One step forward ...In her conversion narrative, Jean Hughes Raber tells us nothing about what led her to the Roman Catholic Church Roman Catholic Church, Christian church headed by the pope, the bishop of Rome (see papacy and Peter, Saint). Its commonest title in official use is Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. . Instead, she makes her former spiritual homes, Unitarianism and the Episcopal Church Episcopal Church, Anglican church of the United States. Its separate existence as an American ecclesiastical body with its own episcopate began in 1789. Doctrine and Organization , sound a lot more humane and rational than the Catholic Church. I would like to know more about what led Hughes to join the world's oldest old-boys network. It sounds like a spiritual step backward, yet Hughes seems like an intelligent and thoughtful woman. Perhaps a follow-up article is in order. JOSEPH G. PFEFFER St. Louis, Mo. THE AUTHOR REPLIES: On the face of it, some other denominations can seem more humane and rational than Catholicism. But no other Western church I know of teaches that we are, literally, the Body of Christ
The Body of Christ is a term used by Christians to describe believers in Christ. Jesus Christ is seen as the "head" of the body, which is the church. , and that when we love God enough to treat others like Christ, Christ is truly, literally with us still. That's what makes the Catholic Church the "complete" church, in my view. That's why the Catholic Church has survived the Auto-da-Fe, the Crusades, the Reformation, the Medici Medici, Italian family Medici (mĕ`dĭchē, Ital. mā`dēchē), Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. popes, and the good-old-boys network--and will survive until the end of time. Heavens, does it take a disaffected, lapsed Catholic The term lapsed Catholic describes a person raised as a Roman Catholic who no longer practices the religion. Sometimes the person may self-identify as a "recovering Catholic. convert to teach this simple lesson? God selects some pretty weird defenders of the faith is all I can say. JEAN HUGHES RABER |
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