strick@gatech.UUCP (henry strickland) (03/08/85)
In article <1632V6M@PSUVM> V6M@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >The theologian has TWO responsibilities the greater of which is fidelity >to the Magesterium. > >Vince Marchionni So what would you tell Martin Luther in the 14th century? Was his greater responsibility to sell indulgences to his congregation, or to follow his conscience and understanding of the Scripture? Surely any Roman Catholic today would say that Luther was correct, but was he correct to correct? The problems in the Roman Church today, of course, are nowhere on the order of [how should I say it?] the importance or contraversy of the problems Luther faced. I see my Lutheran (LCA) church and the Episcopal church as having the theological soundness and general intelligence of the Catholic church, but without the problems caused by 'fidelity to the Magesterium.' We're just the reformed catholic church. How do Catholics explain the clear counterexamples of the corrupt popes ages ago? It's been explained that only two or three infallable pronouncements (I forget the terms) have ever been made, and all in the last century, and I think John Paul II is fantastic, but doesn't history make you wonder if just being a pope really makes you better than any other person? I'm sure these are all fairly standard and trite questions, but I've found the discussion very informative (the highest signal-to- noise ratio of any newsgroup), and hope you don't mind me asking. The only real gripe I have with Catholics is I can't commune with you. If I could, I would go to our campus Catholic center much more often. It's just not very fufilling sitting and watching. Oh yeah ... another question: Howcome only the Father drank the wine at the last Mass I attended? BTW, the term used by Lutherans describing Christ's presence in the elements is 'consubstanciation' [ "in, with, and under" -Luther ]. "Here I stand...." strick -- -- henry strickland -- the clouds project { akgua allegra hplabs inhp4 } -- school of ics / ga tech !gatech!strick -- atlanta ga 30332