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The links in here are non-catholic. So why would a catholic link protestant
sites in his webpages?
I list the reasons here:
- Non-catholics should be given their freedom to read non-catholic sites, so i
link these sites because they're ecumenical (they're not like the fundamentalist "catholics
go to hell" sites), and they have very good points in promoting ecumenism.
Ecumenism leads to the different protestant churches to achieve theological
unity, and this leads them to the Truth. It was thru ecumenism that the anglican
pastor John Henry Newman discovered the Truth and joined the Catholic Church.
Then he became Cardinal Newman.
PREPARED catholics who want to engage in ecumenism should check "the
other side", but sometimes many start with the worst, and "discover" the
"terrible catholic lies" when they stumble upon a lying, anticatholic, and
bigotry-filled website (like bible.ca) So i give them these relatively "safe"
links to start with.
However, they should be read with care. For example, some sites have former-catholics
who have found Christ. The reason for this is that they were in sin while they
were "inside" the Catholic Church (actually they fell under the category of
"cafeteria catholics", and really weren't in communion with the Church). What
happened is that they found Christ, but due to their own prejudices and/or hurting
experiences, they are psychologically unable to recognize Christ in the Catholic
Church. But still, the Lord has mercy of them, and will bring them to the Church,
either in this life, or the afterlife.
- Protestants think that it's absolutely forbidden
for catholics to even have a glimpse of protestant sites. This is completely
false. What happens is that catholics who are weak in their faith can be
guided into error. But well-raisen catholics, who have known thru study and
prayer, the Catholic Truth, can be prepared to read and analyse the protestant
point of view. This is the difference between the Catholic Church, and cults
like Jehovah's Witnesses. A catholic can question our faith, and ask for
answers. A JW is not allowed to even search for answers. He is told that
questions come from the devil and rejects them - because JW's cannot support
their faith with a good reasoning. We can.
- Ecumenism should be promoted among catholics, and it's OK for catholics to
participate in inter-faith prayer chains (for example, i'm a "prayer partner").
We can ask for Mary's intercession and offer a Mass for a protestant fellow who
needs God's help.
What we're NOT allowed to do, is to participate in protestant
assemblies, because it causes even more division in the Church and leads to
confusion, because it makes people think that Truth doesn't matter after all.
So, here are the links i recommend to my evangelical readers.
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