Sherlock:
Oh fer Pete’s sake…another Feeneyite? Look, I think Protestant theologies are flawed, sometimes very so, but not all Protestants even have a clue that it is. They were raised with it, and may have no reason to believe anything different. Their experience with lousy Catholics may have stymied any inclination they may have to look further. Some were raised with misconceptions that would cut off any inquiry: if I believed what anti-Catholics believe we Catholics believe, maybe I’d be anti-Catholic too.
Look, it’s for God to judge how culpable these people are. What we are called to do is to try and bring people to the truth, and—hint, hint—you won’t do it by calling them heretics. I’ll admit, I can get very, very testy at times on these forums when people repeatedly attack the Church, but I’m generally reacting to individuals, not Protestantism as a whole (wrong and divisive as I think their various theologies are). I know of nice, God-fearing Protestants who are confronting our secular culture, our common enemy. I would rather have these decent people on my side (as long as they aren’t anti-Catholic wackos—that’s a different matter). Calling these people heretics is NOT going to be productive. Look, the secular world (and 'way too many Muslims) would be more than happy to see Christianity dead and buried. They’re succeeding all too well at removing Christianity from our culture. We need to get together with those Protestants who are not anti-Catholic wackos and stand with them against this culture of death.
Ok, perhaps we are talking about different things. If you want to find a “Protestant nice guy” probably you’ll succeed. There are also “nice” atheists, “nice” Muslims, “nice” Jews, etc, etc. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with theology and doctrine. If someone says that “Luther freely chose schism” (post #4) I say: Be careful: It was heresy, not schism. Because they are not the same. And here we are talking about doctrine, about dogma. And from this point of view Protestantism is a heresy, neither the first, nor the last, but nothing more than a heresy that came out within the Church with one main purpose (the purpose of all heresy): destroy the Church. Just imagine what would have happened if they had succeeded.
“but not all Protestants even have a clue that it is”
Do you considerer that “Ignorance” makes their sin of heresy less condemning? Again: if you want to find an ignorant Protestant, probably you’ll succeed, because there are lots of them. Is for this reason heresy less awful and malignant? I know the difference between formal and material heretics.
“I know of nice, God-fearing Protestants who are confronting our secular culture, our common enemy”
As Catholics we also have to study and lean a lot. Among those subjects to study is philosophy. To understand how the fruits of Protestantism are like those of the fig tree: division, liberalism, relativism, subjectivism, modernism, in the long term… atheism… So, if you want to fight against this secular world, better forget about Protestantism, because Protestantism is the main cause of this secular world. But we need the help of philosophy to understand this.
“Calling these people heretics is NOT going to be productive”.
A couple of weeks ago, “with a clear majority, the Synod (251 members) of the Church of Sweden voted to allow gay couples to have their partnership blessed in church”. Is this not heresy? Are these members of the Swedish synod “formal” or “material” heretics? Heresy leads to more heresy. Do you want to call them “separated brethren”? You are welcome.
But realize that we are talking here about doctrine, not any particular “nice next door lovely Protestant”…