Ello Ello!

To Nick:

The Catholic Church teaches that ALL Christians are members of the Body of Christ. In other words, you do not have to be Catholic to be "saved." However... our non-Catholic brethren are not in FULL FELLOWSHIP with the Catholic Church, which means they do not have the benefit of all the saving graces to which they are entitled.

The Catholic Church teaches that it is the original Christian Church that Jesus founded. You've probably seen the back-and-forth argument on these boards about the "Peter as Rock" debate. That renaming of Simon to Peter was the actual, true, establishment of the Church, not the efforts of Constantine, as some believe.

About 1000 years after Jesus ascended the Eastern Churches broke away from Rome, creating the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is still a fervent prayer of Catholics that one day that rift can be healed, and that division will no longer exist. In the 1500s, there were two main Protestant breaks from Rome. The first was in England, when Henry VIII wanted a divorce, and the pope refused to grant it. Henry then established the Anglican Church (known as the Episcopal Church in the US), with the ruler of England as the head. Later, Martin Luther had some legitimate gripes against the Catholic Church, and depending upon who you get your history lesson from, he severed himself entirely from Catholicism and "empowered" the people to interpret the Bible on their own. This action of Luther's is the reason why there are over 20,000 Protestant Churches in existance today.

The Catholics on his board don't have any true desire to convert our Protestant brothers and sisters to Catholicism. We only wish to clear up the many misconceptions that others have about the Catholic Church, so that ALL of us can join together as a unified Body of Christ, and share the Word with the world.

The heated debates often result when people either post wrong interpretations of Catholic teaching, or if they determine for themselves that Catholic teaching is WRONG by their standards. While the Catholics want nothing more than to get along with our fellow Christians, we cannot sit back and let falsehoods be perpetuated against our faith. While we certainly appreciate the guidance by the Holy Spirit to anyone, we also rely upon the 2000 years of history, research, and intensive prayer and study by our Church on matters of faith.

Should you have any questions regarding Catholicism, please feel free to ask!


Peace be with you,
~VOW

I thought this was a question about ELO - The Electric Light Orchestra.

As a 'protestant', I would agree. For some reason I feel as if I'm missing out on some extra blessings from God, by not being Catholic. The fact is my church is literally on fire for God. It's really healthy, there's a lot of strong relationships with one another, and it's growing. There's a lot of good stuff and honestly I don't really see much bad stuff. The Holy Spirit is really taking control over it. But I do notice that for me I still think there's something missing. Of course I don't NEED to become Catholic, but would I like to? Yes!

It's just a matter of time before I become Catholic. And either way around I'm still saved by God's grace (Eph 2:8). =)

God bless!

-Jason

Originally posted by Nick_Loves_Abba
With all due respect and love, the ONLY reason I'm just a tad tad tad, maybe .00001% anti-catholic (against some catholics not the faith itself) is that I get the vibe that they think their ways and rituals are supreme, and they are better than us spiritually (anyone non-catholic). I know many Catholics don't believe this, but some, directly or indirectly, give off this feeling.

I don't know how some Catholics believe their denomination (or what it is) is the BEST denomination.

I just don't see how Catholics can believe that they are closer to Jesus than us, what actually it all depends on the PERSON, not the DENOMINATION (Or whatever you call it).

Peace and God Bless you all.

This post is said with absolutely no anger or anything. I mean C'mon, I love you all!

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I appreciate the spirit of this post, but if you think about it for a moment the thing that is so maddening about Catholics is our inclusivity, not our exclusivity. We are saying again and again, in many and varied ways, that we have treasures here of which you know nothing, or nearly nothing.

For the most part we are not talking about the Catholic Church, but about elements of the Catholic faith that we would very much like to share with you: the saints, the Blessed Virgin, but especially the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist...especially the Eucharist.

There's no doubt in our minds that we've got something wonderful here and we want you also to be in communion with us on this level. Maddening isn't it?

At the same time, I really think it goes the other way as well, and for myself I have made it my business to look into elements of non-Catholic christianity *which do not contradict the faith or morals of the Catholic Church, * and to work them into my life. Chief among these are the charismatic gifts, the witness of non-Catholic saints such as Hudson Taylor, Smith Wigglesworth, the writings of Watchman Nee. Since the Church originated with Pentecost, there is nothing in the charismatic gifts that is contrary to her teaching, and personally I have found this movement very enriching. In these explorations and appropriations I've done nothing more than follow the recommendation of the Bishops of the Church at Vatican II who pointed out that the Holy Spirit is also at work in the hearts of our separated brethren.

This cuts both ways, of course.

What could foster the cause of Christian unity more than your (pl) looking into what the Holy Spirit has wrought in the Catholic Church these past two thousand years?

Lee

Originally posted by Hoonbaba
As a 'protestant', I would agree. For some reason I feel as if I'm missing out on some extra blessings from God, by not being Catholic.... But I do notice that for me I still think there's something missing.

-Jason

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I felt the same way. When I first started exploring the Catholic faith, my overwhelming reaction was one of indignation. I felt like I had been cheated my whole life! How come no-one had ever told me about this, or this, or this?! I started out asking questions online, too, as Wols and KC may remember. They, and others, showed me a life of faith that I had no idea even existed.