Cleansing Fire

Defending Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church

Understanding Roman Catholicism – Another response

April 30th, 2011, Promulgated by Mike

Last month I wrote about a postcard mailing that was promoting a series of talks to be held on the three Sundays proceeding Easter Sunday (see here).  The talks were given by Pastor Vince DiPaola of Lakeshore Community Church in Greece and the mailing claimed they were intended for anyone who “ever wanted to understand Roman Catholic teaching in light of the Bible.”  Recipients were told they would receive “a careful look at Roman Catholic teaching from history, councils, quotes of leaders, and official catechisms” which would be compared to “the appropriate verses in the Bible.”  Finally, they were asked to “check us out with an open mind and then reach your own informed conclusions.”

Well, as many of you already know, Cleansing Fire’s Ben Anderson did check them out and did reach some informed conclusions (see here, here and here), but I suspect they were not the conclusions for which Pastor Vince was hoping.  To put it briefly, Pastor Vince’s three talks were full of misconceptions, half-truths, Church statements and Bible verses taken out of context and a few outright lies – pretty much the standard stock-in-trade of anyone attempting to “prove” that Catholicism is a false religion.

Fr. Tom Wheeland of Holy Cross Parish decided to approach the subject from a different angle.  Fr. Tom contacted Lighthouse Catholic Media and ordered three of their CD-ROM talks – several hundred of each.  The talks were given by Steve Ray and David Curie – both converts from Evangelical Protestantism – and Patrick Madrid – a lifelong Catholic.  Each person attending one of the Easter Sunday Masses at Holy Cross was encouraged to take one home, listen to it, and then either pass it on to a friend or bring it back to swap for one of the others.

As a Holy Cross parishioner it is going to be interesting to see just what might develop from this.

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10 Responses to “Understanding Roman Catholicism – Another response”

  1. Bernie says:

    What a great idea.
    Bravo Fr. Wheeland!

  2. Persis says:

    St Charles Borromeo gave out copies of a Lighthouse Media CD also entitled “I’m Not Being Fed-Discovering the Food the Satisfies the Soul”.
    I have shared it with a few friends who left the Church for that reaon “I’m not being fed…”, one of them called yesterday and asked if they could go to Mass with me this weekend!
    It’s a start!! 🙂

  3. Mike says:

    Persis,

    That’s great news!

    Each of the presenters on the HC CDs spend some time on the Eucharist. I’m praying for similar results.

  4. Scott W. says:

    While I haven’t been thrilled with hisrecent celebrity, “The Conversion of Scott Hahn” is still an excellent get-the-ball-rolling introduction to Catholicism. And it’s free if you look around.

  5. Nerina says:

    Praise and thanks be to God for Fr. Wheeland’s efforts! That’s the way to care for your spiritual children.

  6. Ben Anderson says:

    excellent, Fr. Wheeland! And thanks for sharing that news, Persis, about St Charles Borromeo. Very encouraging indeed. interestingly enough, the mrs and I were cleaning the basement today and I came across a stash of those Steve Ray CDs. I had mailed them out to all the members of my immediate family when I first converted.

  7. Yankeegirl says:

    Yes, we did receive cd’s St Charles Borromeo on Easter Sunday as well – and after an absolutely stirring and reverent 9:30 am Easter Sunday mass celebrated by Fr Mark Brewer, (where he sung much of the mass, like the high mass I remember, it brought tears to my eyes several times) my husband and I just looked at each other and said at the same time afterwards to our children “that’s like the masses we had as kids!” Both of my children were still talking about mass after we were home…and my daughter asked if “mass could always be like that”. We have since shared our cd with others. I think this was a fabulous idea, thank you Holy Cross and St Charles!

  8. Choir says:

    Yankeegirl – If you are interested we are having a High Mass tomorrow at St. Stanislaus at 1:30. It’s the traditional Roman Rite of Mass. You and your family are very welcome to join us. This is the Mass as it was said before the Vatican Council II.

  9. Mike says:

    Yankeegirl,

    I first met Fr. Brewer last Advent when our PPNM Planning Group held a reconciliation service at Holy Cross Church. There was a sizable group of young children present, too young to have made their first reconciliation, and Fr. Brewer – playing the part of John the Baptist and singing a beautiful rendition of “Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord” (from Godspell) – led them and their parents off to the parish center where he gave a great talk on recognizing the difference between right and wrong and the importance of telling people that you’re sorry when you do something wrong.

    I took a bunch of photos that were supposed to make their way to St. Charles. Maybe you’ve already seen them?

  10. Yankeegirl says:

    Choir: thank you for the invitation!

    Mike: those are wonderful pictures, and Fr Mark is great with kids and does have a beautiful voice. He has been a true asset to our parish (and with the local priest shortage as outlined on CF recently, I selfishly hope we dont lose him in the coming months.)

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