Thank you for your response.
There are certainly some sinners in the Catholic Church back then and now and some seem to be more interested in power and self than in leading all to Christ.
Should we abandon the Church that was established by Jesus, or should we allow Jesus with our prayers and beliefs to correct the problems? The Church has corrected incorrect practices and will continue to do so. As faithful Catholics we can not force sinners to behave, rather we can believe and accept God’s Truths.
I believe that many that abandoned the Catholic Church also abandoned some of the teachings of Jesus and the gift of Sacraments that Jesus instituted for our salvation.
The Catholic Church has always accepted the teachings of Jesus that were passed down by Sacred Tradition and later in writing and with the authority given by Jesus to the Apostles and their successors. (Matthew 16:19 “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”)
Yes, I agree that God gives graces to all and all are free to accept or reject them. God loves all of us even when we sin.
However, do we reject God when we reject some of his teachings (his Word) and follow the teachings of men and women?
In the Old Testament, there were many Jews that worshipped false gods and God was not pleased and said so through the prophets. Today we have many that abandoned God to follow man made churches and worship false beliefs. I just hope that all come back to the true faith, as Jesus said few will find the narrow gate. (MT 7:13)
Your comment: “There is no superior, perfect denomination.” Do you really believe that all churches preach and practice God’s Truth? How can there be multiple different versions of God’s Truth?
I have mentioned John 6:53 before, but I do not understand how anyone can read the words of Jesus and ignore his teaching that one has no life (eternal) if they do not eat his flesh and drink his blood?
Your comment:
I believe we would still be one church had the Powers that Be accepted that Rome was going astray in that period of time, and an Augustinian monk was a whistleblower and reformer with whom they should have worked to listen, to consider, and to make incremental changes over time. Instead they threw him out and touched off a schism and bloodshed.”
Luther was an unrepentant heretic whose teachings caused irreparable harm to the Catholic Church and Western civilization. When Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521) recognized the danger of Luther’s teachings he strenuously and patiently urged his repentance.
Although Luther’s 95 Theses contained multiple heretical opinions, the most dangerous was his rejection of papal authority. Luther asserted the pope had no authority to dispense the merits of the treasury of grace to the faithful in the form of indulgences in order to remit the temporal punishment due to sin already forgiven in the sacrament of confession. This was not simply a sharp rebuke of an ecclesiastical abuse—Luther’s writings were an attack on the office of the papacy and of papal authority given by Christ in Matthew 16:18-19. In his Sermon on Indulgences and Grace Luther declared he did not believe indulgences had any benefit for the souls in purgatory,
the rest of the article: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/leo-and-luther-the-real-story-of-the-pope-and-the-heretic
I believe that we do not fully know the truth about history and the mistakes that were made, but we suffer the consequences that may affect our salvation.
We will all be judged by Jesus when we die based on our choice or rejection.
The true Church exists between 1) God, and 2) the humble mind and heart of the surrendered individual believer. As the Bible says, all sin and fall short of His glory. Belonging to a church is not an automatic ticket to heaven.
You give the impression that no one but Catholics celebrate the Holy Eucharist. This is an incorrect assumption.
No one can in truth declare who is a heretic with 100% assurance, even though the “victors” wrote the history upon which you rely. Have there been no heretics in the RCC over the centuries? There certainly are plenty at this juncture.
I am not of an “either/or” mentality when it comes to Christian/Catholic churches. I am of a “both/and” mentality. Neither is 100% right. Neither is 100% wrong, as a general observation, although many of either type fall under various periods of sin and heresy as individual congregations or parishes.
It is up to the individual to find his or her way to the True God, and True surrender to the Holy Spirit in this life.
For some, it may be Catholicism. For others, a Reformation-inspired type of Bible-based, eucharist-celebrating place of worship and learning.
I have considered both types deeply, and ultimately have decided that for me, the freedom to seek out a community of believers that upholds as much as possible what I have come to believe from the Holy Scriptures, including the personal responsibility that Reformation churches place on individuals to repent directly to God instead of to someone in His place, is a compelling consideration.