ye110man wrote:
pax wrote:
desiree wrote:
I have read every single post, and have decided that I am still confused.

Guess I *do* have a lot to learn!
Do not be confused, my dear, because yellowman and others pervert the teachings of the Church. They are spinning the words of V2 to make them say something they cannot possibly say.
This is the faith which you accepted: The holy Roman Catholic Church and the Mystical Body of Christ are one and the same thing (Pius XII). You cannot be a member of the Body of Christ if you refuse to submit to the divinely established leadership of the Pope (Boniface VIII). Those who refuse to submit to that divinely established leadership are scattered and disjointed. They have no share in either the Body or the Head, which is Christ (Pius XI).
This is the constant and universal teaching of the Church. Those who say differently are in open rebellion against their holy Mother the Church.
I did not spin. I quoted.
"For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect... But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ's body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church." - Unitatis Redintegratio
Please explain how your views are consistant with that?
http://www.rc.net/rcchurch/vatican2/unitatis.red
"Nevertheless, our separated brethren, whether considered as individuals
or as Communities and Churches, are not blessed with that unity which
Jesus Christ wished to bestow on all those who through Him were born
again into one body, and with Him quickened to newness of life- that
unity which the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Tradition of the Church
proclaim. For it is only through Christ's Catholic Church, which is "the
all-embracing means of salvation," that they can benefit fully from the
means of salvation. We believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings
of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the
head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all
should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God.
This people of God, though still in its members liable to sin, is ever
growing in Christ during its pilgrimage on earth, and is guided by God's
gentle wisdom, according to His hidden designs, until it shall happily
arrive at the fullness of eternal glory in the heavenly Jerusalem."
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius11/P11MORTA.HTM
"For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head."
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_ ... ti_en.html
"If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ - which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church [12] - we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression "the Mystical Body of Christ" - an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fathers."