- Post
- #1046748
- Topic
- Ask the member of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church AKA Interrogate the Catholic ;)
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1046748/action/topic#1046748
- Time
Unfortunately, I have not been able to see it. I do not have HBO. š¦ I was just curious what Catholics in general felt about TV shows and movies about their Church and the Pope.
Well that really depends on how the Church and pope are portrayed. š If the Church isnāt being made fun of, then itās totally fine. Representing the pope as less than perfect isnāt bad either, since the pope is human, but the fact that a pope is selected mainly for his holiness and suitability for dealing with present-day situations means that itās a bit offensive when heās demonized (unless, of course, itās a movie about one of the bad Renaissance or Medieval popesā¦).
Why do you object to the idea of āconservative vs liberalā Catholicism. I thought in real life there were arguments within your church between the liberal and conservative minded.
The Church has a single, unified body of doctrine, with some room for personal interpretation in some areas. For this reason, speaking of it as if it were divided into two different camps with competing doctrine is harmful to the Faith, as it tends to polarize Catholics and pit them against each other instead of us all being united in our faith. There should be no āliberalā or āconservativeā or āmoderateā or whatever Catholics, we should simply be Catholic. If we start breaking off into factions, or talk about the Church as if it was made up of different political parties, we are violating the prayer Jesus prayed at the Last Supper, āthat they may be oneā (John 15 or something like that).
āLiberalā or āconservativeā in this context usually refers to political views, which should only be secondary to religious ones. The truth is that the middle ground is the best road to take. If youāre too conservative, chances are you donāt have the same concern for the poor or social outcasts that you should and that you favour doctrine over charity. If youāre too liberal, chances are that you are less appreciative of the Churchās traditions as well as being willing to accept some degree of moral relativism, thinking of doctrine as less important than being ānice.ā
Neither of those is healthy, since we are called to love and we are also called to uphold the truth. These are both of equal importance. Leaning one way or the other is usually what gets someone pegged as conservative/traditionalist or libera/modernist, which detracts from our main goal and vocation of living Christlike lives.
Hopefully that makes sense, and Iām happy to ramble on some more if you want me to expand on anything. š