[HarleyD]

Catholics who are either ignorant of what Protestants believe or only listen to the Vatican's interpretation of what Protestants believe always try to make it sound like there is universal doctrinal agreement among Catholics and universal disagreement among Protestants. In both cases this is false. However, it appears that you are firmly indoctrinated.

I fail to see the difference between my reading the Bible and forming a conclusion or the Vatican reading the Bible and telling me what to believe except in the latter case I could be manipulated into believing a false system. But I've been down this path many times with other Catholics and it's a circular argument so we'll never get anywhere.

You'll believe people can have visions, be visited by the Virgin Mary, have wells that produce healing, have walls that weep and yet you don't believe that God can reveal His word to a person simply by reading it. This what you reject is what has always been historically accepted by the Jews and early Christians. That to me is astonishing.

[Fifthmark]

Catholics who are either ignorant of what Protestants believe or only listen to the Vatican's interpretation of what Protestants believe always try to make it sound like there is universal doctrinal agreement among Catholics and universal disagreement among Protestants.

I used to be a Protestant and I know exactly where they think they derive their authority from, but thanks for the lecture. The difference between you reading the Bible and the Catholic Church teaching the proper interpretation of the Bible is that you will most likely fall into error and believe false doctrines since your rely on your reasoning abilities and nothing more, whereas the Church has Divine Authority to convey the Master's teachings and will not err when speaking authoritatively. It looks to the consensus of the Church Fathers throughout the centuries to find the true interpretation of Scripture, as this represents the teachings of the Apostles, which is what we should all be after.