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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
articles of belief	michael	Friday, July 11, 2008
Question: i belong to a traditional Anglican church. i watch ewtn all the time. there are some things about the Catholic church that i don't know if i could ever believe in. i'd like to get a copy of the articles of belief. if i don't agree with all of them, does this mean i shouldn't or can't become catholic? for example, i'm against all abortion but find that a person can use limited forms of birth control (as long as it doesn't kill a fetus and doesn't adversely affect the mother's health). thank you for your time.
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Michael: To learn about the Catholic Church the first thing you need to do is get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition. This volume contains the summary of the whole of Catholic Teaching. It has hundreds of footnotes if you want to dig deeper. In addition to that there are many websites that are useful such as: Catholic Answers www.catholic.com This site has many pamphlets that address issues that non-Catholics tend to have about the Church Scripture Catholic www.scripturecatholic.com This site provide biblical evidence for Catholicism Biblical Catholicism http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2007/10/topical-index-pages.html This is another site that offers biblical evidence for Catholic teaching. EWTN www.ewtn.com This site has a large library and also a Q&A And this site of course. This ought to get you started. As for joining the Catholic Church you will need to accept and believe all that the Catholic Church requires for belief. If you cannot do that then you should not join. To join and pretend you are in communion (which means you agree with everything) would be a lie. Do not join us unless you are convinced of the Catholic Teaching. But I would challenge you to discover why the Church teaches what it teaches. Once you read the documents that explain the "whys" perhaps you will come to believe it too. On contraception the Church teaches that all artificial contraception, even those that do not kill babies, is evil. It is a grave sin to use them. National Family Planning can be used if there is a justifiable reason to do so. It is a natural method, not artificial, and has an effectiveness of 99%. I would suggest you read some of the documents of the Church on marriage and sexuality. The primary one is Humanae Vitae on the subject of contraception. One thing about the Church is that it is theological consistent. The teaching on contraception is theologically consistent with God's teaching on life and marriage. We cannot have it both ways. To be truly following God we must follow though on the theological realities. Most people do not know the theological premise of the teaching on contraception. Look into it, you may be surprised. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below: Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum. Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

articles of belief

michael

Friday, July 11, 2008

Question:

i belong to a traditional Anglican church. i watch ewtn all the time. there are some things about the Catholic church that i don't know if i could ever believe in. i'd like to get a copy of the articles of belief. if i don't agree with all of them, does this mean i shouldn't or can't become catholic? for example, i'm against all abortion but find that a person can use limited forms of birth control (as long as it doesn't kill a fetus and doesn't adversely affect the mother's health). thank you for your time.

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Michael:

To learn about the Catholic Church the first thing you need to do is get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition. This volume contains the summary of the whole of Catholic Teaching. It has hundreds of footnotes if you want to dig deeper.

In addition to that there are many websites that are useful such as:

Catholic Answers
www.catholic.com

This site has many pamphlets that address issues that non-Catholics tend to have about the Church

Scripture Catholic
www.scripturecatholic.com

This site provide biblical evidence for Catholicism

Biblical Catholicism
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2007/10/topical-index-pages.html

This is another site that offers biblical evidence for Catholic teaching.

EWTN
www.ewtn.com

This site has a large library and also a Q&A

And this site of course.

This ought to get you started.

As for joining the Catholic Church you will need to accept and believe all that the Catholic Church requires for belief. If you cannot do that then you should not join. To join and pretend you are in communion (which means you agree with everything) would be a lie. Do not join us unless you are convinced of the Catholic Teaching.

But I would challenge you to discover why the Church teaches what it teaches. Once you read the documents that explain the "whys" perhaps you will come to believe it too.

On contraception the Church teaches that all artificial contraception, even those that do not kill babies, is evil. It is a grave sin to use them.

National Family Planning can be used if there is a justifiable reason to do so. It is a natural method, not artificial, and has an effectiveness of 99%.

I would suggest you read some of the documents of the Church on marriage and sexuality. The primary one is Humanae Vitae on the subject of contraception.

One thing about the Church is that it is theological consistent. The teaching on contraception is theologically consistent with God's teaching on life and marriage. We cannot have it both ways. To be truly following God we must follow though on the theological realities. Most people do not know the theological premise of the teaching on contraception. Look into it, you may be surprised.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below:
Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum.
Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum
Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum
Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum