[CynicalBear]

>>I’m cynical enough to say “some of us realize that.<<

You may be right.

>>And the bottom line that I believe has been lost in this chain is the Pope’s call to ‘OVERCOME TEMPTATION<<

there is that for sure. The bottom line as I see it in this case is all the extraneous rituals, etc the RCC has added to the clear and simple gospel of salvation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. I fear many who follow that religion have lost sight of that simple fact.

[GreyFriar]

You said: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. I fear many who follow that religion have lost sight of that simple fact.

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Based upon the Catholics I’ve known, I will state that you are over-generalizing on the number who have lost site of “Believe in the Lord....” I have probably known an equal percentage of Protestants who’ve similarly lost sight of that. There is a beauty in the Catholic service and links back to Jewish synagogue services that Jesus would have practiced.

And, in my view, too many Protestants forget that without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Protestant churches today.

And the reforms that Luther demanded were met over the next 50-100 years, but by then, the internal religious schism had been grabbed by the political leaders of the time, who used it for their own ends. Just as we see politicians today either using or abusing the Christian faith at large (Protestant and Catholic) for their own ends.