On the other hand, it's remarkably seductive when embarking in dialogue with, for example, our Presbyterian brethren, to resort to:
Posted on 01/08/2011 4:15:03 PM PST by Natural Law
What are we to make of the anti-Catholics?
What are we to make of the anti-Catholics? How can we explain the assault on the Church by those who profess in their words the same mission of the Church, the Salvation of mankind, but through their deeds deny it? Are the fabrications, falsehoods, and lies about the supporting beliefs of the Church, about the lives of its saints and clergy, about the verifiable facts of history justified because of doctrinal disagreements? Does any of this matter in the face of the greater assault on Christ and his flock? It defies rational thinking.
In the face of a Muslim onslaught that is bombing Christmas Masses, executing Christians for a nonexistent heresy and apostasy, and a jihad against Christians of all stripes on a massive scale we get shrill unwarranted criticism of how Catholics peaceably worship the One true God. Is smells and bells really a greater sin than sawing off heads in the name of the prophet?
In the face of a secular socialist assault that is killing babies at a pace that outpaces the crimes of Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined there are degrading insults and accusations over the difference between worship and veneration. Corrections and explanations are ignored and the apologists are pilloried. For what purpose?
In the face of the threat of Communist China that suppresses worship of all kinds and enforces forced abortions we get feeble ad naseum criticism of the Real Presence in spite of the acceptance by Catholics, both Eastern and Latin Rite, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Methodists. All the while the anti-Catholics continue the charade of Christian unity, minus those damned Catholics of course.
So in the face of the advance of worldwide evil some would have us believe that it is the Catholic Church should be destroyed when the destruction of the Church would serve to provide aid and comfort to that evil. Why? Qui Bono, for whom the benefit?
That the Church is and has always been a target of evil cannot be denied. Neither can it be denied that the Church has never been harmed or compromised by that evil. Satan can only work in this world through the actions of his willing accomplices. Those accomplices have long ago recognized that the greatest harm can be done from within the Church and history has produced numerous examples of sinners wearing the collars of priests. Regardless of the contentions of the anti-Catholics that does not negate the good that the Church has done not diminish the saints who have served God through her. Nor does it excuse those who blame one of the victims of the evil doers, the Church itself.
Perhaps those who irrationally assault the Church daily, those who spend inordinate hours researching the internet looking for dirt, those who accept any lie or indiscretion on nothing more than its bias against the Church are consciously or unconsciously in league with evil. Lex Parsimoniae, the principle which generally recommends accepting the answer that requires the fewest assumptions, when the potential answers are equal in all other respects. Is there a simpler answer?
The anti-Catholics here aren't your garden variety, sane Protestants. They are fringe creatures at best that in no way represent the decent and pious people of Lutheranism, Anglicism, Baptists, Methodists and Episcopalians who differ from Catholicism in doctrine but are not disageeable. My guess is that if you were able to check their attics you would find pillow cases with eye-holes cut in the corners.....
Well, true. But we must remember that we have sane Godfearing Protestants, we have the basis of the Reformation, and we have the individual and group beliefs of each sect.
My guess is that if you were able to check their attics you would find pillow cases with eye-holes cut in the corners.....
The KKK was founded more on hating Catholics than on hating blacks.
It’s a shame, really, because there are brethren among the Protestants who really think and argue well and who bring me up short in a useful way. The breaking of the Body harms every part. I miss them.
The understanding of any subject or great work requires a definition of terms and a context. Scripture is no different. Along with Scripture, God, through the Holy Spirit, has provided these in the form of Holy Tradition and the Magisterium.
Unfortunately, absent these Protestantism must fabricate their own. Hence the reliance on the so-called fathers of the Reformation, and even less reliably, their own "gut feelings" driven by their own personal experiences, prejudices, and ignorance.
That they differ from the teachings is not a surprise. The very name of their movement, Protestantism declares their differences. That they must falsify the teachings of the Church to justify those differences is actually quite comforting.
When the teachings of the Church are misrepresented on these forums we have a duty to correct them. It is not our obligation to achieve communion with those who disagree by coercing their enlightenment, nor is it acceptable for us to compromise the teachings of the Church for the sake of civil discourse. Those that continue to misrepresent the teachings of the Church after being corrected are lying. Remember what Scripture tells us about these liars:
" You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." - John 8:44
Unfortunately, absent these Protestantism must fabricate their own. Hence the reliance on the so-called fathers of the Reformation, and even less reliably, their own "gut feelings" driven by their own personal experiences, prejudices, and ignorance.
That they differ from the teachings is not a surprise. The very name of their movement, Protestantism declares their differences. That they must falsify the teachings of the Church to justify those differences is actually quite comforting.
When the teachings of the Church are misrepresented on these forums we have a duty to correct them. It is not our obligation to achieve communion with those who disagree by coercing their enlightenment, nor is it acceptable for us to compromise the teachings of the Church for the sake of civil discourse. Those that continue to misrepresent the teachings of the Church after being corrected are lying. Remember what Scripture tells us about these liars:
" You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." - John 8:44
Standing applause. I'm with you, fellow Christian and true defender of the faith.
On the other hand, it's remarkably seductive when embarking in dialogue with, for example, our Presbyterian brethren, to resort to:
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