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Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
Must watch video--Former Israeli diplomat calls Trump 'a man of his word' amid Israel-Hamas peace deal
- By jacks
Hilliary supporting Trump!? Maybe it is the end of the world.
Clinton praises Trump’s peace deal | The Jerusalem Post
Clinton expressed her admiration to Trump and his administration for making the committment to the 20-point plan that intends to end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.www.jpost.com
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Where Do TLM Devotees Go When Their Liturgy Gets Banned?
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 1 Replies
I guess I would think it appropriate if all 1500 of them, and well wishers too, went to that tiny little remote chapel on a given Sunday. With media in tow to report on how the bishop failed to provide for these people in his fake solicitude.Members of Charlotte’s Latin Mass community are torn between the liturgy they love and the parishes they belong to
What does a Catholic do when the liturgy he or she has attended — in some cases, for more than a decade — is banned from their parish church?
That’s a question that is being answered in different ways by the roughly 1,500 Catholics in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, who, until last week, regularly attended the traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at one of four parish churches.
The practice came to an end on Oct. 2, when Bishop Michael Martin, Charlotte’s leader for less than a year and a half, restricted celebrations of the form of the Mass used before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to a single chapel just over 30 miles north of Charlotte.
Bishop Martin said the move was about bringing the diocese into compliance with Traditionis Custodes, a 2021 apostolic letter from Pope Francis that called for severely restricting the TLM for the sake of Church unity.
Continued below.
Where Do TLM Devotees Go When Their Liturgy Gets Banned?
Members of Charlotte’s Latin Mass community are torn between the liturgy they love and the parishes they belong towww.ncregister.com
Actually they are between a rock and a hard place. The bishop won. But then again that bishop will face a judgment some day. Their obedience to this bad bishop will be rewarded. His hatred of his sheep might not be rewarded.
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Vatican appoints judges to decide Rupnik sexual abuse case
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 1 Replies
Overdue.The Vatican’s doctrine office announced Monday that a panel of five judges has been nominated to decide the disciplinary case against Father Marko Rupnik, accused of the sexual and psychological abuse of consecrated women under his spiritual care.
The judges, appointed Oct. 9, do not hold any position in the Roman Curia — the Vatican’s governing body — to ensure their autonomy and independence in the penal judicial procedure, according to an Oct. 13 press release from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the head of the DDF, told journalists in July that the judges for the Rupnik case had been selected. The panel of judges includes both women and clerics.
Fernández had said in an interview at the end of January that the dicastery had finished gathering information in the disciplinary case, had conducted a first review, and was working to put together an independent tribunal for the penal judicial procedure.
Rupnik — a well-known artist with mosaics and paintings in hundreds of Catholic shrines and churches around the world — is accused of having committed sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse against dozens of women religious in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In May 2019, the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith launched a criminal administrative process against Rupnik after the Society of Jesus reported credible complaints of abuse by the priest to the Vatican.
Continued below.
Vatican appoints judges to decide Rupnik sexual abuse case
The judges, appointed Oct. 9, do not hold any position in the Roman Curia to ensure their autonomy and independence in the penal judicial procedure.www.catholicnewsagency.com
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Why you can't debate unbelievers into the Kingdom of God
- By 2PhiloVoid
- Christian Philosophy & Ethics
- 3 Replies
A great piece on how we go about conducting ourselves as Christians.
***************
In an age addicted to argument, Christians have become remarkably good at talking — and remarkably poor at listening. Scroll through social media or walk past a campus debate table, and you’ll see believers armed with microphones, cameras, and carefully memorized rebuttals. The object is not conversion but conquest. The applause line has replaced the altar call.
Somewhere along the way, we began to confuse winning debates with winning souls. Yet Scripture presents a very different picture of how truth changes hearts. The Gospel was never designed to be wielded like a sword in a duel of intellects; it was meant to be offered like bread to the hungry.
The problem with the debate mindset
Apologetics has its place. Reasoned defense of the faith can clarify misunderstandings and expose falsehoods. But when the believer’s primary instinct is to defeat rather than to disciple, something sacred is lost. Too many of today’s “discussions” look more like verbal brawls—complete with highlight reels and hashtags — than like Gospel witness.
Paul warned Timothy, “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim. 2:23–25). Those words are as necessary in the digital age as they were in the first century. Debate can inform minds, but only the Spirit can transform hearts.
Why argument alone fails
Continued below.
Why you can't debate unbelievers into the Kingdom of God
In an age addicted to argument, Christians have become remarkably good at talkingwww.christianpost.com
Another thing I've noticed, too, is that there seem to be a number of Christians who think it's their God-given mandate to coral every other Christian into conformity with the specific teachings of their favored denomination, and you can't argue them into ceasing.
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Pinning Down a Date - Purely Personal
- By Bob Crowley
- The Junk Drawer
- 0 Replies
Purely personal but lately I've been wondering just when I first made my Christian confession.
I knew it was shortly after the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, which ran from 30 September to 9 October 1982.
I had the flu at the time and I couldn't do anything except watch TV. I don't normally watch sport, but since there wasn't much else on I watched a fair bit of the games. Two names readily come to mind - Tracey WIckham who won medals in swimming and Robert de Castella ("Deek") who won the marathon. Some years later my then Presbyterian pastor said of Tracey Wickham that she would go through a terrible time, which she did.
It was not a good time in my life. I was out of work, going through a divorce, going to lose the home I was paying off etc.
But as I sat there a very persistent image of the "Newmarket Presbyterian Church" kept intruding into my mind. I'd had a bit of Sunday School when I was young at that church. It's a private home now, but at that time it was still going.
This image just didn't go away. It was persistent. Since I had nothing to lose and was thinking "There's got to be more to life than this!" I ended up going to the church after the Games finished and the flu was gone. A few weeks later I made a confession.
For some reason I've recently started trying to remember when I made my confession. I think it was probably in the early part of November. Using AI I got the following dates for Sunday in November 1982 - 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.
I suspect it might have been November 14, 1982. I remember making my confession, half reluctantly, and then going home feeling as though I was "walking on air" (to quote another chap who had the same experience after he made his confession, years earlier than I did as he's nearly 20 years older).
In turn I met the pastor of that church (there were three churches in the parish, Wilston-Windsor-Newmarket). I soon gravitated to Wilston which was the main church and where he had his office. Of the three churches it is the only one still going as Newmarket was sold off, and while I think they may still have the property rights for Windsor, it is not being used.
The website for the Wilston Church follows and I can still recognise at least four people even though I haven't been there for 34 years - a former treasurer and his wife, an elder, and another lady who also did some organisation at the Masters Athletics.
In this scene, there is a door down towards the right hand end, which is the office where the pastor and I had a lot of dicussions. There was also a gym under the church. I enjoyed my time there, not because it was "Presbyterian" but due to the people.
Incidentally the Presbyterian Church of Queensland is in receivership, not because of parish churches themselves or pedophile court cases which have been a burden to a number of churches, but due to financial mishandling of their aged care facilities. Apparently the aged care function was not a separate business entity from the Presbyterian Church itself.
www.abc.net.au
The night my father died (when I was still atheist) he predicted I'd become Christian and that as part of that I'd meet a certain pastor, who would "discourage (me) even more". That turned out to be the Presbyterian pastor as he admitted circa 1991 that "You needed encouragement, but all I've done is to discourage you even more!", quoting my deceased father back to me word for word.
But I learnt a lot from him and still hold him with a lot of respect. In turn he predicted I'd become Catholic, which I did circa 1996/97.
I received a Bible dated 7/12/96 as part of RCIA which was probably during the Rite of Welcome. This implies I was inducted into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 1997, which happened to be on 29 March, 1997.
So I think I've managed to pin those two dates down. Just a bit of useless information for forum readers.
I knew it was shortly after the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, which ran from 30 September to 9 October 1982.
I had the flu at the time and I couldn't do anything except watch TV. I don't normally watch sport, but since there wasn't much else on I watched a fair bit of the games. Two names readily come to mind - Tracey WIckham who won medals in swimming and Robert de Castella ("Deek") who won the marathon. Some years later my then Presbyterian pastor said of Tracey Wickham that she would go through a terrible time, which she did.
It was not a good time in my life. I was out of work, going through a divorce, going to lose the home I was paying off etc.
But as I sat there a very persistent image of the "Newmarket Presbyterian Church" kept intruding into my mind. I'd had a bit of Sunday School when I was young at that church. It's a private home now, but at that time it was still going.
This image just didn't go away. It was persistent. Since I had nothing to lose and was thinking "There's got to be more to life than this!" I ended up going to the church after the Games finished and the flu was gone. A few weeks later I made a confession.
For some reason I've recently started trying to remember when I made my confession. I think it was probably in the early part of November. Using AI I got the following dates for Sunday in November 1982 - 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.
I suspect it might have been November 14, 1982. I remember making my confession, half reluctantly, and then going home feeling as though I was "walking on air" (to quote another chap who had the same experience after he made his confession, years earlier than I did as he's nearly 20 years older).
In turn I met the pastor of that church (there were three churches in the parish, Wilston-Windsor-Newmarket). I soon gravitated to Wilston which was the main church and where he had his office. Of the three churches it is the only one still going as Newmarket was sold off, and while I think they may still have the property rights for Windsor, it is not being used.
The website for the Wilston Church follows and I can still recognise at least four people even though I haven't been there for 34 years - a former treasurer and his wife, an elder, and another lady who also did some organisation at the Masters Athletics.
In this scene, there is a door down towards the right hand end, which is the office where the pastor and I had a lot of dicussions. There was also a gym under the church. I enjoyed my time there, not because it was "Presbyterian" but due to the people.
Incidentally the Presbyterian Church of Queensland is in receivership, not because of parish churches themselves or pedophile court cases which have been a burden to a number of churches, but due to financial mishandling of their aged care facilities. Apparently the aged care function was not a separate business entity from the Presbyterian Church itself.
Presbyterian Church of Queensland put into receivership
The Presbyterian Church of Queensland, which also operates a Toowoomba private school and aged care provider PresCare, is placed into receivership.
www.abc.net.au
The night my father died (when I was still atheist) he predicted I'd become Christian and that as part of that I'd meet a certain pastor, who would "discourage (me) even more". That turned out to be the Presbyterian pastor as he admitted circa 1991 that "You needed encouragement, but all I've done is to discourage you even more!", quoting my deceased father back to me word for word.
But I learnt a lot from him and still hold him with a lot of respect. In turn he predicted I'd become Catholic, which I did circa 1996/97.
I received a Bible dated 7/12/96 as part of RCIA which was probably during the Rite of Welcome. This implies I was inducted into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 1997, which happened to be on 29 March, 1997.
So I think I've managed to pin those two dates down. Just a bit of useless information for forum readers.
