Catholic Church Should Return To A Democracy?

[Hassan]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1663930' date='Sep 25 2008, 10:15 PM']Imagine how fast the "Church" would support homosexual union, birth control, even abortion if it was a democracy. Everyone would become Catholic, and then everything would... "go to hell in a handbasket", probably literally.[/quote]

So the Holy Spirit only can protect the Cardinals from error, not the Laity?

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Hassan' post='1665647' date='Sep 28 2008, 12:32 PM']So the Holy Spirit only can protect the Cardinals from error, not the Laity?[/quote]
THe Holy Spirit protects the Pope from promulgating error.

[Hassan]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1665748' date='Sep 28 2008, 02:53 PM']THe Holy Spirit protects the Pope from promulgating error.[/quote]

I worded that poorly.

So the Holy Spirit can guide the Cardinals in selecting the right man to be Pope but not the Laity?

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Hassan' post='1665767' date='Sep 28 2008, 04:28 PM']I worded that poorly.

So the Holy Spirit can guide the Cardinals in selecting the right man to be Pope but not the Laity?[/quote]
I didn't say the Holy Spirit did that. I said the Holy Spirit protects the pope from promulgating error.

[Hassan]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1665771' date='Sep 28 2008, 02:31 PM']I didn't say the Holy Spirit did that. I said the Holy Spirit protects the pope from promulgating error.[/quote]

The Holy Spirit dosen't guide the Cardinals in the selection of Pope?

[Norseman82]

While I have read that it was true that in times past Popes were elected by popular vote by the people of Rome, look at all the problems that the Church had to distract itself with when it allowed non-clergy to become involved with choosing church leaders, whether it be by popular vote or whether it allowed temporal rulers to influence or veto the choice of Popes and bishops. I won't go through specific examples, but one can just look throughout Church history and see the low points in our history and correlate to the involvement of temporal authorities of the time.

[Snowcatpa]

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="purple"]I'm also hesitant to make the election process any kind of democracy for all the reasons listed above and one more. One of the main factors for my husband converting to Catholicism back when we were engaged, when he realized that Truth is not a democracy.

He was Methodist, which is a church that is highly organized and arranges itself into conventions and committees. Truth literally is determined both by precedent and the Bible of course, but also by popular vote. He's a big fan of democracy in America and thinks maybe that's why he liked democracy in his religion so much, before he started really thinking about it.

Hence, it may be able to be done well in this instance but I think I'd need a little more persuasion before venturing into territory we know can go astray.[/color][/font]