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Even Roman
Catholic priests can come to understand that
forgiveness of sins is not to be found in a
church, but only in Jesus Christ. It happened to
one of them right in the middle of saying the
Mass.
A Priest's Growing Doubts
Franco Maggiotto was a priest in
Rome, trained extensively in the philosophy and
traditions of Catholicism. But by the convicting
power of the Holy Spirit, he began to have
doubts about his religion, its rituals, and a
way of thinking that made church authority
paramount. The following is his testimony
of the
power of God the Holy Spirit illuminating His
inspired, infallible, inerrant Word, bringing a
priest dead in trespasses and sins to life and
light in Christ.1
God brought
Franco Maggiotto to saving
faith as he was in the middle of saying
the Mass. Shocking his fellow priests and the
watching congregation he proclaimed, "His
sacrifice is finished! Our Mass is useless!"
But before
he came to this point, there was a long struggle
against Rome's claims of supreme power.
My bishop told me that before
going up to heaven, Jesus gave up all his
authority to the bishops. Therefore if someone
did not listen to them, he did not listen to
Jesus. If we despised Jesus we despised God, and
so I was even afraid of thinking. [But the
church told me] I did not need to think. I just
needed to trust my bishop.
Turning to Scripture for
the First Time
But under such pressures, the discomfort and questions
in Franco Maggiotto's soul only multiplied. And
so, "in desperation," as he put it, he and some
others began for the first time to study the New
Testament rather than church tradition, and
the more we went on, the more we
saw the gap between the Church's teaching and
the Bible. The biggest gap I could see was that
Jesus Christ sought to bring men to God, while
the Church was always trying to bring men to
itself.
...my parish priest was really
upset that I was teaching the Bible [to the
people]. "If they know what we know they will
never come back; they will never come to the
Church," he said.
...I had to learn more about this
gap between Church and Bible.
So I read the Scriptures more;
and the more I read, the more I discovered. I
found myself preaching some things that were
against myself as a Roman Catholic priest. I was
not using my sermon on Sunday mornings to build
up my authority any more, but I was using my
sermon against myself. This brought me into
trouble. At first, they had me conduct Mass at
six o'clock in the morning. There were very few
people, just a few ladies saying their rosaries.
I could cry and shout there. But after a few
weeks, the Mass was packed. The authorities knew
that something was going to happen, so the
bishop called me in. He was very upset, and he
told me he was going to send me to another
parish. I was promoted to a big parish of
fifty-five thousand people in the town of
Imperia with a new church and a priest under me.
There I found myself in a good
position for one so young. I was a senior priest
and I liked to be there with all the other
priests around me listening to me and saying,
"Oh, he is so young, he has a good career before
him, what a good looking man." When I look back
on it now I am ashamed. But at that time I was
unhappy. I tried to find out something from the
Scriptures and when I did that I always drew
people. Sometimes the people were coming by
busloads, and again I got into trouble with the
authorities. The cardinal told me there was no
truth outside the Church, and that when Jesus
went up to heaven He gave up His authority into
the hands of the apostles, so the Christian
should seek guidance from the apostle, which is
the Pope, guidance, preaching, teaching,
rebuking, and so on.
I told the young people of my
parish that in our meetings we would see what
the Lord would say to us through the Bible. One
day I read Galatians 1. When I reached verse 8,
I could read no further: "But though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached to you, let
him be accursed." I was shocked. The apostle
Paul was saying, "If I, or the other apostles,
or even an angel, preach to you any other gospel
than the one we have preached, may a curse rest
on us, because there is no salvation in the
apostles. Salvation is in Christ alone."
"Do You Think You Can Understand the
Scriptures?"
I continued to teach my people.
The bishop said, "You are very proud. Who do you
think you are? Do you think that you can
understand the Scriptures better than I, better
than the Pope?" I knew that I had been proud. I
knew that I liked my position, but now I knew
where to find the answer —
the Scriptures. I knew that I was a poor sinner
and sin was still there to destroy me.
I searched the Old and New
Testaments to find where God had given the
prophets or apostles the power to interpret
Scripture. Nowhere did I find that He had done
so. What I did find were the words of Jesus in
John 14:26. Before going up to heaven, He told
the apostles, "But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My
name, He shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I
have said unto you." The Holy Spirit is the
teacher, the interpreter of Scripture.
This gave me a lot of courage. Of
course I had trouble. I was transferred to
another parish, an old parish with nine
churches. They thought that going round them all
would take up all my energy and leave no time to
study, but I went and I managed to preach.
Still, most of the time I was not happy because
of my sin. Now I knew where to find the truth,
but what about my sin? What about my soul? I was
spending nights kneeling in front of the altar,
and sometimes the caretaker was helping me in
the morning, because I was kneeling there until
morning. But the Lord had pity on me while I was
conducting the Mass.
Saved While Officiating
at the Mass
One Sunday I was leading the
singing of the Mass. Two priests were with me
and the choir was singing beautifully. One of
the young men read Hebrews 10:10: "By the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Verse 11
continues: "And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins."
I said to the priests who were
with me, "Do you hear him? Look what is written
here." I was looking at them, and they were
staring at me. "His sacrifice is finished. Our
Mass is useless!"
I was looking around the big
church. The people there were groaning and
crying, and I said to them, "He has finished the
sacrifice. He did the work, we are useless." I
was so happy, I was crying. Finally something
was clear in my mind. Once for ever, once for
all, He did the work. The Lord's sacrifice is
all-sufficient and complete.
The people said I was ill; that
all this responsibility for a young man like me
was too much. Anyway, I was so happy. I told my
bishop the same thing when he came to see me. He
did not want me to resign, but I could not say
the Mass any more. He sent me to a college with
eight hundred young students and teachers. I
went but I did not want to attend the Mass. I
tried to teach others, even the nuns. They were
very attentive.
Final Break With Rome
On Saturday evenings the people
came to confession. I asked them, "Why are you
here?"; "To confess my sin," they replied. "Do
you love Jesus?"; "Yes." "Why do you love Him?";
"Because He died for my sins." "So, if He died
for your sins, go and praise Him. Why do you
come to tell your sins to me? What have I got to
do with your sin?" And so the confession was
very quick. But the nuns went to the bishop, and
finally I saw that they could not understand
what I taught. So I left the Roman Catholic
Church forever, with some people following me. I
studied in the University of Rome and in England
and Holland. I met many born-again Christians,
people of whom I could say, "Thy God is my God,
thy people are my people." Now I have plenty of
Christian fellowship. I am in contact with many
priests and two years ago I preached to three
thousand priests in Rome. Christian communities
are growing up all over Italy. It is my desire
to lead Roman Catholics to Christ, and if at all
possible, to see even the Pope converted.
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"
(Romans 5:1).
Despite fierce opposition and
many threats to his life, Dr. Franco Maggiotto
continued to preach the Gospel and plant
Bible-believing churches in Italy until the Lord
called him home in 2006 at age 70.
References:
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Franco Maggioto, "Saved While Officiating at
Mass," chapter 37 in Far From Rome, Near
to God: Testimonies of 50 Converted Roman
Catholic Priests (Edinburgh, Scotland
and Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth,
1997), pages 250-255. Reproduced by
permission.
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