The hard-core folks here on the blog may end up critical of me, but I do not see Catholicism as an illegitimate faith. Nor do I believe they possess a false gospel.
My attitude is pretty well summed up by something the pastor of my parents’ church in Decatur, Alabama said when Pope John Paul II died. The pastor of First Baptist Church in that small town told his congregation something very similar to this:
I am not a Catholic. I obviously disagree with the Catholic church about a number of things. But this pope who just died, John Paul II, was a great man. He was a great man and an outstanding representative of the Christian faith to people around the world. There are many people on this earth who know very little about Christianity other than what they may get from contact with the Catholic church. We should hope and pray that the next pope is as great a man as this one.
To which I say, Amen. And I don’t think we’ve done badly with JPII’s successor. Not at all.
