Quote: To be fair, all Nazis were officially excommunicated in 1930. However,this was done by the German bishops, not by the pro fascist pope Pius X1,who had signed the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini in 1929..
Thank you pad for your fair judgement. I think I mentioned that in my list of reasons why the Church is not totally evil, but I did not say it in such a clear way. Thanks. However, I did point out that the only anti fascist document to be put out by the Pope before the end of WWII came from Pope Pius XI. If you want you can read my earlier post becuase I put the name of the encyclical if you would like to check it out. Of course you could be calling him pro fascist for other reasons... Because, although I do not know about the Pope in this case, many people thought Fascism was a good compromise between communism and capitalism. I still think fascism could have been good if it were not for the retarded evil bastard hitler and mussolini, as Salazar and Franco were not too bad in my opinion. I know many people hate Franco, but whatever. Even FDR and many others praised fascism until it turned racisit under stupid Hitler.
Quote: The arrogance of the church with Catholics marrying non-Catholics and their utter intolerance of other Christian churches is something of which I'm all too familiar:
My parents were married in 1946.Mum was not a Catholic. That meant they could not be married in front of the altar.The actual ceremony took place in the vestry,the priest's changing room.
At school we were taught by the nuns not be mean to the protestant children because it wasn't their fault they were all going to hell.( I kid you not)
At that time Catholics were forbidden by the church ,under pain of mortal sin,to attend any religious service whatsoever in other than a Catholic church.
Some of the more idiotic practices and beliefs, such as Limbo and a few dodgy saints,were abolished after the Second Vatican Council. (1962-1965) These days, confession in no longer mandatory,nor is refraining from eating meat on Fridays.
Yes it is true that the Church strongly discourgages mixed marriages, for the sake of the family. It is difficult to grow up in a split home, and often the husband and wife end up hating each other becuase of their different beliefs. However, the Church does allow mixed marriage. And she has gotten better about not being so judgemental.
Yeah the old spirit of Catholicism could be quite nasty at times. Personally I think the Church has gotten better in this regards, but the things about the Church and all humans institutions is that if you are not in one ditch you are probably in another, and I think many are mad at nuns today for saying things like, nothing is evil blah blah blah and being too relativistic. It sucks that people are usually in one ditch or the other, but I think the Church's teachings are middle of the road, this is why back then people were able to be so rude to non-Catholics, and today many can be so open toward non-catholics. Its like being so closed minded you are an idiot verses being so open minded your brain falls out, for a lot of people it is unfortunately one or the other.
Yeah, it sucks that Catholics were not allowed to attend other relgious services, but this is because the Church did not have a clear undestanding of what other relgions were and thereofre how to deal with them. The Church also lived in a time that wanted to hear things like that, people in general were more closed minded so it would make sense that hte Church would cater to their needs, as the Church always speaks the language of her people, out of necessity.
Limbo and the "dodgey saints" were not abolished. They just became unpopular. Limbo is still a valid opinion, like it always was. The only difference is that back then it was a very common opinion today it is uncommon. The dodgey saints were a sad appeal to rationalists I think, so we took them off the calendar but one can still celebrate their saint days and they are still published in saint records all that stuff. Also, confession IS mandatory, and you still cannot eat meat on Good Friday and Ash Wednesday, I believe. Also, bishops can bind on their faithful a stronger observance if they wish, and abstaining from meat is still recommended.
