I would like to humbly offer this challenge to those of you that believe the Roman Catholic Church has been apostate since the Council of Trent (or any time period).
Tony Blair and now President Bush? Very interesting! I wonder why he does not like the Methodist church. Could it be that their rebellion against the Anglican Church has finally proven itself to be a mistake?
Monday, June 16, 2008 11:05 AM
By: Jim Meyers
President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting.
In the wake of the president’s visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Italian newspapers, citing Vatican sources, said Bush was open to the idea of converting to Catholicism.
The Italian newspaper Il Foglio referred to such talk about Bush’s possible conversion and stated that “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.”
Noting that Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office as Britain’s prime minister last year, the paper also stated that “if anything happens, it will happen after he finishes his period as president, not before. It is similar to Blair’s case, but with different circumstances.”
President Bush welcomed Pope Benedict XVI warmly when he visited the U.S. in April. And Vatican watchers noted that Bush met privately with the pontiff in the private gardens of the Vatican last Friday — an unprecedented place for the Pope to meet a head of state. Typically, the Vatican gardens are used by the Pope for private reflection.
A Vatican spokesman said the Pope used the unusual locale to reciprocate for the “warmth” Bush showed when the two met in Washington.
Though the Catholic Church has criticized the U.S. war in Iraq, Bush has been an ardent supporter of pro-life issues; he has staunchly opposed stem-cell research; and he opposes gay marriage — all issues important for Rome.
Currently Bush belongs to a Methodist church in Texas and attends an Episcopal church in Washington, D.C.
A friend of Bush, Father George William Rutler — who converted to Catholicism in 1979 — told the Catholic News Agency that Bush “is not unaware of how evangelicalism, by comparison with Catholicism, may seem more limited both theologically and historically.”
The doctrine of purgatory has fueled some of the most passionate division amongst Catholics and Protestants ever since the Reformation. But with a closer look at the doctrine and its different latitudes of dogma within the history of the Church, we may be able to put to rest the two extremes that continue to battle against each other.
Roman Catholic spirituality differs from Protestant spirituality in a number of ways, including the obvious cases of ecclesiology and soteriology. But what else defines the spirituality of the Roman Church? I would like to draw the attention of my reader to that of the more mystical side of the Roman Church which includes monasticism, spiritual giftedness and other more mystical avenues of grace, in order to give a concise and positive outlook of Roman spirituality.