[MR] Women and the Early Church

[Velsthe1 at aol.com]

>Are we espousing a conspiracy theory here?...Uh-
>huh..... 

You're kidding right? Between the well known phrase "History is written by the victors". Lets try some biblical history here. Moses was exiled from Eygpt after killing some of Pharoh's guards. Part of the exile is that Moses' name is stricken from all records and his name never to be mentioned. Now you think these well educated bible scholars would be so witless as not to use this as a good lesson in supressing those that did not meet with thier approval, as Pharoh did with Moses? Bugger-all, it's not conspiracy theory, it's learning from history. 

>Firstly, the definition of infalibility that the
>Catholic Church uses is "incapable of error."  
I dunno, it would still sound to me only people incapable of error would be free from guilt or sin. 

>It does NOT mean that he always knows what is right.  
>It is a negative protection, preventing him from 
>teaching wrong.  There is a difference.  He doesn't 
>have an angel whispering answers in his ear.  
I fear you may have just undermined yourself, and spoken heresy. Papal infallibility DOES mean the Pope is never wrong, and everything that comes from him is given to him from the lips of God. That is who the mystic of the Papacy. The Pope is the mouthpeice of God on earth and that is why whatever comes from the Papal See IS infallible.


Women as priests being wide-sread, probably not. But it does appear that your point of arguement is that it never happened, ever. To be heretics, they have to be in the church to begin with, yes? Did the official line of the church allow women priests, no. Does that mean it never happened, of course not. Consider the raw geography involved, populations scattered to the four winds. 
When the groups who allowed women as priests did get large, particularly later in period when the population was much denser, then they became acknowledged and declared heretics. 
I think that may be another point of confusion. Your arguement is that a heretic is a heretic from the first time they have a thought against the official teachings of the church. Many of the rest involved in this discussion would probably say that soemone isn't a heretic until they are labelled as such. 


Vels