In Torah Judaism, “Satan” means “temptor” or “adversary.” Midieval Torah commentator Rashi teaches us that angels lack free will. This conclusion is based on when Jacob wreslted with the angel, who would not reveal his name when Jacob asked for it. For a Jew to believe in a “Devil” would be a form of idolotry.

Check out the scientific research on the Torah Codes and learn how the early Church changed the pagination and words of the Torah to create their “Old (and supposedly superseded) Testament.” For example, read the 10 Commandments in an English translation that is faithful to the original Hebrew. Note that the Hebrew letters also read vertically in the Hebrew text. Muy mysterioso. . . Wednesday, 4/10/08 common era

…Now this redemptive providence appears…manifested in the advantages which have been secured for the Christian world by ecumenical councils…

…[The Church] can never cease from witnessing to the truth of God…” (First Vatican Council; bold my emphasis).

“separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church” (Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate).

“…now, moved by a desire for the restoration of unity among all the followers of Christ…[the Church]…wishes to set before all Catholics the ways and means by which…[separated brethren]…too can respond to this grace and to this divine call…

…The way and method in which the Catholic faith is expressed should never become an obstacle to dialogue with our brethren. It is, of course, essential that the doctrine should be clearly presented in its entirety” (Second Vatican Council, Unitatis Redintegratio).

Reflecting on the above quotes which I feel compress the general issue allows me to conclude the following:

1) The Church is able to teach and expound doctrines in Ecumenical Councils.

2) The Church is unable to be erroneous in teaching and expounding doctrines in Ecumenical Councils.

3) The Church expounded the doctrines of salvation in the Second Vatican Council.

4) The doctrines are not erroneous.

5) If one believes something contrary to the doctrines of the Second Vatican Council, they are in error.

6) Heresy is the post-baptismal denial of a truth which must be believed with a Divine and Catholic faith.

7) Rejecting teachings of the Second Vatican Council is heresy.

11) The heresy is the post-baptismal denial of the infallibility of an ecumenical council.

Honestly, I enjoy posting but I have to admit I work and hour away from where I actually live and I usually don’t have a ton of time to review things. I honestly like Joe Six Pack, and appreciate his remarks. However, even now I don’t have much time at the moment, besides some quick breaks to check the blog here and there. I’ll get back later.

What I wrote was unfair. You clearly did look at one article I cited, so I thank you. You do raise a legitimate concern. However, I think that we need to establish the heresy question I noted above before we move onto the canonical status of SBC-NH. So if you’re still reading and interested (and I do hope so), that’s where I think my greatest disagreement with you is. However, like I said, another forum might be better.

The article with which you use to support the Feeneyites and the St. Benedict Center is from a Canon Law guy in Massachusetts from their old location (over 15 years ago). Note that each diocese has a Canon Law expert who is most likely a priest; if I know correctly. I wonder why the group does not have one from the Diocese where they now reside…

In any case I would hesitate to base your idea of being Catholic + holding onto the rigorous interpretation of “EENS” on this so called letter of “recommendation”.

As I mentioned previously one is Catholic because they are Baptised into the Church. If one holds to heresy, they are automatically excommunicated. This does not require formal acknowledgement from the local ordinary or the Pope. So I think my point is equally supported. The reason they are irregular (as far as I could tell) is because they are in heresy, schism, or apostasy. Don’t buy into that letter on their website; that is deceptive and seems to substantiate the St. Benedict Center is in union with the Church. You can’t have it both ways.

To know of Jesus Christ and to reject him is the classic case of the damned person.

If you know of Jesus, but reject him because he’s not the kind of messiah you’re looking for, then where does that leave you after death?

Their temple destroyed; their city obliterated; their nation annihilated; their priesthood gone forever; their means of atonement gone… A messiah rejected because of his message; yet that messiah works thousands of miracles for all to see (in His time and throughout time through His Church); fulfills all the words of the prophets in words and deeds; coverts the nations; establishes a glorious civilization the likes of which the world has ever known.

Yeah,,, tell me again it’s all about someone not getting the memo about Jesus.

Re-read my posting on anti-Christian hatred by the Jews.

They know us. They know all about us. And many, not all, but many hate us.

Many of the humanists, although not embracing Christianity, see the error of their ways (again read the article I posted by Israel Shahak).

However the basis for their rejection of Christ is not ignorance. It’s NON SERVIUM right to the face of Our Lord.

“But I can only be sincere because my own sin and sloth blind me.”

Response 1:

Actually that’s a good spin. Sincerity presumes one is seeking the truth and is trying to live the moral law. Hypothetically and actually this is possible, because the Church has said so.

Query 2:

“no Jew today can objectively claim to follow the Mosaic Law”

Response 2:

The Mosaic Law is fulfilled in Christ…not abandoned by Christ. Yes, certain elements that are not intrinsic to morals are abandoned but the intent of the disciplines was to keep the Jews focused on God (hence all the specific regulations). In any case the Jews are awaiting the Messiah; so regardless of what you tell them it would take a grace of God to come to know Christ is the Messiah. That being said it is obvious to me that a person in such a position could be following the Mosaic Law to the best dictates of their consience…or subjectively. I think this is the whole point that needs to be addressed.

I’d like to know what you think of all the people that were not exposed to Christianity and died the “second” (or perhaps shortly after) Christ died on Calvary.

Think about this-When the devil comes knocking on your door he may not have the ‘dark goth look’.They could be smartly dressed and wielding the Christian Bible.

I have Jehovah’s Witnesses family in the usa who practice the Watchtower JW enforced ritual shunning that i have not seen or heard from in 15 years.

The central CORE dogma of the Watchtower is Jesus second coming (invisibly) in 1914 and is a lie.Jehovah’s Witnesses are a spin-off of the man made Millerite movement of 1840.

A destructive cult of false teachings, that frequently result in spiritual and psychological abuse, as well as needless deaths (bogus blood transfusion ban).

Yes,you can ‘check out anytime you want but you can never leave’,because they can and will hold your family hostage.

The world has the Internet now,and there are tens of thousands of pages up from disgruntled ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses like myself who have been abused by the Watchtower cult.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are often a mouth that prays a hand that kills.The Watchtower is a truly Orwellian world.
—-
Danny Haszard former Jehovah’s Witness X 33 years and 3rd generation http://www.dannyhaszard.com

This too is a good point, Iosephus. Most strands of Judaism passed through the bottleneck of the Pharisees, and we all know what Our Lord said about them — “Woe unto you.” In any case, no Jew today can objectively claim to follow the Mosaic Law. One of the laws of the Pentateuch is that the Israelites must follow the prophet “like to” Moses whom the Lord will send (Deut. 18:15-20). This Prophet is Christ (Acts 3:19-24). By definition a Jew doesn’t follow Christ. By definition he doesn’t fulfill this part of the Old Covenant. As for the “sincerity of error” argument, please see my last post.

Many people are blind because they will not see, and the blind lead the blind into a ditch. The great cathedrals of Europe frequently have on their facades a pair of statues of women. One is the Church in her splendor, the other — blindfolded — is the Synagogue. If I never endeavor to learn about God, and persist in my sloth, then all my erroneous beliefs will be “sincere.” But I can only be sincere because my own sin and sloth blind me. Sincerity in false belief is insufficient to justify it — you also need to know that the person has been diligent in seeking the truth. Since people who seek the truth find it, people who persist in error — especially over the course of a lifetime — are not being sincere. Am I judging hearts? No, I am applying logic to basic axioms. I am in no position to say that a given person is in mortal sin. I certainly can apply rules absolutely to a hypothetical person — and that is what we are dealing with here, the hypothetical sincere Jew. Please consult: http://www.catholicism.org/paul-
against-liberals.html.

Also, Doctor Asinorum, after lots of research on the topic I can say that Joe Six Pack is right on track. Christians have not been puzzled about this issue (at least not until 40 years ago) — they said what he reported. Please study the matter. By the way, did you ever get around to reading that one article from “First Things” that I mentioned to you?

That comes directly from a sermon by Fr. Chad Ripperger.

I realize this is contrary to the mentality today. Today we’re to believe that if there’s not a post-Concilliar document mentioning it, then it’s not to be regarded as authoritative or even mentioned in polite company.

The traditional teaching by the Fathers, Doctors, and Saints of the Church throughout history are infallible. My statements about the Jews are not my opinion or my own personal magisterial pronouncments. They are the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church.

Clara,

When I said “check your pride at the door” I was referring to the Scandal of the Cross. The Jews primarily reject Jesus because of Good Friday. Because the Scandal of the Cross. Prior to Good Friday, He was largely embraced by the Jews.

The concept of “scandal of the Cross” is as old as the time of Jesus’ apostles, who contrary to their own expectations about the glorious nature of the messianic kingdom, discovered instead that they were being asked to embrace a life patterned on a messiah’ earthly life of poverty, rejection, controvesy, meekness, humility, and finally death on a cross.

St. Paul conceded that it was a stumbling block and “foolishness” from the non-Christian’s point of view. And certainly Christians have not always done a good job themselves embracing the Cross.

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Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them
by Amiram Barkat

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop’s 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

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According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, “as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country.”

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday. “I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday,” he says.

Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as “a huge disgrace.” He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.

“I’m sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it,” he says.

Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. “A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched.”

Excerpted from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, October 12, 2004.

The Jewish Hatred Towards Christianity

by Israel Shahak

Dishonoring Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty in Judaism. Spitting on the cross, and especially on the Crucifix, and spitting when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around AD 200 for pious Jews. In the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their rabbis either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be unknown, or to spit onto their chests, not actually on the cross or openly before the church. The increasing strength of the Jewish state has caused these customs to become more open again but there should be no mistake: The spitting on the cross for converts from Christianity to Judaism, organized in Kibbutz Sa’ad and financed by the Israeli government, is a an act of traditional Jewish piety. It does not cease to be barbaric, horrifying and wicked because of this! On the contrary, it is worse because it is so traditional, and much more dangerous as well, just as the renewed anti-Semitism of the Nazis was dangerous, because in part, it played on the traditional anti-Semitic past.

This barbarous attitude of contempt and hate for Christian religious symbols has grown in Israel. In the 1950s Israel issued a series of stamps representing pictures of Israeli cities. In the picture of Nazareth, there was a church and on its top a cross — almost invisible, perhaps the size of a millimeter. Nevertheless, the religious parties, supported by many on the Zionist “left” made a scandal and the stamps were quickly withdrawn and replaced by an almost identical series from which the microscopic cross was withdrawn.

Then there was the long-drawn-out battle about Christian influence in elementary arithmetic. Pious Jews object to the international plus sign for it is a cross, and it may in their opinion, influence little children to convert to Christianity. Another “explanation” holds it would then be difficult to “educate” them to spit on the cross, if they become used to it in their arithmetic exercises. Until the early 1970s two different sets of arithmetic books were used in Israel. One for the secular schools, employing an inverted “T” sign. In the early ’70’s the religious fanatics “converted” the Labour Party to the great danger of the cross in arithmetic, and from that time, in all Hebrew elementary schools (and now many high schools as well) the international plus sign has been forbidden.

Similar development is visible in other areas of education. Teaching the New Testament was always forbidden, but in the old time conscientious teachers of history used to circumvent the prohibition, by organizing seminars or sending the students to libraries (not the school libraries, of course). About 10 years ago there was a wave of denouncing such teachers. One in Jerusalem was almost sacked, for advising her history pupils, who were studying the history of Jews in Palestine around 30-40 AD, that it would be a good thing if they would read a few chapters of the New Testament as a historical aid. She retained her post only after humbly promising not to do this again.

However in recent years, anti-Christian feelings are literally exploding in Israel (and among Israel-worshipping Jews in Diaspora too) together with the increase of the Jewish fanaticism in all other areas too.

The real enemies of truth here, as in many other aspects of the Israel reality, are the socialists, “liberals”, “radicals”, etc. in the USA. Imagine the reaction of the US Liberals, and of such papers as The Nation and New York Review of Books, not to speak of the New York Times if in any state whatsoever, the government financed spitting on a Star of David? But when here in Israel, the government finances the spitting on a cross, they are and will continue to be, quite silent. More than this, they help to finance it. United States taxpayers, who are of course mostly Christians, are financing at least half the Israeli budget, one way or another, and therefore the spitting on the cross too.
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The late Professor Shahak was an Israeli citizen, former prison camp inmate during WWII, and the founder of Israel’s Human Rights League. His Jewish History, Jewish Religion, which discusses Jewish hatred and contempt toward Gentiles, is highly recommended.

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To be clear I’m not advocating pogroms or anything other than humane relations between peoples. But let’s not kid ourselves about the reality of the situation. And the supernatural reality of our holy religion.