In the hopes of fostering understanding between the Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches, what is the Coptic Orthodox understanding of the Catholic teaching on Indulgences?
The several topics that you bring up, have been discussed on this site extensively. You may search through the different threads. Probably the best answers come from His Holiness Pope Shenouda. All of His Holiness' books are available on-line in pdf format.
Simply put there is no common ground on any of the issues that you put forth. They are not open for negotiations. They are not Orthodox.
the way i see it, indulgences were the reason the protestant churches came about. it was the priest giving u absolution after confession (we do that too), but in addition requiring something from u so yr confession would be accepted. it is orthodox and normal for the priest to say 'go and help some old folk coz u have too much spare time, that's why yr downloading wrong things on yr computer' but it's not orthodox for the priest to ask for money or some other gift to the church in order for u to have yr sins forgiven.
in the 1500s the catholic priests in europe were going around telling people their sins were not forgiven unless they paid fairly large sums of money, and the priests were getting rich as the people got poor. so that was the start of a protest against these practices and the birth of protestant churches.
catholics today don't take large sums of money from the people, but i think they still give u an extra absolution if u do something to 'make up for' yr sin. we can never make up for our sins, only the death and resurrection of our Saviour can do that.
ilovesatinmark, you are indeed correct. To be honest, Martin Luther did not have a problem with indulgences, he was concerned that people were abusing them or misunderstanding them, but that was not his major argument.
One of his major arguments was the fact of how rich the church had become and how stingy they were, further milking the people of their money as opposed to use what the church already had.
Comments
Simply put there is no common ground on any of the issues that you put forth. They are not open for negotiations. They are not Orthodox.
it was the priest giving u absolution after confession (we do that too), but in addition requiring something from u so yr confession would be accepted.
it is orthodox and normal for the priest to say 'go and help some old folk coz u have too much spare time, that's why yr downloading wrong things on yr computer' but it's not orthodox for the priest to ask for money or some other gift to the church in order for u to have yr sins forgiven.
in the 1500s the catholic priests in europe were going around telling people their sins were not forgiven unless they paid fairly large sums of money, and the priests were getting rich as the people got poor. so that was the start of a protest against these practices and the birth of protestant churches.
catholics today don't take large sums of money from the people, but i think they still give u an extra absolution if u do something to 'make up for' yr sin.
we can never make up for our sins, only the death and resurrection of our Saviour can do that.
The Protestant Movement came about from this type of nonsense.
The price for that sin as well as judgment for it well be a heavy price, I believe.
This sin perpetuates itself, and I believe it to be an insult to the Holy Spirit.
[My personal opinion]
One of his major arguments was the fact of how rich the church had become and how stingy they were, further milking the people of their money as opposed to use what the church already had.
when the coin in the coffer rings
the soul from purgatory springs ;)
In Christ
Theophilus