What is the catholic explanation for anything bad that happens in the world?
For people who do not believe in God, when arguing their point, they often pose this question: "If there is a God, then why does he let bad things happen to good people?" How would a Catholic priest or any informed catholic respond to this question?
Your idea that God judges situations exactly the way that you do is interesting.
Have you ever really thought about that?
Love and blessings Don
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June 18 2010 06:08 am | Catholic
†SailorSteve† on 18 Jun 2010 at 11:25 am #
Who the hell cares? Let people have their own opinions
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OLT on 18 Jun 2010 at 11:44 am #
all CHRISTIANS KNOW THAT WHATEVER HAPPENS God is allowing it to learn from….so pay attention…
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Your imaginary Friend loves you on 18 Jun 2010 at 12:26 pm #
they are hardships made by the devil which if you overcome get you closer to God
or something…
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Malcolm Asp on 18 Jun 2010 at 12:39 pm #
Read the Book of Job, then decide if this is really the kind of god you want to worship.
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Book of Job
F. Perdurabo on 18 Jun 2010 at 12:48 pm #
I dunno – probably has something to do with god or sin or jesus or sumpin
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Don H on 18 Jun 2010 at 12:58 pm #
Your idea that God judges situations exactly the way that you do is interesting.
Have you ever really thought about that?
Love and blessings Don
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papa G on 18 Jun 2010 at 1:21 pm #
Good question because I heard one priest say at a young child’s funeral that God needed another angel.
How would you feel if this was your son or daughter? Wouldn’t you hate God for taking your only child when He has so many angels.
That’s one reason I left the Catholic church. They pain a bad picture on a truly loving God that would never do such a thing.
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imacatholic2 on 18 Jun 2010 at 1:59 pm #
I suggest you read Pope John Paul II’s beautiful letter called Salvifici Doloris, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris_en.html
With love in Christ.
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Golightly Child on 18 Jun 2010 at 2:11 pm #
I avoid those questions though I am a Catholic because everything they mention still needs an explanation. What I don’t go along with at all is that the Catholic explanation is in competition with some great lucid alternative.
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John S on 18 Jun 2010 at 2:27 pm #
Reminds me of an urban legend I once heard……….
During WWII, many churches were bombed. One in Italy had a large statue of Jesus outside of it.
An American Soldier passed by and saw the statue. It portrayed Jesus with outstretched hands. Unfortunately, the bombing had blown off the hands.
Struck by this image.. the soldier was moved and hastely scratched into the stone:
"Lend me your hands"
You see God has given us the power to affect the world around us. We are therefore HIS HANDS. He does things THROUGH us. He asks that we "lend him our hands" so that with them.. he can make great things happen and ease suffering.
This world is our own… and God allows it to be so. So when bad things happen… where are WE.. what did WE do to stop it or to ease suffering? Did we lend our hands to God? if we did.. how did this horrendous thing happen?
___________________________
As a Catholic, I’ve grown up being taught that WE are to be God’s hands and do his work here on Earth, that is how he has deemed it because it is good for us to do his work.
God can make good come from evil.
Suffering can be redemptive, this is the only thing that makes it even possible to find meaning in hardships.
And ultimately, only God knows the purpose and long term reason for things. The rest of us must live day and day and use our faith in God to get from 1 day to another until we either move through the hardship or see the reason or benefit that came from it.
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jm1970 on 18 Jun 2010 at 3:02 pm #
Well, I’m Catholic, raised protestant. The Bible tells us that God allows the good and the bad. I don’t know why, I don’t get why….Good things happen to bad people, horrible things happen to good people.
Many bad things are caused by the free will God gave each one of us. A person decides to sin by getting drunk (notice I didn’t say drinking, getting drunk) getting behind the wheel of a car (breaking a law) and slams into an innocent family of 4 on their way home from church, kills them all…drunk walks away…..
Some idiots will say "God has a plan." "Good will come of it." I say, REALLY bad things HAPPEN, and I don’t understand why my God allows them. I don’t. As a parent, I’ll protect my kids from anything and everything I can….I don’t know why He doesn’t sometimes….and I’m honest when I pray and tell Him that.
Job says "Though He slay me, I will trust Him." I choose to believe, I choose to have faith….I cannot explain that.
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lyn1136 on 18 Jun 2010 at 3:08 pm #
The explanation is deduced from what is knowable about God & His Plan for Creation:
God is All-Perfect Uncreated Spirit.
God created a Perfect Universe, plants serve Him simply, animals serve Him innocently, Angels serve Him in splendor & Man serves Him in the tangles of his MIND.
God created Man in His Own Image, a mirror of His Perfect Intellect.
God punished forever those angels who destroyed their perfection by Sin.
God is all-Justice; Adam & Eve disobeyed God & were banished from Eden.
God punished them & all Earth suffered pains & griefs due to the Original Sin.
The answer is that Earth and Man suffer due to Original Sin and the subsequent weaknesses from it, the universe shuddered & shook with the terror of sin committed by the first parents.
God hears Man’s spiritual & temporal needs in his petitions to return to Him.
God promised a Messiah to return Man to Himself.
Christ promised Man eternal paradise after temporary sorrow on earth.
God fulfilled His promise; Christ to offer Himself in Perfect Sacrifice.
The Redeemer taught Man to return to God–in His Holy Church.
God’s paradise rewards those dying in Christ’s Word–His Holy Church.
God allows earth’s pains & griefs as the residual of Original Sin;
Baptism restores souls to God, & if sinless till death, redemptive.
Christ gives Man’s soul Supernatural Grace thru His restoring Sacraments.
Christ leads men in His Church to the Beatific Vision at end of world.
Council of Trent, 426 Dogmas of the Roman Catholic Traditional Church; Ott; 1928.
Traditional Catholics, TraditionalMass.org
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carl on 18 Jun 2010 at 3:24 pm #
There is the problem of sin and evil. Sin is choosing to do evil. Sin always has consequences.
If consequences are the result of sin and sin the result of a choice to do evil, then the question is why does God permit evil?
First most would say that pedophiles, murderers, rapist, and thieves are evil. For this to be true, there requires that there be some measurement of absolute good in order for us to classify these as evil. If there is no God who embodies absolute good then who’s to say that a murderer is doing anything wrong since there is no absolute standard of good from which we can measure.
Second, we of course have free will to choose to do good or to do evil. God did not create evil. Evil is the absence of God. Just as darkness is the absence of light. God is a holy, good and ordered state. Anything else is an unholy, bad and disordered state in comparison. In the garden of Eden was not Adam and Eve slaves to God because they obeyed God? It was not until they sinned that they became disordered in their thinking, unholy, and bad. It was of course an act of choice, free will.
So God, did not create evil. Nor is evil an object or a thing. It is not alive. It does not have substance. It is rather the absence of good. It is taking something that was otherwise created good and degrading it into something not good through an act of will to do the bad. Even demons were once good angels who fell through an act of their will.
So the real question is if God knew that we would choose evil then why did he allow it? When God made both human beings and angels, he made us rational, free, and capable of loving. This means, however, that we have the possibility of choosing something other than God. It was necessary for us to have this choice, because true love cannot be coerced. If we did not have the freedom to say no to God, we could not truly love Him. Thus, God could not create a species with free choice without also permitting the possibility of evil.
So, why does God permit evil? Again, the doubter will observe that God must not be all-good, or else His creation would reflect that perfection; He must not be all-powerful, or else He would have fixed the problem by now. But what if God were able to use evil to show forth His infinite goodness and power? What if, through an act of salvation, He could bring about a greater good than would have been possible, apart from the reality of evil? As great as unfallen human nature could be, it could not compare to what God has given us in Christ. We might say that God let us break a bone so that He Himself could reset it, making it not just stronger but unbreakable. God has allowed us to lose not only divine grace, but also the standing we had as His servant, His obedient slaves. He foresaw that we would fall. He didn’t cause it, but He did freely permit it.
He did so in order to bring about a glorious new creation that exceeds every possibility belonging to human nature. So Christ took our fallen human nature, and didn’t merely bring it back to life. He united it to Himself, so that the life He restored in us was divine life. The grace He gave us was His own sonship. We share in the divine sonship of Jesus Christ. This is the essence of salvation and the substance of Catholicism. Baptized into Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). We live the life of the Blessed trinity, calling upon Christ’s Father as "our Father." Life doesn’t get any better than that, or any more perfect. And none of this would have been possible without the original fall from grace–an event that depended, in turn, upon God’s permitting the possibility of evil.
"Behold, I make all things new"
- Rev 21:5
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For more on the question of evil read ‘Reasons to believe’, by Scott Hahn
Daver on 18 Jun 2010 at 3:57 pm #
There is Redemptive Power in Suffering – for those wise enough to unite their sufferings with Jesus’ Passion.
Besides, God NEVER promised that a life in the Faith would be easy or without suffering. He ONLY promised that it would be worth it.
Another thing too is that, if this life was a life without suffering, we wouldn’t need God. So then you’re faced with answering the question, "what’s the point of this life?"
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Matt on 18 Jun 2010 at 4:03 pm #
God loves freedom and free will so we can choose to love Him. Think of how shallow life would be if your spouse was only with you for money or because she had to love you. It is special because she chose you over all others. That is love.
With free will, we can choose evil or good. We can cause order or disorder – organization or chaos, love or hate.
It is really pretty simple although it is often so hard to stomach when the bad is happening.
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