Like a lot of Catholics I got really sickened by the handling of the sex-abuse scandals, particularly during John Paul II’s reign.
I even thought about becoming Eastern Orthodox, but my readings in the Church Fathers about the role of the Pope of Rome in the first millenium kept me from “Doxing” as some Byzantine Catholics call it.
Being an Eastern Christian in the Catholic Church is not an easy thing because most Roman Catholics I meet almost always question whether or not I’m a “real” Catholic.
But my confidence in the Chair of St. Peter in spite of the flaws of its occupants has kept me from leaving the Church.
We can only hope that God’s grace and mercy remains available to those who apostatize from the Catholic faith.
This post really has nothing to do with people who were born into Protestantism as I was, but it does have to do with the arrogance of Evangelicals who reject the Christian faith of their Catholic neighbors and target them for conversion.
For the most part, we don’t see Catholic missionaries running around targeting Protestants for conversion.
But the visceral reaction on the part of many of the Evangelical posters shows their anti-Catholic contempt for the Catholic Church’s teachings about its own members.
My attitude about the Papacy is not unlike that of many our military men and women.
They salute the rank and not neccessarily the person holding that rank.
The Evangelical attitude about ecclesiastical authority is “I will not serve.”
I wonder who first said that.
Unfortunately, the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops. The Church is guilty of much. If it is of any help, the Divine Comedy is of great insight, particularly the Inferno.
Being an Eastern Christian in the Catholic Church is not an easy thing because most Roman Catholics I meet almost always question whether or not I’m a “real” Catholic.
A lot of them have no great grasp on what is a real Catholic. That, however, is thankfully changing.
But the visceral reaction on the part of many of the Evangelical posters shows their anti-Catholic contempt for the Catholic Church’s teachings about its own members.
When your very basis is about what you are not, versus what you are, why then, almost anything goes.