Just curious

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Rebekka

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I don't know if the ban even needs to be lifted, what difference would it make? Does a tree falling in the woods make a sound if nobody hears it? Does a ban on contraception mean anything if practically nobody heeds it? The way I see it, that rule has been rejected by the Body of Christ - so how important could it be? It's not like a rule against bearing false witness, where maybe we've all told a lie in our lifetimes but we mostly believe telling the truth is right. We Catholics (at least educated catholics in Western countries) have collectively rejected the Church's teaching on birth control as being either wrong or wrong for us as individual couples.

...but yeah, I'd totally change it too, 'Beks.
I can see your point. :scratch: Still, it would make a lot of cafetaria catholics feel less worthless. Just a bit less, mind. Not too much. They would probably still feel pretty worthless, and they should.





:sorry:




I'd make an infallible statement that animals go to heaven. I had an argument with my priest about this once.:cry:
 
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MikeK

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I'd do away with sin. Period.

But then we couldn't go to hell - and it would seem like God loved us...that would be interesting.

I think I would be a much more holy, good person if I didn't feel like God had a gun to my head demanding obedience.
 
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Virgil the Roman

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1. Bring back the Papal tiara.
2. Reinstitute the Feast of St. Valentinus on February 14th in the ordinary form calendar.
3. Declare the right of any priest to celebrate the extraordinary form at any masses he desires, providing that they are regularly scheduled, so long as there is at least one ordinary form mass available beginning at sometime between 9am and 11:15am each Sunday. Religious orders would be exempt to the extent that their mass regulations in this regard would be allowed to be determined by the orders themselves.
4. Create an Anglican rite that operated along the lines of the Eastern Catholic rites.
5. Issue a directive that parishes ordinarily should use incense at masses on all first class feasts and solemnities. Dioceses and parishes that needed to be exempted for valid reason (such as financial hardship) could apply to the Congregation of Divine Worship for exemptions on a case by case basis.
6. Institute black as the mandatory liturgical color to be worn by clergy for funerals, All Soul's Day, and Good Friday in the ordinary form.
7. Restore the January 1st feast to "The Circumcision of Jesus" in the ordinary form (Alright, technically the name I am changing it to wasn't the original name, but it was the original concept, which was radically changed in the Vatican II era).
8. Re institute the liturgical season of Septuagesima in the ordinary form.
9. Mandate that each parish make a midnight Christmas mass available that actually starts at midnight.
10. Create special rubrics for the Christmas mass in the ordinary form so that it includes the Last Gospel.
11. Declare the Epiphany a universal holy day of obligation in the Latin Rite and mandate that it not be transferred to Sunday under any circumstances.
12. Declare the Ascension a universal holy day of obligation in the Latin Rite and mandate that it not be transferred to Sunday under any circumstances.
13. Eliminate the formal requirement for an act of penance on Fridays outside of Lent.
14. Write a brief encyclical (Hey, I've only got a day) stressing the obligation of government to the poor.
15. Authorize blue as a liturgical color in the Latin Rite for the Feast of the Assumption, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the Annunciation (But not for other Marian feasts).
16. Mandate that the bishops start wearing vestments that actually look purple when they are supposed to be purple. Many pick a shade of red that makes me think they are Cardinals unless I see them side by side with an actual Cardinal and observe the difference.
17. Reinstitute the sub-deaconate and the minor liturgical orders.
18. Declare the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church the Patriarch of Kiev.
19. Alter the conclave guidelines to stipulate that all eastern rite patriarchs are to automatically be given the full rights, duties, and honors of Cardinals as a consequences of their esteemed offices, in terms of participating in conclaves.
20. Figure out a way to reduce the number of Patriarchs of Alexandria in communion with Rome to one (it is ridiculous that there are two)
21. Cap the total number of annulments allowed per year in the United States at half the current rate and order the curia to issue new guidelines to bring in down to that figure. If the figure is reached prior to the end of the calendar year, mandate that all pending annulment requests in the United States be held until the following year.
22. Change the Psalm Sunday readings in the ordinary form so that they do not replicate the Good Friday readings.
23. Mandate that confirmations in the Latin Rite only be performed by bishops and not by priests
24. Make it is allowable (but not mandatory) for a pastor in any nation to re institute altar rails at his own discretion for any masses he so chooses in the ordinary form of the Latin Rite.
25. Institute a rule which stipulates that extraordinary minister of holy communion are not permitted at masses of less than 500 parishioners, unless there is only one clergy person present, in which case a single extraordinary minister would be permitted to offer the chalice in places where the chalice is usually offered. In masses where over 500 people are present, the rules would remain the same as they presently are.
26. Mandate that henceforth any bishop who is found to have knowingly permitted an admitted child molester after the current date to continue in ministry with children be stripped of all episcopal duties.
27. Mandate that henceforth any priest who is convicted of child abuse in civil court, or admits to such abuse, be immediately be given the choice of being defrocked or serving in a cloistered monastery without access to children.
28. Mandate that in cases where priests are not available to serve as pastors, deacons be given precedence over lay pastoral assistances in such cases where deacons are available.
29. Issue a directive encouraging dioceses to attempt to ordain more deacons.
I go with everything Fish and Bread said, here, except I'd mandate the rule that the extraordinary minister always be an acolyte, who can be married at anytime, but nevetheless be ordained into the minor order of acolyte, and I'd mandate that the mass of the entire Latin-Rite be a Vernacular Tridentine Mass. The English Tridentine Mass would be a similar to the "Knott Missal" published by the Anglican Heretics.
 
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Fish and Bread

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I noticed the conversation earlier about doing away with hell and sin. I sympathize in theory -- heck, I am not a practicing Catholic in part because of hell and other issues with God. However, I wouldn't change these things as Pope, because I think doing so would undermine the faith. If at this point a Pope arbitrarily "got rid of hell" in a dogmatic way, it would instantly simply say that, in a tangible sense, the Roman Catholic Church is invalid, and possibly even all of Christianity, because of the severe contradiction in would pose to the scriptures, tradition, and Jesus himself. I think we might say something similar about sin. The whole religion would go up in a puff of smoke, from a logical perspective, were these changes made.

I'd feel an obligation as Pope to preserve the faith and protect tradition, while bringing souls to Christ. If a Pope doesn't want to do that, he shouldn't be Pope, in my view. There are a lot of other religious bodies one can apply to be the head of! ;)

A lot of these suggestions sound more like "If I were God...", which is a whole different topic. Were I God, I'd change a ton of things, starting with finding myself a wife. ;) But as Pope, my job would be to serve God as he is thought to exist in the Roman Catholic faith, not myself or my own version of God.
 
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CayoteWild- the question was concerning if you were made pope, not an anti-pope :>

I would do nothing that the Pope is not already doing, as he is doing is best as a disciple of christ- but much of the world is pitted against him. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit be sent forth each day by our Lord Jesus to lead him in every way.

Peace,
DiscipleOfChrist, Mark
 
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Rebekka

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A lot of these suggestions sound more like "If I were God...", which is a whole different topic. Were I God, I'd change a ton of things, starting with finding myself a wife. ;) But as Pope, my job would be to serve God as he is thought to exist in the Roman Catholic faith, not myself or my own version of God.
You're right.

We should start an 'if I were God' thread. :)
 
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NiteClerk

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I used to be against priests getting married...
BUT after reading alot of history, I am under the impression that having them married now makes sense.
A timely article from the Chicago Tribune at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/offtopic/ny-bc-ny-odd--churchasasset1116nov16,1,4728047.story
NYC pastor's wife sees church as asset in their divorce .... But a pastor's estranged wife says he has blended the two so thoroughly that his church should be counted as an asset in their divorce.
....
On the practical side there is the problem of Catholic parishes paying for the support of a family. Would single Priest be allowed to date within their parish? Plus the alimony and child support in case of a divorce. Also which divorce lawyer would the Church pay for? The priest or the wife? I think allowing Priest to marry is just too Protestant.
I think celibracy depends on the necessity of the times... and i think with recent problems it could go back to married priests.
I don't believe that the problem of child abuse was due to celibracy. It's more from homosexuals joining the Church to have access to the children. Now that they are being exposed and forced out look for an upswing in the (U.S.) public school system, which still treats abuse like the Catholics were 20 years ago.
 
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MikeK

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It's more from homosexuals joining the Church to have access to the children.

I think it was more from the Priesthood looking like a noble way to live one's life without society wondering aloud if you're gay or not. Before homosexuality was as accepted as it is today, you kind of had to be "out" and deal with society's scorn, or be single and deal with constant questioning and suspicions from people, or you could become a Priest and have people admire you.
 
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