[Le Chien Rouge]

I am Roman Catholic and I am a Christian....and there is only one judge......God.

[Gamecock]

Seems the OPC is much more loving than many of the Roman Catholics on my favorite conservative news site.

[Petronski]

Another grotesque anti-Catholic conceit oozing from the tarry-black pit of the Orthodox Calvinist vipers.

[mnehring]

Isn’t that between the individual Catholic and God, as is the same for every other individual of any and all denominations?

[markomalley]

[votemout]

HuH?????????????

[Carpe Cerevisi]

You’ll win a lot of converts with such uplifting and inspiring diatribes.

[FMoran]

Coming from the Calvinist side of things as you are,

I ask are people who believe that your soul cannot be turned a Christian? Isn’t that the entire premise of the religion?

[napscoordinator]

To be nice to you during the Christmas Season, I am just going to say “No comment”...

[Ann Archy]

What a joke....Catholics are the ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS!

Whnever I see "Mary worship" I know that person is too ignorant of facts or has been brainwashed by some hillbillies.

[detective]

“I too was a Roman Catholic”

I have never heard anyone in real life refer to themselves as a "Roman Catholic". Catholics refer to themselves and their faith as simply Catholic. You do not sound authentic to me.

[Salvation]

Catholics are the first Christians!

How Old Is Your Church?

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

I became Catholic just a few years ago, so I don't have the knowledge or experience that most others in the church do.

However, I can tell you that I have not experienced anything like "Mary worship". Even today, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception does not indicate to me a displacement of Jesus. Rather, we celebrate the lives of Mary and all the saints who share in our worship of Jesus.

As I understand it, we ask Mary to pray for us, to intercede on our behalf. I find that no more unusual than offering to say a prayer for a suffering friend. That friend may ask me to say a prayer for them, just as I ask Mary to say a prayer for me.

Also, I say prayers for others who have gone. Whether they are saints or whether they are friends, family or co-workers. I don't expect them to answer a prayer as God would, but rather, it's simply a type of correspondence-a way of keeping them in my mind while I'm here on earth and they are with God.

I find nothing at all unusual or insulting to God that we constantly remember and revere the people who have gone. And never in my brief teachings in the Catholic church have I been led to believe that any of these people are God or Jesus' equal.

[rollo tomasi]

Someone forgot a line of the Nicene Creed. If they really need to ask what the headline of this thread is about look up the Creed, hint katholikos.

[Mad Dawg]

I think he does okay. One of the challenges of the sola fide view is where to put sincere error. One wants to avoid making right-belief a “work”. As I say, I think he does okay. Not bad IMHO.

[faucetman]

I found the article to be quite accurate and compassionate towards Catholics. What was there in it to make anyone mad? God will judge, the rest of us can only guess and He won’t be asking our opinion.

Romans 14:4
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

The bible is the answer. If you haven’t read it (and most Christians have not) you are uninformed about your own religion.

[Theo]

Good, balanced article.

If you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved, even if you hold some false doctrines. I’m all in favor of sound doctrine, but it’s Christ who saves us, and not the soundness of our doctrine.

[Berlin_Freeper]

> I came out of that religion about 25 years ago after reading for myself what the Bible had to say.

So then what is the problem?

Do you think you been missed?

[Theo]

Regarding the practice of asking Mary to pray for us ... I’ve never talked to a dead person. Not sure there’s much value in doing so.

Mary was a special woman, a chosen vessel through whom the Messiah would come. But she’s dead, unable to hear all the prayers sent her way.

Instead, let’s pray directly to the Lord, and invite our (living) friends to join us.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Just because someone was "born" a Catholic doesn't necessarily mean they understand Catholic doctrine. For the curious among us there is New Advent. I was "born" a Lutheran, married a Lutheran Pastor, [his adulteries and a divorce later] raised my children in the Assemblies of God and joined the Catholic Church in 1992 after much research. Both children and their families are Baptist [spouses choice].

A lot of "birth Catholics" who leave the Church as young adults are returning to it as mid-life adults. Some preachers who have challenged the Catholic Church have done so much study they realize they have actually become Catholics in the process.



How old is your church?

If you are a Lutheran, your denomination was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

If you belong to the Church of England, your denomination was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope could not grant him an annulment from his true and lawful wife, Catherine of Aragon, with the right to re-marry.

If you are an Eastern Orthodox, your church was taken from the Catholic Church in 1054 when the Pope and an Eastern Patriarch excommunicated each other.

If you are a Presbyterian, your denomination was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your denomination was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.

If your are a Congregationalist, your denomination was originated by Robert Browne in Holland in 1582.

If you are a Methodist, your denomination was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.

If you are LDS or "Mormon" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), Joseph Smith Jr. started your religion in Palmyra, NY, in 1829.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your denomination to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1605.

If you are of the Dutch Reformed church, you recognize Michaelis Jones as founder, because he originated your denomination in New York in 1628.

If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.

If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If you are a follower of the Church of Scientology, your group owes its origin to L. Ron Hubbard in Washington D. C. in 1952.

If you are a Seventh Day Adventist, Mrs. Ellen Gould White inaugurated your group in the United States in 1860.

If you are a Jehovah's Witness, your religion was invented by "Pastor" Charles Taze Russell in 1874, incorporated 1881.

If you are a worshipper at the Iglesia ni Cristo, Felix Manalo instituted your sect in the Philippines in 1914.

If you call yourself a Mennonite, your movement was named after Menno Simons, a Catholic priest for 12 years, who left the Church to join the conservative Anabaptist wing.

The Amish, started by Jacob Amman around 1693, are just one of many different church bodies within the Mennonite community in the U.S.

If you are a believer at the Vineyard Chrstian Fellowship, your denomination was started by Ken Guillickson and Keith Green in Santa Monica, California in 1974. If you are a member of Calvary Chapel, Chuck Smith began your congregation in Costa Mesa, California in 1975.

If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "Church of the Nazarene", "Pentecostal Gospel", "Holiness Church", "Pilgrim Holiness Church", your denomination is one of the many thousands of new sects and religions founded by men within the past several hundred years.

If you are a Novus Ordo "Catholic," your church spun off the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the 1960's Robber Council, Vatican II.

If you are a traditional Roman Catholic, you know that your Church was founded in the year 33 A.D. by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

If you are Jewish, Abraham became the first Jew when God promised him: "I will make you a great nation...". Your religion was founded by God in the Jewish calendar year 2049 (1711 BC), over 3700 years ago. God revealed Himself to the Jews through the Prophets and promised to send a Messiah. Jesus Christ, a Jew from the House of David, came to this world as His only begotten Son in fulfillment of the scriptures.