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If I may presume to speak for him, the point is this:

"Tradition" is not a substitute for the scripture; it is how the scripture is understood. Scripture itself is a product of tradition. Protestants have had to deal with unorthodox or new-agey people interpreting the scriptures; many protestants speak about referring to the beliefs of "the community of believers" as a way of properly understanding the scriptures, in contrast to the interpretation of these modern heretics. That's all the Catholic Church did: look to the beliefs of those who are faithful Christians.

The difference is that Protestants look only to beliefs held in common among people today, and only to those who seperate themsleves from the body of Christ by denying breaking into schism and depriving themselves of receiving Christ in the form of the Eucharist. The Catholic Church looks back 2000 years.

So while Protestants insist that Jesus didn't really mean it when he said, "This is my body... this is my blood," the Catholic Church finds that it had always been held so. Likewise, while Protestants deny purgatory, the Catholic Church finds it has always been held so, as evidenced to this day by tombstones from the very communities in which the disciples dwelt.

Good response, but as often is the case in such conversations, you painted with to large a brush in some areas. For instance, the statements on Jesus's presence in Holy Communion reflects only part of the non catholic community. Many denominations hold to a fairly RC view of Communion, conservative Lutherans and Anglicans for example.

As for the doctrine of Purgartory, it was not as cut and dried as you imply. There was considerable disagreement among the early church leaders about the nature of purgatory. If I remember right (forgive me if I am wrong, I am at work and don't have my references handy) Augustine himself was unsure. It was not a formalized doctrine till the Council of Trent. While many will say that Trent only clairfied what was already formally believed, it was also a political reaction to the German princes who were deeply involved in the reformaition. Purgatory was one of the doctrines that could be used to fight the Protesting Estates. As I have mentioned before, the Protestant Reformation was more of a political movement than a faithful protest. There is a large amount of blame to both sides.

As far as the "new agey" trend, this IS something that has affected biblical interptation. Unfortunatly it is not only limited to Protestants, just take a look at some of the threads on Free Republic. The stain of gnotisism is affecting all the traditions, both RC's, Prot.'s, E. Orthodox etc. There are extremes on both sides. Didn't I read where some here were complaining that the RCC was not "orthodox" enough? It is both sad and a bit amusing that the debates in Roman Catholicism mirror the debates going on in many conservative denominations. How do we hold true to teaching? What is the role of layity in the chruch? What is the posisition on XYZ?

Tradition does hold a place in Protestant denominations. The difference is it is not held up as the final authority as often as in the Roman Catholic side.

We all need to be aware first of our similarities in our Christain beliefs. Then deal with the differences.

Well, this post got way to long. I am going to go have lunch. By the way dangus, I do enjoy these conversations. :)