[boatbums]

To be honest, I can't say that having a Pope of Rome has done much to eliminate confusion and disagreements over doctrine among today's Catholics. Many Catholics even reject their own Pope today so tell me how he is supposed to be the Vicar of Christ, maintain "infallibility" and require ALL to be under submission to him when he is rejected by a sizable portion of Catholics?

How many times have "Protestants" been accused of being our own Pope and how detrimental NOT having a central authority to determine what we must all accept is? No, the truth is unchanging and God's divinely-inspired word is given to us so that we have a "more sure word of prophecy" and a written record of what we need to know and believe. What's funny (almost) is we mostly believe the SAME things as Catholics and the Orthodox do about the major tenets of the faith and we have been able to do that without a central authority figure. The Holy Spirit - our Comforter and Teacher - isn't the sole property of Catholics.

[metmom]

How many times have "Protestants" been accused of being our own Pope and how detrimental NOT having a central authority to determine what we must all accept is?

And ironically, and hypocritically, then so many Catholics turn around and reject the very central authority that they claim is necessary, and at the same time, condemn Protestants for rejecting the same central authority.

Do you remember how they defended Francis at first, for years? We were warning them but they kept telling us that he was mistranslated, misquoted, misunderstood, misinterpreted, mis-(fill in the blank).

Seems they have come to see what we saw from the get go but I don't expect to hear a *You all were right* from a one of them.

[Elsie]

Now now...

Let’s not try to explain logically an act that is mainly emotional.