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John XXIII on the Sacraments, the Mass, and the Priesthood
The following are a pair of consecutive items (quoted in full) from the papal encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram, by pope John XXIII, on 29 June 1959. J23 writes: 74. As for unity of worship, the Catholic Church has had seven sacraments, neither more nor less, from her beginning right down to the present day. Jesus…
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Believing About the Holy Catholic Church
Introduction A perennial issue in our discussions with Roman Catholics is the issue of whether, in addition to believing God’s word in Scripture, we ought also to trust (in a similar way) in the church. While nothing in Scripture suggests that the church is another rule of faith in addition to Scripture, such that we…
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Chief Shepherd – Jesus or the Roman Bishop
Mr. Bellisario is not pleased by Mr. Hays’ analogy of Christians to birds and fishes, preferring instead the metaphor of sheep (link to Bellisario’s post): In an attempt to argue against the papacy this ‘scholar’, Steve Hays from Triablogue has invented a new ecclesial typology as to how the church is composed. He now has…
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Blueprints for Anarchy
Patrick Madrid wrote an article attacking Sola Scriptura as though it were a “blueprint for anarchy,” which is the title that he gave to the article (link to article). The phrase is catchy among contemporary Roman apologists, and it should be no surprise then that we sometimes need to respond to these claims. Here are…
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Anathema Update
Somehow, in preparing my previous post (link), I had overlooked the single use of the word “anathema” in the 1917 Code of Canon Law (pointed out to me here). There is a recent (2001) English translation of the code (Peters, Edward N. 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law: in English translation, with extensive scholarly apparatus.…
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Dr. James White on Evangelizing Roman Catholics (and other things)
Thanks to Monergism.com I recently located a discussion recorded on October 16, 2005, at the Omaha Bible Church featuring Dr. James White discussing evangelizing Roman Catholics (here’s a link to the mp3 – about 1 hour). This is one of several presentations that was given that weekend. The rest are provided below: Justification by Faith…
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Anathemas Have Been Done Away!
Today I encountered the following comment: “Anathemas were done away with under the most recent Code of Canon Law.” (source) It’s not the first time I’ve seen this claim. The problem is this: I have the most recent Code of Canon Law and it doesn’t (that I can find) even mention anathemas. I suppose that…
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Those in Glass Churches …
I noticed that Steve Ray is mocking communion supplies that involve pre-packaged cup/wafer combinations (link – link to website he’s mocking). But it wasn’t so long ago when those in the Roman communion could generally only communicate under the species of bread – the people of that church being denied the symbol of Christ’s blood.…
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No Dialog with Proselytizers
I was amused to see that Jewish groups are complaining about the fact that Roman Catholics are trying to proselytize them during dialog (link). What did they think the point of the dialog was, exactly? What is even more amusing is the similarity between the Jewish leaders comments and the comments of some of the…
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Out of Tune with the Roman Magisterium?
Mr. Shea has posted a still further response on the topic of Mary’s birth pangs or lack thereof and the woman of Revelation 12 (link to Shea’s post). Mr. Shea seems to think our arguments “flat-footed” and compares discussing this with us to discussing music appreciation with a deaf man. This flatfloot, however, is less…