----- Original Message ----- From: "JDG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 8:27 PM Subject: Archbishop Chaput of Denver
Archbishop's column, taken from the Denver Archdiocese website: >It's a matter of honesty: to receive Communion, we need to be in communion We look at it quite differently. It depends on who's communion table it is: Jesus's or the hierarchy. The real question is whether the hierarchy controls the Holy Spirit, or if the Holy Spirit can choose her instruments. >If we claim to be Catholic, we need to act like it - all the way, all the >time, without excuses Does that include not having a savings account...as is taught by Eccumincal Councils? Remember, the idea of the Pope as infalliable when teaching from Peter's chair is very new; within the last 200 years. The idea of savings accounts as inherently sinful is proclaimed in a Eccumincal Council, which has been thought to be the primary source of inerrent church teachings >As Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist is not just a symbol or a >sacred meal or an important ritual expressing our community. Rather it is, >quite literally, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It's His living >presence in our midst. This is what distinguishes the Catholic faith from >nearly every Protestant denomination. In fact, it's one of the central >Catholic beliefs that the Protestant Reformation eventually "protested." That's not as obvious as you make out. I've discussed this at length, both at the seminary where I was taking classes and with Presbyterian clergy. The real difficulty the Protestant church has is with the use of Aristotelean philosophy in the description. I asked several times, and was told that this formulation is now conisdered just one of many imperfect descriptions of the Eucharist....with the limits of human language requiring that any description fall far short of the wonder of the reality. Here's the difference between the Catholic and Presbyterian views: Catholic: Communion has the real, non-physical presence of Jesus Presbyterian: Communion has the real spiritual presence of Jesus. I really don't think the difference is enough for us to conclude that we can turn other's away from Jesus's communion. >What's the lesson for Catholics? Fifty years ago, too many of us avoided >receiving Communion out of an excessive fear of our own sins. Today, far >too many of us receive Communion unthinkingly, reflexively, with no sense >of the urgent need for our own self-examination, humility and conversion. >Worse, too many Catholics receive the body and blood of Christ even when >they ignore or deny the teachings of His Church. Or, they deny that the hieararcy control's his church It may be helpful to read Macabees here, John. If you accept Macabees I and II as scripture, then you pretty well have to accept that the Lord does not always stay with his origional choice for leadership. The wind blows where the wind will; not where the Vatican buracurats tell it to. It sounds as though you think most church going Catholics are not real Catholics. That would have included my uncle, who was a priest for > 50 years, with over 25 of them as a missionary. Are you really arguing that most Catholics really are Protestants and need to go? Finally, I should correct you on my viewpoint. I am a follower of the Erasmus path in the reformation, not that of Luther and Calvin. I delight in bringing up the Catholic understanding in Reformed settings; talking about Luther throwing books out of the bible, for example. :-) Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
