As one convert said (I paraphrase), the Catholics have simple and plausible explanation for every scriptural prooftext the anti-Catholics throw at them, but the Protestants do not have an explanation for large swaths of the New Testament that Catholic theology follows without strain.
I remember, at a Bible study with a Baptist flock, the “Receive the Holy Spirit” episode at the end of the Gospel of John came up. One by one, everyone made a short speech how Jesus did not really mean to ask the Apostles to forgive or retain people’s sins. I simply said, — why, that describes confession. I still remember the puzzled look on their faces.
Do you have a scriptural explanation for this ?
“When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. The priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him presenton our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man, not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.”
Excerpt from John O’Brien “The Faith of millions”