Conversion

I recently sent a Protestant friend one of Scott Hahn's lectures. She asked me what I thought, and here is my response:

As I see it, the Catholic church is similar to Christ in this respect: she and He both make claims about themselves which give you only one of two options. You're familiar with the whole lunatic, liar, or Lord argument. Well, a similar line of thought must be applied to the Catholic church, for she claims to be The Church, set forth by Christ, unerring in doctrine through out all ages, and the pillar and ground of the truth. Further, she claims Papal infallibility, the ability to forgive sins via the sacrament of Confession in which the priest speaks in persona Christi, the physical and spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist... to list only a few. These are bold claims! As I see it, one is forced to make an all-or-nothing assessment of their validity. She's who she claims to be, or She's something twisted and diabolical, for she claims to do what only God can do.

Christ didn't leave us with the option of seeing him as just a good teacher. Neither does the Catholic Church leave us with the option of seeing her as just one slightly flawed church out of many.

Regarding conversion, I'm OK with the use of that word. They don't just use that word for people coming into the church, but also for people who are moving and growing within the church. Conversion can simply be defined as a change from one state or condition to another. To Catholics, all of life is one big conversion, consisting of many little ones. So while your entrance to the church is a rather large conversion, it is only one of many. For instance, when you say confession and do penance, you are (hopefully) being converted into a deeper state of grace.

Anyway, I hope I don't come across as strident, dogmatic or domineering. I'm pretty excited about all of this Catholic stuff, but I worry that my enthusiasm might be misunderstood at times. If I were to give a summary of my current view, it's that the core doctrines of the Reformation "sola fide" and "sola scriptura" are both false. That's a pretty strong statement, but I absolutely believe it. And as for the Catholic Church, it's taken a while, but I think I'm as far as my reason can stretch, and it's time for me to step out in faith. I think She is who She claims to be.

(And what a surprising and beautiful Bride she is!)

Follow up to Contraception.

In "Rome Sweet Home", Scott Hahn lays down a clear case for the Catholic position on contraception. Marriage is a sacrament. It's also a covenant. All covenants involve an exchange of people. They all come with renewal ceremonies. In marriage, this ceremony is sex. To contracept is analogous to taking the host, and then spitting out the wafer...

He builds the case more plainly than I can do in a paragraph, but suffice it to say the case is satisfactorily closed.