This appears to be another case of Protestants, rather Evangelicals either forgetting, ignoring, or being ignorant of their roots. The evangelical movement didn’t just spring out of the ground, but has its historical nexus in the Ancient Church, like it or not. The 16th century Reformation was not the sudden rediscovery of Christianity, as if it had been in hiding or dead for 1500 years. Christ promised he would never abandon the Church and that hell would not prevail against it. All Christians share a common shame in the evil and ignorant behavior that we’ve done to others ostensibly in Christ’s name throughout history. This isn’t a Catholic issue, it’s a Christian issue. Romaphobia helps no one. In many ways the RC church is not the same today as it was in the 16th century, as the Protestant church (in all it’s 1000s of forms) is not the same either. The water has moved under the bridge. Can we also not get past this and focus on what unites us and not what divides us?
“The evangelical movement didn’t just spring out of the ground, but has its historical nexus in the Ancient Church”
...meaning it exists in its current form as a result of its roots in the Apostolic age, via the RC church, the Protestant movement, and so on. We all worship the same Lord.
I appreciate the general tone of your post. However, I don’t agree with your statement - one we hear quite often from Roman Catholics - that the RCC is the “root,” and non-RCC Christians are but offshoots. The RCC is a syncretism of non-Christian elements mixed with Christian elements, it does not represent original Christianity.
True, people like Luther at first had hope that he might bring reform to the RCC, but he began to realize that the RCC had prostituted the truth. In other words, the RCC had become to Christianity what semi-pagan Judaism was in the OT, a syncretism of Judaism with paganistic thought, a whoredom if you please - which is precisely the term the prophets used for it. Spiritual adultery.
True Protestants pay hardly any attention to the claims of the RCC. They go on back past the RCC, back to the original Apostolic Biblical faith.