Would Anti Christ, discourage murder, rape, theft, and lying?

14.SEP.07

Editor: Permit me to respond to Mr Rogers’ letter of Friday August 31st. Mr Rogers do you keep pictures in your home depicting biblical scenes? When you look at these pictures and are reminded of your love for God is that love directed at the picture or at God? Do you keep pictures of loved ones on your walls or in albums in your home?{{more}}

When you look lovingly at these pictures is it because you love the person depicted or is it the picture itself that you love? If the making of an image is a sin you are indeed suggesting that God himself commanded Moses to commit a sin in the making of the bronze serpent and further commanded the Israelites to sin by looking upon the serpent to be healed (Nu 21: 8-9). There are two things we know; firstly God would never command that sin be committed therefore neither the making of the serpent nor looking at it were sinful.

Secondly, when the Israelites looked upon the serpent they did not believe that the serpent healed them they knew that obedience to God allowed God’s power to save them. For Mr Rogers to have read articles 2129-2132 of the Catechism and misrepresent them as he did is most dishonest. Do not engage in such flagrant misrepresentation Mr Rogers you only harm yourself. Why is it that if you read the Catechisms’ exegesis on the Ten Commandments you ignored the fact that murder, rape, theft, lying and a host of other sins are discussed? Would the Anti Christ, spirit or otherwise, discourage murder, rape, theft, and lying?

In the Searchlight of Friday, July 13th 2007 Mr Rogers claimed, “Pope John Paul II declared that we must obtain salvation through Mary”. In response to this I asked Mr Rogers to give a reference, which verifies that Pope John Paul II did as he claims. Mr Rogers directed me to read paragraph 5 of the encyclical found at the path www.ewtn.com/library/encyc/p9ubipr2.htm. Upon examining the encyclical the first thing I noticed is that it was written by Pope Pius IX in 1849 and not by Pope John Paul II who was Pope from 1978 to 2005. Mr Rogers, please try to remain focused. Nevertheless, since Mr Rogers has gone to such trouble to misrepresent the Catholic Church let us look briefly at the encyclical in question; Ubi Primum (on the Immaculate conception). The document is essentially an invitation from Pope Pious the IX to Cardinals, Bishops, and other theologians of the time to become involved in prayer, study and discussion with each other and the Faithful toward defining the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

To understand the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception we must begin at the beginning. When the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary he said, “hail full of grace”(Lk 1:28). The Church teaches, that because Mary was to be the Mother of God that from the moment of her conception, Mary was preserved by God from the stain of original sin. Many people are not able to accept the fact that Mary was the mother of God, yet this cannot be denied. Very simply Mary was Jesus’ mother, and Jesus is God; therefore Mary is the Mother of God. No one is suggesting that Mary formed Jesus Divine nature within her; just as no one suggests that ordinary mothers form the immortal souls of their children, yet we do not doubt that they are, mother.

Returning to Ubi Primum it must be said that taking this encyclical or any other document out of context does a great disservice to its author and to the person trying to make sense of it. Imagine a person who does not even know of the existence of electricity suddenly coming across a computer user’s manual. What sense could they possibly make

of it.

No matter how intelligent this person was they would simply lack the tools and supporting information to make use of the manual. The same is true for anyone trying to understand the Catholic Church’s position on Mary. Anyone who wishes to understand the church’s position in a way that is objective and respectful needs only consult The Catechism of the Catholic Church and or someone trained in Catholic Theology. Anyone who consults the Catechism will find that Catholics do not worship Mary or attempt to replace Jesus with her.

There exist a significant body of teaching on Mary. One can hardly hope to offer constructive criticism on a matter with which they are not in the least bit acquainted or of which their knowledge is only cursory.

Salt