Some People Will Never Get it.

It is amazing to me, the lurid interest non-catholics take into the Roman Catholic Church's mundane administrative matters. You'd think they secretly believed that the Roman Catholic Church (warts and all) was the one true Church out of which there is no salvation.

From The Naples Times:

Waiting for approval from on high

Ave Maria continues to wait for bishop’s blessing to celebrate Mass in oratory

By LIAM DILLON

Thursday, November 8, 2007

There will be no midnight Christmas Mass celebrated in the oratory at Ave Maria.

There will be no Mass at all in Ave Maria’s oratory until Diocese of Venice Bishop Frank Dewane gives his blessing to the new university’s request to have its elaborate 100-foot-tall structure recognized by the official Catholic Church, Ave Maria University President Nick Healy said.

Catholic church law requires permission from the local bishop, or other local ordinary, for Mass or other sacred celebrations to take place in an oratory.

Healy said the school sent a letter to Dewane more than two months ago formally requesting his approval for Mass to be held in the oratory when construction is completed next month. Healy added discussions about the matter began long before then.

A comment from a reader:

Once again the arrogance of the Catholic Church amazes me. They can't hold "sacred" services in their building without the "permission" of the Church (i.e. The Vatican)?

Jesus said in the Bible, "Wheresoever people gather in My name, there shall I be also." (This assumes that Catholics still read the Bible to understand this reference, but I'm not so sure about that in recent years.)

It's the spirit of the gathering, not the place in which the gathering takes place, that makes a church or a congregation. Who does the Catholic Church really think it's fooling?

My Response:

The Mass is a Church function .. and it controlled by the Vatican, this is why the Church is still around after 2000 years as opposed to 26,000 fly-by-night protestant sects.

Jesus is around when two or three gather but that does not make a Mass led by one of his priests.

The Roman Catholic Church is the publisher of the first edition of the Holy Bible. Whether her 1.1 billion members are up on every entry is of no matter.

It is always tempting to drop in a little Mathew 18 on Protestants and the Orthodox but their resistance to Biblical teaching is overwhelming.

18 And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.