Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.
Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.
Saved from Spy Kids 2
Dear CatholicExchange,
Just want to thank you a “million” — well, at least the price of admission to a first run movie for the entire family. I am so glad to be headed off at the pass, as it were, by the review of Spy Kids 2 today in your website. Too bad though, the first was a great movie last year, but this one certainly does not appear to be of the same caliber at all. I really like the way your reviewer goes to great length in giving us all the details so that we can know exactly why or why not to see a certain
flick. Bravo!!
Chris Snyder
Marlborough, MA
JPII: The Face of Love
Dear Catholic Exchange:
• Thank you for your wonderful article on Pope John Paul and the youth of America. I wish this article could appear in every Catholic newspaper in Australia (especially our Catholic Leader).
Marge Smith
Woodgate Qld. Australia
• Beautiful and beautiful and beautiful. Wow! What a sizzler. What an article. So refreshing to read. Such beautiful reporting.
God Bless You,
Roger
Montreal
• Thank you for this lovely story about a courageous tireless Persona Christe, from one who just read your story on email. Thank you. It is good to read a friendly story about our Church.
Kathryn Anthony
Coos Bay, Oregon
• I hope you're right. I hope the faith of the majority of Catholic youth is real — real enough to endure what is being endured in the Sudan, in China, in North Korea, and perhaps one day too, here in the USA. I hope that our faith is that real too. Everything depends upon it.
Robyn Marie Pio
• Thanks for that absolutely beautiful, uplifting article. I was at an RCIA team meeting last night and we got to discussing the Pope's visit. I remarked that it was very eye-opening to compare the secular media's reporting with the Catholic media's reporting. He is (as we are to be) “counter-cultural,” no question about that. Praise God that we live on the earth with this saint! Thanks again.
In Christ,
Margaret Nava
Dear Catholic Exchange:
Are the stories in the Bible “true,” that is to say, are they real events that actually happened as the Bible relates them? I especially would like to refer to stories such as Daniel and the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion's den, Jonah swallowed by the big fish, Noah and his ark, the parting of the Red Sea, and other Old Testament Stories. And, while we are at it, what about New Testament stories, such as the feeding of the multitudes, the healing stories, the water into wine, and others? If Old Testament stories are referred to as mere illustrations, and not true actual incidents, how do we decide which ones to accept as real facts, and which are simple oral traditions? Is there an official Church position on this?
Maria Lima
Dear Maria,
Peace to you in our Lord Jesus Christ! You mentioned several biblical stories, such as Daniel in the lion's den, the parting of the Red Sea, and the feeding of the five thousand, and asked if these and others were true historical events. Has the Church spoken officially on the historicity of these biblical narratives? I hope this letter and attached information will sufficiently address your question.
In the early part of the 1900's, the Pontifical Biblical Commission (PBC) gave a series of replies to questions about Holy Scripture. The quotations that follow come from the English translation of these replies found in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, Dom Bernard Orchard, Gen. Ed., (New York, NY: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1953), 67-75.
It should be noted that Pope Pius X stated that the PBC's replies, while not infallible, required submission and internal assent (cf. Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, no. 25). The Pope required that the assent given the PBC's replies be equal to anything taught by one of the Sacred Congregations of the Roman Curia.
The following is a question and reply dated June 23, 1905:
Is it possible to admit as a principle of sound exegesis that books of Sacred Scripture which are regarded as historical, at times do not relate, either wholly or in part, history properly so-called and objectively true, but present only the appearance of history with the purpose of expressing some meaning differing from the strictly literal or historical sense of the words?
Answer: In the negative, except in a case neither easily or rashly to be admitted, in which, the mind of the Church not being contrary and without prejudice to its judgement, it is proved by solid arguments that the sacred Writer intended not to recount true history, properly so-called, but under the guise and form of meaning distinct from the strictly literal or historical signification of the words.
To sum up: Unless it can be shown with solid evidence that the author, who for all appearances was writing historically, intended to use only an historical form to “set forth a parable,” the presumption is to be that the author intends what the genre, e.g., historical narrative, signifies.
Please review our Faith Facts series for further detail on the Church's teaching on the Inerrancy of the Bible and Making “Sense” of Scripture.
We have addressed over two thousand questions in Information Services in our Faith Facts and additional research. If you have further questions on any subject or would like more information about Catholics United for the Faith, please feel free to contact us at 1-800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484).
May God bless your day.
United in the Faith,
David E. Utsler
Information Specialist
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)
