Following Pope's Example, Evangelical Leader Apologizes for Hostility Toward Catholics

[mdgspencer]

After the Pope just apologized in Italy for Catholic hostility toward Evangelicals, the head of the World Evangelical Alliance has responded by apologizing himself for Evangelical hostility towards Catholics, expressing sorrow for their own actions. He is leader of 650 million Evangelical Protestants worldwide.
see www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22170

 

[UnumCorpus]

This is amazing…thank you for sharing. Praise God for the humility shown by both Pope Francis and Rev. Dr. Tunnicliffe.

 

[KathleenGee]

I tried to share knowledge of our Catholic faith on a few evangelical based essays…I guess I was asking for it.

It was very hurtful, that no matter what you said…and there are those that I tried with JW’s, I could not justify their behavior as Christian…so I have getting over alot of hurt feelings…I need to pray more for our Evangelical brethren.

But there is such a good example in our Holy Father Pope Francis, and it was even more heartening to hear the response of the head of the Evangelicals.

God bless them and hope we can grow in the Lord together and with greater understanding.

 

[Adonia]

I tried to share knowledge of our Catholic faith on a few evangelical based essays…I guess I was asking for it.

It was very hurtful, that no matter what you said…and there are those that I tried with JW’s, I could not justify their behavior as Christian…so I have getting over alot of hurt feelings…I need to pray more for our Evangelical brethren.

But there is such a good example in our Holy Father Pope Francis, and it was even more heartening to hear the response of the head of the Evangelicals.

God bless them and hope we can grow in the Lord together and with greater understanding.

Amen!

 

[Path_Finder]

This is great to hear and see. I grew up where at times, some people did not like Catholic Teachings but in the end, I saw there were more things that united us, that we had a lot of common ground.

I posted one story a few months ago where at least one Doctor from a Christian Charity was slain overseas, the Doctor along with some other charity workers I believe. It wasn’t a Christian charity but illustrated that at least with a lot of our Christian brethren, they too gave their lives for the cause of Christ.

It’s a hard road to hoe, we need to be vigilant and prayerful.

 

[irishpatrick]

Offering an apology for genuine harm done is always a good thing.

The article states there are 650,000,000 Evangelicals, yet there is a total 2.2-billion Christians in the world, of which 1.2-billon are Roman Catholics, 260-million are Orthodox Christians, and 700-800,000,000 are Protestants of various denonations. Of the Protestant number, 250-300,000,000 are in the Evangelical camp and in that camp there are hundreds of divisions that break down into various Bible Churches (including many modern mega-Churches). I do not believe that there is a single leader of “Evangelical” or “Bible” Churches.

Just saying.

 

[Teelynn]

This is MOST DEFINITELY good news. I wondered about the apology from Pope Francis, but NOW we are finally seeing some fruits. Like people have said…it’s slow going and a long road, so keep praying.

 

[agnes_therese]

Civility is contagious.

Pass it on.

 

[SurfingTheTiber]

Civility is contagious.

Pass it on.

And the Pope did this without any assurance of reciprocity which tells us that even if it doesn’t “work” (lead to a reciprocal gesture of civility) it’s still the right thing to do.

 

[manualman]

… He is leader of 650 million Evangelical Protestants worldwide.
see www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22170

Bit of a quibble, he’s nothing of the sort. By far the overwhelming majority of said 650M evangelicals have never heard of the guy and wouldn’t take his interpretation of a confusing passage of Scripture over that of their own pastor.

Almost by definition, protestant evangelicals are not hierarchically organized worldwide and have no designated over-arching leadership.

But otherwise a nice article and gesture of reconciliation!

 

[ltwin]

Bit of a quibble, he’s nothing of the sort. By far the overwhelming majority of said 650M evangelicals have never heard of the guy and wouldn’t take his interpretation of a confusing passage of Scripture over that of their own pastor.

Almost by definition, protestant evangelicals are not hierarchically organized worldwide and have no designated over-arching leadership.

But otherwise a nice article and gesture of reconciliation!

This is true. Nevertheless, the World Evangelical Alliance is a very important umbrella group of national Evangelical Alliances and Associations (in the US the national group is the National Association of Evangelicals, whose membership is not inconsiderable) and individual evangelical denominations and local churches. So, he is a leader among evangelicals, and he does represent many of them in his capacity as head of the WEA.

 

[brideofjesus]

What a sweet act between the Pope and the Rev. Dr. Tunnicliffe.

 

[RosslynV]

It was a shame how catholics in the past tried heavy handed means to convert our evangelical brethren. It was good that the Pope apologized!

 

[KathleenGee]

Agree with Manualman as this leader represents only a portion of Evangelicals.

There is much work on the Evangelicals’ part on being educated in what Catholics believe. I have seen too much trolling from those who say the RC’s started with Constantine, our beliefs are pagan, and we are not Christians but worship Mary…and the Vatican is so so rich and ruling the world with the Freemasons and other Illuminati…

Some how they don’t see the connection between the RC’s and Chaldean and other Middle East Christians who are liturgical based like us.

Likewise, American Catholics are not prosletyzing Christians much at all…someone correct me, but I have had no experience of Catholics of trying to take Evangelicals from their beliefs.

 

[hello123]

It was a shame how catholics in the past tried heavy handed means to convert our evangelical brethren. It was good that the Pope apologized!

where have you been all these years rosslyn??? do you know that the tens of millions of evangelicals in latin america,asia ,including india, are former catholics.they were stolen from the catholic church.they were not just stolen,they were brainwashed and programmed to despise anything catholic ,including their catholic loved ones.they should be the one apologizing ,not the cc!!!

 

[UnumCorpus]

where have you been all these years rosslyn??? do you know that the tens of millions of evangelicals in latin america,asia ,including india, are former catholics.they were stolen from the catholic church.they were not just stolen,they were brainwashed and programmed to despise anything catholic ,including their catholic loved ones.**they should be the one apologizing ,**not the cc!!!

And this is what this thread is about, read the news story. A prominent evangelical leader did apologize to the Catholic Church. Pope Francis and Rev. Dr. Tunnicliffe apologized to each other.

I strongly dislike how some evangelicals have targeted Catholics in other parts of the world, but the use of “brainwashed and programmed” is a bit of a strong term. Honestly, the sad part is that proper instruction and guidance in the Catholic faith is lacking in parts of Latin America, where Catholicism tends to be more cultural than a lived out faith. Thus poorly catechized Catholics make easy pickings for aggressive evangelical missionaries. Fortunately, in my experience growing up in a missions-heavy Pentecostal church, missionaries in Asia and India tended to focus their attention on Muslims and Hindus more so than Catholics. But that is off-topic for this thread.