I was raised in no real faith.  My parents allowed us to pick our own.  My dad’s family was Mormon though he did not practice, and my mom had no real practicing faith, though she was baptized Catholic I found out years later.

My siblings and I started going various evangelical churches, settling on a Baptist church in Saratoga California.  I attended from 4th grade through college.

Later in life I went to Evangelical and Charismatic churches, 4 Square churches and other various flavours before deciding that I would look at Catholicism.   In 2002 I began a conversion but never finished it.  I stopped not because of the doctrine, but mostly because of some issues getting my first marriage annulled.  If anything about the catholics irritates me it is the strict legalism.

But I have to admit (not confess) that I admire the Catholics for their steadfastness of faith.  In a lot of respects the faith is unchanged from its early roots.  The Protestants, by comparison, have fractured, splintered and evolved from the beginning of their estrangement from the Catholics.

So this last week the Pope issued a proclamation about the Catholics being the true faith, to the usual uproar and disenchantment.

I’m not sure why.  First of all, most religions think their faith or sect or denomination is the true faith, and everyone else gets it wrong.  I found it interesting that the Pope did not step on nearly as many toes as the catholics in the past have.   Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (No Salvation outside the Church) used to be the mantra.  But now the protestants and the Orthodox  qualify in some respect.

I found the evangelical’s outrage at his comment particularly funny considering how many evangelical and fundamentalist churches I have attended that pointedly and clearly proclaimed that Catholics are not saved, and say very unflattering things about the Pope.

But the subject of Catholics in modern society is intrinsically associated with abuse these days.  The accusations of sexual abuse against youth by priests appears epidemic and culminated in a 600 million dollar settlement in LA.