Another term paper

[DAF]

So, for my religion class, we get to pretend to be bishops, and we have to present the Church's teaching on a certain topic, and tell everybody why their lives would be happier if they listen and put into practice the teachings of the Church.
Okay, so our teacher grades pretty harshly, so i'm looking for good, bona fide catholic literature that teaches about the Authority of the Church (on all matters from the magesterium and matters of the faith to social matters and everything in between). So if any of you could direct me to any journals, books, church documents, etc. that would be wonderful.
And before you go and tell me to go to the defense directory here on the site, while it is wonderful, it's just not sufficient for what I need.
The sources I'm already using are:

-The Catholic Dossier
-This Rock
-Inside the Vatican
-National Catholic Register
-Denver Catholic Register (our local paper)
-Catholic Faith
-The CCC (duh)
-The Bible (again, kind of a given)
-Our Moral Life in Christ by Aurelio Fernandez & James Socias

Along with probably a couple others like Triumph, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, and others by characters like kreeeft and keating. But like I said, anything that you think I could use that would be appropriate for teaching the Church's teaching on it's own authority, that would rock my socks.

thanks very much,
in Christ

[journeyman]

[quote name='DAF' date='Nov 26 2005, 02:21 PM']So, for my religion class, we get to pretend to be bishops, and we have to present the Church's teaching on a certain topic, and tell everybody why their lives would be happier if they listen and put into practice the teachings of the Church.
Okay, so our teacher grades pretty harshly, so i'm looking for good, bona fide catholic literature that teaches about the Authority of the Church (on all matters from the magesterium and matters of the faith to social matters and everything in between). So if any of you could direct me to any journals, books, church documents, etc. that would be wonderful.
And before you go and tell me to go to the defense directory here on the site, while it is wonderful, it's just not sufficient for what I need.
The sources I'm already using are:

-The Catholic Dossier
-This Rock
-Inside the Vatican
-National Catholic Register
-Denver Catholic Register (our local paper)
-Catholic Faith
-The CCC (duh)
-The Bible (again, kind of a given)
-Our Moral Life in Christ by Aurelio Fernandez & James Socias

Along with probably a couple others like Triumph, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, and others by characters like kreeeft and keating. But like I said, anything that you think I could use that would be appropriate for teaching the Church's teaching on it's own authority, that would rock my socks.

thanks very much,
in Christ
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I think you would have to narrow the question a bit before you would get meaningful feedback . . . this is sort of like Douglas Adams book, (The Hitchhikers Guide) in that it deals with Life, the Universe and Everything

As you have probably already noticed from your research, the Pope and the Bishops tend to stick to a single topic when issuing their documents . . . there's probably a reason for that,

Plus, from the way you've asked the question, you only need to pick a single issue

[quote name='DAF' date='Nov 26 2005, 02:21 PM']So, for my religion class, we get to pretend to be bishops, and we have to present the Church's teaching [b]on a certain topic,[/b] and tell everybody why their lives would be happier if they listen and put into practice the teachings of the Church.

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catholic encyclopedia is a good place to look for background [url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/"]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/[/url]


If you're picking a social justice issue, you might look at some of the references noted here (which came up early in a google search - your diocese's social justice page may also have similar references): [url="http://www.osjspm.org/cst/reading.htm"]http://www.osjspm.org/cst/reading.htm[/url]
The site also has some of the church's source documents: [url="http://www.osjspm.org/cst/doclist.htm"]http://www.osjspm.org/cst/doclist.htm[/url]

For the church's teaching on papal infallibility, you would need to review the Vatican I documents and commentary on those (looks like ewtn has a copy of the Constitutions on Faith and Infallibility from that council [url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/V1.HTM)"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/V1.HTM)[/url]

# Tradition (paradosis)
# Ecumenical Councils
# Pope (Bishop of Rome)
# Papal infallibility
(phatcatholic - another link if you haven't already got it
[url="http://www.catholicapologetics.org/cabiapbk.htm"]Catholic Biblical Apologetics[/url])

once you've selected a topic, and determined the church's teaching on the subject, the reasons why we would all be happier if we put those teachings into practice might be a matter of common sense, or might be contained in the documents themselves . . . I've not found it that simple, but I keep hoping . . .