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How do former Roman
Catholic priests who have been converted to
Christianity answer this question? As we
conclude our series, we hear from several of
them in their own words.
When God the Holy Spirit brings a Roman Catholic
priest to saving faith in Christ, something
radical happens. As he passes from death to
life, he also passes from being a
tradition-driven, authority-driven servant of
the Roman Catholic system to being a
Scripture-driven servant of Jesus Christ. The
regenerating Spirit changes the man's entire
view of Scripture, sin, salvation, and church
authority. The following are further excerpts
from the book we cited in a
previous
article in this series, Far From Rome,
Near to God (Banner of Truth, 1997).
Another Christ
My ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood
was at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
of Mary in Washington, D.C., the seventh largest
church in the world. When Bishop John M.
McNamara imposed his hands on my head and
repeated the words from Psalm 110:4: 'Thou art a
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek',
I was overwhelmed with the belief that I was now
a mediator between God and the people. The
anointing and binding of my hands with special
cloths signified that they were now consecrated
to changing bread and wine into the real
(literal) flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, to
perpetuate the sacrifice of Calvary through the
Mass, and to dispense saving grace through the
other Roman Catholic sacraments of baptism,
confession, confirmation, marriage and the last
rites. At ordination a Roman Catholic priest is
said to receive an 'indelible' mark: to
experience an unending interchange of his
personality with that of Christ, that he may
perform his priestly duties as 'another Christ'
or in the place of Christ. People actually knelt
and kissed our newly consecrated hands, so
sincere was this belief.
— Bartholomew F. Brewer, "Pilgrimage from Rome",
page 18
Finished Sacrifice
Anyone who has attended
Mass in the Roman Catholic Church will remember
the prayer said by the priest, 'Pray, brethren,
that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the
Almighty Father.' This is a very serious prayer.
The people respond saying the same thing, asking
that the sacrifice may be acceptable to God. But
this is contrary to the Word of God because the
sacrifice has already been accepted. When Jesus
was on the cross, he said, 'It is finished'
(John 19:30), and we know that it was completed
because Jesus was accepted by the Father and
rose from the dead and is now at the right hand,
of the Father. The good news that we preach is
that Jesus has risen from the dead, that his
sacrifice is completed, and that he has paid for
sin. When by God's grace we accept his work as
the finished sacrifice for our sins, we are
saved and have everlasting life.
A memorial is a
remembrance of something that someone has done
for us. Jesus said, 'This do in remembrance of
me.' So anyone who is reading this, or any
priest who is saying Mass, must seriously
consider the error of the prayer, 'Let us pray,
my brothers and sisters, that our sacrifice may
be acceptable.' The sacrifice has been accepted.
We are to have the communion service in memory
of what Jesus has done. The sacrifice that Jesus
offered on the cross cannot be added to or
re-enacted.
Can the Mass Atone for Sin?
The Roman Catholic
Church says that the Mass is a propitiatory
sacrifice effective to take away the sins of
those on earth and those who have died. That is
why, to this very day, even though some people
will say that the Church in some places does not
believe in purgatory, still virtually every Mass
that is said is for someone who has died. It is
believed that the Mass will shorten their time
in purgatory. That is why it is said for dead
people. When a person dies, judgment immediately
follows, 'It is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment' (Heb. 9:27). If
they are saved, they go directly to heaven; if
they remain in their sins, they go to hell.
There is nothing to change one from hell to
heaven. The Roman Catholic Church believes that
the Mass, being a propitiatory sacrifice, will
decrease the time in purgatory. But all the
suffering and all the atonement that was ever
made for sins was accomplished by Jesus on the
cross, and we need to accept this truth. We need
to receive everlasting life and to be born again
while we are still alive. There is no biblical
evidence to support the idea that after death we
can experience any kind of change.
To Be Right Before God
We then began to study
what the Roman Catholic Church teaches on
salvation. It is a doctrine of the Roman
Catholic Church that we can be saved by being
baptized as infants. Present-day canon law says,
'Baptism is the gate to the sacraments,
necessary for salvation, in fact, or at least in
intention, by which men and women are freed from
their sins, reborn as children of God,
configured to Christ' (Canon 849). This teaches
that when a baby is baptized, it is saved and
has everlasting life by virtue of baptism. But
that is not true. Jesus never said anything like
that, neither is there a word in the Bible about
anything like that happening. There is no limbo!
Jesus said, 'Suffer the little children to come
unto me.' The Bible always says we are saved
when we accept that Christ Jesus totally paid
the price of our sin so that his right standing
with God becomes ours. 'For he hath made him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him' (2 Cor.
5:21).
Christ's Works or Our Works?
The Roman Catholic
Church then goes on to say that in order to be
saved you must keep its laws, rules and
regulations. And if these laws are violated (for
example, laws concerning birth control or
fasting or attendance at Mass every Sunday),
then you have committed a sin. The Roman
Catholic Church says in canon law of the present
day that if you commit a serious sin, that sin
must be forgiven by confessing to a priest.
'Individual and integral confession and
absolution constitute the only ordinary way by
which the faithful person who is aware of
serious sin can be reconciled with God, and with
the Church' (Canon 9609). The Roman Catholic
Church says that this is the way sins are
forgiven, the ordinary way that sins are
forgiven. The Bible says that if we repent in
our heart and believe on Christ's finished'
sacrifice we are saved. We are saved by grace,
not by our works. The Roman Catholic Church adds
works, in that you have to do these specific
things in order to be saved, whereas the Bible
says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that it is by grace that
we are saved, not by works. The Bible makes it
very clear that we are saved by grace. It is a
free gift given by God, not because of any works
we do. 'For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God; not of works; lest any man should boast'
(Eph. 2:8-9). 'And if by grace then is it no
more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then is it no more grace;
otherwise work is no more work' (Rom. 11:6).
— Bob Bush, "Once a Jesuit, Now a Child of God",
pages 73-76
A Family and a Pastor
Thinking that the best
way of knowing who the Protestants were would be
to observe their lives and customs, I went to
visit a Protestant family. I told them that I
was a teacher and would like to know their
doctrine to teach my pupils better what
Protestantism was.
I was surprised that
they were polite with me. I was astonished to
see that they knew the Bible better than I. I
was ashamed when I heard them speaking to me
about Christ with a conviction that I, priest
that I was, never felt.
They answered some of my
questions and invited me to speak with their
Baptist pastor. I met him the next day, but my
first words were: 'Do not try to convince me,
because you will waste your time. I believe that
the Roman Catholic Church is the only true one.
I would only like to know why you are not a
Roman Catholic.'
He invited me to meet
every week and to study the New Testament,
discussing in a friendly way our different
points of view. We did so.
The pastor answered all
my questions with texts from the New Testament.
My arguments were always the sayings of the
popes and the definitions of the councils.
Although I did not accept his arguments
externally, in my own mind I realized that the
words of the Gospels had more value than the
decisions of the councils, and that what Peter
and Paul said was of more authority than the
teaching of the popes.
As a result of our
conversations I began reading the New Testament
assiduously in order to find some arguments
against the Protestant doctrine. I wanted not
only to show that the pastor was mistaken, but
even to win him for the Roman Catholic Church.
But after each one of our interviews, I carne
back to my school feeling that he had defeated
me in argument.
For a long time I was
very concerned, reading the New Testament and
praying that God would increase my faith and
dispel my doubts so that I should not make a
mistake. But the more I read and prayed the more
confused I became. Could it be possible that the
Roman Catholic Church might not be the Church of
Christ? Could I be wrong in my faith? If so,
what had I to do?
I heard that other
priests and monks became Protestants by studying
the Bible, but I could not imagine myself doing
the same. Be a Protestant? Be a heretic? Be an
apostate from my faith? Never! What would my
parents, my pupils and my friends say? My eleven
years of study would be declared invalid. What
would I do for a living? . . .
God's Grace
Three months later I left
the Roman Catholic Church because I could not go
on doing things and pretending to believe
doctrines that deep in my heart I knew were
wrong. I thought of all the possible
difficulties, but I decided to follow Jesus
Christ in spite of them.
The most important thing
that could have happened to me was my personal
encounter with Jesus Christ, when I came to know
him as a personal Saviour.
It is not enough to be a
good Roman Catholic: the important and necessary
thing is to be born again in Christ. This has
been my experience. When I entered into Christ,
I experienced that he not only liberated me from
my sins, but also from the heavy load I had to
carry being in a monastic order. 'Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ. In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace'
(Eph. 1:3,7).
Thank God for the many who
have sought and found that grace. The same God
who transformed the life of Saul the persecutor
on the way to Damascus, and transformed the life
of Father Borras in the cell of a monastery, is
able to transform your life wherever you are.
'I will greatly rejoice in
the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for
he hath clothed me with the garments of
salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness' (Isa. 61:10).
— José Borras, "From the Monastery to the
Ministry", pages 133-137
Theology Not the Bible
During my four years of theological studies, I
had never seriously read the Bible. For me, the
Holy Scriptures were only consulted as a
reference book in the study of Roman Catholic
dogma. I knew only those parts of the Bible
which were included in the Mass and in the texts
of the Roman breviary.
Salvation, the Roman
Catholic Church said, depended on absolution
from sins by a priest, and whoever refused to
confess his mortal sins to a priest was
eternally condemned. But I could not find in
Acts or in any other New Testament book any
statement that this was so. All the sacred
writers insisted that man must go directly to
God for forgiveness.
On the other hand, in
Hebrews I read very clearly that Christ had been
offered once for all for the sinner. 'Then,' I
said, 'how dared the Council of Trent declare in
1562 that in the Mass Christ offers himself by
the hands of the priest as a true and real
sacrifice to God?'
Faith Alone
I also found that
justification was only by faith, and I asked
myself whether, if I had not found peace of soul
in the Roman Catholic Church, it could perhaps
be because I had expected to gain it as a reward
for my own efforts? 'But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness'
(Rom. 4:5).
In such a manner, I
suddenly understood that Jesus Christ asked
nothing of me, and I relinquished all my own
effort to gain salvation. So Jesus Christ became
my only Lord and Saviour.
— Enrique Fernandez, "I Discovered the Word of
God", pages 139-140
God's Word Is Sufficient
I was still preaching that the Bible is not a
sufficient rule of faith but that we need the
tradition and dogmas of the Church to understand
the Scriptures. But again a voice within me was
saying, 'You preach against the Bible teaching;
you preach nonsense. If Christians need the Pope
to understand the Scriptures, what do they need
to understand the Pope? I have condemned
tradition because everyone can understand what
is necessary to know for personal salvation.
"But these are written, that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing ye might have life through his
name" (John 20:31).'
Who Forgives Sin?
Where my doubts were really
tormenting me was inside the confessional box.
People were coming to me, kneeling before me,
confessing their sins to me. And I, with a sign
of the cross, was promising that I had the power
to forgive their sins. I, a sinner, a man, was
taking God's place,· God's right, and that
terrible voice was penetrating me, saying, 'You
are depriving God of his glory. If sinners want
to obtain forgiveness of their sins they must go
to God and not to you. It is God's law they have
broken. To God, therefore, they must make
confession; to God alone they must pray for
forgiveness. No man can forgive sins, but Jesus
can and does forgive sins.'
These Scripture verses were
constantly in my mind: 'And she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:
for he shall save his people from their sins'
(Matt. 1:21).
'Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved' (Acts 4:12).
'If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness' (1 John
1:9).
'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).
One Master: The Lord
I could not stay any longer
in the Roman Catholic Church, because I could
not continue to serve two masters, the Pope and
Christ. I could not believe two contradictory
teachings, tradition and the Bible. I had to
choose between Christ and the Pope, between
tradition and the Bible; and by God's grace I
have chosen Christ and the Bible. I left the
Roman priesthood and the Roman religion in 1944,
and since I have been led by the Holy Spirit to
evangelize Roman Catholics and urge Christians
to witness to them without fear.
— Joseph Zacchello, "I Could Not Serve Two
Masters", pages 201-203
Selections are from Far From Rome, Near to
God: Testimonies of 50 Converted Roman Catholic
Priests (Edinburgh, Scotland and Carlisle,
Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth, 1997). Reproduced
by permission.
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