Far less than meets the eye

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Ecumenism is the Universal Solvent of Tradition .

Is this why Jesus has withdrawn some of His grace from His Church?

The Universal Catechism teaches that Jesus gave scandal and the Catechism teaches that to give scandal is grave evil.

This is the first time in the more than two thousand year history of Holy Mother Church that a Catechism has identified one specific person who has given scandal and the astonishing fact that this Catechism singles out, for the first time in Christian History, the Divine Person, Jesus Christ, as the one has given scandal is, for ABS at least, cause enough to burn every single copy of The Catechism in existence; it is simply indefensible and inexcusable that this has been done to Our Lord and Saviour.

Who in their right mind would publicly accuse their spouse, whom they presumably love, of such a sinful and hateful act?

ABS knows who would write and produce such evil; those whose love of Jesus Christ is beneath an acceptable level.

OK, let's get into this...

To give scandal is to tempt they neighbor and it is a grave offense.

Jesus gave scandal.

Jesus was His neighbor's tempter and He committed a grave offense is what, to me, the Catholic Catechism objectively teaches.

The Catholic Catechism Gives Scandal

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil.The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.



2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.



2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion. Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible." This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.



2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"



And then read what it teaches about Jesus and Scandal

587 If the Law and the Jerusalem Temple could be occasions of opposition to Jesus by Israel's religious authorities, his role in the redemption of sins, the divine work par excellence, was the true stumbling-block for them.



588 Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves. Against those among them "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others", Jesus affirmed: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that, since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves.



589 Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet.But it was most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God's equal, or is speaking the truth and his person really does make present and reveal God's name.



The Catechism teaches that it is always wrong to give scandal - even indirectly - while at the same time teaching that Jesus gave scandal. 

Of course the Catholic Church does not believe (does it?) that Jesus sinned or was responsible for leading others to sin mortally, but, at least to ABS anyways, it has seriously erred by emphasizing that Jesus GAVE scandal (twice) rather than that it was the case that Jews took scandal. 

The entries on scandal must be expanded to include an explication of the specific types of scandal – direct and indirect…(and entry 2287 teaches even indirect scandal is evil)

 Or – far better

, rewrite the entries about Jesus “giving scandal”: to make it crystal clear it was the Jews who took scandal.

 Jesus was not about giving scandal.
 Mat 17:26 But that we may not scandalize them…
Matt 15:12 Then came his disciples, and said to him: Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized?


My Rheims Testament notes: It must be observed here, that Christ was not the direct cause of scandal to the Jews, for such scandal would not be allowable; he only caused it indirectly, because it was his doctrine, at which, through their own perversity, they took scandal.



Note how the Magisterium has severed continuity with Tradition here because it teaches that even indirect scandal- INDIRECT- is now taught to be sinful.  Lord have mercy. Who is running this mad house?
The Catechism entries on this subject must be rewritten. ABS has thought this way since 1997 when he first read these entries and threw the Catechism down onto the floor with anger while  erupting with scatological rhetoric.

When it comes to Jesus and Scandal, The Catholic Catechism scandalises ABS.


For the life of him ABS can not understand how these entries were not reconciled before publication, to say nothing about the fact that they were written in the first place.

Whoever wrote these entries has an abysmal lack of love for Jesus Christ and he must repent and the One True Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church must apologise publicly

ABS can not get past the thought that these entries, especially those written about Jesus and The Jews, were written in such a way as to minimise  as much as possible the culpability of The Jews for Decicide; and, ABS hastens to add, not all Jews then living in the City of Deicide, were responsible for Deicide; obviously
But how is it that it is He, Jesus, who places The Jews on the horns of a dilemma? 

He is not the cause of that dilemma ( dilemma - a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.) but, rather, it is the Jews who are completely responsible for their actions.

Who edited this thing had in his mind that were the Jews to have accepted Jesus as Messias, that would be a bad thing.

T'hell kind of heretical crap is that? How is accepting Jesus as Messias ever a bad or undesirable choice?

In any event, The Catechism Gives Scandal and these entries must be rewritten.


Brief Documentation of how radical a break, a cataclysmic rupture, with Tradition is this new Catechism;

 Baltimore Catechism:

Q. 1278. Can the fifth commandment be broken by giving scandal or bad example and by inducing others to sin?

A. The fifth commandment can be broken by giving scandal or bad example and inducing others to sin, because such acts may destroy the life of the soul by leading it into mortal sin.
Q. 1279. What is scandal?
A. Scandal is any sinful word, deed or omission that disposes others to sin, or lessens their respect for God and holy religion.


Dom Orchard -(p 706a)  A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture "Human nature being what it is 'scandal' given and received is inevitable but woe to the giver because he takes the evil initiative


Catechism of Pope Saint Pius X Scandal

4 Q Does God also forbid us in the fifth commandment to do harm to the spiritual lifer of another?

A. Yes, in the Fifth Commandment God also forbids us to do harm to another's spiritual life by scandal.






Q. What is scandal?


A. Scandal is any word, act, or omission which is the occasion of another's committing sin.

Q. Is scandal a grave sin?

A. Scandal is a grave sin because, by causing the loss of souls, it tends to destroy the greatest work of God, namely, the redemption; it effects the death of another's soul by depriving it of the life of grace, which is more precious than the life of the body; and is the source of a multitude of sins. Hence God threatens the severest chastisement to those who give scandal.

ABS has been accused of being legalistic in dealing with these execrable entries in the Catechism but all he is doing is being logical, plain and simple...

A. The Catechism teaches that to give scandal is sinful and that the one who gives scandal has additional guilt heaped upon Him in proportion to His authority and it is a grave sin especially if He is a teacher

B. The Catechism teaches that Jesus gave scandal

C. What is any rational man to conclude?

ABS concludes that The One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church has become effectively blind to the incalculable and ineffable beauty, truth and goodness of Jesus Christ, our Creator, Redeemer, Lord and Saviour owing to its execrable Anthropocentrism.

The Church must publicly repent of these entires and apologise and make the necessary corrections if we have any hope of reconnecting with the continuity of Catholic Tradition that has been clearly and blasphemously severed in an intentional rupture with the past this last one-half century.