About The Roman Catholic Church

[cathoholic_anonymous]

I was brought up in Saudi Arabia. My mum (a Catholic) and my dad (a 'low church' Anglican) have always believed in God, but neither of them are particularly theologically astute. They never taught me a thing about religion, although they tried their best to answer my questions - and I had many of them. As a very small child I developed a burning passion for God and a deep fascination with religion. At eight years old I asked for a Bible of my own. Getting hold of a Bible in Saudi Arabia is not easy, but my parents bought one for me when we were in England on holiday. It was the King James Version, as my mum was the one who chose it and she had no idea about the different versions of the Bible. I began to read, starting with Genesis and finishing with Revelation. Inspired by my best friend, a Muslim girl who could recite surah after surah of the Qu'ran in haunting melodic chant, I memorised large portions. But it wasn't enough to satisfy me. I prayed regularly, I thought about God often, I devoured books on all sorts of different religions. (Sadly my primary school library only had books on Christianity in general, with no reference to the different churches.) When I was nine years old my parents finally got exasperated with my constant questioning (their answers were always too vague to please me) and got snappish whenever I broached the subject of faith. My understanding of Catholicism was very muddled in consequence, as I had to piece together my information from a variety of different sources and could not always sift the wheat from the chaff. I had a very vague idea that Protestantism stemmed from Henry the Eighth, that somebody called Luther had got involved some point and taken all the pretty statues away, and that Catholics had rosaries. That was about it.

My best friend's family (which I look on as an extension of my own) taught me the importance of regular prayer and imparted a real reverence for God. Arab and Asian Muslims will not even leave their shoes facing sole-up as this is seen as a sign of disrespect to the Lord. (Culturally it is very rude to show the flat of your foot to somebody in the Arab world.) They had many little customs like this, customs that taught me that God is everywhere. In Arabic the response to 'How are you?' is always 'Thanks be to God', no matter whether you are in the best of health or at death's door. In Saudi it's perfectly normal to say "I am about to pray. Could you ring back later?" when somebody telephones you. There's nothing strange in dropping down on your knees at the side of the road - I often saw it happening as a child. It was in this environment that I learned that God [i]matters[/i]. I will be forever grateful to my Muslim friends and neighbours for giving me that lesson. Later, when I was at boarding school in England, I was to treat my Catholic faith with the same matter-of-factness that I had seen around me in Saudi. This was the cause of teasing, sometimes of outright bullying, but I never wavered. I had the encouragement of my wonderful grandmother in this, who was my mentor and my best friend until she died, not long after I arrived in England. Seeing her arrange to get dressed nicely and have her hair washed before the Eucharistic minister brought her Communion was a great inspiration, especially as she was too sick to be out of bed by that point. It was a lot of effort for a sick woman to make for ten minutes of prayer. So that ten minutes must be special. Why?

To rewind to the days when I lived in Saudi all year round, I considered conversion to Islam at one point. This was when I was eleven years old and my family had just moved to Jeddah. I was feeling terribly homesick for Dhahran, especially as I was struggling to settle in at my new school. Now I realise that I was attracted to Islam for all the wrong reasons - I liked the beauty of the call to prayer, the wisdom of praying five times a day, the poetic quality of the Qur'an, the sacred Arabic language, and above all the culture that came with it all. It's quite hard to be an expatriate child. You grow up not really knowing where you belong. If I became a Muslim, my heart would be anchored in Saudi Arabia forever, and I would have a home.

Even though I couldn't articulate this to myself then, I knew that these were excuses, not reasons for conversion. When I came to England I began to go to Mass faithfully, primarily because the Catholic church was the closest one. If it had been a Methodist church right next door I would probably have gone there. That was the year of my religious epiphany. I began to study theology in a serious way and became very familiar with the different kinds of Christianity. I was in the library from the end of school until closing time - often four hours at a stretch. (At the end of my second year in the school I won a prize for Religious Studies.) Between my regular Mass attendance and my thorough study, I saw that Catholicism was Christianity in its oldest and purest form, and I asked to be confirmed.

There was nobody to attend my confirmation apart from my sponsor, so we sat all alone in the long stretch of pew that had been reserved for me and my supposed guests. Unlike the other confirmandi, who were all about three years younger than me, I had no new clothes or presents. There was no family gathering afterwards, as my family was three thousand miles away. I had no exposure to so-called 'Catholic culture' at all. I was confirmed purely because I wanted to be.

And I was radiantly happy. Not very long ago, I heard one young girl grumbling because her confirmation party hadn't been as lavish as a friend's, and with a jolt I realised how blessed I had been. On my confirmation day I had stood there alone, just as I will at the judgement, and received nothing but the Holy Spirit. He was enough. He is enough. And I love being Catholic.

[mariahLVzJP2]

[quote name='Cathoholic Anonymous' post='1267293' date='May 7 2007, 06:28 PM']I was brought up in Saudi Arabia. My mum (a Catholic) and my dad (a 'low church' Anglican) have always believed in God, but neither of them are particularly theologically astute. They never taught me a thing about religion, although they tried their best to answer my questions - and I had many of them. As a very small child I developed a burning passion for God and a deep fascination with religion. At eight years old I asked for a Bible of my own. Getting hold of a Bible in Saudi Arabia is not easy, but my parents bought one for me when we were in England on holiday. It was the King James Version, as my mum was the one who chose it and she had no idea about the different versions of the Bible. I began to read, starting with Genesis and finishing with Revelation. Inspired by my best friend, a Muslim girl who could recite surah after surah of the Qu'ran in haunting melodic chant, I memorised large portions. But it wasn't enough to satisfy me. I prayed regularly, I thought about God often, I devoured books on all sorts of different religions. (Sadly my primary school library only had books on Christianity in general, with no reference to the different churches.) When I was nine years old my parents finally got exasperated with my constant questioning (their answers were always too vague to please me) and got snappish whenever I broached the subject of faith. My understanding of Catholicism was very muddled in consequence, as I had to piece together my information from a variety of different sources and could not always sift the wheat from the chaff. I had a very vague idea that Protestantism stemmed from Henry the Eighth, that somebody called Luther had got involved some point and taken all the pretty statues away, and that Catholics had rosaries. That was about it.

My best friend's family (which I look on as an extension of my own) taught me the importance of regular prayer and imparted a real reverence for God. Arab and Asian Muslims will not even leave their shoes facing sole-up as this is seen as a sign of disrespect to the Lord. (Culturally it is very rude to show the flat of your foot to somebody in the Arab world.) They had many little customs like this, customs that taught me that God is everywhere. In Arabic the response to 'How are you?' is always 'Thanks be to God', no matter whether you are in the best of health or at death's door. In Saudi it's perfectly normal to say "I am about to pray. Could you ring back later?" when somebody telephones you. There's nothing strange in dropping down on your knees at the side of the road - I often saw it happening as a child. It was in this environment that I learned that God [i]matters[/i]. I will be forever grateful to my Muslim friends and neighbours for giving me that lesson. Later, when I was at boarding school in England, I was to treat my Catholic faith with the same matter-of-factness that I had seen around me in Saudi. This was the cause of teasing, sometimes of outright bullying, but I never wavered. I had the encouragement of my wonderful grandmother in this, who was my mentor and my best friend until she died, not long after I arrived in England. Seeing her arrange to get dressed nicely and have her hair washed before the Eucharistic minister brought her Communion was a great inspiration, especially as she was too sick to be out of bed by that point. It was a lot of effort for a sick woman to make for ten minutes of prayer. So that ten minutes must be special. Why?

To rewind to the days when I lived in Saudi all year round, I considered conversion to Islam at one point. This was when I was eleven years old and my family had just moved to Jeddah. I was feeling terribly homesick for Dhahran, especially as I was struggling to settle in at my new school. Now I realise that I was attracted to Islam for all the wrong reasons - I liked the beauty of the call to prayer, the wisdom of praying five times a day, the poetic quality of the Qur'an, the sacred Arabic language, and above all the culture that came with it all. It's quite hard to be an expatriate child. You grow up not really knowing where you belong. If I became a Muslim, my heart would be anchored in Saudi Arabia forever, and I would have a home.

Even though I couldn't articulate this to myself then, I knew that these were excuses, not reasons for conversion. When I came to England I began to go to Mass faithfully, primarily because the Catholic church was the closest one. If it had been a Methodist church right next door I would probably have gone there. That was the year of my religious epiphany. I began to study theology in a serious way and became very familiar with the different kinds of Christianity. I was in the library from the end of school until closing time - often four hours at a stretch. (At the end of my second year in the school I won a prize for Religious Studies.) Between my regular Mass attendance and my thorough study, I saw that Catholicism was Christianity in its oldest and purest form, and I asked to be confirmed.

There was nobody to attend my confirmation apart from my sponsor, so we sat all alone in the long stretch of pew that had been reserved for me and my supposed guests. Unlike the other confirmandi, who were all about three years younger than me, I had no new clothes or presents. There was no family gathering afterwards, as my family was three thousand miles away. I had no exposure to so-called 'Catholic culture' at all. I was confirmed purely because I wanted to be.

And I was radiantly happy. Not very long ago, I heard one young girl grumbling because her confirmation party hadn't been as lavish as a friend's, and with a jolt I realised how blessed I had been. On my confirmation day I had stood there alone, just as I will at the judgement, and received nothing but the Holy Spirit. He was enough. He is enough. And I love being Catholic.[/quote]
i just have to say...thanks for sharing that! you write so eloquently

[Winchester]

[quote name='Budge' post='1266830' date='May 7 2007, 12:31 PM']Oh come on....Yeah it was photoshopped, thats it....



Sheesh talk about making excuses.[/quote]
Quote me excusing the action. Quote me saying the photo was faked. I can judge the photo as a stupid action and certainly scandalous. I doubt the cardinal believes ganesha is really a god. I would tell him flat out he shouldn't have done that, but I don't know until I talk to him why he did it. My intuition tells me out of misguided desire for unity. It shouldn't have been done. I'm not going further than that because I don't know the man.

[quote]Hey why are you even going after me here?

Seriously, why not save the ire for the Hindu worshipping Cardinal who cares nothing for Jesus Christ. {he has forsaken Christ publically and in front of others}
[/quote]Because you're using the actions of a man to invalidate the entire Catholic Church. That's simply not logical.


[quote]How?

Because everytime I post on it, you fight me instead.

Sure youll SAY you condemn it, but then get right on how horrible Budge is to even bring it up.[/quote]
I'm not saying you're horrible for having brought it up. I'm saying you're being misleading in presenting it as accepted by the Church when it is clear the Catholic Church teaches against syncretism.
As to how, come to Houston and have dinner with me and my wife and daughter. If you and your husband aren't secretly psychos, you can stay at my house and we'll have someone who believes in syncretism over. When I"m at the station, your husband will have to come to work with me because I don't allow boys in the house when I'm not home. Also, no girls in the house when my wife isn't home. It's a good rule. We have a spare room and it has a queen size bed.
Seriously, it's not the bringing it up, it's the use of it. We all know there are people like this. It's not news.


[quote]Answered what?

My refusal to follow Hindu worshipping Cardinals?

get it?

I refuse to follow those who forsake Christ, the apostles taught "follow me as I follow Christ"

They dont as these photos are evidence.
[/quote]First off, the honesty pill thing was out of line and I'm sorry. It is easy for people to talk past each other without evil intent from either party.
The questions are from an earlier post. You'll have to go back and look. I'm in no hurry.
They didn't in htis instance from appearances. The bad thing about photos is they preserve mistakes. I don't know what, if anything, followed this event. He may have been censured, he may have not. It may have been buried and ignored out of embarrassment. I don't know. He might regret it, or he might not. I don't know the man, but I know what the Church teaches. The tragedy is many do not, and many want syncretism because it's easier and this will give them the ground to fight on.



[quote]Your church is tied to its leadership, in fact being Catholic is being under submission to the Pope.[/quote]
Only as far as his authority extends. I don't have to follow him into error, and he has yet to put it into dogma that syncretism is okay.

[quote]When you have the majority of church leaders worshipping or promoting the worship of false gods, its time to get out.
[/quote]You haven't provided any solid evidence of the majority. Provide it or put it in the can.
The Church is still not doing it. The people have always been a problem.

[quote]I would not accept this in ANY MINISTER. It would take just one time, and if he refused to repent after being confronted and couldnt be ousted from the church, GOODBYE. he would have just lost any authority over me as a "Christian" pastor.[/quote]I believe there's an actual procedure for this. But we have a different concept of church, apparently. I'm not sure how your churched operate, but many churches are owned by a single pastor. He is, in essence, the pope of that church, and if he says Jesus married Mary, then there is no authority apart from him to correct it. You can refer to the Bible, but he is the final interpreter of the bible for his parish. I can go to a priest's ordinary and further up the chain. Many are infected with modernism, but the Deposit of Faith isn't. The tragedy is in those who don't know how to get past wrong teachings.


[quote]Since your Pope, Cardinals and bishops are all connected to the itnerfaith movement, they long ago crossed that line.

There isnt one living bishop or Cardinal outside the Trad or Sedevancantist movement who has made a stand against this stuff either.

So you can say you disagree with it, but who is your ire reserved for?[/quote] They may have. I don't follow their day to day movements and I've already learned the faith. My priest doesn't teach syncretism.
My ire is reserved for people who drive too slowly on the freeway and who don't know how to make turns without stopping. And who talk on cellphones whilst driving poorly.
And people who stop in the left lane when I've running lights and sirens.