Now, Sixtus, if you think I went too far in my criticism or levelied it unfairly, I apologize. The deal is we all, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodist, have plenty of dirty laundry. Let’s say that Luther was the biggest scoundrel ever, that doesn’t make him wrong for calling the Catholic church on its moral corruption in his day. (He wasn’t the only one after all, he just did it with the loudest voice.) And let’s say that he went about it in the wrong way, that doesn’t mean that his points of contention were in error. And let’s say that it would have been better if he had stayed than leaving. That doesn’t make those who are in the descendant protestant groups today the enemy. And that is how we get treated here.
I can appreciate that all Catholics will toe the party line. That appears to be a big part of what it means to be Catholic. And of course, if you didn’t think the same as the Catholic church you no doubt would leave and go some place else. But to go so far as to deny the validity of the experiences of other ecclesiastical communities, to see them and talk about them as lesser in their relationship with God – and while that is not what I get from my neighborhood priest, it is what I see over and over and over again on threads such as this one. (I could list them, but there is a size limit to these posts that I’m already exceeding, so as to have to make two posts.)
In my last parish, the Catholic church was so small that it closed its worship center and merged with the one in the next town. But we had always cooperated with them, and because of the positive relationships we had with one another, they wanted us to have the Stations of the Cross that had been used there. We installed them at my church were we continued to walk the stations of the cross each Lent. In my new community it is the priest and I who together designed our ecumenical Thanksgiving, Good Friday, and World Day of Prayer services for the entire community. But then we see each other as full brothers in the faith.
What do you see? You aren’t willing to consider us a brothers in the same way those who live in my community are. No in this virtual community, I’m just another wearer of Orange. I’m the enemy to be attacked, put down, told that my church isn’t good enough to be considered any better than a seperated brother, and that it isn’t a real church at all. That anyone who disagrees and interprets biblical truths differently, doesn’t just see things differently, but is actually wrong and doesn’t know anything about church history
Not only do you (speaking not of you personally, but the Catholics representatives as a whole that I have met on this forum) believe your interpreation is the right one, but the only possible one to even be considered. And many defend their positions vociferously even when I am quote none other than the Pope himself, because it seems that as long as the idea is expressed by a Protestant it isn’t worth considering.
You want a different response from me than what you’ve gotten, then start treating me and other Protestants here in the manner those Catholic ministers you speak of treat people in person. And you might begin by NOT taking potshots at people like Luther when whether or not he chose to get married after being kicked out of the Catholic church is completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand. It is just an ad hominem argument, of which my comment was sadly more of the same.
I regret my comment, for it didn’t add anything to the conversation. What would? Getting back to the issue of how the Catholic church sees itself as the only expression of the body of Christ in this world. Luther was a part of the body of Christ. I know, because he was Catholic. If Luther was still accountable to those vows he took once have been kicked out of the church, that implies that Luther was still accountable to Christ, so he therefore belonged to Christ. If he still belonged to Christ, then he was a part of the body of Christ. And if Luther was part of the body of Christ, but not a part of the Catholic church, then one does not need to be part of the Catholic church to be a member of the body of Christ today either.
