Religion???????

[clh_hilary]

I'd rather allow people to choose what they believe and not condemn others based on someone else's beliefs and perspective.

But being catholic is not just 'believing whatever you want'. By definition it means having full communion with The Holy See. You can be a christian and twisted The Bible to rationalise your belief, but you cannot be gay and be proud of it whilst still being in full communion with The Roman Catholic Church.

 

[topdog]

But being catholic is not just 'believing whatever you want'. By definition it means having full communion with The Holy See. You can be a christian and twisted The Bible to rationalise your belief, but you cannot be gay and be proud of it whilst still being in full communion with The Roman Catholic Church.

It's possible that I am misunderstanding your point.

But according to canon law, once you are baptized you are Catholic - period. Baptism brings you into the Church, but the only way out is death or excommunication (which is so rare it almost doesn't exist.) There is no way to be "unbaptized".

So you can be a bad Catholic, or a lapsed Catholic, but you are still a Christian and as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. (CIC 845)

You may be confusing heaven with the Catholic Church. (Writing that makes me giggle.)

If you consider homosexuality a mortal sin, then you can argue that if someone dies in a state of sin that they won't go to heaven. BUT, according to Catholic theology, they will still be Catholic. In hell, but Catholic.

That is why I conclude that you can be gay and Catholic, regardless of your view on the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality.

Of course this is only relevant to Roman Catholics, and does not reflect my personal religious beliefs. I am just putting it out there since apparently I am just crazy enough to argue about religion on the internet.

 

[clh_hilary]

It's possible that I am misunderstanding your point.

But according to canon law, once you are baptized you are Catholic - period. Baptism brings you into the Church, but the only way out is death or excommunication (which is so rare it almost doesn't exist.) There is no way to be "unbaptized".

So you can be a bad Catholic, or a lapsed Catholic, but you are still a Christian and as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. (CIC 845)

You may be confusing heaven with the Catholic Church. (Writing that makes me giggle.)

If you consider homosexuality a mortal sin, then you can argue that if someone dies in a state of sin that they won't go to heaven. BUT, according to Catholic theology, they will still be Catholic. In hell, but Catholic.

That is why I conclude that you can be gay and Catholic, regardless of your view on the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality.

Of course this is only relevant to Roman Catholics, and does not reflect my personal religious beliefs. I am just putting it out there since apparently I am just crazy enough to argue about religion on the internet.

You are right, and Oxford Dictionaries defined 'catholic' as 'a member of The Roman Catholic Church'. But this is only one way of looking at it. In this sense I am a catholic. There used to be a way to defect from the church, but they have closed that door. You can only now announce to not be associated with the church and be recorded as such in some diocesans. But if you do not follow catholicism, do not follow the popes, do not follow the church, you are not someone with a catholic faith. Thus, if you have gay sex (you don't have to be gay), you are not someone who subscribes to catholicism, ancient or modern. But yes surely you will still be considered a 'catholic'.