Personal Testimony Against Popery 

The following is a response to Nicholas' personal testimony of his defection from Roman Catholicism.  It seems that he was never much of a Catholic to begin with.  

Andrew responds:  
(Earlier posts not recorded here.)    

Reading your testimony, it is evident to me that you should never have been asked to serve as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist and as a catechist for children. Despite your upbringing, you placed greater reliance in your own personal judgment than that of the Church. The balance that should have been there was not. Your critique makes basic errors regarding Catholic teachings, something quite peculiar for one who professes to have been the Catholic's Catholic.  

You admit that God personally told you in prayer to use the bible exclusively for the CCD instruction of children. You say you were unhampered for a year in doing this; however, did you go to the lawful pastor or to the parents and tell them of your intentions? We can only conclude from your silence that you did not. Neglecting to seek confirmation for your private revelation; you opted to violate the trust placed in you by families and the authority of the pastor who will, himself, be held accountable to almighty God for those in his charge.  

You sidestep these matters and quote 2 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." You should have sought to understand the Scriptures in a way consistent with the Church that had commissioned you to service. Instead, you dismissed the catechetical texts and curriculum altogether. You became the supreme interpreter of Scripture. In other words, you were already becoming your own Pope. In so doing, you yourself were guilty of not taking correction from God's Word. 

No doubt reading the Scriptures with little care about the cultural, linguistic, and traditional appreciation of the texts, you came to the poor conclusion that the bible was often in conflict with your "beloved" Church. I am sorry, but I have a hard time believing in your sincerity. I also have to wonder how much of this you read back into your defection from Catholicism after you were firmly in the grasp of like-minded anti-Catholics. Without any assistance, and prior to discussing your concerns with learned authorities, you arrived at the conclusion that the two thousand year institution that has produced many saints was wrong. Principally, you read this in regard to Isaiah 8:20 and the Church:    " . . . if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." As a Catholic, had no one ever explained how the living tradition of our faith helps us to understand the biblical testimony? Did you not know the sources for Christian doctrine? Was there no confidence in the Church of Christ at all, the Mother of the Scriptures? I suppose not. You saw contradictions that did not exist and thus severed yourself from the community of faith. Your story is very tragic. It is one about human pride and self-delusion. I am afraid that there "is no light" in what you have to say. Yours is not a faith profession, but as your whole web site shows, a faith renunciation. 

You went to your pastor, finally; but the damage was done. You approached your lawful pastor, not for counsel or guidance, but to show that "he was in error all along." Goodness, look at your words. Can you be taken seriously? After your rambling, according to your narrative, he suggested that you stop reading the bible because it was confusing you. Actually, the good pastor was half-right; however, it was not that the Scriptures were confusing you but rather that you were confusing the Scriptures. You are still doing it. Refusing to acknowledge your fault, you placed the blame for the confusion upon the Church. 

Smarting from the confrontation, you set about an exercise of justifying yourself from Scripture. It is a detailed and classical case of a man twisting the Scriptures to his personal preferences. Your study could hardly have been objective since you state from the very beginning that you received a revelation from God to disprove the "false doctrines" of the Catholic faith. It is possible that something did communicate with you; however, I would suspect it was not the Holy Spirit. Could it have been the spirit of rebelliousness? I think so. Or else, you are hearing voices of your own manufacture. 

You tell us that you also studied the Church and prophecy for years, with a mind to discrediting the Catholic Church. What a waste of a human life! You beseech us to read your stuff straight through and clamor for us to believe that you were "always" one to defend the Church against the challenges of anti-Catholics. I have a hard time believing you. Your own words convict you as one who did otherwise. You were a Catholic filled with fervor, but one who did not really know the Church. One cannot truly love the Church and disown her. You did not open your eyes to the truth of the Lord, either in the Scriptures or the Church; rather, you closed your eyes. They are still closed. What was it Jesus called the Pharisees and scribes? Oh yes, blind guide-- which is what you are. May God have mercy on your soul. 

You throw out Scripture verses with little care as to what they actually mean: 

1 Timothy 4:1-3: "Now the SPIRIT SPEAKETH EXPRESSLY, that in the LATTER TIMES some shall DEPART FROM THE FAITH, giving heed to SEDUCING SPIRITS, and DOCTRINES OF DEVILS; Speaking LIES in HYPOCRISY; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; FORBIDDING TO MARRY, and COMMANDING TO ABSTAIN FROM MEATS, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which BELIEVE and KNOW THE TRUTH."  

You have things backwards. It is you who have "depart[ed] the faith." The connections such fundamentalists as you make to the austere practices mentioned here to Catholicism are false. Gnostics and Manicheans maligned matter and claimed that Jesus only pretended to be human. The condemnation here is against those who deny the goodness of creation and who would prefer to be under the yoke of the Law. The man with a vocation freely embraces priestly celibacy. Many Eastern rite priests and Anglican converts, who are married, minister in the Catholic Church. Most deacons are married and they are Catholic clergy. Marriage is praised as one of the greatest gifts and joys remaining to us after the fall and primordial flood. Indeed, it is seen as an analogy between Christ and his bride, the Church. As for penitential practices, even our Lord advised the practice of fasting along with prayer. We abstain from meat during Fridays in the season of Lent precisely because it is such a wonderful good. It is not a derogatory practice or a perpetual one. If this text is used to condemn Catholicism, then I suppose fundamentalists would have to condemn those on diets and vegetarians, too. 

1 Timothy 3:5: "Having a FORM of godliness, but DENYING the power thereof: from such TURN AWAY. "  

Catholicism is not an empty husk. Her teaching is authoritative and her sacraments have efficacy. 

Romans 10:1-3: "For I bear them record that they HAVE A ZEAL FOR GOD, but NOT according to knowledge. For they being IGNORANT of GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, and going about to establish their OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS, have NOT submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."  

The fact that this examination was deleted immediately from your message board is evidence that you have a misplaced zeal and no concern about any truth beyond your own righteousness. 

Colossians 2:8: "BEWARE lest any man spoil you through PHILOSOPHY and VAIN DECEIT, after the TRADITION of men, after the rudiments OF THE WORLD, and NOT after Christ."  

Note that it says, "the tradition of men," however, Catholics possess a tradition watered by the Scriptures and nourished in the Holy Spirit. Among all the Christian communities, it is the Catholic Church that most refuses to bend to the world-- on contraception, on divorce, on abortion-- you name it. Can you say the same? 

Matthew 15:9:4: "But in vain they do worship me, teaching FOR doctrines the COMMANDMENTS OF MEN. Let them alone: they be BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND, both shall fall into the ditch."  

Look at who is talking! 

Revelation 18:4: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, THAT YE BE NOT PARTAKERS OF HER SINS, AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES."  

Such a cry is not directed against the Catholic Church as you imply. Rather, it is a cry that still emerges from the Church for her wayward sons and daughters. Come home to the Catholic Church-- come home to Christ and the family of God.