re: Much Needed Clarity Regarding the Pope and the Recent Document Regarding Blessings

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This scenario only works if he is an only child I'm afraid.

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Apparently, you are incorrect, as that's exactly what Jesus did.

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Why would he not give custody of his widowed mother to his brothers and sisters if they are alive and well?

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Because he chose John to take care of His mother. Simply as that.

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So far the only explanation you have given is because John was there at the foot of the cross and James and Jude were not.

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It is the only one that is necessary.

Ok... as I've said elsewhere, we'll just have to agree to disagree. And that's the end of that as far as I'm concerned. We are doing the Kingdom of God no good whatsoever insofar as others are concerned by all this public bickering back and forth.

You are a Catholic, I am a Southern Baptist. Our differences are vast, but nothing that I'm aware of that affects our Salvation.

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rejoin...Catholic

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Thanks, but no thanks.

Y'all drink too much.

Picking nits with perceived inconsistencies with the magisterium when “Prot doctrine” differs from sect to sect, town to town, and congregation to congregation is a mood. Prot doctrine just seems to boil down to “Catholics = bad”.

Just the other day, a poster here was talking about how if they didn’t like what their preacher said, they’d just vote him out or move. WILD WEST.

But imagine having the balls or the gall to belittle or cast aspersions on the Blessed Mother. Just unconscionable.

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But imagine having the balls or the gall to belittle or cast aspersions on the Blessed Mother.

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Who has done that? Who has criticized Mary?

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Prot doctrine” differs from sect to sect, town to town, and congregation to congregation is a mood. Prot doctrine just seems to boil down to “Catholics = bad”.

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Name me a Protestant church that, like the RCC, claims to have all biblical truth and also claims membership in it is required to go to heaven?

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claims to have all biblical truth

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I know someone in these threads who thinks that he has cornered the market on biblical truth, and he’s definitely not a Catholic.

It’s weird that people have to keep on explaining to us what the Pope really meant. “Did the Vicar of Christ really say…?” sounds like something straight out of the devil’s playbook.

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Since when is the fifth commandment a man-made tradition? The Jews had long understood the fifth commandment of honoring their father and mother as taking care of their parents in old age as they took care of them when they were children.

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The 5th commandment wasn't being broken here in any sense. Honoring your father and mother does not mean having one person watch over them over another. That would be the tradition element that Jesus kept bucking. Having his mother cared for is not dishonoring her, by the letter of the law or the by the spirit of the law.

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Recall the context of that passage which is given in the Gospel of Mark. His family thought he was crazy because there was such a crowd surrounding their house they couldn't even eat. This is why Mary and his brethren wanted to speak with Him. This was Jesus's way of telling them that it was okay.

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What a strange interpretation. I don't see anything about that response from Jesus coming out of the text. All three of the synoptic gospels have this account, and none of them give more detail than that Jesus' family is wanting to speak with Him, getting someone in the crowd to get Jesus' attention. How does Jesus respond in all three accounts? He shifts the focus away from His blood relatives and emphasizes the spiritual relationship of those who seek Him by faith.

You think Jesus addressing the crowd and calling them His brothers and mother was Jesus indicating to His family that everything was OK?

I don't think so. Nothing in any of the three accounts gives the indication that Jesus is trying to communicate anything to His relatives. He was addressing the crowds and was telling them that they are His brothers and mother, and that anyone who does the will of God gets those familial titles. He used that opportunity to continue to teach the crowd, not tell His family that everything's good for dinner.

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Only if you subscribe to the Protestant misinterpretation of the Bible and believe that Christ had biological brothers and sisters.

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What about the biblical narrative?

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For that tradition is fairly recent, like within the last 500 years recent. From ancient times there were no influential Christian theologians who held the belief that Christ had brothers and sisters through the Virgin Mary. The Second Council of Constantinople (AD 553) dogmatically defined that Mary was "ever-virgin." This had been taught as early as the mid-second century.

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Matthew and John reference Jesus' brothers and sisters. In Galatians 1:19, Paul refers to James as "the" Lord's brother (using the definite article).

Then there's the Jewish historian, Josephus, who mentions that James is the Lord's brother, too.

I'd say that's sufficient evidence that predates the later traditions of men.

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Yep. Because Joseph was dead and he did not have any other brothers and sisters from his mother's side.

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Not according to the Bible.

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Which is why the old adage remains true: "To be deep in history is to cease being Protestant."

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Strange. I have been pretty deep in history and have not ceased to be a Protestant. You can't go much deeper in Christian history than the Scriptures themselves, and they give much evidence of false teachings coming up in the church during the lives of the Apostles. It's not a stretch to think that more traditions and false teachings sprung up early on in the church after the Apostles passed away.

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You are clearly ignorant of the customs, history, and culture of the era. Christ even said he did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.

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"The law", not "the traditions". And this shows the fundamental difference (again) between Catholics and Protestants: Catholics look to Tradition as the supreme rule for the faith by using it to define and interpret everything else, including God's word, while Protestants look to the Bible as the final arbiter of truth.

Catholics will bend over backwards to defend tradition when Jesus broke with tradition in favor of God's revealed word in the Scriptures. Protestants are doing the same thing by breaking from unbiblical traditions of Rome.