Quotable quote from Mark Shea.
Here`s the deal.
When you decide to be Catholic, you are signing up to have your conscience informed by Church teaching. You are acknowledging that Jesus founded the Catholic Church and that the Holy Spirit protects the Magisterium from error.
If your conscience tells you that isn't true, if you'd rather listen to yourself than the Magisterium, then you're in the wrong church.
If you see two statements that seem contradictory, you have to ask yourself: do I really believe that the Magisterium is infallible?
Do I trust Jesus?
Here's something people don't often think of: if you see what you think is a contradiction in Church teaching, you can be sure that you're not the first one to see it.
If Pope Benedict issues a teaching that seems contradictory, you can be quasi certain that he has heard the objection before, and he still issued the teaching.
A sharp mind like Pope Benedict has managed to reconcile the two truths. And so have others, because the pope does not act alone in issuing teachings.
Your job then is to find out how the two statements can be reconciled. It is not to think up of ways to counter this "heresy".
And if you cannot reconcile the two statements, then it is you who does not understand.
And if you cannot come to terms with the reality that it is you who does not understand, then you lack faith and humility.
If you want the truth, you have to seek to understand, rather than seek to impose your own understanding. That's how Catholicism works.
