it’s just anecdotal but something i have noticed is that converts to Catholicism usually do not blast their former denomination. As my wife would say, when she became caholic, it simply completed and built upon a Christian foundation already laid. maybe a few bricks are removed but really it’s more about the fullness of the faith than condemning the former denomination. She has positive memories of that early faith still.
Yet, when Catholics leave to join a Protestant church, we are usually blasted. I know that this can’t always be true, yet these “whore of babylon” judgments on us are just ludicrous.
Condemning the Church is similar condemning your own parents. Even if Luther was “right”, how can he be justified condemning the very Church that passed on that faith to him to begin with?
I have written this very thing a number of times on this forum. As a convert myself, I never felt the need to bad-talk my Protestant roots. Nor did I feel a need to bad-talk to my Protestant siblings.
I didn’t feel compelled to show contempt for their choice of church to attend or to aggressively proselytize to them. As a result, one of my sisters tells me how great she thinks the Pope is and the other sister attends Mass with me when she visits from out-of-state. Both of my parents—who were not Catholic—were so happy to be visited by a priest when they were dying. It was a great and unforgettable moment for them-—and for me.
God is good—all the time. All the time, God is good.
I agree.
Even if Luther was “right”, how can he be justified condemning the very Church that passed on that faith to him to begin with?
Do we get our faith from our church or is it a gift from God?
I agree. I’m a former Presbyterian. I’m grateful to my mother for the Christian formation I received. I learned to read the Bible with pleasure when I was growing up, and I learned wonderful hymns that I still appreciate. I don’t recall a single bad experience of Protestant Christianity; however, after my “existentialist period” in my late teens, I believe the Lord called me to the Catholic Church.