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So lately, I feel there hasn't been nearly enough drama around these parts. I'm going to try to shake things up a little. What's better than a religious conversation to get people riled up?

So, I propose a question and answer session. As a practicing Catholic, I will answer any question related to my faith to the best of my ability. I will do my best to give the Church's position as accurately as I can and my own opinion if I feel it is warranted. Since I will be striving to be respectful, I ask you to do the same. As I said, any question is fair game. All I ask is that you ask it in a respectful manner and take the time to read my full reply. Let's get on with the drama! I'll leave you with a quote from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen:

"There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church."

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http://www.wptv.com//dpp/news/nation...eps-Gods-tears

Not really related but reminded me of some questions I had regarding miracles and saints. Keep in mind I know very little of any aspect of Christianity as a whole.

What's the deal with miracles exactly? Need a certain amount to become a saint right? And then folks pray to saints? Isn't that pretty much polytheism with the saints acting as minor gods?

I guess then I'm also confused by what is considered a work of god compared to that of the devil. Say someone performs something that's seemingly magical. Why are they often accused of being in league with the devil over performing a miracle? And the miracle is what exactly? The work of God right? So why does the person get the credit?

And the trinity. Took a religion class once and I left more confused on this topic. If you could explain it as simply as possible that would be swell.

Apologies if wanted more controversial questions. Well, hmmm...ok, so abortion I can sort of see the logic behind, but why reject contraception?

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Hahaha, when I first looked at this I forgot what Catholic was and read it as Cat-Holic thinking it was some sort of play on words and thought this was going to be about cats. :p

Whats the deal with God? Do you think hes up in a cloud somewhere or out in space? Or maybe just some average Joe walking around in disguise? And do you think the Devil is down at the center of the Earth? Cause I dont care how evil he is, I think the pressure would still crush him.

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Wow, lots of questions there. I'll do my best to answer them all. And a disclaimer that I probably should have put in the first post. While I am a practicing Catholic and I love to learn new things about my faith, there are still far more things I don't know or can't remember properly so I need to look them up. This takes time which I don't have much of. If it takes me a while to respond to any of your posts, please forgive me.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's dive in.

Your question about miracles specifically intrigues me. It's not something I've thought much about.

I'll start with the saints first however. No, the saints are in no way minor gods. While people do pray to saints and the Church encourages people to do so, do not confuse this with worship. Also, praying to the saints is not a substitute for a relationship with God.

In addition, this can be more accurately understood as praying through the saints. We are not asking the saints to answer our prayers. Rather, we are asking the saints to pray to God on our behalf. Since we believe that the saints are in heaven, we believe that they are the closest to God. This is no different than asking anyone else on earth to pray for you. Any miracle is the work of God. The saint doesn't "get the credit" per se. Rather, if a miracle is proven by the Church to be a result of the intercession of that saint, then that is seen as proof that that saint is in heaven (This is one of the criteria for canonization or sainthood.) In order for a saint to be canonized, two separate miracles must be directly attributed to that saint's intercession. Notice in that link that the Catholic Church has a rigorous process to determine if something is a miracle or not. It must be not have a scientific explanation. This means the weeping tree in the link you posted would likely not pass muster due to the fact that this behavior seems to be common for these types of trees.


On the subject of miracles, a miracle is a supernatural sign or wonder, brought about by God, signifying His glory and the salvation of mankind. Miracles cannot be performed by the devil. The work of the devil is to deceive mankind. If someone is in league with the devil, they cannot perform miracles! This is something I rarely hear though in Catholic circles. It is more often the realm of some Evangelical Protestant faiths to accuse someone of being in league with the devil. And also, a miracle exists to signify the glory of God. If someone is claiming to perform miracles for their own glory, it isn't a miracle!

The Trinity is a tough one. If you are looking for a simple explanation, you won't find it. The Church teaches that it is a mystery and thus cannot be fully understood by the human mind.

Basically, the Trinity is as follows. The Trinity is comprised of three persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is distinct from one another and each is God, but there is only one God, not three. Confusing enough? This video actually does a pretty good job of explaining just how difficult it can be for our human minds to grasp and why it is a mystery.



In addition, Jesus is both fully human and fully God! Another mystery. We can go into that one more deeply at another time if you like.

Let me know if any of the above is confusing. I can try to be more clear.

I was not specifically hoping for controversial topics. Anything is fine, I was just trying to be interesting in my original post.

Contraception is something I'll have to address tonight. I have to leave for work and I don't have the time to flesh out a full response before I go, but I want to give you some response so you know I'm not ignoring you.

Suffice it to say that in order to understand the Catholic teaching on contraception, you must first understand the Catholic teaching on sex. I'll get into that in my next post.

Combine, thanks for your questions. I will respond to you soon.

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So I just spent the last hour or so typing up a response that I was very happy with and lost it all. This will be attempt number two.


So, contraception? How could the Church be against that? Do they just want us to keep having babies until we are no longer fertile?


First, in order to understand why the Church says no to contraception, we must first understand what the Church is not saying no to. The Church is not saying that you cannot plan your pregnancies. The Church understands that not everyone is capable (either financially or mentally) or desires to have 20 kids. We are allowed to plan our families. The Church simply says that we should not use artificial means to achieve this goal. Why not artificial means? Well, as I said previously, in order to understand this, we must understand the Church’s teaching on sex.


The Church teaches that sex is good and it is one of the gifts that God has given us. Through sex we are able to give of ourselves most completely to another person. No other activity in this existence matches this. When we have sex, we give of ourselves completely to our lover. Anything that prevents this full giving of ourselves misuses the gift of sex. It erects barriers between us and our lover and says I give myself to you, but I withhold this part of my humanity. Condoms and other barrier methods literally put a barrier between us and our lover. We say “I love you enough to share this most intimate experience between two human beings with you, but I want to keep this part of myself separate from you.”


Our humanity is good! God created us and everything that makes us human is good. This includes our fertility. Birth control methods which suppress our natural fertility suppress our humanity! We say to God, I reject this part of my body which you created for me. We use artificial methods to suppress natural functions of the body without a medical necessity simply so we can have sex without the consequence of pregnancy. This doesn’t even take into consideration that some methods of birth control (especially the so called “morning after pill”) can actually prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. If you know anything about Catholic teaching, you probably know that the Church teaches that life begins at conception and is to be respected until natural death. This goes contrary to that teaching.


The great Catholic writer/thinker G.K. Chesterton hated the term “birth control” as he hated all words that were meaningless. He felt that those that used birth control believed in neither birth nor control. Instead they wished for less birth and no control as relates to their sexual desires.


Earlier I mentioned that the Church is OK with natural means to avoid pregnancy. These methods are commonly referred to as Natural Family Planning or NFP and have been shown in various studies when practiced properly to be 95% effective or higher. Basically, a couple practicing NFP works with the woman’s natural cycle to avoid sex during the fertile periods of the cycle and practice sex only during those periods of infertility.

TL : DR version: Our humanity is good. Sex is good. Contraception suppresses our humanity and prevents the full union of husband and wife through sex.

Does that make sense?

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Do you believe that dinosaurs once roamed the Earth? Or that God just decided to put some random bones in the dirt to screw with us and get a few laughs out of it?

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I was raised Catholic, Baptised, went to communion and confession on occasion, ect. I went to Sunday School, but I was never in Catholic school. My dad was actually a Lutheran and went to Church with my grandma, and I went with my mother and my other grandma.

Anyways I pretty much quit going to church or really associating myself with anything Catholic once I was old enough to realize I don't really agree with anything that they practice. That and my parents don't go to church anymore either and also don't really agree with a lot of the Catholic position on a lot of these controversial issues. I am very pro-choice, im a HUGE fan of artificial contraceptives of all types, I don't have a problem with homosexuality and I don't understand why women cant be ordained priests. And don't even get me started on all the sex abuse stuff and cover-ups. What a Joke.

Im not trying to start a flame war here and I respect all opinions but I honestly believe that in its current state the Catholic church is a joke. I know they still do a lot of good things but they really need to get with the times on a lot of these issues. I don't feel like looking for a source for this information but im pretty sure I read somewhere that the number of Catholics in the United States has been dropping drastically. Cant say it surprises me with their stances on a lot of these issues. But I could say the same about a lot of Religions actually.

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Yes, dinosaurs roamed the earth from roughly 230 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. Also, the earth is roughly 4 - 4.5 billion years old. The Catholic Church has no issues with science. In fact some of the world's greatest scientists have been Catholic priests, monks, friars, and nuns.

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God is omnipresent. Which means He is everywhere. There isn't really a teaching on the location of hell.

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I'm sorry you have left the Church.

I don't really see a question here or an invitation to give a response, so I guess I'll just reply with the following:

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Well thats good. Who are the ones that dont think dinosaurs existed? I dont really know the difference between Catholic and the other Christian or whatever religions.

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Considering the trouble the church has had with priests molesting children, should the marriage ban be removed? The bible does not call for it, and it seems exclude those would otherwise consider being a priest while attracting people that are running from their perverse sexual impulses and hoping priesthood would cure them.

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Interesting stuff about the trinity. Thanks.


Ok, so if it's having a barrier that's the problem then sex while not completely naked shouldn't be allowed either right? Leaving your socks on should be just as bad.

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In my understanding, mostly fundamentalist Protestants who are Bible literalists and use the Bible as the only source of authority.

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First let me say this; the fact that there were priests who took advantage of their position to abuse children sexually is deplorable, should never have happened, and any priest that is found guilty should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Okay, that being said, let's look at what were actually saying here.

No, I do not think the marriage ban should be removed. Your statement is a common one and is a result of the inaccurate coverage of the sex abuse scandal by the media. However, this statement is based off of two assumptions that statistics tell us are false.

The first assumption is that since priests are celibate, they must have no outlet for their sexual desires and they in turn look for whatever they can conviently find to satisfy their urges. The main reason this assumption falls apart is the simple fact that Catholic priests have a similar to significantly lower incidence of pedophilia than the general population. link link. Logic would tell us that if celibacy drives priests to pedophilia, then there should be a significantly higher incidence among priests. Reality tells us this is simply not the case.

The second assumption flows from the first. We've already observed that celibacy does not increase the rate of pedophilia. So the second assumption is that marriage will help cure those attracted to pedophilia. Sadly, this is also not true. With few exceptions, pedophiles do not abuse children because they don't have an outlet for their sexual desires. They practice pedophilia because they have a psychological attraction to children. Marriage does not cure this as it does not simply flow from a need for sexual intimacy, but a disordered desire for sexual intimacy for children.

Put simply, celibacy is not the issue because celibacy has no correlation with pedophilia. Priests who can't deal with being celibate, leave the priesthood and have normal relationships with consenting adults.

Now the statement that pedophiles are running to the priesthood to be "cured", doesn't make sense either. As we saw above, priests abuse at a similar to significantly lower rate than the general population.

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I think you're missing my point slightly. The barrier that seperates procreation from the procreative act (sex) is the issue. The Church makes no requirement that spouses be completely naked during sex. If this were the case, there would be no Catholic children concieved in Canada between the months of October and May. :D

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Just to clarify, I never thought that celibacy led to pedophilia, only that it would attract those looking for a religious cure. The John Jay study is interesting, but it only compares priests against the general population. I would like to see a study against the rates of clergy from other religions that allow marriage.

But moreso, if celibacy isn't called for in the Bible, why mandate it for priests?

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Yes, I realized the true focus of your question after my long response, but decided to keep it because it was worthwhile information.

Finding statistics on non-celibate clergy has been difficult. I've only found one source of information. link That article quotes a study by Penn State (ironic) professor Phillip Jenkins title Pedophiles and Priests in which pedophile rates among Catholic priests are placed at between 0.2 and 1.7 percent and among protestant clergy it is placed at between 2 and 3 percent.

The basic truth is that few have looked at the issue with any real scholarly intent and therefore, little exists in the way of solid statistical evidence. I've only found two scholarly studies on Catholic Priests and almost nothing on other denominations. The nature of the Protestant church makes this difficult. There are 40,000+ Protestant denominations and the decentralized nature makes it difficult to compare across denominations. The link I posted in my previous post from Wikipedia even makes it clear that we have little understanding of the issue at large even amongst the general population.

The simplest answer to why priests are called to be celibate is that priests are called to be fathers to all the faithful and not just biologically related offspring. The Church futher emphasizes this by statingthat a priest marries the Church through his priestly vows. It is a devotion to the Church that is akin to a husband's devotion to his wife.

It has a practical aspect as well, priests make around $25,000 to $30,000 and according to some sources, much less. You would have a difficult time raising a family on that. In addition, who pays to send any children to a Catholic school or other expenses related to raising a family?

The Catholic priest is called to focus on the faithful as his family.

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That's it? No more questions? I was really enjoying this.

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ummmm, why do you portray god as such a good guy? With all the bad stuffs going on it just seems like he doesnt really care. If hes so great why doesnt he smite the bad guys with his smite stick?

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Because if that were to happen, there would be no free will.

I appreciate the questions Combine. However, I get the distinct impression that you're not really interested in my answers.

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That one was just to bump, I was interested in the other ones though. They arent the most thought provoking questions, but they are things I found dumb about religion and such. Theres so much evidence behind science and evolution and whatever and yet some groups choose to blatantly ignore it. It makes me go all.

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Agreed. The correct response to a scientific discovery that challenges your faith is not to stick your head in the sand, but to learn about it and see how it fits with your understanding of God. Maybe your understanding needs refinement. But to wall yourselves off and create your own museums and your own school curiculums is willful ignorance.

If God is real, then religion has nothing to fear from science. Science hasn't disproven God yet and anyone specifically using science to do so is foolish.

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I have a question about the bible itself. Who do Catholics believe wrote it? The two testaments are hundreds (thousands?) of years apart. Is it the word of god as written by prophets? Couldn't there have been a mistranslation? Especially the new testament which was first Greek...then Latin...then English? (Not looking any of this up myself so you can answer :) ) A lot of the rules seem like they're purely of their time (and if written by a whole bunch of people, they'd surely have their own views on things and include them). Why stick with them in the modern era? Is that why there's the whole picking and choosing thing going on, with some rules being followed strictly and others completely ignored? Who decides which rules to follow? The pope in your case?

Follow up question to that last bit: The pope is the word of God right? Or God is suppose to talk to him? But isn't the pope voted in? Doesn't it seem a bit silly that God would be like: "Oh this is the guy you want me to talk to? Well, ok. You did vote on it and all. " Or do I have that completely wrong and he's just there to govern the religious matters according to his own views on things?

Dunno if you ever saw this. Pretty interesting. Dude follows the bible to the tee for a full year.

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Oh! The whole confession thing! It rubs me the wrong way that you could do horrible things, tell a priest, say a couple prayers a bunch of times, and be forgiven like nothing ever happened.

Feels like without that clause you'd be less likely to do bad things if you had to live with your bad choices.

Not really a question I guess. Just what are your thoughts on that?

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Well, that is the way it works, sorta. True, you can do horrible things and God will forgive. There is no sin too great for the redeeming power of Christ.

BUT...you have to mean it. You have to be truly sorry for what you did AND you have to desire never to do it again. If you do something with the belief that you will just apologize later, then you're not truly sorry. God knows our hearts and what we truly feel.

I'll answer your other question at a later time. This one was a little easier so I answered it first.

Also, are these answers worthwhile? Do they make sense/clear up anything? If not, let me know. What makes sense to me is probably different than what makes sense to you since I've grown up with this my whole life. Feel free to ask follow-up questions.

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So kinda like that guy who cut off another guys head while riding a bus then cut off the heads ears and ate them, but said it was the voice of god that told him to do it and repented or whatever. So that fucking insane guy gets to go to heaven?

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What about workarounds to rules? Like I assume you stand by no sex before marriage, and that goes with the no condom thing, but then there are folks who engage in anal before marriage because it "doesn't count."

Contraception as a safety method just makes far more sense than half doing part of some rule few will follow.

Reminded of another related video... :sneaky: NSFW

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Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I have been researching this question to make sure I get it right, but I kept running out of time to actually type up a response. I don't have much time now, but I'm going to do my best.

The bible has many writers spanning thousands of years. It is a collection of books with no single writer. The Catholic Church assembled the bible from those works believed to be inspired by God. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these writers recorded what was revealed to them by God. Therefore, God is the author of the bible. Each writing must be taken in context with the time it was written and our understanding of the person who wrote it, but each is divinely inspired.

Mistranslations are possible and do exist, although not to the degree you might imagine. There are several versions of the bible and some are better than others for different reasons. Some are more literal translations and some focus more on accurately transcribing the meaning into our modern languages. However, despite this, we are blessed to have many ancient manuscripts from the bible, some dating to just a few years after the books were originally written. Through these pieces of the bible, we can assure ourselves that our modern translations are accurate.

As far as the rules of the bible, there are a few things that must be understood. First, as mentioned above, everything in the bible must be understood in context both within the time/culture it was written and within context to the rest of the bible. Secondly, there are two main types of laws in the bible. There is the ceremonial law and there is the law of Christ. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law and therefore, it is no longer binding on Christians. I never has been. It was only binding on those upon whom it was delivered; the Jews. The ceremonial laws include such laws as many of the ones followed in the video you posted. Because of this, following everything in the bible literally is a pointless (although interesting) exercise. Christians are still bound however by the law of Christ which includes natural law. These include many of the requirements from the New Testament and some from the Old Testament. Most visible would probably be the ten commandments or Jesus's commandment to "Love the Lord your God with your whole heart and love your neighbor as yourself."

The Pope is the leader of the Church on earth and the successor to Saint Peter. The Cardinals choose the Pope, but are guided by the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that all Popes are perfect (they are human), but there election is guided by God. As Jesus said, (I'm not quoting this directly, but the gist is there), "And I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." If we believe what Jesus is saying (protip: we do), then we can be assured that the Church is protected by God. This is why whenever a new Pope is selected, you should laugh at the media as they stupidly assume it to be like any other earthly election and ask if the Pope will change any of the Church's teachings. The Pope will not. His main purpose is to preserve the Church. Anyone who thinks the Pope will change the Church's teachings on women priests, homosexuality, contraception, etc. doesn't understand the Church and how it is not a human institution, but a divine one.

Sorry if any of that is unclear. I typed this up relatively quickly, so apologies if it is confusing or wrongly worded. I'll answer the other questions as soon as I can.

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Thanks for the response. Makes sense. Although the whole notion of the Holy Spirit guiding so much seems to remove free will to an certain extent. I actually don't know the Church's stance on that. Free will? Yea or nay?

If the old testament rules are mostly void, then why follow so many of them? The whole anti-homosexual thing is from that portion correct?

Quick wikipedia search led me to:

So yeah, what's the deal with being anti-gay?

Sorry I'm asking questions quicker than you can answer. I do find this stuff fascinating though.

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If that individual realizes his sin, is truly sorry (fully regrets the act and wishes he hadn't done it), and intends never to do it again, then God will forgive. Does this mean he will end up in heaven? We don't know. The only ones we claim to know the destination of are the saints. That's why we proclaim them saints because we know they are in heaven.

Notice I did not say that God forgets. Even if we are forgiven, God cannot coexist with sin. We must be cleansed in purgatory before entering heaven. If this man was forgiven for his sins, he would likely have to spend a significant amount of time in purgatory.

Also, it would seem to me based on your description of the act that this individual likely had mental issues. I'm unsure of how that would factor, but I assume it would have some effect on the outcome.

Also keep in mind that someone claiming to hear God is not sufficient evidence that God is speaking to them.

Basically, it is as I said before. When it comes to the afterlife, only God knows our hearts. It is His decision to make. No one is barred from heaven if they take the necessary steps to get there. Keep in mind, those steps are not easy. Jesus mentions over and over in the Bible that getting to heaven is hard and that few will accomplish it, but as is the case with all of us, you can sin and be forgiven and make it to heaven.

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Take a look at my responses to Combine's questions on forgiveness. I think those should answer your questions.

Forgiveness is a central theme of Christianity. All Christian denominations teach that God forgives. He must, otherwise no human (aside from Mary and Jesus) would make it to heaven because we all sin. Catholics are unique in that we teach the act of confession with a priest, but it is still the same teaching that God will forgive.

As I mentioned in my response to Combine though, God does not forget. Being forgiven is not the same as the act having never happened. The stain of sin still exists, but God forgives the act.

P.S. I'll get to the rest of your questions later this week.

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What is your take on this news? http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...atholic-church

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Like most other reports in the main stream media, they've managed to completely miss the point of what the pope was trying to say. Heck, it's gotten so bad that there is even a meme about it.

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Didnt know about that. And what exactly is purgatory. I hear it used around on tv but dont actually know what it is. Some sort of "my soul is in limbo" kind of place?

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Sorry, it's taken me so long to respond.

Anyway, that video is pretty funny! However, there really are no workarounds to the rules. Anal sex would be considered a perversion of sex and would not be allowed in any circumstance, married or not. This once again goes back to my earlier posts where I mention that sex is incomplete without its procreative aspects. Sexual activities that are not open to children are sinful. Why? Because to do otherwise essentially treats the other person as a sex toy for your own sexual gratification rather than as the unique and unrepeatable likeness of God.

God created sex for unitive and procreative reasons. Sexual activity that ignores the procreative aspects is sinful. Likewise, sexual activity that is purely procreative in intent and ignores the unitive aspects is also sinful.

Sex is intended between a married man and woman through penal-vaginal intercourse.

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The Holy Spirit does offer a lot of guidance, but it's up to us whether we listen or not. :p

The church teaches that free will is necessary and essential. For instance, God desires that we love him. How can love be love however if it is not freely given? If love is not freely given, then it becomes obligation and loses all its meaning. In order to truly love God, we must be free to choose whether to do so or not.

First of all, the church is not anti-gay. I aware that this seems unusual to people considering the recent reaction to the Pope's statements on homosexuality, but the church is not anti-gay and futhermore has never been anti-gay.

The church has always been accepting of gay people. The issue is homosexual acts are sinful. In other words, having attraction to someone of the same sex is part of who you are and cannot be controlled. We are all tempted to sin. This manifests itself differently for all of us. However, to give into that temptation and engage in homosexual acts, that is where the trouble lies.

As far as what the bible says about this, no, the condemnation of homosexual acts is not confined to the old testament. The new testament makes several references as well. I will give two examples:

This quote comes from Jesus directly:

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”. Matthew 19:4

Secondly, from Paul's letter to the Romans:

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.. Romans 1:26-27

There are many other areas where marriage is discused and homosexual acts are regarded as sinful, but I will limit it to these two.

As far as the laws of the bible, there are multiple types. The ceremonial law is the law that was fulfilled by Jesus. These laws mostly concerned ritual cleanliness and the like. (E.g. Don't eat pork, don't touch a woman who is menstrating, etc.). The natural law however remains. It is called the the natural law because it is naturally available to all without the revalation of God. An example of the natural law would include don't murder people. The condemnation of homosexual acts is considered a part of the natural law.

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This is the kind of thing I find offensive as a non-religious person. You're basically asking people to repress their natural feelings and live a lie because those feelings or acts would be "sinful." How that isn't construed as "anti-gay" is beyond me. "I'm not anti-you, per-se, but you're a sinner and you're going to Hell." Very accepting...

I feel like this point is always made the most clear when you ask yourself, as a straight person, "when did I decide to be straight?" There was no decision, it's just who you are, and you're not a sinner for it, so why should other people?

You'll never be able to convince me that the logic of that is anyway morally acceptable...but I guess you don't have to, I'll never be a Catholic.

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Purgatory is where the soul is cleansed of sin and the attachment to sin before entering heaven. I haven't been able to clearly determine whether it is still possible to enter hell from Purgatory, therefore, limbo may not be the correct term. The info I've read so far seems to indicate that those wh reach purgatory will eventually reach heaven.

Purgatory itself is a cleansing process. The bible teaches us that nothing unclean can enter heaven. Since we would be lying to ourselves if we said that at the time of death we are free of sin and then attachment to sin, then there must be a cleansing process so that our imperfect souls are able to enter the perfection of heaven. By all accounts, the suffering in purgatory is almost as great if not as great as the suffering in hell. The one difference however, is that the suffering in purgatory is redemptive. We know there is no redemption in hell.

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First, a clarification: i never said anyone was going to hell. You won't hear me say that and you won't hear the Catholic Church proclaim that anyone is going to hell. Only God knows our hearts and therefore, only God can know if our sins merit eternal damnation.

Secondly, I'm sorry you find my religious beliefs offensive. However, if you are a non-believer, i don't see why it should matter. If my God doesn't exist, then surely it won't matter if he considers homosexual acts to be sinful, right?

You seem to ask how we can say we are not against the person if we are against the act? There is an old saying: "Love the sinner, hate the sin." We all sin. Does that mean we are not desearving of love? No. You can love someone without approving of their actions.

If I understand your argument correctly, then you are saying that because people with homosexual attractions did not decide to be that way, their actions cannot be sinful. However, this is true for all sinners and all sin. Non of us chose to be predisposed to sin, but the actions are sinful regardless and we are still responsible for them.

Let me give a few examples. If it is in someone's nature to lie, they are still sinning by lying even though they may be tempted to do so more than another person. Another example would be that of a pedophile or someone who is incestuous. Not all of us have an attraction to underage individuals or to our relatives, does that mean it is any less of a sin for those that do? We are all given crosses to bear.

The only difference here is that society has decided that homosexual acts are no longer sinful. However, God doesn't change with the world. The Belief that homosexual acts are sinful stretches all the way to the Jews in the Old Testament and has been held continuously since. The Church's teaching on this will not change. If you don't believe it, that's up to you, but the teaching doesn't change.

Finally, I'd like to propose a question to you. You state quite clearly that you are not a believer. Would you mind elaborating as to why you are not? Keep in mind that I will of course want to challenge your beliefs, so if you don't want to respond for that reason, I understand. However, I believe it is good that we have our beliefs challenged once in a while. Thank you for challenging my beliefs.