Important Forum Info

[Therese Martin]

To help you navigate and function here in the Apologetics Forum Please take a few moments to carefully read the following posts.

Choosing Your Forum Wisely

Forum Rules

Banned Topics

Forum Moderator

How To Report A Problem Post

Here is a list of the moderators and their assigned forums.

Charity

Guidelines for Posting in the Apologetics Forum

Respect for the Reputation of Persons

BECOMING AN APOLOGIST: Advice from the CA staff

IMPORTANT! If You Post On non-/anti-Catholic Forums! MUST READ!

[Forum Admin]

Problems with inappropriate content should be reported via the "Report Post" feature. Just click the image in the problematic post and fill out the form.

Ideally the complaint should cite the specific rule than has been transgressed. For reference, forum rules are posted here.

There is no need to submit the same report twice or to join with others to express outrage over an offensive post. One report is sufficient. Multiple reports on the same offense only add to moderator work loads.

[Michael Francis]

Guidelines for posting on religious discussions

Members are not allowed to be disrespectful of anyone's faith or religion, whether it is Catholicism or not. If a member is disrespectful, he will generally be counseled first and suspended if he persists in disrespectful postings.

If the nature of an initial posting is blatantly disrespectful to any religion (e.g., "the pope is the anti-Christ" or "Rome is the Whore of Babylon" or "Muslims are terrorists"), suspension may be immediate and without prior counseling.

Members are free to discuss, dialogue, question, disagree with, and debate the doctrines and dogmas of both Catholicism and non-Catholic religions. However, all discourse must be civil and charitable.

Guidelines
For both Catholic and non-Catholic posters:

• It is acceptable to question the doctrine or dogma of another's faith
• It is never acceptable to question the sincerity of an individual's beliefs
• Bringing up historical controversies peculiar to a particular religion should be done cautiously*
  • It is acceptable to discuss the effect the incident had on current policy or practice.
  • It is acceptable to seek the truth vs. commonly-held beliefs or conventional wisdom about actual events.
  • It is fallacious reasoning to use embarrassing incidents to claim that they "prove" a particular religion is false.
• Expecting members of any Church to defend or answer for the excesses or extremism of bodies that have broken with it is a technique that has no merit and can't be defended.

*It is our observation that discussion of such past events rarely serves a useful purpose and inevitably opens a thread to posts that violate forum rules and/or the bounds of civil discourse. So, while such threads may be useful, they raise a red flag for the Moderation staff.

[Michael Francis]

Statement of CAF policy on calls to "Board Swarm".

Posts/threads that include a request/suggestion for other forum readers/members to visit someone else’s forum for the purposes of apologetics debate will be deleted/edited to remove the links.

In an effort to illuminate and explain the Catholic faith, CA makes every effort to provide our participants with a pleasant and informative place on the internet where Catholics and non-Catholics may gather.

It is our hope that respectful dialogue and discussion will lead to better faith understandings. And so in charity, we ask that our forums not be used for encouraging mass visits to other websites. In the past these kinds of efforts, although perhaps well intentioned, leave participants at other websites with negative impressions.

Your cooperation in helping promote these aims of faith exposition, hope for fruitful discussion and charity in implementation are sincerely appreciated.

Sincerely,
Your servant in Christ,

[Michael Francis]

Forum moderator:

Michael Francis

If you experience difficulty in the forum Anglicanorum Coetibus, please use the private message system to contact the forum moderator, Michael Francis.

[Forum Admin]

There is an expectation here at CAF that we all should behave with civility. In practice this means striving to deliver our comments here with as much charity as we can muster.

Some Catholics who are going through a renewal of their faith can take on a somewhat strident tone. Having re-discovered the truth of their faith, they then proceed to jump on a soapbox and start proclaiming the truth as they see it. Fellow Catholics, priests, bishops, even the pope, are subject to "correction." Perhaps they do not realize that this behavior often comes across to others as trying to using doctrine as a weapon.

Here are some quotations from Church leaders to consider closely:

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
"Win an argument and lose a soul."
-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

"Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like 'a clanging cymbal.'"
-- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Homily

"Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words."
-- St. Francis (attributed)

"You know well enough that our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them."
-- St. Therese of Lisieux

1 Cor 13:2,5,7,14
"Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing...Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil...Love bears all things... endures all things. So faith, hope, charity abide, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
-- St. Paul

1 Ptr 3:15 (RSV-CE)
"Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence."
-- St. Peter
______________________________________

Some members have left the CA Forums because CAF management would not allow them to behave rudely. There are many venues on the Internet where one may behave as uncharitably as one desires. This is not one of them.

It should also be noted that Catholics are NOT given preference because of their religious affiliation. In fact, Catholics are often held to a higher standard. As our Lord cautioned, "To whom much is given, of him will much be required" (Luke 12:48). Here at CAF, we believe that the truth will take care of itself. Our job is to reveal it as charitably as we can.

Finally, the Moderators are prepared to help members remain within the boundaries of charity. But that only works if each of us is willing to co-operate. Please accept moderator guidance graciously and with the Christian gentleness St. Peter spoke of, even if you feel you have been wronged. (And don't forget that if you do feel that your case needs to be reviewed, you are free to appeal Mod actions to the Admin staff at forumadmin@catholic.com.) But please keep in mind that making continual complaints about a perceived slight or injustice is counterproductive. The Mods only have so much time to devote to CAF. Rather, offer it up. Others will benefit spiritually from your pain. It's the Catholic thing to do.

[Joe Monahan]

Banned Topics List

Catholic Answers has an obligation to protect our members and assure that the Forums remain a respected discussion environment in which members feel secure in participating.

To achieve this, it is necessary to ban certain topics, content, and posting techniques. If you are unsure whether or not something falls within the scope of this list, inquire of a moderator privately, before posting

1. Advocating violence or threatening a person or institution
2. Inappropriate language or graphics (crude, obscene, rude, vulgar, or blasphemous)
3. Pornography and links to pornographic sites or sites which host links to or advertise pornographic sites
4. Sexually explicit or graphically violent material or content that is inappropriate for non-adult members or might offend adult members
5. Hate material and links to sites that promote bigotry, hatred, or prejudice toward those of any race, religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality
6. Derogatory terms characterizing a class of people by religion (Papists, Prods, Fundies), political affiliation, or national/ethnic origin
7. Blatantly disrespectful characterization of any faith, ("Rome is the Whore of Babylon", “Nazarenes are Holy-Rollers”, “Jews are Christ-killers”, "Muslims are terrorists") its tenets, practices, or adherents
8. Proselytizing Catholics or encouraging them to leave the Church
9. Debating moderator action, including discussing, disputing, or speculating as to why a member’s posting privileges were restricted, why posted messages were edited or deleted, or why threads were closed or removed from public fora
10. Posts in circumvention of a restriction, suspension, or ban imposed by staff
11. Solicitation of personal information (e.g., age, income, or location), beyond that freely offered by members through inclusion in their public profiles
12. Identifiable information pertaining to individuals, including the names of non-public personages who have not consented to being identified, their mailing or e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, or details of their private life (or such information - not already in the public domain - which relates to a public personage who has not consented to it being revealed)
13. E-mail or private correspondence from a third party
14. Discussion of political candidates, including posts that name a candidate, allude to a particular candidate, use euphemisms for a candidate, or refer to surrogates for a particular candidate
15. Rumored "conversions in process" that involve third parties, particularly public figures. Exception: If the possible conversion is itself a news story, that news story may be discussed in the Catholic News sub-forum so long as a link to the news story is provided in the original post
16. Encouraging “swarming” of other forums to engage in debate of anti-Catholic postings there
17. Links to blatantly anti-Catholic sites, except as a valid reference point for discussion
18. Addresses or telephone numbers of individuals, institutions, or commercial enterprises to promote activity that might negatively affect another’s life or business operations
19. Identifying individual parishes, clergy, or hierarchs as “unfaithful to the Magisterium”, guilty of “liturgical abuse”, or otherwise engaged in unacceptable or unpopular practices, based on personal “knowledge” or opinion
20. Soliciting or proffering financial, legal, medical, or mental health advice
21. Asserting credentials as a clergyman, religious, theologian, or legal or medical professional, on which members might rely to their detriment, when the credentials cannot be verified to the satisfaction of CA staff
22. Lengthy excerpts of articles or publications that exceed standards for “reasonable use” (generally no more than three paragraphs) or might otherwise be construed to infringe copyright
23. Unlinked news stories or those not linked to a publicly accessible website (one that does not require registration or payment)
24. Intentionally deceptive material, including plagiarism (presenting another's work as one's own) or text attributable to or quoting others that has been altered
25. False statements maliciously made to defame another’s reputation
26. Promoting unapproved apparitions and revelations (those not approved by the Church for private or public devotion) or alleged private locutions
27. Soliciting business for any commercial enterprise without prior approval by CA staff
28. Soliciting donations for any individual or institution without prior approval by CA staff
29. Spamming (multiple or repetitious messages consisting of identical or nearly identical text or links without substantive commentary)
30. Using “sock puppet” identities to deceive others, promote an agenda, bolster one's own credibility, filibuster, or engage in debate with oneself in furtherance of a point of view

From time to time, it may be necessary to adopt content rules applicable to individual forums because of their particular nature. Members should periodically review the Posting Guidelines of forums in which they regularly participate

[Joe Monahan]

Please review the forum descriptions before deciding in which to begin your thread.

Ask an Apologist - get expert answers to questions on Catholicism - read this first

Karl Keating's E-Letter - react to it here, pro or con

Radio - offer feedback or discuss Catholic Answers Live

This Rock - talk about articles in CA's magazine

New Projects - be informed about upcoming CA endeavors

Apologetics - learn to respond to questions about and challenges to your Faith, including effective presentation techniques, examine historical controversies

Sacred Scripture - discuss the Bible, including translational issues and exegisis

Moral Theology - explore moral implications and ramifications of Church doctrine and dilemmas affecting you and find the answer to the question, "Is this a sin?"

Social Justice - dialogue about Church teaching with societal implications, pro-life/pro-choice issues, just war doctrine, human rights

Traditional Catholicism - talk about the Traditional Latin Mass, the Indult, SSPX, sedevacantism

Eastern Christianity - learn the history, spirituality, and practices of Eastern & Oriental Churches, Catholic and Orthodox

Non-Catholic Religions - explore the history and beliefs of non-Catholic and non-Christian faiths, dialogue with their adherents

Liturgy & Sacraments - discuss Mass and Sacraments, roles of ordinary and extraordinary ministers, liturgical music, church etiquette, the "other" Western Rites (Ambrosian, Bragan, and Mozarabic), Anglican Usage

Family Life - talk with peers about marriage, educational concerns, interpersonal relationships, family planning, other aspects of daily family life

Parenting - chat with others about coping with the joys, sorrows, practicalities, and challenges of raising children

Evangelization - meet with others involved in religious education, catechesis, RCIA, CCD, and missionary outreach, compare experiences, learn from one another

Spirituality - learn about Catholic apostolates, Secular and Third Orders, prayer, fasting, sacramentals, devotionals, Saints, your own spirituality

Prayer Intentions - post prayer requests, respond to those of others, participate in perpetual prayers

Vocations - discuss discernment of your own vocation to the religious, married, or single life; share your experiences with others; get information on diocesan and secular priestly formation and on religious orders

Popular Media - dialogue about our culture, including art, magazines, books, computers, television, radio, music, theatre, and the performing arts

Catholic News - talk about news events involving the Church, its leaders, and the laity

Secular News - share perspectives and analyses of current events in our country and the world

War on Terror - discuss emotional, social, and spiritual concerns involved in reacting to terrorism

If your topic doesn't fit criteria for any forum, try the Back Fence - a mix of the ridiculous and sublime, or The Clubhouse - chat there is light, but can be educational

Finally, the Concierge Desk - a collection of subforums designed to meet your needs, visit it to: get or offer Tech Support; better understand forum use through Mini-Tutorials; familiarize yourself with the Rules of the Road; and, even test forum features in the Sandbox

With these choices, everyone should find a forum to meet their needs. Enjoy yourself, and use the Suggestion Box to let us know what we can do to make your experience better.