Catholic Workers Movement

[Budge]

[quote]No I certainly wouldn't be upset.

What do you mean that helping the poor and feeding the hungry shouldn't take the place of preaching the gospel? That is preaching the gospel. I guess I'm confused. [/quote]

Some get so hung up on changing this world, they forget that Jesus's kingdom is NOT of this world.

I think someone like Dorothy Day had good intentions...but this is an easy trap to fall into.

I think helping the poor etc, is a good thing, every Christian should be involved in those things...but the works flow out of the faith. Changing the world is not your center focus but bringing individual souls to Christ.

Edited October 16, 2006 by Budge

[shortnun]

[quote name='Budge' post='1093198' date='Oct 16 2006, 04:18 PM']
Some get so hung up on changing this world, they forget that Jesus's kingdom is NOT of this world.

I think someone like Dorothy Day had good intentions...but this is an easy trap to fall into.

I think helping the poor etc, is a good thing, every Christian should be involved in those things...but the works flow out of the faith. Changing the world is not your center focus but bringing individual souls to Christ.
[/quote]
I think we're actually saying the same thing, but in different words.

[Aloysius]

kinda like all those evangelicals in south america converting people away from the Catholic Church with marxist social-gospel mumbo jumbo... huh budge?

[Mateo el Feo]

[quote name='Budge' post='1093198' date='Oct 16 2006, 05:18 PM']
Some get so hung up on changing this world, they forget that Jesus's kingdom is NOT of this world.

I think someone like Dorothy Day had good intentions...but this is an easy trap to fall into.

I think helping the poor etc, is a good thing, every Christian should be involved in those things...but the works flow out of the faith. Changing the world is not your center focus but bringing individual souls to Christ.[/quote]Christian Faith is [i]incomplete[/i] without the love for our neighbor. Our Lord's first commandment is to love "The Lord, your God" ([url="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew22.htm#v37"]Matt 22:37[/url]). The second commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself" ([url="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew22.htm#v39"]Matt 22:39[/url]). This is not an either/or, though one command (i.e. loving God) is more important with the other.

Though the greatest love we can show a neighbor is to share the gospel with our lips, this is clearly not the only love that God commands of us (see [url="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew25.htm#v34"]Matt 25:34-46[/url])--evangelizing is not even listed. There is no indication that showing love toward our neighbors, as described in Matt 25, is solely for the purpose of proselytizing.

On the other hand, our neighbor's temporal well-being is not the end goal of the commandment--we aren't mere social workers. The goal is to imitate the example of Our Lord, and ultimately to bring ourselves closer to Him.

As it sometimes happens, this topic has two extreme views and a Catholic position in the middle. From the vantage of one extreme, the person looks at the middle position and incorrectly sees the other extreme. So, someone who is focused on the "other worldly" aspects of Christianity will see active charity and fear a focus on the temporal world. On the other extreme, a person who is focused on the temporal well-being of others will look at those "in the middle" and see someone who isn't loving their neighbor as God commands.

It seems to me that this is an issue of focusing on the splinters in other people's eyes instead of focusing on our own spiritual lives.

[Budge]

[quote]kinda like all those evangelicals in south america converting people away from the Catholic Church with marxist social-gospel mumbo jumbo... huh budge?[/quote]


Isnt the Marxism in the South America connected to CATHOLIC LIBERATION THEOLOGY?

Sure there could be some apostate Prots following in these footsteps...

I know a few missionaries in South America, we have one that comes from Bolivia that my church supports, they are not Commies whatsoever.

[Cam42]

[quote name='Budge' post='1093811' date='Oct 17 2006, 08:24 AM']
Isnt the Marxism in the South America connected to CATHOLIC LIBERATION THEOLOGY?

Sure there could be some apostate Prots following in these footsteps...

I know a few missionaries in South America, we have one that comes from Bolivia that my church supports, they are not Commies whatsoever.
[/quote]

Yes liberation theology has Marxist tendencies. And the Vatican has rejected this as a valid form of theology. It is not in keeping with Catholic Social thought.

[shortnun]

[quote name='Cam42' post='1093932' date='Oct 17 2006, 11:35 AM']
Yes liberation theology has Marxist tendencies. And the Vatican has rejected this as a valid form of theology. It is not in keeping with Catholic Social thought.
[/quote]
Correct, much of first generation liberation theology (in the 70s and 80s) draws on Marxist teachings that contradict the foundations of Christianity. But liberation theology can exist in the fullness of Catholic tradition, and is exemplary in many second generation (90s-present) liberation theologians.
[quote]
The general tenor of the pronouncements of the magisterium, whether papal or coming from the Synod of Bishops, has been to recognize the positive aspects of liberation theology, especially with reference to the poor and the need for their liberation, as forming put of the universal heritage of Christian commitment to history. Criticisms of certain tendencies within liberation theology, which have to be taken into account, do not negate the vigorous and healthy nucleus of this form of Christian thinking, which has done so much to bring the message of the historical Jesus to the world of today.
[b]
[url="http://www.landreform.org/boff2.htm"]SOURCE[/url][/b][/quote]

Edited October 18, 2006 by shortnun