Twelve questions to ask your Protestant friends

There are so many issues concerning the Protestant faiths that it is hard to know where to start.

Was it Archbishop of Canterbury................(Michael Ramsey or Geoffrey Fisher) who was honest enough to state, in the 1960s, "We have no doctrine other than that handed down to us by Rome."

 Dr Ian Paisley might have a few words to say on that topic.

But, so many non Catholic friends seem to live in a glass bubble where all that has gone before is forgotten and all that is to come is ignored.

So here are my twelve questions, you may well have others you wish to add:-

1. When did your church last canonize a saint?

2. Why have you covered up that fine holy water font? (on visiting a pre Reformation Church)

3. Why have those effigies of Catholic nobility had their features hacked off?

4. Did you know that St David was a Catholic? (this for my non Catholic Welsh friends)

5. What does your church believe in precisely?

6. Why do you speak of "Jesus" and "Mary" as if they were your next door neighbours?

7. When Our Lord and His followers were all male, what is the case for female ministers?

8. Did you know that England and Wales were once Catholic countries?

9. If there is both heaven and hell....what is the procedure for gaining access to the former?

10. When was your church founded - and by whom?

11. Did you know that there have been circa 86 Catholic Archbishops of
      Canterbury and 34 Protestant ones?
      
12. Why on earth don't you convert to the one true Faith?

CATHOLIC CHURCH'S TOP PR MAN RETIRES!

Yes, it is finally time for this great man to file his pen and put away his various means of communication. At the ripe old age of 84 he deserves a well earned rest, he has, after all, given most of his working life to promoting the Catholic Church through the media.
A famous orator he also held post as MP representing the folk of Northern Ireland, he has led the Democratic Unionist Party and last year he was made a peer becoming Baron Bannside.

Photo: BBC
Farewell Dr Ian Paisley - 'the bitter orange'

Ian Richard Kirk (honestly, you couldn't make it up) Paisley has, for as long as I can remember, slagged off the Catholic Faith, the Holy Father and all things emanating from Rome. And, in so doing he has created a wave of sympathy for Catholicism and, in particular, for the Catholics of  Northern Ireland. During a session of the European Parliament he famously interrupted proceedings shouting that "Pope John Paul II is the Antichrist" - he also referred frequently to the church and the Holy Father as "the Whore of Babylon".

Paisley has  presented such a bigoted and sectarian viewpoint that he has pushed people's opinions into the opposite (Catholic) camp. For all of that, I find him a rather interesting figure. He actually commenced his theological studies in South Wales at what is now the Evangelical Theological College ( a very grim place - I know, I've been inside it and was greatly relieved to get out alive).
His Doctorate credentials came from a US Baptist College (obviously a hard anti Catholic one down South) and he very quickly established his own church and brand of Prebyterianism once back in Belfast.

On the occasion of Pope JP II's visit to Great Britain the HF met with the Presbyterian Church's top honcho in Scotland and gave him his blessing.
This enraged Paisley who immediately set up a group of supporters along the Papal route all holding banners stating: "All those blessed by this man will burn in hell". Legend has it that, as the Popemobile drew level with this group, the Holy Father extended his hand to them and gave them his blessing!

But Ian Paisley really has a dark background. I recall watching the infamous televised Oxford Union debate back in the 60s when Paisley produced a consecrated host from his pocket and ground it underfoot. All Catholics watching must have taken a deep intake of breath at that point, one can only pray that the host was not, in fact, consecrated.

He appeared to mellow somewhat with age but I suspect that someone with his level of bigotry would always carry it under the surface.

He leaves behind him, a son, also an Ian and also a politician.