The new Catechism has 803 pages. Can you wade through it all?? Read, online, an abbreviated explanation of 37 vital Catholic doctrines: Click here.

-- Messenger (finalwarning_nwo@hotmail.com), April 12, 1999

Answers

before starting to read your *explantion* of the new catechism, please answer :

are you some kind of theologian?

what guarantee do i have that your explanation will be correct?

is it not just a trick so that people buy your books?

doubtful.

ENRIQUE

-- ENRIQUE ORTIZ (eaortiz@yahoo.com), April 13, 1999.

Without even looking I'll bet this is based on a book by Rick Jones--"37 Roman Catholic Doctrines Explained" needless to say it's Anti-Catholic and very distorted.

-- Br. Rich S.F.O. (repsfo@prodigy.net), April 13, 1999.

To anyone who visits the above site:

I purchased this book last year and studied it very closely. Some of the Anti-Catholic material is real obvious and outright dumb. But I must say that Chick does do a very good job with very specific wording so that what they say sounds accurate. A person reading material published by them will sometimes not notice that they may quote something from the Catechism and even give a paragraph number. But they alter one or two words in the quote or leave out a part and if you don't read the original carefully you can be duped.

On page 8 #2 says "Published in 1994, this is the first new catechism in over 400 years. Therefore you can be assured that you are reading the current teachings of the Roman Catholic church, not what it may have taught three hundred years ago."

Well for one, nothing in it is "new" and this implies that somehow the teachings change over time. This sort of sets the stage. Then the old "final Authority" is it the Church or the Bible? As Catholics the Bible is part of the deposit of faith the other part is Sacred Tradition ( the oral teaching of the Apostles). Then the first "discrepancy" is presented as this: " The Bible maintains that IT is the one and only final authority, while Catholicism teaches that three final authorities exist." Well the Bible never states this (notice they don't give any Scripture ref.) but the Bible does state that "the pillar and foundation of truth is the Church" (2 Thess 2:15) The Church states that there is ONE Deposit of Faith and this includes Scripture and Sacred Tradition. It then quotes from the Catechism #95 which states Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium are closely connected. They then go on to describe this passage in their terms but switch the words Sacred Tradition with church tradition. They go on then to pose a question what happens when these "three authorities" Scripture, tradition and magisterium disagree with each other? Buy the way the Magisterium is not a source of Divine Revelation it is the Authority granted the Church to teach the Deposit of Faith. The answer is they don't and they won't. It then quotes the Catechism again #85. However this time they leave out a portion in the middle of the paragraph. Then they explain that the catechism erroneously associates "The Church" with the Roman Catholic Church. Then concludes with a statement that the "current teaching" of the Catholic Church claims to be the final authority and not the Bible. Well da! What happened to the "unchanging" teachings of the Catholic Church, and that part when Christ speaks to the Apostles (The Church) and say's "He who hears you hears me" It then goes on and they try to show that "The Word" is only the Bible. Then it states that the Catholic Church teaches that the Scriptures are somehow in error and require correction by the Church. Then gives a warning from Revelation about tampering with the written Word. Who was it that removed large portions and whole books from the Scriptures?

Anyway you get the idea.

Br. Rich S.F.O.

-- Br. Rich S.F.O. (repsfo@prodigy.net), April 13, 1999.