Posted on 03/22/2009 5:16:39 PM PDT by Titanites
When Steve Olmstead served as a Presbyterian minister in Juneau, he would often finish his duties on Sunday, close up the church and head to Mass with his devout Catholic wife and their children.
“I had a place to worship, which a lot of pastors don’t,” Olmstead said in an interview with the Anchor. “It was nice to go to a place and worship where I wasn’t the minister.”
The Anchorage Archdiocese’s newest seminarian grew up in a Presbyterian home and always had a strong spiritual life. When Olmstead entered adulthood, he felt called to serve as a youth minister, and was later ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church.
Throughout his life, he said he had many positive contacts with people who were strong in the practice of their Catholic faith, including his wife of 22 years, Janet.
“I married the most devout and most amazing Christian I’ve ever met in my life,” Olmstead said, crediting her with his conversion to Catholicism. Before the two wed, he agreed to raise the children in the Catholic faith. Steve and Janet Olmstead were married in Juneau by then Bishop Michael Kenny.
He continued to serve in a Presbyterian church in Juneau, but over the years grew enamored with Catholicism.
“I love the devotional practices of the Catholic church, its prayers and devotions,” Olmstead said.
He says he was especially drawn to some core beliefs that are often points of contention between Protestants and Catholics; matters of faith like belief in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and devotion to Mary.
“Ultimately those core beliefs created this tug that led me to the (Catholic) Church so that I would be more congruent with myself,” Olmstead said.
His family’s faith helped with that tug. In addition to Janet’s steady faith, the Olmsteads’ seven children, ages 2-18 years, helped play a part.
The Olmsteads have three older biological children, another three they adopted, and one foster child, which they hope to adopt soon.
“My older kids started asking me questions (like), ‘How come you believe this, but you aren’t teaching it,’” Olmstead recalled. “I had this inner conflict and I had to make that decision.”
Ultimately he did, and left his position at the local Presbyterian church in Juneau to officially enter the Catholic Church in 2006, a decision that brought Olmstead much peace.
“A huge thing for me is mystery,” he said. “I really need mystery and mystery in my faith. The Catholic Church (allows) me to have that mystery — Christ held that for me.”
Having served as full-time Protestant minister, Olmstead still felt a strong call to a minsterial or religious vocation.
Last year he participated in a 30-day Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat to investigate how God wanted him to serve in his new church, and he felt called to serve as a priest.
“At the end of that retreat, I realized that this is where God was calling me,” he said.
While celibacy is the rule for Latin rite Catholic priests, there are approximately 100 married former Protestant clergymen in the United States who have joined the Catholic Church and received Vatican permission to become priests.
You wanted an example of a lie you’ve been told?
Who told you Catholics think a man is in charge on earth?
Christ is the head of the Catholic Church. Benedict is merely His vicar.
Wanna laugh?
Go google up this:
“mike oppenheimer” catholic
LOL
You want to know who is teaching me lies, thereby "INFERRING" that what I say is not the truth.
I quote Scripture. You quote men. You add the lies, when you try to pull that crap!!
Apparently you are persuaded that your organization is the only way to go. We disagree... and I will end with this!
********
Romans 3: 19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus...
****
Galatians 3: 26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise...
This is not the same as inferring you are lying, as a lie is an intentional misstatement of fact, and I have no idea if you are aware how false your statements about the Catholic Church have been.
You quote men.
When? Show me.
You must have missed the memo...
“The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, 'is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.'
'For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise.” [Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (Washington, DC: US Catholic Conference, 1994, 1997) #882.]
And yet he answers to Christ, the leader of the Catholic Church.
QED
I also have an agenda. I preach Christ, crucified, but I, like Paul, don't leave Him on the cross! He goes on to say Jesus was buried, and resurrected from the dead...
and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church...
He goes on to say Jesus was buried, and resurrected from the dead...
Yeah yeah, Jesus, you were crucified for our sins yada yada . . . skip ahead to the end already!
By reason of his office as Vicar of Christ.
full: 1. Containing all that is normal or possible: a full pail.
2. Complete in every particular: a full account.
***
supreme:adj.
1. Greatest in power, authority, or rank; paramount or dominant.
2. Greatest in importance, degree, significance, character, or achievement.
3. Ultimate; final: the supreme sacrifice.
universal: 1. Of, relating to, extending to, or affecting the entire world or all within the world; worldwide: “This discovery of literature has as yet only partially penetrated the universal consciousness” (Ellen Key).
2 Including, relating to, or affecting all members of the class or group under consideration: the universal skepticism of philosophers. See synonyms at general.
3 Applicable or common to all purposes, conditions, or situations: a universal remedy.
4 Of or relating to the universe or cosmos; cosmic.
Look up vicar.
Your Papal supremacy says it all!
See, you looked up the other words, but not ‘vicar,’ the one you seem to have the most trouble with.
Twist and contort and spin, but never tell the whole truth about the Catholic Church....THAT is the ethos of the anti-Catholic sewer where folks like Berean Call and Let Us Reason and the rest of the whole sodden lot dwell in filth.
“Shouldn’t Protestants be protesting in the streets, calling him an infidel and making death threats against him?”
Bible-believing Christians believe in ‘soul-liberty’ and freedom of conscience. They might argue strongly for what they hold, but they don’t persecute (e.g. make “death threats”) people who profess that their conscience leads them otherwise.
Romans 14:12 - So then every one shall give account OF HIMSELF to God. No Presbyterian (in this example) has to give account to God for the direction of the former Presbyterian minister who converted to Catholicism. The man will answer for Himself, and therefore no Presbyterian is going to threaten the man, or rampage in the streets either.
Presbyterians, as far as I am aware, do not have an Inquisition.
You stink? I don't.
You are quick to make me the villain, and make me out a liar, just because I question your organization's anti-Scriptural doctrines.
You are surely bound to the party line. I guess it does make sense to start with the children! If the indoctrination is strong enough, then it becomes their truth. Our schools have learned the same...
You misquoted me out of context, and compared the Church founded by Christ to a Maoist indoctrination center.
Your context wasn't misses. There are plenty of RC indoctrination centers. Jesus founded the catholic church, FRiend. You may belong to a sect, called the ROMAN catholic church. But, Jesus died for "all", not some, according to Scripture. Peter was a follower, but denied Christ. Peter died.
The "Great Commission" was given to "all". Paul, a Jew, was blinded, and brought to the Light. He preached Christ crucified. He preached to all the church. He also wrote letters to explain what that crucifixion meant. Only one went to Rome, and it wasn't addresses to Peter.
Romans 1: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4and who through the Spirit[a] of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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