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#10537
Anonymous
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Some of your critique of the Catholic Church would be valid, if only the sources you used were.

The reality is, despite what the Mormon Church or Protestant writers claim, Protestant Churches are not daughter Churches, but are sects which broke away from the Catholic Church because their founders denied various teachings preserved from the time of the Apostles by the Catholic Church.

Arius and others you cite were not valliant defenders of the secret underground Mormons who the LDS leadership claims went underground, but were various men, many who recieved a good Catholic education who went astray because of their own personal desires to accomodate the scriptures to their own way of believing things. If you wish to condemn me for using those who have defected from Mormonism, then you must do the same for those who have ruptured their own union with the Church founded by Jesus, and His vicar the Pope.

As a bit of background you seem unaware of, I too am a convert to the Catholic Faith, the information from former Mormons was not delivered at an Anti-Mormon bashfest, but in conversations with them at mixers for converts to the Catholic Faith. I did look into several religious groups including the LDS, but was drawn to the Catholic Church not by it’s claims, but rather because of it’s many detractors. I heard while a student at an SDA University all sorts of misrepresentations of the Catholic Faith, and history, half facts, which painted the Church as barbaric and Protestants as angelic saviors of civilization. So I investigated history, and the teachings of the Catholic Church and found out for myself the facts. I was not alone, I read the lives and Apologiae of J. H. Newman and others who started life anti-catholic and were persuaded by reading in history the real events, and not the distortions which they had been taught. I found that the Catholic Church did not invent any new doctrines, as did Mormonism and other sects. However when there was a crisis or question which arose by dissent, to prevent the fiathful from falling prey, it defined what had always been taught. Recent examples of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption can be found in the Early Church both East and West, and became “hot topics” only when they were denied by some. Mormonism on the other hand has changed it’s teachings over time. It matters not if it was to gain Statehood for Deseret, later whittled down to become Utah, or the early teachings of Jesus marriage and children to the current idea that he remained single. Nor the current Anti-Tobbacco stance when in the first days of the “Tabernacle” in SLC the problem with chew staining the floors and causing problems was so bad that signs had to be placed around the building reminding men to spit their tobacco into the spittons. So we need some academic and historical honesty here.

In the case of William Tyndale, the protestant claim is that he was a giant champion by translating the Bible into the common language, and that very fact was an affront to the Catholic Church which was opposed to allowing the people to read the Bible on their own. However if you look into the facts of the times there were several translations of the Bible into English which the Church had approved. The problem with Tyndale was his tinkering with the Bible to say what he wanted it to. Tyndale influenced by others had the idea to change the Bible translations that existed and make them say what he believed, not belive what the Bible said. The reality is about 80% of the Mass is taken from the Scirptures, including the reading from the Bible which occur at every Mass. On Sundays and Holy Days, Catholics where also instructed in the Bible during the sermon. Most Cathedrals have stained glass windows and carvings depicting biblical scenes, because until recently most people were illiterate. Tyndale’s hatred of the Church and his comments about the Pope reflect more his prejudices than the reality of the Church.

The Catholic Church provided for the poor, part of the founding documents for Monastic communities all around Europe and into the colonial countries after Europe expanded required that the monks provide health care and feed, as well as clothe the needy in their area. The tracts of land overseen by the monastic communities not only fed the monks, but provided employment and food for the local people. This afforded not just basic social services but was able to keepin check the local civil authorities who did not always treat the people Spiritually monastaries preserved the Bible and other sacred writings before the printing press, and provided a haven of prayer, and sanctuary for those in need. If you read anti-catholic histories, you will see stories that decry the Church as always and everywere corrupt, overlooking the majority which were good and holy people, living in times we ourselves find hard to comprehend.

More later.