Working with the Protestants
Dear Editors of Catholic Exchange:
First — greetings in Christ! I have been a long-time supporter of Catholic Exchange (and e3mil) and have promoted your site and services through personal contact, Bible Studies, and our new Parish Portal (thanks for the great job!). I have always enjoyed your services and recommended them as a safe place for faithful Catholics to get information. Hence, today's problem.
The problem comes when one follows the link to Barna's website (see 10/1 lead article here) and read some of the study results. Though they are not blatantly anti-Catholic, the results show that they clearly view the Catholic Church's teachings negatively. Their surveys on Denominations
and Born Again Christians) show their highly biased (and heretical) teachings on salvation.
Though these surveys can be useful to Catholics, most are not well educated enough in their own faith and that of “fundamentalist and/or evangelical” Christians to recognize an attack on their own Church. My own apologetics work shows how unaware most lay (and many ordained) Catholics are of these differences.
While we need to educate Catholics about what other denominations teach — we shouldn't present the teachings of these abhorrations of Christianity as acceptable. We know that the fullness of the Gospel is only found in unity with Rome, they teach that we are only Christian when we differ from the teachings of the Church. There is no real middle ground between these views since we should never compromise doctrine for “unity”.
I would not more recommend that the average Catholic explore Barna Research than I would recommend that they read Luther, Zwingli, or Calvin.
Thank you for your time and for the great service you give to the Church.
Pax Christi,
Troy Martz
Dear Mr. Martz,
Thank you for your feedback. We will try and be more selective in what we use from Barna in the future. In this instance, the relevance of the subject matter and the value of their research outweighed the obvious Protestant color of the piece.
As challenging as it may be sometimes, Catholic Exchange needs to maintain its ecumenical approach and continue working with organizations like Barna Research, Agape Press, WorldNetDaily, and Gary Bauer's Campaign for Working Families. Not only do our separated brethren have many good things to offer, but we as Catholics can and do influence them in the direction of truth by maintaining a dialogue.
We appreciate your support of Catholic Exchange.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor
The Dangers Of Being Right
Dear Editor,
I have just finished reading the article “The Dangers Of Being Right” by Mark Shea and wonder if he has read and agrees with the Pope’s message in the article “Ways to Help Avoid a Clash Between the West and Islam” in the Catholic News section of Catholic Exchange.
Yours sincerely,
Joe Quinn
Glasgow, Scotland
Dear Mr. Quinn,
Purgatory vs. Hell
Dear Catholic Exchange,
Concerning the article about the rich man, Dives, The Sin of Doing Nothing, I was under the impression that the rich man was in Purgatory and not Hell. Can someone attempt to clear this up for me?
Thanks for a great site.
Jeri Summers
Dear Jeri:
Thanks for writing in. In Greek, the Rich Man was in “Hades,” which basically means “the underworld or abode of the dead”. It is a vague term that can include both those in Purgatory and those in hell. The Rich man is typically understood to have been in hell, not merely because of his agonies but because of the verdict Abraham announces to him “between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us”.
Purgatory is precisely not such a place since those who are there are absolutely assured that they shall see heaven whereas the Rich Man is assured that he shall never see it.
It is important to keep in mind the distinction between the Church's teaching on hell and imagery at work in this parable. The Church teaches that hell is the result of a freely willed choice to reject the grace of God. No one goes there by accident. The Church says that any person who dies in mortal sin shall certainly go to hell from whence he shall never escape. What the Church does *not* say is that we can know with certainty that any person has ever made this choice.
In short, there is no dogmatic teaching (nor, by the nature of the case, can there be) that any human being is in hell. This parable is not about a real historical contemporary of Jesus who is now roasting in hell. Rather it is told to make a certain point (“If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead”), not to forecast the fate of a historical person. It, like all parables, is about you and me.
Just FYI.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Protestant vs. Catholic Bibles
Dear CE,
Through your website, I found and quickly read a feature article on the differences between the Catholic and Protestant bibles. I believe I viewed the Sept 14 or 15 edition of Catholic Exchange. I didn't have my printer working at the time, or I would have printed this excellent article for myself. Returning the next Sunday, Sept 16, the article was no longer featured. Could you please help me find this excellent article?
Dear Sir or Madam,
I cannot immediately locate the article to which you refer in our Catholic Library but have found these other resources in a wider search:
http://www.angelfire.com/md/catholicvision/catholicprotestant.html http://lcdiocese.org/difference_other.htm
http://www.cathtruth.com/catholicbible/cathprot.htm
We appreciate your support of Catholic Exchange.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor, CE
Dear Tom,
Thank you very much. I see a lot in one of these articles that reminds me of what I recall from your feature article of a few weeks ago. Three articles will make my reading all the more interesting and complete.
JB
