It doesn't work in reverse. There is none nastier than a Catholic who has become a schismatic. Their hatred of the Church is visceral.
Did you really think of yourself a schismatic? I have no trouble believing prots think some of our Doctrines odd. I do think it surprising they would think themselves schismatic. I was learnt protestants were deeply in error and I was learnt little positive about them. Vatican Two really re-oriented my thinking. How could they be charged with the sin of schism if they had been raised as they were?
In any event, I loved reading your witness, especially the part about the Early Church Fathers. I literally do not understand how one can read them and not see the nascent Catholic Church Scripture identifies.
BTW, my Pastor is a convert from So. Baptism. He read his way into the Church while at UChicago. It was the Early Church Fathers for him also. He is absolutely brilliant. And he knows the Bible inside, out etc
No, not until it started to dawn on me what the Catholic Church is. Then, I realized I was a schismatic. Every Sunday in the Anglican Church I was attending, it got to the point where I could no longer bring myself to the say the line in the Creed: "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church", the problematic word being "One". I wanted to believe in "One Church", but I knew that by being Anglican, I was in praxis denying that there is "One Church"; I was by my practice denying the obvious intention of the fathers who formulated the line "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church". With mh lips I was saying this line every week, but in my practice (by being an Anglican) I was essentially saying that I didn't believe that line. Eventually, the contradiction got to a breaking point, and I knew I had to stop going to the Anglican church.
Thank you very much for your other comments. I'm glad to hear about your pastor. Sounds like another former Baptist, Stephen Ray, whose book was very helpful to me in comparing Anglicanism and Catholocism.
-A8