You wrote:
“You can mock Twain’s observations all you want, but he is presenting a plain and relatively unbiased observation of what he saw in Europe.”
I didn’t mock Twain. I said he was a humorist and dead. What part of that are you disputing? Was he a humorist? Yes. Is he dead? Yes. I never mocked the man.
His observations simply do not add up to facts.
“You probably have to step outside the Catholic church to see it, but as a Protestant, I agree completely with Twain’s observations.”
And if you step INSIDE the Catholic Church, you’ll see the truth. Every Mass is said to the Father, offering the Son, through the Holy Spirit. That means the Trinity comes first ALWAYS.
“There are no Church’s dedicated to “Jesus” or “Christ” or “the Holy Ghost”, or anything like that.”
Wrong. Ever hear of the Gesu? Ever hear of this parishes named “Holy Trinity”? The simple fact is few parishes are named after the Persons of the Trinity, but they do exist. And they are few NOT because the Persons of the Trinity are of lesser importance, but because they are central at EVERY SINGLE MASS EVER SAID. You mean to tell me you’ve never come across a parish named Holy Redeemer, Good Shepherd, Resurrection, etc.? Are you honestly claiming that? What diocese do you live in?
“Just about every church is dedicated to Mary.”
Nonsense. I can think of the churches in my own area. There are ten Catholic parishes and three are named after Mary in one way or another. The others are named after Christ or saints.
“That’s not Twain making things up, that’s a neutral observation.”
No, that’s Twain’s observation and I have no reason to think is is any more neutral than anyone else’s.
“You may not like it, but Protestants cannot reconcile Biblical teaching with the Catholic devotion to Mary.”
Protestant inability to understand either the Bible or Mary has nothing to do with my liking of disliking of anything.
“It makes no sense. It does not compute. And what we do observe, seems to conflict with Biblical declarations against idolatry. It’s been this way for the last 500 years or so, and I don’t suspect it will change anytime soon.”
500 years or so? Thanks for admitting you were not founded or led by Christ, but have only existed for a mere 500 years.
“This is the chief stumbling block to any ecumenism, in my view, much as I would like to see it happen and for Christian unity to be restored. It’ll never happen until Catholics drop all the extraneous and get back to Jesus front and center. Certainly I cannot conceive of Protestants ever giving in and beginning to pray to Mary or saints or anyone other than the Trinity.”
Since so many Protestants don’t even believe in the Trinity or Incarnation today (almost half of those in some evangelical parishes do NOT BELIEVE in Trinity or Incarnation according to surveys) it would seem the real stumbling block may be Protestant ignorance and disbelief.
http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissart2.htm
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Exactly right. It's unfortunate that there is so much misinformation about Catholicism. Thanks for trying to correct some of it.
“That’s not Twain making things up, that’s a neutral observation.”
(I’d ping the quoter but I forget his name)
Funny how someone could disrespect and deny the One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic Church, the very Church which chose with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Canon of the Bible, which holds the Tradition of over 2000 years, with an unbroken line of Apostolic successors, and take Mark Twain’s words as gospel. It is just kind of silly and shallow. I mean, the man was a comedian, he was funny and I love his writing but since when did anyone get their theology from a humorist?
well, not distraction — it’s more like this, after Luther lead a mostly political split, then Calvin and others led more heretical thoughts, leading to things like Unitarianism and Mormonism.