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Iron_Donkey
Guest
"EvangelCatholic:
But while some of us Catholics could be more diplomatic in our phrasing, I think some Protestants could benefit from thinking about what is and is not being said before getting offended. We’re Catholic. Clearly, we think that Protestantism is wrong, or we would be Protestant, just as Protestants are Protestants rather than Catholics because they think that Catholicism is wrong and that their version of Protestantism is correct. So while some of us should definitely work on recognizing the good that has come out of Protestantism after it happened, it should be no surprise when a Catholic says the Protestant movement was a bad thing - any more than it would be a surprise for a Protestant to say it was a good thing.
Likewise, it should be no surprise when a Catholic looks at such things as this Anglican women bishop thing, and says “well, they didn’t have valid orders anyway, but now they’re moving their understanding of the priesthood even further away from the truth, and so are making themselves even more wrong than they were already.” Such a view is simply the logical consequence of believing Catholic doctrine.
I’m not sure I would credit it entirely to Satan (arrogance and bad actions on both sides, really - overt, “we’re better than you” arrogance and evil practices for self gain among way too many leaders on the Catholic side, and “I am more intelligent than all who have come before” arrogance among way too many leaders on the Protestant side), but yes - as Catholics, we believe that God intended there to be one visibly united Church, and so that the shattering of the Church into so many pieces is evil. That is definitely not to say that no good has come of Protestantism, or that Protestants are completely wrong, only that ideally there would be no division and so the creation of the movement which brought it about was evil. But there is that whole God can bring good out of evil thing, so saying that the creation of Protestantism was evil is not the same as saying that everything within Protestantism is evil.
But while some of us Catholics could be more diplomatic in our phrasing, I think some Protestants could benefit from thinking about what is and is not being said before getting offended. We’re Catholic. Clearly, we think that Protestantism is wrong, or we would be Protestant, just as Protestants are Protestants rather than Catholics because they think that Catholicism is wrong and that their version of Protestantism is correct. So while some of us should definitely work on recognizing the good that has come out of Protestantism after it happened, it should be no surprise when a Catholic says the Protestant movement was a bad thing - any more than it would be a surprise for a Protestant to say it was a good thing.
Likewise, it should be no surprise when a Catholic looks at such things as this Anglican women bishop thing, and says “well, they didn’t have valid orders anyway, but now they’re moving their understanding of the priesthood even further away from the truth, and so are making themselves even more wrong than they were already.” Such a view is simply the logical consequence of believing Catholic doctrine.