Catholics reverse teaching

by startingover 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  Leolaia

  While it is easy to point to the similarity with the Society's reversals via "new light", it is important to recognize some big differences.

  Although Catholics have long believed that children who die without being baptized are with original sin and thus excluded from heaven, the Church has no formal doctrine on the matter. Theologians, however, have long taught that such children enjoy an eternal state of perfect natural happiness, a state commonly called limbo, but without being in communion with God.

  If the Society weighs in on any topic, it becomes a binding article of faith. Beliefs come only from the "organization," not from theologian freelancers. There is no such thing as a JW theologian, for that would require an independence of thought on religious matters, and this would be criticized as "running ahead of Jehovah's organization". Catholic theologians, on the other hand, are free to think their way through different theological problems, including the case of children who die before baptism.
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  free2beme

  What if they are wrong though, and all those babies are left in Limbo? Christianity makes the simple, so complex! Not just Catholics and Witnesses, either.
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  choosing life

  So now they can say there is hope for salvation for these babies, nothing certain, just hope.

  The scriptures are silent as to what happens to these babies.

  These two statements show just how crazy people get when they think that it is in some way up to them to make decisions that are not and never were in their hands to begin with.

  I work at a Catholic institution and they are just as mixed up as jws. In different flavors and colors, but mixed up just the same. The power trips they have dressed up in their pious outfits! Did you know there are as many levels of nuns as there are boy scout badges to earn?
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  jeanV

  I can just look forward to some zealous witnesses commenting at a meeting on how confused catholics are and how they reverse teachings, etc...

  amazing how easy it is to see the straw in other people's eyes
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  Nathan Natas

  To continue along the line of thought that Leolaia started, the WTB&TS might try to say that they have no "formal teaching" on many topics simply because there is no paragraph in the Watchtower magazine that says "We believe blah blah blah."

  But Catholics have always been FREE to question and doubt the teaching of limbo without threat of excommunication. In the WTB&TS, once you provide a whiff of a "questioning attitude," you are likely on the road to disfellowshipping.

  There's a considerable difference.

  I think it will be delightfully interesting to see what the WTB&TS has to say about this "new light" from Rome. I wonder if they will be able to resist making a comment about it.

  Note to self: get LOTS of popcorn!