A totally imaginary dialogue between two priests.
– Well, George, what’s this I hear about you hopping a plane to Sweden?
– YES! I’m very excited, never been there before!
– Going to be cold this time of year.
– Really, well, it’s a BIG event!
– The Nobel Prizes?
– No!! Going to Lund to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation!
– You mean, LUTHER and all that?
– Yes, I want to accompany them!
– But, George, we’re CATHOLICS. Luther broke the Church apart, denied the Seven Sacraments, prayers for the dead,
and started all that chaos in society.
– Oh? Well… that was a long time ago.
– Yes, George, I know. Of course, we are courteous to Protestants as individuals and as Christians, but the THING itself was a disaster.
– Oh, really?
– Well, George, maybe where you come from there weren’t any Protestants, at least until recently. You DO know of course that
well-financed, well-organized, “missionaries” are flooding into your part of the world from America, both “Born Agains” and
Mormons, specifically to convert your Catholic nation into their religions? Right?
– CONVERT??? No, no!! That is proselytism, solemn nonsense, venom on the path of ecumenism!
– Well, George, maybe that’s what YOU think, but THEY don’t seem to see it that way. THEY see it as “gaining souls for Christ”.
You know, like WE used to say before we got all modern and ecumenical.
– But, surely, there is something of value in those 500 hundred years?
– Yes, some pretty good music for sure, you know Bach, Buxtehude, Anglican chant, and so forth.
– Well, Robert, you know I’m not some sort of Renaissance prince. I have no time for concerts.
– Yes, George, I know, you keep telling me that.
– So, you’re not going with me?
– No, George, I’m not.
– Why?
– Well, George, some of my ancestors came from Ireland and Wales, others from Sweden actually as well. My people lost the Mass,
the Sacraments, their parish churches, some their homes, farms, even their freedom and lives all because of what Luther started.
No, George, as we say here “Count me out!”
– But, but…
– I know, “throwing stones. Rigidity…etc…” I’ve heard it all before.
– Yes, and perhaps you have no MERCY in your heart!!!!
– George, my own father converted to our Faith, perhaps he caught a whiff of the Truth that we Catholics, I hope, possess.
Nope, no Luther “celebrations” for me, George. Have a safe flight.