Comment by netfortius
5 hours ago
As an atheist I have an obligation to finish reading it all (still going through, and taking notes, probably having to revisit), but I am not sure how many (christian) believers will feel the same.
5 hours ago
As an atheist I have an obligation to finish reading it all (still going through, and taking notes, probably having to revisit), but I am not sure how many (christian) believers will feel the same.
As an atheist and even anti-theist I see no such obligation. What a strange thing to say
From where does that obligation originate?
[dead]
Priests will read it and then talk to their congregations about it on Sundays throughout the year, if not explicitly, then in how it shapes their homilies.
Some Catholic priests might do that, it’s up to the individuals.
Most will and do. Few people become priests, today especially, without a deep-seated faith and desire to spread/support it.
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You mean Catholic believers, not Christian
Catholics are Christian.
In theory only and all Catholics recognize the authority of the pope. In practice it’s a mess as far as I understand, with a bunch of American catholic groups who rejected church reforms that happened during the 20th century, resulting in people calling themselves catholic who do not actually believe that the Catholic Church has authority over their religion.
Add to that the fact that the pope has a cultural influence that goes further than only the catholic audience (lots of Protestant see the pope as important even if that’s not something dictated by Protestantism, a bunch of not really religious people see him as a sort of spiritual leader, etc)
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