Abbey-Roads2

The errors of the day. 

A terrific Catholic man I once worked with occasionally would come into work repeating, “We’re all going to hell!”  And since I had the greatest respect for his theology and spirituality, I cornered him as soon as he was alone to ask, “John!  Why?  What do you mean?” 

He usually came to these conclusions after spending time in adoration the night before, or after prayerfully reading documents from the Council of Trent, or the writings of Katherine Emmerich, or something out of “The Sources of Catholic Dogma”.  By way of explanation, he would go on to cite matters and conditions, once considered anathema and sinful, that have become commonplace in our day - yet they continue to be anathema and sinful.

Yep.

So today, as I was reading bits and pieces from  “The Sources of Catholic Dogma” - I pretty much came to the same conclusion.  Or at the very least, gained a better understanding that the sense of sin has definitely been lost in the 21st century - no doubt about it. 

Some errors:

(Remember to preface the following statements with, “It is an error to believe…”)

1174: 24.  To call upon God as a witness to a slight lie is not a great irreverence, because of which God wishes or can condemn man.

(So the next time your kid says, “Swear to God, I did not eat all the Alice B. Toklas brownies!”  Slap them out the door.)

1176: 26.  If anyone swears, either alone or in the presence of others, whether questioned or of his own will, whether for the sake of recreation or for some other purpose, that he did not do something, which in fact he did, understanding within himself something else he did not do, or another way by which he did it, or some other added truth in fact does not lie and is no perjurer.

(”I did not have sex with that woman.”  - Bill Clinton.)

1191: 41.  Since ready cash is more valuable than that to be paid, and since there is no one who does not consider ready cash of greater worth than future cash, a creditor can demand something beyond the principal from the borrower, and for this reason be excused from usury.

(And the credit card companies ask, “What’s in your wallet?”)

1198: 48.  Thus it seems clear that fornication by its nature involves no malice, and that it is evil only because it is forbidden, so that the contrary seems entirely in disagreement with reason. 

(Where have we heard that before?)

1199: 49.  Voluptuousness* is not prohibited by the law of nature.  Therefore if God had not forbidden it, it would be good and sometimes obligatory under pain of mortal sin.

(*V word =M word, or as Oprah likes to call it, ’self-cultivation’.)

The above excerpts taken from: The Sources of Catholic Dogma, Denzinger;  Innocent XI, Various Errors on Moral Subjects (II) - Holy Office, March 4, 1679.

Art:  Innocent XI