Some Protestants accept, and even welcome, thoughts like: “Catholics worship Mary. Mary is not God. Therefore, Catholics worship idols.”
Other Protestant conclusions are based on similar false premises. “Catholic have statues of saints in their churches. Statues are ‘graven images’. It is wrong to worship graven images.”
Why would Protestant ministers want such fallacies about The Catholic Church circulating? Isn’t it better to tell their congregations the truth? Wouldn’t they be better off to help everyone in their congregation understand some basic facts?
We have received a letter that the only clergyman in America who stands up for the Protestant Establishment sent to members of his congregation. It is posted:
Dear Congregant:
Jesus clearly and directly said to the one disciple He chose to put in charge, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock, I build My Church.” He began One Church with one person in charge. There is still one Church like that.
Jesus also said, “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you do not have life in you.” That is important. You and I cannot receive His actual Body and Blood in our denomination. I do not have the authority to transform bread and grape juice into His Body and Blood. No Protestant minister can do such a thing.
If you actually want to receive His Body and Blood, and “have life in you”, you must become a Catholic. Catholic priests are living links with the disciples whom Jesus ordained. They, like the first bishops, the Disciples, have been ordained with the power to transform a wafer and wine into His Body and Blood when they say Mass.
We Protestants, of course, do not provide His actual Body and Blood. Some may pretend we can, but facts are facts. The only place any Christian can “eat His Body and drink His Blood and have life in them” is in a Catholic Church.
Most of you, dear congregants, are not going to become Catholics. You just don’t care enough. I am not about to encourage you to do so. I can only make a living if enough people keep donating to our church.
So, I go on and on about how our families, friends, and memories are here. Not in some Catholic Church. Certainly not in some giant Mega-Church, like Minister McMacMack has up the road. Our memories are here.
Isn’t that more important than obsessing about odd passages like, “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you do not have life in you.”
Really, I wish Jesus would not have said such things. They only confuse people.”
Sincerely,
Pastor Travis Pitstop.