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Cafeteria Catholics


Homestarlover85

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Homestarlover85

The term "cafeteria catholic" came up about two years ago in a conversation I was having. Actually I was called one. Basically, I am guessing that it is suggesting that one picks and chooses what one believes to be true in the Catholic Faith. I m not sure that I pick and choose, but I believe that I discern what each particular part of the faith means in regards to me. Though Im not sure that I understand every aspect of our faith, so I wont claim belief in it. What do you guys think?

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Laudate_Dominum

I think you got it right. I understand cafeteria Catholic to mean someone who picks and chooses. For example someone who says they are Catholic but rejects the Church's teaching on contraception or whatever it might be.

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Seems like lukewarm faith when a person only believes what he or she only understands. There are many resources to learn about and understand the Catholic faith. A person can start with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and go from there, for instance.

Here's a small article on "Cafeteria Catholics" that I found: [url="http://www.concernedcatholics.org/cafeteria.htm"]http://www.concernedcatholics.org/cafeteria.htm[/url]

Edited by Archangel
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thanks for the link archangel
after reading that i realize how most Catholics can fall in that category! and how i was one for so long!
we should use our blessings and knowledge to focus onthose areas that poeple ar picky-picking...i will try to find out where my friends are in respect to these issues. Let me know if you have good ideas to help diminish this cafeterianism!

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Lounge Daddy

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='Mar 19 2004, 01:41 AM'] ...For example someone who says they are Catholic but rejects the Church's teaching on contraception... [/quote]
I have found this to be a very common one. :(

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Spiritual_Arsonist

Cafeteria Catholics serve raw food. Its not cooked. Leave it to us to roast em' and set them on fire.

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[b][color=purple]Well... "Cafeteria Catholics" sounds like a variation of "Liberal" or "Eclectic". You can be of a certain faith (whichever you most identify) so long as you take the morals to heart. After all, with so many translations all that's left is the moral behind it. It doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me. But then again, I'm not sure how "conformist" Catholics really are.[/color][/b]

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When you join the Catholic Church (Confirmation), you affirm before the entire congregation and before God that you believe all that the Catholic Church teaches (in terms of faith and morals) to be true.

If you don't believe that, then you shouldn't join the Church. That's all I have to say about that.

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[quote name='marielapin' date='Mar 20 2004, 10:35 PM'] When you join the Catholic Church (Confirmation), you affirm before the entire congregation and before God that you believe all that the Catholic Church teaches (in terms of faith and morals) to be true.

If you don't believe that, then you shouldn't join the Church. That's all I have to say about that. [/quote]
Amen!

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mom25angels

[quote name='Lounge Daddy' date='Mar 19 2004, 08:28 AM'] I have found this to be a very common one. :( [/quote]
:sadder: How true, how true. That's why we should support our priests who fearlessly teach the evils of contraception. Pray for them.


Sarah

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littleflower+JMJ

they are also famously known as [b]"But" catholics....[/b]

many times you hear them say......

Im catholic BUT i dont go to mass......

or

Im catholic BUT i think birth control is okay.....

or

Im catholic BUT.....list goes on and on..

its very simple, its either your catholic or your not.

you can't say im a catholic and not blieve in Her teachings....

thats like saying.....your a square-circle.

its just NOT possible.

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[quote name='Jericho923' date='Mar 21 2004, 12:10 AM'] next time i hear an "i'm a Catholic BUT..."
i will say "get your BUT to the road to holiness!" [/quote]
that's a GOOD ONE! :rolling:

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Ash Wednesday

Yes, Cafeteria Catholics have all their beliefs trace back to one thing: lack of belief that one has to obey authority and emphasis on "individuality"...

I think ever since the 1960s, there has been an air of "question authority" on everything. I don't blame Vatican II as much as I blame the world, and people that ran away with it wild and distorted it to pieces.

Part if it is also how the doctrine is taught and enforced nowdays. Maybe before 1960, some people that were taught the ways of the Catholic faith were taught in a way that was very scrupulous and strict -- angry nuns brandishing a ruler and the Baltimore Catechism and scaring the daylights out of kids, everything was about sin and hell... (or else the media really distorts that) but I argue now that the pendulum has swung way too far in the other direction.

Growing up I was taught very little of anything substantial in Catholic doctrine and rarely heard much about sin and hell. Actually in high school we were blessed with some good religious leaders that said no to abortion, premarital sex and birth control, but at the same time I didn't know what "mortal sin" was until I got into college and studied more about Catholicism.

I'm willing to bet there are a lot of lapsed, former Catholics that grew up before Vatican II that know more about the Church and her teachings than an average nowdays "practicing" Catholic born after 1965.

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