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Comment by k_sze | Hacker News Reader

I do know that "Christian" is a very broad label (Catholics, lots of different Protestant churches, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox). Don't assume I'm ignorant. XD

In fact, I'm Catholic myself, but I don't give a shit about what the Pope/Church say about homosexuality, abortion, contraception, sex before marriage, etc. I'm all for women's right for self-determination, and I think it would be quite arrogant to assume we know that heterosexual love is the only possible kind of true love according to God.

And of course, one shouldn't be surprised that the US can have Christian organisations not opposed to IVF. I wrote that in jest.

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> I'm Catholic myself, but I don't give a shit about what the Pope says

How does that work?

Well, it mostly means I'm Baptised and I went through Confirmation and all that, but I still don't have to agree with everything the Pope/Church says regarding very specific issues. I still agree with the general message of love that the bible teaches, even though I may also think some of the punishments that God dealt on humanity was a bit harsh.

Then you are not Catholic

Say what you want, but I grew up in Montreal, Canada, and my impression is that Catholics there are quite liberal. I went to a Catholic high school and we were given proper sex ed, including how to properly put on a condom, with the assumption that quite a few of us would start having sex before finishing high school. We were also never taught that being gay is sinful.

> but I still don't have to agree with everything the Pope/Church says regarding very specific issues.

You're free to believe what you want. Understand, however, that to be a Catholic means agreeing with the Pope/Church on matters of faith. This is not a negotiable part of being a member of the Church. To be baptized and then profess you do not agree with everything marks you as guilty of the sin of heresy, a textbook definition heretic in the eyes of the Church.

I am not saying this to be insulting, this is Catholic doctrine and many schisms have happened over many hundreds of years due to many disagreements on regarding parts of faith and papal infallibility.

There's actually an odd edge case where you could claim to not follow the current or recent popes. I learned this from Luke-jr (the 'prayers in the blockchain' guy), he's a Sedevacantist that believes the last pope was Pius XII and all the popes since were antipopes/pretenders. Since their bishops can consecrate other bishops these believers hold the weird position of being in communion with what most consider the the Church, but do not follow reforms in Vatican II nor acknowledge that a current pope is installed.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedevacantism

> I still agree with the general message of love that the bible teaches

That's just called Humanism. I think it's weird to say that being baptised makes you Catholic if you don't believe in the specific tenets that differentiate Catholicism from other Christian beliefs.

Like...say for a moment that you were baptised and then confirmed Catholic but then later had some kind of epiphany and decided to convert to Islam. Would you still be Catholic anyway? Can you be an Islamic Catholic?

Do you really think that being baptized (often at young age) transform people into drones that all think and speak whatever the Pope says?

Being baptized doesn't transform anyone into anything. Catholicism is a belief system, not a law of physics or chemistry. If you don't adhere, then you aren't an adherent.

TIL there are people who call themselves Catholic who don't follow the Holy See and think that that's not a contradiction. I guess that's neat.

What do you think Catholicism is?

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