Sunday, January 20, 2008

How the Catholic Church has changed

In the olde days, as soon as a baby was born he/she was baptized as quickly as possible, probably within a few days at most. Today there's no hurry, a recent papal theological commission has pretty much dispensed with the never official dogma of Limbo anyway and so a few months go by after the birth, various people may be asked to be the godparents and an application is finally submitted to the parish but again, there's no rush. The pastor is likely to wait until a group of people need the sacrament and do 'em all on the same day. The issue before the Board today, maybe the sacraments aren't as important as they used to be. Can we blame the usual villain, Vatican 2?

7 comments:

  1. There is clearly lots of changes in the Catholic Church, plus the attendance is going down and there is a shortage of priests. I know people who go through the baptism but then never take their kids to church, what's the point? Do they believe in salvation? Can you have a deep personal relationship with God and with our Saviour without going to God's house?

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  2. What do you think of priestly celibacy Beth? I mean some of us are involuntarily celibate but I don't mean that, I can't quite square it although I'm told as a Cathoic I should, it seems a tad unnatural.

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  3. I don't know, if one is truly following a calling it may not seem unnatural to them. Many men and women have survived celibacy, who am I to tell them they shouldn't be able to?

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  4. But they seem to be denying a basic, intrinsic part of their human nature, a nature God gave them btw. Seems to me the pastors can juggle both, God and broads, like that guy on 7th Heaven.

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  5. Changing the subject I still have to take a day off from work for something that should've been in the can already, but wait, that's a positive thing but anyway what I would do in the meantime if I were them would be to do it themselves, you can you know. The Church does the same thing with marriage, say you want to get hitched there's at least a 6 month wait and then there's pre-Cana classes. What if the gal's conceived something why can't they speed things up? People take all the pre-Cana they want and still get divorced. Let's get the wedding night on the road folks.

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