Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Polemics in Catholicact Forum - Legacy of History; but Towards Church Unity
From: Matthew Tan Yew Hock
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 12:16 AM
Subject: Re: [catholicACT] Re: [Fwd: Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on Thursday, 7 October 2004]
hi Roy,
Welcome to the Church, and to this forum.
I do apologise if you ever feel uneasy about the heated polemics going here in this forum. But sooner and later, you will encounter something like this, somewhere some time, whether you are in a Catholic or Protestant church. This is the legacy of history. Family quarrel. A tragedy.
The Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) has been actively pursuing the cause of Christian unity, and we are making progress. Nevertheless, some Christian groups (not all) do not like the idea. See it as brothers chastising brothers. We truly believe that true Protestants are true brothers-in-Christ. But since they prefer to be "independant", the Second Vatican Council calls them "separated brethen", but still "Christians".
We believe the Catholic Church is willed by Christ to be ONE, and the Church will continue to pursue this ONEness, despite all the difficulties and obstacles. For 1,000 years, there was this "One holy Catholic apostolic Church" that everyone would recognise, even though there might be many family quarrels. Somehow, the Church was able to stay together...1000 years !!!!!
Protestantism arose from the 16th-century 'protests' beginning with Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, etc. Somehow, from the very beginning, they disagreed with each other on a host of issues, and since then, they had broken up into many denominations, churches and sects. Whatever commonality they had with each other, they are principally the teachings they derived from the Catholic Church which they had not thrown out.
I hope you get in touch with ACT people, and with Matthew Tan Kim Huat. He will be able to explain to you the many issues dividing the churches.
