Ask A Catholic III

[forklift]

Stucky, no, it's due to you and your ilks misinterpretation of Holy Scripture. One God, One Church ,One Interpretation. The chaos and confusion started with the man-made Protestant Reformation with there confused spirit [ s ] leading man-made inventors of many conflicting churches, sects and cults. Either Jesus lied in Matt.16:15-19 to protect His One Universal [ Catholic ] Apostolic Church or your Protestantism is made up of many different spirits all with a different interpretation of the Holy Bible. So which is it ; Jesus either made a mistake or possibly  lied or a confused Holy Spirit that introduced this mess of conflicting Protestant churches/cults, or did God get it right the first time along with His personal promise of always protecting His Church ,base/formed on His Apostles/successors?

"Ilks", Neophyte?  Really?  "Ilks"?  How did you and your "ilks" interpret scripture to say Jesus allowed the selling of indulgences for cash to prepay the penalty of sinning?  Was that a "Misinterpretation of Scripture by the "infallible" church?  Where in Scripture did Jesus say the RCC should put to death Jews?  What Scripture allows priests to molest little boys and the heirarchy of the church does nothing?  Was Jesus "protecting the Catholic church and approving of all the terrible things it did throughout history?  How about the popes committing fornication?  Where is the Scripture that allows that?

How about all these? http://listverse.com/2011/06/08/top-10-shameful-moments-in-catholic-history/
What Scripture does the RCC use to show that Jesus was fine with these?

Selling indulgences for money was something that really got the ire of Martin Luther, and it should have. It was, however, never an official position of the Church. It was something that wayward Bishops did. Blaming an entire organization for something done wrongly by some of the leaders would be like painting all of Protestantism with the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Oral Roberts, type brush.

As for the list of things from that website that you linked; some was truly shameful, most, however, was misconstrued and laughable. Not to mention, once again, painting an entire organization with a very wide brush.

In 2000 years, the Catholic Church has done some pretty bad things, there is no doubt. All too often, non-Catholics are quick to point those out, sometimes gleefully. Yet, I don't ever hear a thanks for the Bible, or Champagne, or the big-bang theory, or the university system, or for being the largest charitable organization in the world. Nope, it's only pointing out the bad. However, in just a short 500 years, Protestantism has given us the Salem Witch Trials, the Ku Klux Klan, over 40,000 versions of what the Holy Spirit seems to think the Bible means, televangelists, the prosperity gospel, acceptance of artificial contraception, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and a host of others. However, that doesn't mean that all of those Churches are evil and up to no good. The same could be said of the Catholic Church. It's just easier to go after the Catholics because we have 2000 years of history to cover and a single organization to try and blame. Trying to lay blame at the feet of over 40,000 different Churches would require way too much research and quite frankly, people are just too lazy for that. So instead of focusing on what makes us different, let's look at what makes us the same. From there we can have a real dialogue backed up with understanding of each other and truly try to be each others brothers and sisters.

[christbearer]

I agree heartily, instead of looking at the sins and errors of man which all Christendom seeks to heal, we should look at the teaching of the church, from the source,  and as a Protestant I expected a clear answer with valid support.  As each popular misconception was cleared up and clarified with such deep expansive theological support,  I as many others could no longer deny the truth of the Church.  But even if one. Doesn't see that truth,  at least be genuine in your research,  we owe it to God,  each other and ourselves.