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 Im 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 Churchs teachings about its own members.
When your very basis is about what you are not, versus what you are, why then, almost anything goes.
Ecumenism with the Protestants has always been very one-sided since Vatican II.
The Catholics have moved closer to Protestantism, but the Protestants have remained hardened in their ways toward the Catholic Church.
We can’t water down our teachings about the Catholic Church being the visible Body of Christ to placate dissenters.
I think that’s what they want. It’s funny how they like trying to marginalize us by comparing us with a 19th century sect founded by a certain Joseph Smith.
Catholics have a lot more to worry about from Evangelical preachers seducing waivering or unwary Catholics than we do from the followers of Joseph Smith, unless you live in Utah.
My time in the Traditionalist Movement in the 1990s made me rather wary of this phony I’m OK you’re OK ecumenism that has only led to an exodus from the Catholic Church.
There has only been a trickle of Protestants like myself and a few other Catholic FReepers who have headed in the other direction.