Do lapsed Catholics count? That’s me.
I think I know what you are getting at...before answering, it is important to remember a very distinct difference between Catholic and other Christian faiths. In most Christian faiths, it is taken for granted than man can learn about Jesus and God, and even form opinions about them. Men can go to divinity school, do bible studies on their interpretation of the bible, write papers etc. Its almost like an academic pursuit - where there is still knowledge left to be discovered, and the knowledge we do know can be debated.
Not so in the Catholic church. There is one truth..that’s it. Its known, and a very centralized system spreads the word of the truth to the masses. Until very recently, it was deemed so unimportant that the masses be able to debate and discuss the truth, that mass was done in an obscure language hardly spoken (I took 5 years of Latin btw).
So its not the type of situation where you might pick up a new book at a Christian bookstore, and think ‘hey, maybe this will give a new perspective on Sunday’. So it would be very rare that a Protestant pamphlet, etc. were brought into a Catholic church.
Now I have to say, we always operated as if Protestants didn’t exist. Not once in the 18 years I was in weekly attendance at mass did I ever hear a word about protestants, or any kind of comparison, us vs them, etc. I’ve been to many protestant services in my life, been in the Boy Scouts in a Methodist church, etc...and quite frankly the reverse is not true. Often Protestants like to compare themselves to Catholics...sometimes even mocking our rituals...often telling jokes about the Pope...and sometimes in the middle of a service a minister will describe why Protestants are superior in thinking than Catholics. I even had a Protestant room-mate who was convince I was going to hell, because I had not been ‘saved’...i.e I had not made it to his level of enlightenment. So I think its natural for Protestants to assume the same type of comparison happens with Catholics.
But it really doesn’t. Catholics really don’t view Protestants as a ‘competing’ religion...might have been different in the days of Martin Luther, but not now.
Well I really don’t focus on Catholic teachings, or things about that Church while I gather with others, but I think you’ve come close to hitting the heart of this issue:
1) Do we actually believe what God says in the Bible is true?
2) If the Bible is true, then we must believe Christ (and what He says in how we must be saved). John 3.
Really it matters not to me what Church one attends (or does not attend), what matters is if one has believed in Christ how He has said we must (John Chapter 3, etc..).
We went to Mass in Latin yesterday and today. It is easy to understand the Latin used in Mass after reading and hearing it for a little while.
Many, many books about Our Lord and His Sacrifice and history of the Church have been around for hundreds of years in vernacular languages and people have been discussing them for as long. Those written in Latin, the language of learning which bound the scholastic world together for centuries, have been available in translation for debate and discussion for quite some time.
You are correct in your discussion about the comparison between the faiths. I have heard numerous times the pastor from the non-denominational Christian church I used to attend make remarks about a lot of the members being “recovering Catholics”, etc. I heard comments and comparisons in the Baptist church I attended when I was younger also.
I’m a Catholic convert and work for a Jesuit Retreat Center and have yet to hear that from a priest.
“Now I have to say, we always operated as if Protestants didn’t exist. Not once in the 18 years I was in weekly attendance at mass did I ever hear a word about protestants, or any kind of comparison, us vs them, etc.”
Very true. Protestantism isn’t discussed at Mass. I remember one time the priest mentioned that some Protestants believe in consubstantiation rather than transubstantiation, but that was the extent of the comment. The only other religion that gets mentioned is Judaism vis. a vis. how the Old Testament relates to the New. And I’ve never heard anything negative about Judaism or the Jews in church.
I’ve really experienced things differently. My family was lukewarm Lutheran, in a very Catholic area. But I believed what little I was taught about the Lord, and Hens led me into a relationship with Him.
In my experience, where at first I was mostly positive about the RC Church), Protestants are soft on it today, and see no real problem with Catholics like Santorum, Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Hardly ever do I hear a word about the RC Church in church or Christian media, and usually, if differences are being discussed, it’s done briefly and with a “this isn’t to bash anyone” attached. (Cont’d)