This is a very astute account of a man’s discovery of the Catholic Church. It is not long but covers a lot — the Bible, Mary, the Pope and salvation.

Dear Family:

Given the deep and sincere feelings we all have about our faiths, and the volume of information I want to share, I felt this was the best way to express what I would like to tell you.

For the past two years, I’ve thoroughly reviewed Scripture, dedicated hours listening to debates/podcasts and read many books about Christianity.  After reflecting on what I’ve learned and examining my conscience, I’ve come to the conclusion the Catholic Church is the Church that Christ founded on earth.

To be clear, this is my decision.  I actually began this journey to prove the validity of my Protestant beliefs and disprove Catholicism.  However, now that I understand Scripture in its proper context and have studied the teachings of the Apostolic Fathers; the first generation of Christians who learned the faith from the Apostles themselves, it has left me with no doubt as to the truth of the Church.

I want to preface the following message by saying it is not meant to be critical of anyone’s beliefs.  I respect and admire each of you for your dedication to Christ, and I am grateful that I was raised in a family that loves our Lord.  Ultimately, what I came to realize is that becoming Catholic isn’t the rejection of how I was raised or what I was taught, but rather the fulfillment of it.

At the end of the day, everything good that Protestants have comes from the Catholic Church, and this is the perfect segue to the first topic I want to reference.

The Bible

Protestants contend the Bible is the divine Word of God and sole source of authority.

While I’ve always believed the Bible was divinely inspired, I never knew the history of how the book itself came to be.  To show my ignorance on this issue, I was under the impression Christ came to earth and within a few decades of his Resurrection, the Bible was organized by the Apostles.  This would have established the Bible as divinely inspired and the sole source of authority.

To my shock, I learned the Bible wasn’t canonized until 397 A.D.  This realization begged a question; who/what entity had the authority to determine which books were divinely inspired? ….

To read the whole story, click here.

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