Phil Class
This is a rando post, to show you what a day in class is like.. It's all online.. I was debating a lady, who based her morality on the catholic faith...
So I posted to her...
You (Andrea) Said:
"So, if I believed in the absolute morality of Catholicism, I would have to apply the Catholic morality to every moral issue without any differentiation."
Greg-
OK, I have a question from this statement.. What if the catholic church changes their standards, and laws? For example, It happened before when the church made the statement during the council of Florence. (1438-1445)
" .. no one remaining outside the Catholic Church, not just pagans, but Jews or heretics or schismatics, can become partakers of eternal life; but they will go to the "everlasting fire which was prepared for the Devil and his angels," unless before the end of life, they are joined to the church. " 1
THEN, during the second Vatican Council of 1963-1965, the Counsel said:
" Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. NOR does divine Providence deny the help necessary for salvation to those, who through no blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, but who strive to live a good life, thanks to his grace. " 2
What happened here, is that the church said that unless someone was a Catholic, they were going to hell. Later, they changed it to allow for people to go to heaven, if they were in their hearts a Christian, but didn't know it. ( It's hard to doom a man like Gandhi to hell.)
So, it depends on when you were alive, as to what your Catholic faith would of told you about the final destination of everyone not in church, taking communion with you.
So I guess my question is... How do you know, that you can trust the morality of Catholicism, when they have changed- and will change laws in the future?
1 - John F. Clarkson, ed., "The Church Teaches: Documents of the Church in English Translation" (St. Louis, MO,: B. Herder Book Co., 1955), p. 78
2- Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church" (21 November 1964), chap. ii, par. 16.
greg
So I posted to her...
You (Andrea) Said:
"So, if I believed in the absolute morality of Catholicism, I would have to apply the Catholic morality to every moral issue without any differentiation."
Greg-
OK, I have a question from this statement.. What if the catholic church changes their standards, and laws? For example, It happened before when the church made the statement during the council of Florence. (1438-1445)
" .. no one remaining outside the Catholic Church, not just pagans, but Jews or heretics or schismatics, can become partakers of eternal life; but they will go to the "everlasting fire which was prepared for the Devil and his angels," unless before the end of life, they are joined to the church. " 1
THEN, during the second Vatican Council of 1963-1965, the Counsel said:
" Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. NOR does divine Providence deny the help necessary for salvation to those, who through no blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, but who strive to live a good life, thanks to his grace. " 2
What happened here, is that the church said that unless someone was a Catholic, they were going to hell. Later, they changed it to allow for people to go to heaven, if they were in their hearts a Christian, but didn't know it. ( It's hard to doom a man like Gandhi to hell.)
So, it depends on when you were alive, as to what your Catholic faith would of told you about the final destination of everyone not in church, taking communion with you.
So I guess my question is... How do you know, that you can trust the morality of Catholicism, when they have changed- and will change laws in the future?
1 - John F. Clarkson, ed., "The Church Teaches: Documents of the Church in English Translation" (St. Louis, MO,: B. Herder Book Co., 1955), p. 78
2- Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church" (21 November 1964), chap. ii, par. 16.
greg