From Our Readers
“Awake!” and the Catholic Church
What you write about the Church, I feel, is highly impudent. The Catholic Church was educating people long before Jehovah’s Witnesses were ever heard of. I receive your magazine regularly, and am often irritated by the articles. Most of what you write is from America. Believe me, not everything that comes from America is the best.
S. B., Germany
For many centuries the Catholic Church has exercised control over a goodly portion of the earth’s population. It has a great number of church buildings, schools and other institutions and a large number of priests, nuns and others available for teaching. In view of all of this, we would have thought it only reasonable to expect that the Catholic population as a whole would have received a much deeper knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible, and would show far greater results in applying it in their lives.—ED.
I am surprised and disgusted to read where you categorize the Pope with a Caesar, a Hitler and a Stalin. The Pope is known as the Vicar of Christ on earth. A divine commission was given to Peter by Jesus Christ, in virtue of which Peter was invested with the attributes making him king, priest and teacher of all the followers of his master. The powers conveyed to Peter by Jesus Christ are held to be passed on in full measure to his duly appointed successors in the Roman bishopric. Our beloved Father, the Pope, is one of these successors.
D. P., California
“Awake!” was not equating the present pope with Caesar, Hitler or Stalin, but merely referring to various persons whom some individuals might look up to as a “father” in their idea of a brotherhood. Peter never claimed any superiority over the other apostles nor did he exercise such. Had he been assigned such by Jesus, the apostles would never have disputed about who among them seemed to be the greatest. (Luke 22:24-26; Mark 9:33-35) Those claiming that Peter had a position of supremacy in the church seek support from Jesus’ words at Matthew 16:18: “Also, I say to you, You are Peter, and on this rock-mass I will build my congregation, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” However, the well-known Catholic authority Augustine wrote that Christ, not Peter, was the rock: “For the reason why the Lord says, ‘On this rock I will build my church,’ is that Peter had said: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ On this rock, which thou hast confessed, says he, I will build my church. For Christ was the rock (petra enim erat Christus), upon which also Peter himself was built.” (Quoted from “Commentary on the Holy Scriptures” [Matthew, p. 296, ftn.], by J. P. Lange and translated by P. Schaff.)—ED.
I must commend you on your calm answer to the irate reader who criticized your article on Catholicism. I was raised Catholic. It is a shame that not many are open-minded enough even to research what they have been taught, to see if it is actually correct or not. Especially after reading one of your enlightening articles that honestly exposes their “doctrines of men” as such, they should feel compelled to do some research on various subjects!
C. R., Delaware