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Are you considering converting to Roman Catholicism? If
you are, here are some things you will need to understand about those
who disagree with the Church.
What the Roman Catholic Church believes about those who disagree with the Church as stated in the Council of Trent.
Called to Communion bills itself as Catholic and Reformed Dialogue. But if one understands the workings of the Roman Catholic Church and, particularly its magisterium, the "dialogue" can go only one way. Roman Catholicism will not, indeed cannot change. Its view of the Church's teaching authority will not permit it to change. A successful "dialogue," from the view of Roman Catholicism, can only lead to one conclusion -- the Protestant must become a Catholic. But supposing you have considered converting to Roman Catholicism and find out there are some things you struggle with. You can't quite bring yourself to believe wholeheartedly in some of the dogmatic teachings of Roman Catholicism that are unsupported by Scripture? What then? The sad thing is that if you do nothing, you are the target of a great number of "Anathemas" leveled by the Church at those who do not believe exactly as the Church believes. These Anathemas stem from the Council of Trent, which was a reaction to the so-called "heresies" of the Protestant Reformation. And that is what this article is about -- the Number of Anathemas in the Text of the Council of Trent. The Number of Anathemas in the Text of the Council of Trent http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent.html Edited
and translated
by J. Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848) Scanned
by Hanover
College students in 1995.
In the Roman Catholic Church an
anathema is not merely a symbolic protest. Here is the definition of “anathema”
from the Catholic Encyclopedia:
Anathema
remains a major excommunication which is to be promulgated with great
solemnity. A formula for this ceremony was drawn up by Pope Zachary
(741-52) in the chapter Debent duodecim sacerdotes, Cause xi, quest.
iii. The Roman Pontifical reproduces it in the chapter Ordo
excommunicandi et absolvendi, distinguishing three sorts of
excommunication: minor excommunication, formerly incurred by a person
holding communication with anyone under the ban of excommunication;
major excommunication, pronounced by the Pope in reading a sentence;
and anathema, or the penalty incurred by crimes of the gravest order,
and solemnly promulgated by the Pope. In passing this sentence, the
pontiff is vested in amice, stole, and a violet cope, wearing his
mitre, and assisted by twelve priests clad in their surplices and
holding lighted candles. He takes his seat in front of the altar or in
some other suitable place, amid pronounces the formula of anathema
which ends with these words: "Wherefore in the name of God the
All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince
of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which
has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we
deprive N-- himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the
Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the
society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy
Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him excommunicated
and anathematized and we
judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all
the reprobate,
so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and
satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that
his soul may be saved on the day of judgment." Whereupon all the
assistants respond: "Fiat, fiat, fiat." The pontiff and the twelve
priests then cast to the ground the lighted candles they have been
carrying, and notice is sent in writing to the priests and neighbouring
bishops of the name of the one who has been excommunicated and the
cause of his excommunication, in order that they may have no
communication with him. Although he is delivered to Satan and his
angels, he can still, and is even bound to repent. The Pontifical gives
the form for absolving him and reconciling him with the Church. The
promulgation of the anathema with such solemnity is well calculated to
strike terror to the criminal and bring him to a state of repentance,
especially if the Church adds to it the ceremony of the Maranatha.
(Emphasis mine.)
As
the reader can see, all Protestants who do not agree
with everything the Roman Catholic Church teaches in the
sessions
with anathemas are in mortal danger of hellfire.
The Catholic Church has tried to soften the impact of all these anathemas, but the anathemas have never been rescinded. Indeed, if one understands the Magisterium of the Church, how could they ever possibly be rescinded? These anathemas already are as authoritative as Scripture, which cannot be altered. It is difficult to know how one can be "Called to Communion" with a Church that assigns the fires of hell to all those who disagree with it. What Roman Catholicism Believes |
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