Originally posted by SoliDeoGloria:
I agree with you that many of the practises we see in the Holy Mother Church today has stumbled many, especially the Protestant brethren. However, seek to understand those practises and actions, the orthodoxy (right theology) behind the orthopraxy (right actions). By simply condemning Catholicism, without ever attempting to do a thorough investigation into the claims of the faith, is a very unfair treatment in scholarship.
There is also a trend in which I am seeing in Christendom today, esp. in the States. The majority of the Catholics who convert to the Protestant tradition are ill-informed and cultural Catholics, who under the barrage of biblical injunctions by their more educated brethren, fall under the veil.
But there are numerous Protestants in America today, who convert to the Catholic faith, not out of emotional or psychological reasons, but conversions which are intellectual, rational and theologically based.
Examples include Gerry Matatics, a former Presbyterian minister, Philosophy scholar and anti-Catholic, who after giving Catholicism a fair trial, crossed the tiber to the Holy Mother Church, to the consternation of many. He is now a fervent and skilled apologist for the Church.
Scott Hahn is also another prime example. He is a seminary friend of Matatics, who first examined the claims of Catholicism, and sought his friend (Matatics) for help. Instead of disproving and debunking the Catholic faith, Matatics embraced it, along with Hahn.
In a previous generation was John Henry Newman, an Anglican theological giant who, along with a few others, founded the Oxford movement. In his later life, he pledged his allegiance to the papacy and of the Catholic church, after years of intellectual debate against the Faith.
There are many more others, include the late Mortimer J. Adler (Philosopher and thinker, former chairman of Britannica Encyclopedia); G.K Chesterton; Malcolm Muggeridge; etc etc.
Besides, in regards to what you stated, in consulting the Word, there is the premise of Sola Scriptura which is the issue. When the nexus of Sola Scriptura falls, the whole Protestant ethos crumble. That can be discussed elsewhere and is not the scope of this post.
hurhurhur, i am not really interested to discuss about Catholic doctrines for many reasons..lets just leave it.
