The wailing and gnashing of teeth is precisely because these are not petty squabbles. Failure to recognize that The Eucharist is Jesus Christ really, truly and substantially present is no small matter.
The protestant has forsaken the Truth of Christ and Divine Revelation for their own interpretation that conforms to their pre-established secular worldview. And in doing so, in creating this epoch of rationalism and radical individualism the protestant mind has destroyed Western Civilization. To the point where we are now about to be overun by islamists and atheistic sodomites.
But to address your comment on a broader scale I wish we could, as you say, be united in our work against the atheist and the mohammedan. Unfortunately the dischord springs from the same source: the notion of man as sole authortiy to determine truth. Man isn’t conforming himself to Truth he is making it in his own image.
So when Catholics argue with Protestants it is, in essence, the same fight we have with atheists and muslims albeit on different battle fields. And quite frankly, the argument for unity for the expressed purpose of tactical advantage isn’t, strictly speaking, convincing. Particularly when one considers that it is the Reformation which has put us in this position.
It's because of the Protestants that Western Civilization is destroyed??? Gimme a break! Why don't Catholics ever look to their church's OWN condition during the Reformation? Better yet, why not look to the schism Rome caused even centuries before then between the East and West? Individualism is more a product of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason than the Reformation, since the Reformers sought to RETURN the Christian community to the truth of Christ, divine revelation and the faith as it was once delivered unto the saints - before sacradotalism, superstition, paganism, nepotism and general debauchery took over into the upper echelons of church hierarchy and the gospel was perverted. The Reformation didn't happen in a vacuum. God was behind it!
The fighting that continues between Catholics and Protestants (like on these threads) is NOT because Catholics are trying to "save the world" from destroying itself, but because of an attitude of elitism and superiority and an inability to recognize the commonality we share in the major tenets of the Christian faith. Though our differences are NOT insignificant, far too few FRoman Catholics participate on threads where we CAN agree on doctrine and be united against some who defend what we both agree is heresy (i.e., the Deity of Jesus Christ).
-——And in doing so, in creating this epoch of rationalism and radical individualism the protestant mind has destroyed Western Civilization-——
Seriously ?
I would agree with the point about radical individualism, if we have the same definition, has “some” merit but only in extreme examples....
“So when Catholics argue with Protestants it is, in essence, the same fight we have with atheists and muslims albeit on different battle fields. And quite frankly, the argument for unity for the expressed purpose of tactical advantage isn’t, strictly speaking, convincing. Particularly when one considers that it is the Reformation which has put us in this position”
Best post of the thread!