Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Catholic Beliefs and Practices: Don't Believe Everything You Read



I sometimes get the impression that many people learned most of what they believe about Catholics and Catholicism from periodicals purchased at grocery checkouts.

For example, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta isn't a seer: despite what you may have read in the papers. I realize that tabloids need to have attention-getting headlines, like "Abraham Lincoln Was A Woman!" - but the cover in that photo made me a little nostalgic for the days when space alien abductions and Elvis sightings were more common subjects for the imaginative end of the press pool.

Back to Mother Teresa: There's a pretty good write-up about her on EWTN ("Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Peacemaker, Pioneer, Legend," including a biography and several quotes).

The point of this post is that not everyone who writes about Catholic beliefs and practices knows a great deal about them.

And, sadly, the same is true for people who are in positions of authority. More about that at another time.

Here are two online resources that are a bit better informed about Catholicism than that tabloid: A word about the Catechism: The one I link to is the official English translation of the Latin document. It's quite useful for people who read English, but it's not an "American" document. The Catechism is written for the Catholic Church, and so does not go into details of life and faith that are specific to one culture or another. The USCCB provides an "Informative Dossier" that describes what the Catechism is, how it was made, what it does, and what it doesn't do.

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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

Background:Posts in this blog: In the news:

What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.