . . yes, we are all priests, in the manner of Melchizedek, but you feel a call to be ordained, and so just as policemen and fireman and doctors and lawyers go to school in order to obtain their positions, just as "Bible-teaching" pastors go to Bible College . . . you plan to go to school also . . .

and move on to the next topic - after all, you haven't selected (or been admitted to) a particular school yet (have you?) - so there is nothing to argue about

(see, already a point of agreement - keep building those bridges!)

And Fides laid out a good way to learn . . . I find that the more I work over the material, the better I know it, and pretty soon, it is embedded knowledge. Every argument you can't refute on the spot is another chapter in the book of knowledge you'll be writing for yourself . . . and your book will get better and better as you (and your opponents) work over your knowledge