Posted on 05/01/2008 5:07:35 PM PDT by annalex
Every Catholic who questions the teachings of the Catholic Church and chooses to believe differently has left the Catholic Church for Protestantism. We hear about people like that all the time.
In response to the original post, I find it amazing how many people examine the writings of St. Polycarp, St. Clement, St. Ignatius, St. Irenaeus, and St. Justin Martyr, and are later drawn to the Catholic Church. Actually, I don’t find that amazing, but rather how often it happens.
My, my---doesn't that sound just PRECIOUS. The only problem is that the Church Christ founded was (and is) none of those things, as the person in the article found out from studying the actual HISTORY involved.
Which is typical of people who hold "sola scriptura" as their mantra. The only problem is that the "scriptura" can be interpreted many different ways (witness the many different understandings of same among different Protestant groups).
Reading the Church Fathers is a means of determining WHICH of the multiple possible interpretations best represents the understanding of those Christians who were closest in time to the actual teachings of the Apostles, as they are the ones most likely to "have got it right".
"Sola Scriptura" is "sola stupid".
Every Catholic who questions the teachings of the Catholic Church and chooses to believe differently has left the Catholic Church for Protestantism.
The interesting thing about leaving the Catholic Church for something else is that even if they have left, they haven’t really left. Does that make sense?
My uncle married a Methodist over 20 years ago, and they started attending her church. They tried our church, but I guess she didn’t like it or something. I was either very young or not yet born at the time, so I don’t know the story. A few years ago, my uncle became a Methodist minister. However, if tomorrow he wanted to come back to the Catholic Church, all he would need to do is go to confession and he’d be back. So in a sense, he is still Catholic.
The same is true for prominent people like Nancy Pelosi, Rudy Giuliani, Mario Cuomo, etc. The reason why they aren’t supposed to receive the Eucharist is as much in my mind the fact that they don’t accept the teaching of the Catholic Church, be it the text of Humane Vitae, or whatever it is they don’t agree with, as the fact that they may be in a state of mortal sin for their actions regarding the culture of abortion in this country.
In my church, we have a name for those people who do not agree with the Church. Protestants.
So while it is easy to leave the Church, someone really doesn’t ever leave the church, because they can go to confession, repent and sin no more, and all is well. Unless, I guess, they are excommunicated, like Luther. However, excommunications can be lifted, and I’d like to believe that option was available even for someone like Luther or Henry VIII.
From my experience, there are a lot of protestants in your pews.
I hear that.
I have that problem, too. If religious study made one a saint, I'd be one!
His crisis was spiritual and has to do with the lack of devotional life:
While I was gaining all this knowledge and continually fueled by a desire to become a great teacher, I was also letting my growth in holiness decline
His ministry work was commendable; who would disagree with this objective:
to take Baptists back to the practices and beliefs of the Baptist founders, which, I believed at the time, to be synonymous with the beliefs and practices of the early Christians.Absorbed in this struggle, he admits to a neglect of his marital life. It is a consequence of the Baptist faith's deficiencies, not the cause of his leaving it. He had two children by then. Further, whatever that neglect was, the family obligations were a factor in keeping him in the Baptist ministry, as he needed a job.
I think, you are simply unprepared to face the fact that reasonable, academically gifted, devoted to the ministry people would discover the Christ in the Eucharist and the veracity of Catholic historical root, and so you try to find fault in this man.
I want to show the reasons people come home to the Catholic Church and various paths of conversion. I do not dispute that conversions in the opposite direction also happen; in fact, I would be happy to contrast the two patterns because from what I've seen, they are very different.
I'd like to see where does the Bible support Baptist ecclesiology. I can show you where it supports Catholic ecclesiology. However, when the claim is historical, such as that the practices and theologies of the Early Church were similar to Baptist, then the answer has to be historical also, and the Church Fathers provide it directly, in the negative.
We must not let the anti-Catholic calumnies define our faith. Many earn the faith like this man did, with great effort and pain. This is why I am posting these, as we should be ready for very serious persecution from the secular world, and need modern examples of steadfastness.
Yes. When people leave the Church, it is because it is an ancient institution, and when they come to the Church, it is for the exact same reason.
My first exposure to a Protestant church was late in life, and I was struck how much it looked like a school.
Good Christian parents raising good Christian men.
I often thank God for the parents I was given. It’s a prize worth more than we ever realize.
Also, as a Catholic, I want to praise other Christians who infuse a love of Jesus Christ into their children’s lives. All to often parents neglect to take the time to introduce Jesus to their children in a personal way. I’m writing about both Catholics and Protestants who neglect the spiritual upbringing of their kids. It’s a scandal.
Of course many Catholics have left the faith—they do nt understand the ongoing miracle of the Real Presence of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, present in the most Holy Eucharist. If they did, and if they truly love Our Lord, they could never ever leave!
But teachings in many places have been almost non-existant and heresies rampant such that many Catholics do tno know their faith.
The early Catholic Christians of the first 300 years of the Church had to be willing to give thier lives. What for? The Bible had yet to be compiled. It is the Holy Eucharist that is worth living and DYING for!!!
When you read the Didache or the early Church Fathers, one can see that they assisted at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For 2000 years Catholics have followed Our Lord who said—Do THIS (offer Holy Mass) in remembrance of Me.
I had the great privilege of attending Holy Mass this very morning and Our Blessed Lord came to me in Holy Communion.
Ahhh—the wonder of it all!
Ave Maria!
It has been common in history, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, for Protestant churches and schools to meet in the same facility. For one thing, in rural or frontier communities, people often had only one public meeting space.
I always admire Protestant churches’ classroom and nursery facilities! Their usually higher level of contributions from the congregation means they often have much more spacious buildings for the number of attendees.
It has been common in history, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, for Protestant churches and schools to meet in the same facility. For one thing, in rural or frontier communities, people often had only one public meeting space.
I always admire Protestant churches’ classroom and nursery facilities! Their usually higher level of contributions from the congregation means they often have much more spacious buildings for the number of attendees.
Statistics point out that it is the faith of the fathers especially that is predictive of the children staying in the Church. It is no accident that priesthood is a male-only vocation.
For the same reason we should choose the godfathers of our children very, very carefully.
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