The Donatists represent the “more Catholic than the Pope” Protestants. When Roman emperors persecuted Christians, many gave in. The Donatists didn’t. When Persecutions ended, many Christians realized that their immortal souls were in danger. They asked The Church to forgive their sins and allow them to receive The Sacraments.
The Church said, “If you are properly penitent, you may return and be saved.” The Donatists said, “Some did not break under pressure. They are God’s chosen. Only those who did not renounce The Faith may be saved. The others have to go to hell!” Today, the most rigid Protestants are Moslems, who, like the Donatists, feel that only they are right and those who disagree are damned.
As a result of Donatist/Protestant self-righteousness, much of North Africa, among the richest of Rome’s territories, was divided. Loyal Catholics, like St. Augustine, had their own dioceses and churches. So did the Donatists. They stubbornly resisted returning to The Only Church Jesus Founded. When the Vandals swept Eastwards across North Africa around 400 A.D., the divided Christian community was unable to unite and defend itself. A couple of hundred years later, Moslems invaded, going in the other direction. They, like the Vandals, had an easy time picking off the divided Christians in North Africa.
The other kind of Protestants believe “The Catholic Church is too extreme. It is too demanding. It proscribes sex outside of marriage, artificial birth control, and abortion. The Church, like Jesus, only has men as priest/disciples. The Church is just too rigid and out of touch with the needs of people today.”
This kind of Protestant has helped to divide the Pro-Life people, allowed abortion to become entrenched, and continues to apologize for any Christian teachings that may offend anyone.
The best kind of Protestant realizes that Jesus Founded One Church, and becomes Catholic. There is something good about the Protestant establishment, from Mormon to Moslem. Being a Protestant helps many people leave the divisions and dissensions for the inner peace, not to mention His Body and Blood.
Why is that important? “If you don’t eat My Body and drink My Blood. . .” John 6:53 tells us, we cannot have life in us. That is only obtainable in The Only Church Jesus Founded. The most blessed of Protestants realize that and do what is necessary to worthily receive it in Catholic Communion,provided by Catholic priests in a living line that connects directly with the Apostles whom Jesus, Himself, ordained.
