Pray!

Hi Lutero,

I don’t think we can have it both ways. You are saying that God guides the Church, but the Church has done some pretty nasty stuff – crusades, inquisitions, burning people at the stake, the silence of the Church in the face of the holocaust, and the sex scandals and cover ups of our own times…..

Any evil ever committed by any man was done IN SPITE of the Teachings of the Catholic Church, not because of them.

These involve more than just the occasional bishop or priest. A lot of this stuff was done by the Church under the guidance of the Bishops….

For instance?

And in matters of theology: Did God guide the Church to make the Apocrypha part of the Bible against the witness of the Hebrew Canon?

Strange question. 78 Hebrews interpreted the Old Testament into Greek before the time of Christ and that version is called the Septuagint. It is the version of the OT which Christ used.

Your assumption that the 66 book Canon is the original or somehow the correct Canon is false.

Did God guide the Catholic Church to condemn heliocentrism as “false and contrary to scripture”?

The Church didn’t condemn “heliocentrism”. One court case came to the conclusion that Galileo was wrong because he stated that the Scriptures contained error.

Centuries before, “heliocentrism” was already being taught by St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, Copernicus and others. If the Church had condemned heliocentrism, they would also have been condemned.

Did God guide the Church into selling the forgiveness of sins in the form of indulgences?

Yes:
Luke 11:41
But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.

Matthew 19:21
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Mark 9:41
For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

Basically, we’d be saying that God guides the Church except for when He doesn’t guide the Church. Or else, He guides the Church, but the Church does not always follow that guidance. Either way, you wind up with the same problem that Protestants have, “God has guided the Church on some things but not on others.”

God guides the Church in all matters. Individuals decide for themselves whether they will accept His guidance:
Romans 6:16
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

I accept the New Testament as authoritative. I accept the Apostles and Nicene Creeds – and Chalcedon – as authoritative statements on the grounds that they bear witness to the faith as received and understood by the Church from the beginning.

As do we.

I really don’t mean to be impolite,

I don’t consider it impolite.

and perhaps my comment will reveal some logical error of mine which one of you could perhaps be so kind as to correct for me.

I hope that helps.

God Bless You All and Thank You.....

And you as well,

Sincerely,

De Maria