Quote:
Originally Posted by Staphlobob  Good points Margaret.
I still remember one rabid Romanist unable to comprehend that I'd become a Christian. He continually yelled at me via email, "But you were a priest! You were a priest!" As though that made a difference. |
Amazing - and yet
not...
I guess I haven't been paying enough attention: I didn't realize you'd been a priest! Congratulations on the Lord's great gift of grace to you, and I know your reward will be great!!!! Reminds me of that book I think I mentioned in another post, "Night Journey from Rome to the New Jerusalem" by Clark Butterfield.
Quite recently, I had a rather explosive e-mail exchange with a former grade school and junior-high classmate of mine who is now a Jesuit, a faculty member at a *major Catholic university*. (I keep in touch with most old classmates.) The last time I actually saw him was in the 9th grade, when we were slow-dancing at a school dance and he was trying to tell me (over the blaring music) that he was going to enter the seminary. At that point, some nun chaperoning the dance thought we were dancing too close and shoved the "requisite Webster's Dictionary" between us to separate us -- during
that conversation!
Anyway, a couple of months ago, he had circulated an e-mail to classmates, including me, from his university address that included the statement that all religions, including Islam, have "inherent dignity." He went on to enumerate the "merits" of Islam, Buddhism, etc.
This infuriated me no end, but I never like to merely sever ties that I've had for that long (who knows to whom the Lord wants me to witness?) and so I decided to call him on that statement, but not in front of the entire list. I replied to him alone and said, "Oh, come on! Cut it out! You know as well as I that that isn't true!
Nothing that doesn't exalt Jesus Christ or proclaim Him as the sole means of salvation has ANY inherent dignity! How dare you confuse some befuddled folks who doubt Christ's deity anyway by saying that Islam has 'inherent dignity?' S****, we weren't taught that in [our old Catholic] school; that isn't the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and
you know it..." I went on from there - and I did tell finally him (had been reticent with him on this in prior e-mails) that I'd left the church and what I am now. I never heard back from him on the matter. I don't take that to mean that our "friendship" has ended, just that he had no logical comeback to what I said.
After I sent that e-mail, though, I got to thinking: maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that IS the current teaching of the RCC now, that "all roads lead to God, whomever It/She may be."
I don't know, for I've been out of Catholicism for a
long time.
If what my old classmate said in his long e-mail
is "mainstream Catholic teaching" now, then things are worse than I thought... Much worse.
Margaret