IRREFUTABLE PROOF THAT ROMAN CATHOLICS DO PRAY TO THE SAINTS
AS ALLEGED BY BIBLE BELIEVING PROTESTANTS
FIRST PROOF:
The page below recording a prayer TO your Guardian Angel is taken from a Redemptorist booklet (page 59) entitled: "Handbook For Today's Catholic" subtitled "Belief's - Practices - Prayers - A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication" by Ligouri Publications. It carries the Imprimi Potest of one Edmund T. Langton, C.SS.R. and the Imprimatur of +John N. Wurm who was the Vicar general of St. Louis. ISBN 0-89243-076-1 published in 1978.
OBJECTION: It is unacceptable to quote from such documents as they do not constitute the official teaching of the RC Church.
OBJECTION ANSWERED: Such an answer cheapens the worth of the Imprimatur - indeed practical denies it to be of any value anywhere. This teaching has been passed on in good faith (no pun intended) by the Redemptorist Fathers as a representation of the RC faith. It will have been read and used by thousands to explain and defend the RC faith. Praying TO any one other than God is rank idolatry and if the verbal niceties of praying THROUGH rather than TO the saints are not observed where it matters i.e. in the home or in the pew, then all the subtle arguments of Ivory tower theologians will mean absolutely nothing. This objection therefore must be over ruled as useless.
AS ALLEGED BY BIBLE BELIEVING PROTESTANTS
FIRST PROOF:
The page below recording a prayer TO your Guardian Angel is taken from a Redemptorist booklet (page 59) entitled: "Handbook For Today's Catholic" subtitled "Belief's - Practices - Prayers - A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication" by Ligouri Publications. It carries the Imprimi Potest of one Edmund T. Langton, C.SS.R. and the Imprimatur of +John N. Wurm who was the Vicar general of St. Louis. ISBN 0-89243-076-1 published in 1978.
OBJECTION: It is unacceptable to quote from such documents as they do not constitute the official teaching of the RC Church.
OBJECTION ANSWERED: Such an answer cheapens the worth of the Imprimatur - indeed practical denies it to be of any value anywhere. This teaching has been passed on in good faith (no pun intended) by the Redemptorist Fathers as a representation of the RC faith. It will have been read and used by thousands to explain and defend the RC faith. Praying TO any one other than God is rank idolatry and if the verbal niceties of praying THROUGH rather than TO the saints are not observed where it matters i.e. in the home or in the pew, then all the subtle arguments of Ivory tower theologians will mean absolutely nothing. This objection therefore must be over ruled as useless.
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SECOND PROOF:
Go to the following website of Catholic's Online (www.catholic.org) which is a leading Roman Catholic website. It claims the following:
It exists to "inform, inspire and ignite."
"Catholic Online reaches a highly targeted audience of over to 100 thousand Catholic users per day and up to 1 million page impressions per day. Visitors come from over 120 countries around the world."
If we go to this site, wondering whether Roman Catholics pray TO or pray THROUGH the departed saints, then what are we to make of the following list in the list under prayers? When you follow through all the references, then you end up with prayers TO the following:
* Prayer TO St Anthony ("the Wonder Worker")
* Prayer TO Saint Joseph
* Prayer TO our Lady of Perpetual Help
* Prayer TO Saint John Bosco
* Prayer TO Saint Therese
* Prayer TO St Michael
* Prayer TO St Dympha
etc.,
If I had time, and you had patience, I could further divide all these prayers into specific requests (e.g. to the Blessed Virgin for "a happy death") and from specific groups ("Pope Pius XII prays TO Our Lady of Lourdes" - "A child's prayer TO Mary" - "A Farmer's Prayer to St. Joseph"etc.,
WHAT DOES THE SOLE RULE OF FAITH AND PRACTICE SAY?
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For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1 Timothy 2:5) My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:(1 John 2:1) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6) And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven... (Luke 11:2) |