Millions of Catholics have studied the Bible and recognized the truth of Catholicism in it but Protestants never seem to grant Catholics the freedom of interpretation of the Bible that they claim for themselves.
I will certainly agree with you that during the 16th and 17th centuries there were religious wars between Protestants and Catholics which took the lives of millions.
And I don't think I could make a case that one side or the other was more or less guilty of starting and perpetuating those wars.
But it is also absolutely true that those wars ended 300+ years ago, and since 1788 the entire realm of Christendom has eventually come to accept our Founding Fathers' ideas about freedom of religion along with separation of church and state.
Yes, Protestants & Catholics do still occasionally fight on opposite sides (Northern Ireland comes to mind), but always in the context of some nationalist or ethnic sectarianism.
Point is: despite our sad histories, serious Catholics and Protestants (along with orthodox Jews) are nearly always on the same sides of modern issues.
We are at least allies, and should be FRiends, and those old debates over theology, liturgy or philosophy really don't need to leave the hallowed halls of academia.
Out in the real world, they don't matter.
Of course all Churches still compete for congregations, but really, is it possible that even one in a hundred new converts joins a particular church only because they agree with its teachings on the transubstantiation of the Eucharist?
No way!
Bottom line: today any church is absolutely free to interpret and teach the Bible howsoever it wishes, within limits of reasonableness of course -- i.e., no suicide bombers.
But this particular thread is about a 13th century heresy that was exterminated at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church with innocents murdered estimated up to one million.
Now elements of the old heresy have seemingly returned, in a modern secular form, and again threaten Christianity.
I'm only saying, if they win the battle this time, let us only hope and pray they are not as brutal towards us as the Catholic Church was to them, 800 years ago...