The Million Dollar Question

Leslie Wolf recently asked me to explain some of my complaints about protestants, which while a completely fair question, is not easy to answer. So if you will, settle in, this will be a long one.

So for background, I'm a so-called Cradle Catholic, but not the kind that only shows up at mass on Christmas and Easter. I don't make it every Sunday like I should, and I don't get to confession but once a year or so, but I am a to-the-core-of-my-being Catholic.

Before anyone thinks I'm placing my identity with a groups above the faith itself, I am not. I believe this group, the Roman Catholic Church and those in communion with it, to be the one, holy and apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ himself and preserved by the power of the Holy Spirit through God the Father.

I believe this for several reasons. One, I think being raised in it, I'm inclined to it. Pure psychology I guess, but it should be acknowledged.

Two, I drifted for a time away from the Church, but never from Christianity at large. What I found in my limited experience in the non-Catholic Christian world was limited and in many ways felt empty to me. Certainly I didn't see a representative sample of protestantism, but I saw some of it.
In the process of drifting I started to read. I started to learn about what different groups believes. I started to read my Bible more (mostly just the gospels at that point). The more I read and the more I learned, the more it made sense to me to be Catholic. There is no way I can explain it all here, but there's one important factor.

Third, while I don't believe that sensory experiences should be a defining measure of how one chooses what is a true faith, I do believe it can be corroborating evidence. Just so, I've had one or two experiences in church after receiving the Real Presence in the Eucharist that really sealed the deal for me.

The one that really did it was back during all that drifting I did. I was really praying to God for guidance on the matter but going to mass mostly out of habit with my family. Before communion, I prayed again that God would help me out in this matter. As I prayed after communion, with music playing and people still walking around, I experienced a strange inner silence. It wasn't so supernatural as to call it a miracle, but I took it to mean that God was saying my question had been answered. I was where he wanted me to be.

Again, I didn't base the whole shebang on that, but all the reading was pointing me that way, and the experience sealed it.

Knowing that, I say that if I am correct in my view on the Church, then all others who are not with communion in the Church are risking their souls, and less importantly, spreading false information about Christ and his Church.


While the early schismatics could rightly be called heretics, I don't hold this generation in such contempt. They're not really protesting Rome anymore as much as they are living out the faith handed down to them. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that if I'm right, they're not.

And if I'm right, and I firmly believe I am, then I have an obligation to share this truth with others.

So that's who I am and an oversimplified version of how I got there.

So, what are my complaints about protestants? We'll break this into some categories.

<h2>Intellectual</h2>
I believe it is inconsistent to believe in the divine origin of the Bible while simultaneously declaring the apostasy of the Church that put those books together. Surely, the spirit could have acted to assemble the right books with an evil Church doing the work, but I believe it makes more sense to say the Spirit guided the true Church through the process.

I believe the idea of Sola Scriptura to be a bad idea. Any written sentence can be interpreted several ways. The establishment of a Church to guide in these interpretations would be needed. The protestant model of not having an established worldwide hierarchy doesn't cut it, as different denominations come up with different views.

Moreover on that point, the Bible contains all the info we need for salvation, but how blessed are we to have a Church? When Acts of the Apostles ends, the story doesn't. The Church went on. If not for the existence of the Church, we'd likely know very little about the early Church and we'd be without many great teachings.

I believe that there are too many theological differences between me and the hundreds of protestant varieties to bother going into all of those at this time, but suffice it to say, I hold with Rome.

<h2>Supernatural</h2>
This is more a reason why I believe in the Church, than a problem I have with Protestantism.
I believe the Church's continuation is a sign of it's protection by God. Despite being run by sinful men, and at times even led by arguably evil men, the Church has continued on, teaching the truth. That such a massive organization could even exist for 100 years, but for 2,000+, or 1,500 according to some, is nothing short of a miracle. And it hasn't just existed, it thrived. Nearly 1/6 of the world's population is Catholic...That's proof of nothing, I know, but it's impressive.

I believe the miracle of the sun and the miracles at Lourdes to be further evidence of the Church being the true faith.

With all those things considered, I believe the never-ending division within protestantism is a sign that it is not protected by Christ's promise that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. As such, it cannot be the true Church.

On that note, it may have been GK Chesterton that said one of the greatest signs of the Church's divinity is that it has survived it's churchmen. lol.

<h2>Historical</h2>
The Church traces it's unbroken history from our current pope to St. Peter, and we all know who his direct boss was. Admittedly, historical evidence is sketchy from 0-100 or so (estimating), but once history shows up, there is The Church, not a bunch of unaffiliated Christian communities.

That's not to say there weren't dissenters, but they existed even in the time of Paul and just as he worked to correct those who were wrong, so too did the early Church exercise it's authority to do the same.

The Church survived the dark ages, almost singlehandedly preserving western culture in the process. Guess this could go as supernatural too, but that has to count for something.

<h2>The Random</h2>
I can't help but just feel the truth in the Church. I feel God's presence at mass and I feel his spirit working in my life as a Catholic. I believe he works elsewhere too of course, but I believe he gave us one Church. I believe he intended it to be a real, earthly organization, and I believe it is Rome.

I can't help but feel I haven't addressed the full scope of this issue, but I don't think I'm up for it. Lately I'm not feeling it when it comes to writing blogs this long. Nevertheless, a question was asked and I've endeavored to answer it. I hope I did so well.

Let me also add that I consider protestants to be brothers and sisters in Christ, though they reject the fullness of his truth. I believe God works through so many people, not just his Church. That said, the means to salvation are primarily through the Church and it is my goal that one day everyone come to see that.

Again, I don't mean to seem overbearing, but I want to make my views understood.