What Would You Call Me?

[cmotherofpirl]

The Catechism has been updated in the last 500 years , so this is no longer in force.

[Aloysius]

The Catechism of Piux X is from the turn of the 20th century.

Anyway, I'd like to offer another perspective on that quote.

What is one to do with something containing the sacred but its usability has been compromised in some way? i.e. a broken rosary without enough beads, a torn bible or a torn missal, a broken statue. Bury it, burn it, or give it to a priest.

protestant scriptures with misleading translations render what is sacred in the scriptures no longer directly usable with absolute trust and faith by a common faithful Catholic. a Catholic should be able to have absolute trust and faith in the scriptures that he reads; when the ability to fully trust everything written in the copy of the scriptures one owns is compromised, one must dispose of it in the manner respectful to that which is sacred within it.

throwing a protestant bible in the trash: disrespectful to the scriptures.
using the protestant bible as a devotional bible: bad idea, you ought to be able to fully trust the scriptures you read for devotion
therefore, there are two options left: dispose of it by burning or burying, or give it to a priest or some other scholar who can use it for intellectual discourse with protestants.

of course, if you yourself do devote some time to scholarship of the different beleifs of different christian denominations for the sake of debates and such, you should put it onto your shelf. but the common everyday Catholic who's not an apologist or any such thing has no use for a bible he cannot fully trust and thus should dispose of it in a manner fitting of something containing some sacredness.

[VeniteAdoremus]

Why is throwing it in the trash disrespectful to the scriptures, but burning or burying isn't? I would say the lack of respect lies in the destructional part of the act, not the method.

[Norseman82]

Protestant Bibles can be useful when doing comparative scripture analysis when researching for apologetic purposes.

Edited January 21, 2007 by Norseman82

[Aloysius]

because that's what we do to anything sacred which has lost its usability-- burn it or bury it.

if you have a rosary that gets broken beyond repairability, you're supposed to bury it or burn it (well, if it's made of burnable material) same if you have a bible that, by some accident, becomes unreadable (say it goes through the washer or something). the way to dispose of it is to either burn it or bury it.

that's the type of respectful disposal of a sacred object that comes into disusability. you don't treat it like some normal peice of trash, you give it over to a natural form of disposal (fire, burial)

that's even the etiquette for disposing of an old flag. and though traditionally Catholicism is against cremation, the two ways people all over the world come up with to dispose of a human body, the most sacred thing of all, is to burn or bury it.

if you see that form of disposal as disrespectful, what do you consider respectful? are we to have rooms full of unusable old sacred items when they break or become unusable? nah, we should dispose of things by fire or burial.

so when it comes to an average Catholic, their devotional bible should bea Catholic Bible so they can fully trust it. unless they use it solely for the intellectual enterprises of stuff like apologetics, it's not unreasonable for them to consider burning, burying, or giving to the priest or some scholar or apologist, any protestant bible they have.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1171612' date='Jan 20 2007, 09:04 PM']
The Catechism of Piux X is from the turn of the 20th century.
but the common everyday Catholic who's not an apologist or any such thing has no use for a bible he cannot fully trust and thus should dispose of it in a manner fitting of something containing some sacredness.
[/quote]

Wow, they used something for our century? Must be slipping.

I disagree. Practically EVERY catholic knows a protestant somewhere with a Bible in hand. There is nothing wrong with having a protestant Bible in hand as reference material so you know what they are talking about. Some of my protestant cousins keep catholic Bibles just so they can argue with me We are all called to evangelise, and you can't do it without material. THe only catch is that there are so many poorly translated versions out there you would hardly know which one to pick. I have a KJV handy that was my fathers .

[Aloysius]

I'm not suggesting that one ought to burn or turn over to a priest their protestant bibles. I am suggesting that they not use it as their devotional bible, and then providing a context for the possibility of disposing of it if they had no other use for it.

Not everyone has to be an apologist studying protestant versions of the scriptures. If one had a protestant bible one wanted to dispose of, burning, burying, or giving it away to a priest or some scholar would be the means to do it.

There's nothing wrong with having protestant bibles on the shelf for intellectual study and apologetic reference. But one should always use for a devotional bible, one which they actually trust to teach them the pure unadulterated faith, a trustworthy approved Catholic Bible.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1172116' date='Jan 20 2007, 11:44 PM']
because that's what we do to anything sacred which has lost its usability-- burn it or bury it.

if you have a rosary that gets broken beyond repairability, you're supposed to bury it or burn it (well, if it's made of burnable material) same if you have a bible that, by some accident, becomes unreadable (say it goes through the washer or something). the way to dispose of it is to either burn it or bury it.

that's the type of respectful disposal of a sacred object that comes into disusability. you don't treat it like some normal peice of trash, you give it over to a natural form of disposal (fire, burial)

that's even the etiquette for disposing of an old flag. and though traditionally Catholicism is against cremation, the two ways people all over the world come up with to dispose of a human body, the most sacred thing of all, is to burn or bury it.

if you see that form of disposal as disrespectful, what do you consider respectful? are we to have rooms full of unusable old sacred items when they break or become unusable? nah, we should dispose of things by fire or burial.

so when it comes to an average Catholic, their devotional bible should bea Catholic Bible so they can fully trust it. unless they use it solely for the intellectual enterprises of stuff like apologetics, it's not unreasonable for them to consider burning, burying, or giving to the priest or some scholar or apologist, any protestant bible they have.
[/quote]

Do you not only have to burn/bury objects that are sacramentals, i. e., objects that have been blessed by a priest (as in burning/burying them as a respectful way of disposing of them)?

Edited January 21, 2007 by StThomasMore

[desertwoman]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1169853' date='Jan 19 2007, 02:47 AM']
see what I mean?
[/quote]

[Aloysius]

I suppose you are only required to do it for something which is blessed. however, throwing an unblessed rosary that has fallen into disusability in the trash would still be disrespectful. and throwing an unusable (for any reason, it was damaged, it's a mistranslation, has bad footnotes) version of the scriptures into the trash would also be disrespectful. if you have an unusable bible which needs to be disposed of, I would suggest respectful burning or burial of said object, or giving it over to a priest or some other scholar who can use it for intellectual study. what you shouldn't do is keep it as a devotional bible; if you cannot have complete and absolute faith in the bible you read for devotional purposes then your experience with the Word of God is limited, you have a constant lense and barrier through which you have to fiddler it, knowing that there could be mistranslations directed towards specific doctrinal points and footnotes intended to lead you astray. no, your devotional bible must be Catholic. all other bibles are good for intellectual study; and if you have no use for them otherwise they ought to be disposed of in a way respectful to the True Scriptures which are still contained in them.

if I were to ever engage in this practice (if I found myself in possession of a protestant bible that I had no intellectual use for (perhaps I already had that particular version, or I had grown old and weary of apologetics and had resigned myself to a life of simple faith without debates and thus did not need a protestant bible) and I did not know of anyone else who would want it for intellectual discourse), I could find myself imagining the flames as purgatorial: purifying the scriptures of the error that had tainted them and sending them off into some metaphysical plane where they were the true untainted word of God, to be read perhaps by the saints in heaven. of course, that would be just a pious act of the imagination (I don't suppose saints who have the fullness of the beatific vision have any need for reading books); but nonetheless I'd insist to myself there was some metaphysical purpose to the purification which may help a thousand souls trapped in purgatory because of some misconception a protestant idea sprouted out of such a mistranslation gave them... they'd see the ghost of the protestant bible now refined and purified and realize their error.

haha okay, enough of my poetic license about burning protestant bibles.

[morostheos]

wow, it didn't take long for this thread to become completely hijacked....

[littleflower+JMJ]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' post='1168967' date='Jan 18 2007, 11:11 AM']
i was originally a mennonite but when we moved we started going to the nearest church, the united church, and very occasionally the anglican church. personally im not entirely sure what the differences between ANY of the churchs(presbeterian, lutheran, anglican, catholic, etc) are other than some of the practises within the catholic church. when people ask me whether im religious, i just answer that i am a christian, that i believe in god. what exactly are the differences in faith between some of these, i dont need to know political stance.
[/quote]

I would say you are on your way to becoming something great!

I'm glad your sticking around. Don't forget to use the resources we have here.

[mroger]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1171664' date='Jan 20 2007, 08:39 PM']
Protestant Bibles can be useful when doing comparative scripture analysis when researching for apologetic purposes.
[/quote]

Yeah, but that doesn't make them Sacred, nor Holy.
Aside from getting the perspective Hermeneutically, I find no use in a Protestant Bible. Do what you will with it.

Nevermind that my dear friend gave me a pocket size KJV that is easy to carry around with me. I often use it to challenge my seminary professors in order to be a more persuasive prosyletizer. I find that I can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar, you know what I mean, eh.

Edited January 23, 2007 by geistesswiesenschaften

[Jesus_lol]

[quote name='littleflower+JMJ' post='1173242' date='Jan 22 2007, 02:44 PM']
I would say you are on your way to becoming something great!

I'm glad your sticking around. Don't forget to use the resources we have here.
[/quote]


thanks i decided you guys needed both a voice of reason(debatable at best) and someone to debate against!

and i suppose you guys are cool to hang out with as well...