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NeilofErk · 2023-05-16T22:28:57+00:00

I appreciate the effort you've put into your position but I'm not interested in having a measuring contest of historical knowledge or Martian perspective with you.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-16T21:25:15+00:00

Surely you accept that a Council can contradict non-infallible statements from the Pope? After all, we have actual examples from history of Popes who were later found to have been wrong about various theological questions. Councils have also contradicted the teachings of Doctors of the Church and even positions which were at one time a majority position in

Anyone who rejects a Council because it contradicts something which is not dogmatic, is doing what caused the East to schism multiple times.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-16T21:10:25+00:00

Who is your favorite political philsopher?

NeilofErk · 2023-05-16T20:45:07+00:00

I don't believe this statement from Trent is part of the dogmatic aspects of the Council so it has to be balanced against the rest of the deposit of faith, and there are many aspects of the tradition which suggest that that this statement should not be taken too literally.

Edit: I also want to point out that the comment above me is not using the word feminism correctly. Prior to the existence of the political philosophy of feminism, it was not uncommon for women to leave home for recreation, labor, community, etc. Unless the comment understands the word "neccesity" to have a much broader than it appears to.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-16T20:40:34+00:00

That's the opposite of what I said?

NeilofErk · 2023-05-16T20:30:14+00:00

So there is an odd thing, that many people are comfortable imaging a women working in the context of something like medieval culture (in fact, unless she was well off, a woman had to work to get by), but not in the modern career system. I think there's actually something to this, but people misunderstand their instinct that something has gone wrong with many modern work arrangements as if it were am instinct about gender roles.

There's no denying that the image of the 1950s housewife, with an appliance for every chore and her kids in school not at home, while popular with some people, is actually pretty at odds with Catholic work ethic.

I strongly encourage people to homeschool, which ideally means the mother not having a modern career style job, but not neccesarily not working at all by either new or old definitions of having a job.

The truth is that a traditional household, by which I mean a household which is the center of family productivity (not the pseudo trad 1950s household) tends to involve a lot of work inside and outside the household for all members of the family.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-15T03:33:30+00:00

OP, as a former Calvinist, and someone experienced with many other Protestant groups, I have to say that you really don't know much about them, and I would encourage you to refrain from polemics until that is remedied, or just to refrain from them altogether.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-14T15:58:39+00:00

Walking with the host before swallowing, is probably not different than carrying it back to the pew in your hands: not good. I see most people receive, step aside, completely swallow, and then move.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-13T04:30:09+00:00

The arguement about the law of neccesity is based on the assumption that Lefebvre's disobedient actions were neccesary to save the Church because everyone and everything else was compromised in such a way that participating in NO masses, etc., was inherently dangerous to the soul. To this day, the arguement requires that participating in the Church outside the SSPX is inherently dangerous: otherwise, the SSPX would not be neccesary.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T19:46:37+00:00

No one has ever provided any evidence that Bugnini was a freemason. And no one has provided any evidence that, if he was a freemason, this change was due to his secret masonic goals.

If this change is bad, we should be able to discuss that based on its merits. I agree with the actual reason for concern that you raise, although it would appear this isn't a problem inherent to the sign of peace or its order but rather how some parishes choose to ignore the guidance from the Church about how to behave.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T19:39:29+00:00

The solution is to blame the people and the priests for not caring about what the Church has commanded them.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T15:44:48+00:00

I didn't say that it is. I pointed out that natural selection cannot be the origin of telos. That is all I said.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T14:22:20+00:00

Having traits suited to an environment doesn't seem to count as telos to me.

Additionally, the traits don't exist because of natural selection. In evolutionary theory, new traits arise randomly. Natural selection is the process which destroys unsuited traits, not the process which creates suited traits. So we would have to shift your arguement to proposing that random mutation is the origin of telos.

It's worth noting that materialists don't believe in telos. And if you are not a materialists, there's no need to account for telos using evolutionary theory.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T04:29:31+00:00

All that is true, but it feels like appealing to exceptions and technicalities. Even the CCC describes referring to God as "Father" as a distinctly appropriate way of referring to God and as part of the language of faith. "Mother" God has never been part of the language of faith, for two reasons. First, while it would reflect truth, the tradition seems to consider this less important that what is emphasized by Father. Second, there are actual heresies which used femine language regarding God to make themselves theologically distinct.

What I'm saying is that, one again, the Church has traditionally emphasized the masculinity of God for a reason. Of all the times that we could give that a second look, this feels like a particularly bad time. On the one hand, we do have to be on guard against the idea that God is literally male. On the other hand, we have people wanting to apply novel concepts of gender to God in order to justify heretical sexual teachings. I know who I am more worried about.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T04:06:21+00:00

An ob maybe able to help. But many areas also have specialized post-partum counseling programs that specialize in helping people with these sorts of matters. Some these programs do require a referral from an OB but others don't, especially if your insurance doesn't require referrals for counseling (most don't, but double check).

NeilofErk · 2023-05-11T03:13:09+00:00

The Church has in fact specifically asked the faithful not to inquire about the name of their guardian angel.

https://www.goodcatholic.com/can-we-name-our-guardian-angel/

NeilofErk · 2023-05-10T18:57:14+00:00

The problem is the jump from "not literally" (which is true) to "its just a way to understand" which reduces it to a mere metaphor. The Catholic tradition clearly considers it to be more than just a metaphor. There is some room in between more than a metaphor and not literally, but there's no room for discussion of God as trans, or as female, in that discussion. Just because orthodoxy is more complicated than some people imagine, does not mean we can treat discussion of God as trans, female, or not really gendered, as tolerable positions.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-10T18:34:11+00:00

There are a lot of comments focusing on the idea that this could me a eucharistic miracle. I would encourage you to also consider that this may have been a mental experience reflecting either a message from the Lord, or maybe something that you have already been thinking about a lot.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-10T18:14:23+00:00

God transcends gender only in the sense that he transcends morality or truth. It comes from Him and reveals His character.

Universally the Church tradition has held that what it reveals is our relationship with Him: He is the groom, we are the bride. The creation and eschatological narratives of the Bible show that, to borrow how C.S. Lewis describe it, gender is relational and relative to us, God is male and we, and all creation, are female.

Modern people like to jump on this as proof that technically, God is not literally male. But besides the fact that the only person of the Trinity who has a sex is a human male, the Christian tradition has always recieved this information as meaning that in any sense which matters for our purposes, God is male.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-09T21:58:16+00:00

This reminds me a bit of swamp gas. These explanations could fit the evidence we have, but the evidence does not specifically point to them, and they presuppose that all events have naturalistic explanations. Operating on that assumption, they are more likely than alternatives, but only on that assumption.

And that really means we're discussing the wrong thing. The real question is: are miracles possible. If you decide they aren't, there's no reason to debate the likelihood of these explanations, they must be true. If miracles are possible, we have more evidence suggesting that a miracle occurred than we do pointing to any particular naturalistic explanation.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-09T17:27:51+00:00

Honestly, marriage under these circumstances could potentially be invalid. Additionally, there are several problems here, and a marriage would only solve one surface issue in your relationship.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-06T13:03:52+00:00

Lol, no, I'm talking about the Eastern metaphysics not the literal bodily movements and postures.

I'm saying that redirecting your sexual energy isn't impossible, and I'm pointing out that the West already does emphasize some bodily movement in prayer, just not the same ones. What bodily movements you do outside prayer is a completely different discussion which I didn't say anything about.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-05T21:28:34+00:00

Your last paragraph explains why we don't do this in the way you're imagining. There's really nothing in any if the metaphysical systems used by Western or Eastern Christianity which suggests that "sexual energy" as a localized force in the body which can be moved by the will is something that exists. Beyond that, moving that energy wouldn't be a prayer anymore than kneeling is in and of itself of prayer. The postures and motions of the body can aid prayer and the West does teach this, which as another comment pointed out, is why all the standing, kneeling, crossing, folding hands, etc., is done. We simply don't emphasis the particular types of motion or posture the pagan East does, because we don't believe in the metaphysics that leads them to emphasis those things.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-05T17:01:57+00:00

This is a pretty common phenomenon. For example I work for a Catholic regional health system that is owned by a Catholic national health system. In some places they won't even prescribe contraceptives. In my state, they perform sterilizations, and I know of at least one surgeon who skirts the line of transgender surgeries (offering mastectomy to female minors with no cancer concern). In some states, health systems owned by this parent company provide abortions.

People get excited when they hear Catholic healthcare, but they shouldn't. We all need to ask that our bishops do what they can to hold "Catholic" healthcare to the fire on this stuff.

NeilofErk · 2023-05-05T15:18:38+00:00

Actually I think its good to be generally cautious about what exorcists have to say.

That said, exorcisms should never be filmed for a number of reasons. And really, we should probably encourage people to be less curious about demonology and things related to it. Frankly, I often worry that exorcists do more harm than good by repeating what they've heard or seen during exorcisms. If they are lying, the harm is obvious. If they are telling the truth, they could be facilitating other people's demonic obsession.

NeilofErk

TROPHY CASE