We have faith in Christ

Hi RT, You said:

RT March 28, 2013 at 7:43 pm
De Maria,
When you can produce an early church father who taught the bodily assumption of Mary, then you may criticize me for believing in things not taught for hundreds of years in church history.

I sincerely doubt that Robert. Because I’m sure you are aware that the Early Church Fathers are all priests, many of them Bishops, who recognize the authority of the Church, believe in faith and works for salvation, received and provide the Sacraments, believe in the Real Presence, in Purgatory and all the other Catholic Doctrines. Yet, you don’t believe any of them.

So, producing a Church Father who taught the bodily assumption of Mary for you to believe in his teaching, would be an exercise in futility. You would simply say that one wasn’t enough and demand another.

That is what I sincerely believe regarding your attitude towards the Faith of Christ.

To address your specific question:
1. Jesus tells Peter that He will give Peter the keys, namely the authority to bind and loose, in Matt. 16. It’s a promise to do something in the future, not at the moment.

And you don’t believe Jesus kept the promise?

2. In Matthew 18:18, the authority to bind and loose is given to at least all the disciples. That is future from the perspective of the original promise in Matt. 16.

But to whom are the keys given. As far as I know, only Jesus and St. Peter possess the keys. Yes, all the disciples can bind and loose. But they must borrow the Keys from the earthly boss, St. Peter to whom Christ gave the other set.

3. Ergo, the keys are not given to St. Peter alone but to all the apostles.

They are given to St. Peter alone. The others are also given authority. But this authority can only be wielded in union with St. Peter.

Peter had a leading role, yes. He was the first to preach to the Gentiles, if nothing else. But there is no hint in that text that Peter was given a special authority that would be perpetually passed down through the history of the church.

Every office which Jesus established is perpetually passed down. This is illustrated in
Acts 1:20
For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

And confirmed by St. Paul elsewhere:
2 Timothy 2:1-2
King James Version (KJV)
1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.?
Jesus established an ongoing concern. He established the first Corporation, the Church. And appointed therein a Chief Executive (St. Peter; Matt 16:18-19) and a Board of Directors (the Apostles; Luke 6:13) and many other officers (the disciples; 1 Corinthians 12:28).

I know that Rome believes itself infallible and the guarantor of orthodoxy.

We have faith in the words of Christ (Eph 3:10; Luke 22:31-32).

That claim was more credible many centuries ago when Rome actually disciplined people. Get your church to again start excommunicating Roman Catholics who flaunt the Roman church’s teaching on birth control, who promote the mortal sin of abortion, who deny papal authority, and who hire lesbian pagans to teach theology at Roman Catholic institutions, and then we can talk about Rome as the guarantor and protector of the truth. Until then, you are living in a fantasy world that I’m not even sure all the other Roman Catholics commenting here would accept.

Spoken like a Pope wannabe. Obviously, you wish the Church were run according to your whims and not according to the Divine Judgment of Jesus Christ who still runs the Church today, through the men He appointed.
2 Corinthians 5:20
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

The Catholic Church is the voice of God in this world. I will obey her.