Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!hou5b!hou5c!hou5e!mat From: mat@hou5e.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Views on Religions Message-ID: <536@hou5e.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Jun-83 11:00:17 EDT Article-I.D.: hou5e.536 Posted: Fri Jun 3 11:00:17 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jun-83 23:33:47 EDT References: ih1ap.151 Lines: 31 I hope this sort of thing isn't happening too often: "I glad your Catholic or I wouldn't want to live with you!" came from the 11 year old. When we went to a Methodist to be married he explained that if we continue to participate in the Catholic Sacrements, we are fooling ourselves. In the eyes of the Church, we were not married and living in sin." First of all, if your concern is legitimacy within the Roman church, all you need is to have an appropriate minster of the church (us. a priest) as a witness to the ceremony. If you are willing to accept a Methodist minister's statement on Catholic doctrine, Ok. I would ask SEVERAL Catholic priessts if it mattered to me. As to ``living in sin'' and the Cathoic sacraments -- while there may be one position espoused by the Vatican, it certainly insn't a universal consensus. Most folk these days outside, perhaps, of the Rosary Altar Society will admit that there is a certain amount of ``posturing'' going on in Vatican statements. As far as the 11-year old, I hope that her attitude changes. Of course some education is in order. Children, especially in primary school, tend to view everything as black-and-white or us-and-them. And older folk in the rather closed religious communities often involved in teaching probably find it easier to teach that ``they are bad guys'' than ``they don't believe exactly the same things we do''. The latter can easily raise questions, and there usually isn't either the time or the manpower to answer them all properly. In any case, let's try to increase tolerance, not intolerance, huh? Mark Terribile Duke of deNet