Good news for Roman Catholics

[StreetsOfGold]

Good news, for all you Roman Catholics.

“time off purgatory” to anyone who follows the pope’s tweets on Twitter"

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/16/vatican-indulgences-pope-francis-tweets

Could this "church" stoop any lower?
As hard as it is to believe, they HAVE with a clever, subtle "indulgence" which costs you your identification. 

[chad]

the concept of an indulgence is that you do good deeds in this life, and then you are rewarded later on after death. it doesn't have anything to do with the church, other than "marketing" to try and get you to be a better person. the whole concept was abused in the middle ages, etc. but since vatican 2, the church has talked rather openly about the whole concept of indulgences being an idea conceived to try and make you be a better person.

but, that doesn't fit the bash catholic agenda. carry on.

[Ponce]

First you have to make people believe in the church.....then you have to believe the words of the church.....then you have to believe in the "Supreme God"........and after that then the rest is easy, "Give me your money or you will go to hell"

To me heaven is what you make of your life here on Earth "while alive"...... I control my life no matter what, when is good or when is bad..... I have given a lot of money directly to the people who needs it, indirectly only to the Palestinian people by way of the UK.

V

[Dachsie]

"Vatican offers 'time off purgatory' to followers of Pope Francis tweets"

That headline/caption is a totally false representation of the indulgence that is being offered. Actually one has to follow along in the present of the event and what this amounts to is following along on live internet feed of the event and saying the prayers that will take place throughout the event. So it boils down to a complete series of prayers and participating live in the event through prayer. (Money abuse of indulgences stopped a long time ago. It is about prayers and good works in this life, but as many know, Protestants generally consider prayers to be "works" and "good works" (which can include giving money to the poor and a group that serves the poor) to be useless works as far as anyone's "being saved.")

The Guardian and Protestants and atheists in general love to seize upon and twist and misrepresent and make fun of anything about indulgences or purgatory of the Catholic Church.

One has to have more than a cursory knowledge of Catholic teaching to understand the biblical basis for those doctrines. Of course, the Protestants have a totally different gospel and a different Jesus and a deep hate for the teachings of the Church so they will "interpret" the bible in a way that satisfies there understandings and wishes.

In case one wants to look at "both sides of the story" one may want to read...

http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/PRIMINDU.htm

A PRIMER ON INDULGENCES
James Akin


also

https://www.youtube.com/user/JimmyAkin

videos on various subjects for those who will not read

Seek truth in righteousness and check your own conscience and go to heaven!




“and the light shines on in the darkness and darkness could not overcome it.”

John 1:5

[StreetsOfGold]

Actually one has to follow along in the present of the event and what this amounts to is following along on live internet feed

Correct, if you are one of the "privileged" in this world you get to BUY some time off in that place er....."state of "being" which at least a few million Roman Catholics in this world do not have NEITHER can they afford to travel there.
You get to help promote a MAN at the SAME time. Afterall, we need to start CONDITIONING the world to "worship a "MAN" (Rev. 13:18) by having the WHOLE world SEE HIM (not a piglet barf-gag, a woman)

[StreetsOfGold]

that doesn't fit the bash catholic agenda

Oh? EXCUSE ME, I was not bashing, I was trying to help. Didn't you see the words GOOD NEWS.

But you seem to think this is "bashing"? Could it because the whole thing is just so pathetically stupid you assumed it was "bashing" for pointing it out?
How ungrateful


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLarpW_oR2I

[pioneer]

the concept of an indulgence is that you do good deeds in this life, and then you are rewarded later on after death. it doesn't have anything to do with the church, other than "marketing" to try and get you to be a better person.

recently my brother thoughtfully informed me via a beautiful greeting card he bought, that he sought out and PAID FOR a "mass of intentions" by some priest off in some monastery in a foreign land. that priest signed the card too, not just my brother.

my brother's been a good practicing Catholic for multiple decades and seems to me is living an exemplary life. but he's never bought me a mention by name in the mass, before.

all I could think of beside the old practice of indulgence selling, was that this was a clever new marketing ploy by the church to gain names for an "outreach program" to try to save my soul, or follow my eventual estate? that privacy revelation aspect annoys me, but i told him thank you for the thought anyhow because i know he meant well.

comments from chad and dachsle or other catholics welcome. is this a "new thing" being encouraged now in the congregants?

i was raised that prayers were free, especially mentioning others by name in private.

[mick silver]

Purgatory, according to Catholic Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church) doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogma), is an intermediate state (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_state) after physical death in which those destined for heaven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_(Christianity)) "undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven".[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-1) Only those who die in the state of grace but have not in life reached a sufficient level of holiness can be in Purgatory, and therefore no one in Purgatory will remain forever in that state or go to hell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell). This theological notion has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Christian) literature, but the poetic conception of Purgatory as a geographically existing place is largely the creation of medieval Christian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Christian) piety and imagination.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-EB-2)The notion of Purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Rite) of the Catholic Church (in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches) it is a doctrine, though it is not often called "Purgatory", but the "final purification" or the "final theosis"); Anglicans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican) of the Anglo-Catholic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Catholic) tradition generally also hold to the belief, along with many Lutherans of High Church Lutheranism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Church_Lutheranism). Eastern Orthodox Churches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church) believe in the possibility of a change of situation for the souls of the dead through the prayers of the living and the offering of the Divine Liturgy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Liturgy), and many Orthodox, especially among ascetics, hope and pray for a general apocatastasis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocatastasis).[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-3) Judaism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism) also believes in the possibility of after-death purification and may even use the word "purgatory" to present its understanding of the meaning of Gehenna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna).[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-4) However, the concept of soul "purification" may be explicitly denied in these other faith traditions.
The word "Purgatory", derived through Anglo-Norman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman_language) and Old French (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_French) from the Latin word purgatorium,[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-5) has come to refer also to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation,[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-EB-2) and is used, in a non-specific sense, to mean any place or condition of suffering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffering) or torment, especially one that is temporary.[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#cite_note-6)

[mick silver]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Purgatory is “a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.” To summarize, in Catholic theology Purgatory is a place that a Christian’s soul goes to after death to be cleansed of the sins that had not been fully satisfied during life. Is this doctrine of Purgatory in agreement with the Bible? Absolutely not!


Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/purgatory.html#ixzz3CYqovUdk Revelation 20:12 Embed (http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Revelation%2020.12#)











12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and q (http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Revelation%2020.12#footnote0)books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is r (http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Revelation%2020.12#footnote1)the book of life. And s (http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Revelation%2020.12#footnote2)the dead were judged by what was written in the books, t (http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Revelation%2020.12#footnote3)according to what they had done.

[Dachsie]

Well, as I understand it, we are not to think of purgatory necessarily as a "place" nor or we to define "time" spent in purgatory as we define "time" in this earthly realm. Still there is good biblical support for a person being in a "purified" state before they can enter heaven and there is temporal punishment due to sins even though the sin was absolved in Confession. (it is sort of analogous to if someone steals a car, they still have to return the car to the person they stole it from, make restitution, in addition to satisfying any legal fine or prison time penalty.) Where that takes place and how much time is involved is not the way to look at it though it does happen sometime between physical death and entering heaven. Also, there is good biblical support for praying for the living and the dead and praying for people who are not or were not Catholics.

https://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/HOW2PURG.HTM


That article just linked confirms what I know inside of me that tells me that "counting prayers" and "counting days off of purgatory" is an incorrect understanding of all of this.

Still praying is a good thing, praying for the living and the dead and praying for myself and praying for Catholics and nonCatholics -- it's all good.

There is a large large choice of prayers and works with indulgences - partial and plenary - that are available for Catholics to pray. No money exchange, no special computer access or ability, nothing like that -- is required to avail ourselves of these prayers. or we can just say our own prayers in our own way. Nothing is for sale or exchange or trade in all of this and there is no discrimination for or against any person.

[Dachsie]

Dachsie is by no means an expert in any of this.

" is this a "new thing" being encouraged now in the congregants? "

This is called a "mass card."

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0812.html

"offering Masses for others, particularly the dead, originates in the very early Church. "
Proofs for this practice go back to 180 A.D.

I have written to Jimmy Akin to ask his specific answer but I have observed this buying of mass cards as somewhat close hand and the money offered for a mass card is usually very small, like under $20. It is not a purchase or trade for money. A person can specify that they do not want the person being prayed for name mentioned at Mass or printed in a bulletin of any kind. In fact, my observation is that routinely at a parish church, the name is routinely NOT mentioned publicly from the pulpit at mass, but the priest does offer the specific intentions and names in his prayers and offering of the mass, with some exceptions on certain feast days etc...

I doubt if there were any serious violations of your privacy but you might let your brother know that you appreciate his prayers for you but that you prefer your name not be announced or written publicly anywhere. You have a brother who is thinking of you, who cares for your soul, and who has made a small monetary sacrifice to help some servants of living souls. You will never know how much good accrues to you in God's economy because of this.

From my limited understanding, people who are holy in this world or who are in heaven praying for us is a very good thing. The fervent and effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (Catholics call this "the communion of saints" among those in the Church Militant (that's us), the Church Suffering (that's those who are dead but not in heaven yet but will be - they can't pray but we can pray for them) and the Church Triumphant (all the saints in heaven who can and do pray for others on earth and in purgatory and those are going to be very effectual prayers.)

This is God's economy - not man's "bean counting" kind of bookkeeping.

[Hitch]

I think we are all in purgatory right now. Our actions as living human beings decides whether we go to heaven or hell, and we can be called at anytime in this life to be chosen which way we go. I don't think it matters which religion you claim, as long as you are a good person and treat others well. That is what God wants from all of us, I think.

[Horn]

Purgatory should work to place many a confessional out of service, but they still persist.

Setup somewhere midstream pyramid, at a time when there was a shortage of priestly ears needed for absolution.

Could be the same case today, Rosewood used in confessional construction isn't an environmentally sustainable item.