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Why does the pagan Roman Church call their homosexual
priests and child molesters father when
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ
said, Call no man father in the book
of Matthew? (Matthew 23:9)
Also, when people go to see his Unholiness,
they bow down and grovel at his pagan feet but
when Peter, the Apostle, went to see Cornelius,
the Roman Centurion in the book of Acts, fell
at Peter's feet and Peter told him . . .
You pagans have twisted the Word of God to your own damnation.
Please reply.
Harold
{ Why does your pagan Church
call pedophile priests father and grovel at the feet of the Pope? }
Mary Ann replied:
Hi Harold,
Thank you for the question.
The homosexual molesters and child molesters really have
forfeited the title of father, and after due process, the Church is stripping them
of that title.
Do you call your father, a father?
I am sure you do. The earliest Apostles referred
to themselves as fathers and so did the next generation. My learned colleagues will
supply you with citations. Christ was speaking in a common Semitic way. Sarcasm is
a common American way of speaking in English. You might say, Don't Daddy me! in
anger to a child who was being sassy.
Well, absolute active forms of speech are Semitic, like when Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship in Luke 14.
26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple."
His intent is to mean not to prefer
them above God.
As for bowing, Cornelius, as a Roman, thought Peter was a god of some sort. We bend
the knee, though we don't have to, to bishops as a gesture of respect.
We do this to the Pope to show respect for his office as Vicar of Christ. The gesture itself is a medieval
feudal, one indicating respect and submission, not a Roman one indicating idolatry.
Gestures change meaning over time and cultures.
For example, does a man commit idolatry
when he kneels to ask the hand of a woman?
As for twisting the Word of God: Catholics have relied on the eyewitnesses (the Apostles)
and their successors for understanding the Word of God. These are they to whom Christ
promised the Holy Spirit who would bring them into all truth and open the Scriptures
to them as He did on the road to Emmaus.
I know you are motivated by concern for the salvation of Catholics, and by a desire
to protect the holiness of God and of Scripture. For that, I thank you and I respect
you.
To avoid sterile polemics, you might read the Catholic Catechism along with
the Scriptures it cites. Also, you can go to The
Journey Home's web page to see what other fundamentalist Christians learned about
these things.
God bless.
Mary Ann
Eric replied:
Hi Harold,
With respect to your question, what Mary Ann pointed out was quite correct.
You would never conclude that you cannot call the man who raised you Father because
of what Jesus said here. Jesus is using hyperbole. He also forbids terms
such as teacher, but I've never heard anyone, zealous to deny
the title Father to priests, be equally zealous to deny the
title Teacher to teachers.
The point of this passage is do not treat men with the honor and worship
due to God alone.
This point is brought out by other places in the New Testament when the
title Father is used:
"Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not
have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the
gospel."
"To this he replied: 'Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God
of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia,
before he lived in Haran.'"
"As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."
He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God
who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they
were."
"For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with
his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives
worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory."
A good way to understand this is to go to Ephesians 3:14-15, which says,
"For
this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom all fatherhood in Heaven
and on earth derives its name."
God the Father is the pattern and
source of all fatherhood. When fatherhood is rightly ordered to the prerogatives
of God the Father, it is good. When it attempts to usurp its source, it
is bad. That latter case is what Jesus was talking about, but by no means
does it exclude all senses of fatherhood, as this passage makes clear.
An even better answer to your question may be found from the Catholic
Answers web site:
On bowing, there are lots of instances in Scripture when
men bow to one another and it is legitimate. It was a common form of reverence
in the Middle East.
The exact same Hebrew phraseology used in first commandment in Exodus
is used by righteous Isaac in speaking to Jacob in Genesis 27:29: "May
nations serve you and peoples bow down to you."
"Bathsheba bowed low and knelt before the king.
'What is it you want?' the king asked."
While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. And they told the king, “Here is Nathan the prophet.” And when he came in before the king, he bowed before the king, with his face to the ground.
"Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, 'My Lord and king!' When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground."
"And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid."
And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
"While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived. And they told the king, 'Nathan the prophet is here.' So he went before the king and bowed with his face to the ground."
"As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, 'Is it really you, my lord Elijah?'"
1 Kings 18:7.
Note: Ezra 3 says Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord.
"The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, 'The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.' And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him."
With respect to your comment about Peter correcting Cornelius's bowing,
this is not always the case when people bow down to holy men in Scripture.
cf. Genesis 19:1, Numbers 22:31 for starters. Note that in Revelation 22:8, it
explicitly says that John fell down to worship at the feet of the
angel. The angel rebuked him, Worship God! Thus it was
the worship he was objecting to; not the bowing. As a matter of fact, my
concordance and my online KJV do not find any occurrences of people bowing
to angels and being rebuked simply for bowing.
On a number of occasions in the Old Testament, you find people bowing
down to one another, even prophets to kings or people to prophets, without
anyone indicating that something is wrong.
Bowing in Eastern culture is
a form of honor, and not exclusively associated with worship. This is evident
because very frequently, when the Scriptures speak of bowing down in worship
to a deity, it says explicitly, so and so bowed down and worshiped. But
in other places, when people bow down to other people in a non-worship
context, it simply says that they bowed down.
So it is simplistic to point to one Scripture where someone is rebuked
for bowing and draw the conclusion that bowing is always, and everywhere,
and for every reason, forbidden.
Hope this helps,
Eric START HERE
John replied:
Not to mention the fact that just about every kid that's gone to the Protestant
Vacation Bible School learns the song, "Father Abraham".
John
Harold replied:
You answered the first part of my question but not biblically.
What you
call the Pope, is a homosexual pagan. He should be called his unholiness
in the Vatican: the most evil place in the world.
People grovel in their
attire to kiss his pagan ring when in the Bible the Apostle Peter told
Cornelius not to bow down to him and to get up — that he, Peter, was only a
man. Only the Roman pagan Pope demands such obedience.
Answer this question.
I know when you pagans gain world power again, under the Anti-Christ, you
will bring me and other true believers to your wonderful torturous inquisition
and try to get us to worship that chief homosexual in the Vatican who wears
a crown of gold.
My Savior, Jesus Christ wore a crown but it was not gold
like that pagan who is the head of all the:
child molesters
queers
pedophiles,
and
ungodly Roman priests.
He wore a crown of thorns.
Please reply.
Harold
Mike replied:
Hi Harold,
Thanks for writing today!
I read your last reply to us and could not find a question in your last reply.
It appears that, like many outside the Catholic Church, as well as some inside the
Church, you have been misinformed about:
Mary Ann said: To avoid sterile polemics, you might read the Catholic Catechism . . .
I agree.
I used to run a free program that sent Catechisms to seeking Protestants and non-Christians but I no longer have the financial or operational means to do this. Nevertheless, if you wish to go deeper, consider buying a cheap copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to learn everything we believe as Catholics.
If you, or any visitor, have been helped by our work at AskACatholic.com:
click on a few ads on our website. Every ad click brings in a bit more revenue that supports our work. Every click helps.
You said: You answered the first part of my question but not biblically.
I suggest you re-read Eric's reply. He gave six Bible verses for the Biblical foundation and proper understanding of using the word Father.
Plus the Lord did not write any books of the Bible while he was on earth. Neither
did He command that his followers read the Bible. He couldn't have because
the books of the Bible were not known until 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome! and Our Lord had already ascended
into Heaven 349 years earlier!
Also remember no where in the Bible, does it say, The Bible alone
is the sole guide to faith. Churches and Christian congregations that use this premise to teach and instruct the faithful are using a non-biblical principle.
The Holy Bible was written by Catholics and their ancestors, for Catholics,
for use in the Catholic Mass, our worship service. That is just History 101! The Bible isn't a Catechism or body of beliefs but is a liturgical book meant for use in the Catholic Mass.
You said: I know when you pagans gain world power again, under the Anti-Christ, you will bring me and other true believers to your wonderful torturous inquisition and try to get us to worship that chief homosexual in the Vatican who wears a crown of gold.
Unlike those that follow Islam, all Christians, Catholics included, respect each individual's free will, whether they are a man or woman. No Christian believes in forcing someone to believe in a certain faith against their will. If you believe the Catholic Church is the anti-Christ you have the freedom not to join.
What you are not free to do is to slander a faith without good evidence and there is no good evidence for the claims you are making.
The hatred in your e-mail, toward the Catholic Church and the Holy Father
can only come from people who:
hate the Church
were poorly catechized and never knew the whole faith of the Church
know what the Church teaches but have rejected Her teachings, or
from people who have been hurt by bad examples in the Church.
If the hatred in your e-mail comes from this last reason, remember, we
have no control over another person's free will. I can't control Mary Ann's
free will nor can I control Eric or John's free will.
There are bad people in most every organization, but that doesn't make
the whole organization necessarily bad. Just because some seminaries are
poorly run with the result being some priests becoming pedophiles, doesn't
mean all priests in the Catholic Church are pedophiles. Most priests in
the Church are holy priests, or I would pray they are.
You just won't hear about them on the 6:00pm news :-)
I will pray for you but if you are sincere in your beliefs, please pray for our Church and the members of our Church!
We can't be saved by hatred, but can and are saved by truth and love. (John 14:6)
