Galileo gets his due...

what other organization is there with over a billion members of all ages all over the world in most every country to compare the catholic church to? Can you think of one? does a walrus move at the speed of light? (maybe in the baptismal waters...) some wheels turn slowly, but grinding flour is tough work not to be rushed and so is aging wine.

Look how long most folks thought the earth was flat.

many others - not just the church/magesterium condemned many forward thinking prophets/scientists in their time.

Risen Lord Jesus' Peace!
e.t./sue >> *:D (: +

>JAB: "Isn't it interesting how long it takes the church to come around?"

Yep, it a great thing, as there was no scientific means to prove Galileo's theories right or wrong until after the American Civil War, when science "caught up." The Church showed great integrity by not making any premature announcement. Good thing to as we also know, while part of Galileo's theories are true, science has also disproven some parts as well. The Church would have been in error to wholeheartedly approve Galileo's work.

http://www.catholic.com/library/galileo_controversy.asp

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0305sbs.asp

Its a very good thing that the Church does not make snap decisions in favor of what seems to be true, but abides it time to decide what actually is true. Would that other Christian sects had that integrity and patience.

God bless... +Timothy

Gerard,

Thanks for the compliment. Enjoy reading your posts as well.

Part of the problem as I see it is that Protestants (and perhaps several factions of the Jewish community though unrelated to ecumenism) tend to question whether the motives of the Catholic Church are genuine. For one, they see the Church's claim to have the one full deposit of Christian faith to be an arrogant one. Protestantism is in a sense largely based on relativism (Sola Scriptura) at least in retrospect. So many different groups (30 some odd thousand and counting) have splintered as a result of this philosophy because they feared Church hierarchy gaining a monopoly more than Dogmatic errancy.

Protestant communities also felt slighted when they found out they were not "churches", failing to understand the ancient definition of the term. The Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith explained:

"According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery[19] cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called “Churches” in the proper sense[20]."

If you ask me, the secular press (not necessarily you, David :-) have done more to slow the wheels of progress to a grinding halt than the Catholic Church ever could. They isolate certain phrases in the Pope's speeches out of context, feed them to the ill-informed masses, then pandemonium ensues.

Also, if more of us Catholics were ready to 'render an account' then more people outside the Church might come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be Catholic. I still have faith that we'll be able to turn the corner though.

God bless.