I simply love a good debate and mainly out of curiosity am trying to understand why you don’t find the Catholic position convincing.
Because I value believer’s baptism by immersion; I don’t care much for liturgical recitation (because at some point the words become rote rather than genuine); I believe in the priesthood of the believer (1 Peter 2:9); and I’m happy with the autonomy accorded to my local church.
I won’t address all your points unless you want me to, because I’m short on time, but there are a couple points I wanted to make:
While I think what you say about liturgical prayer is often the case, I find I enter into liturgical prayers more and more when I make the effort to do so and they become more meaningful to me the more familiar I become with them and the realities of my faith that they reference. I do agree that personal prayer is extremely important, however, and has not been emphasized enough in the Church.
I appreciate your cordial responses. If only I came across that way all the time…
You may be interested to know that Catholics also believe in the priesthood of the believer (usually called the “Baptismal priesthood” as distinct from the better known “ministerial priesthood”):
http://www.catholiclane.com/the-baptismal-priesthood/
Among other things.
I also really see no value in having a Pope. I can talk to God as easily as he can. He is a teacher, and as a teacher he is held to a higher standard (James 3), but my local church doesn’t need to answer to a denominational administrative body.
Catholics don’t believe that we need the Pope to talk to God for us. Everyone can and should do that. We believe that he is Christ’s representative on earth, it’s true, but he is not somehow a “superhuman,” and his authority is not absolute. Its purpose it to preserve the unity of the Church and to provide guidance to all its members.
That’s a beautiful video, and I wish his words applied to more Catholic parishes. It is very true of the Church as a whole, however. People of all kinds are united in the Body of Christ through baptism and it’s a wonderful thing.
JEDIT: Apparently, Baptists’ practice of believer’s baptism and Communion/The Lord’s Supper, are referred to as “ordinances” instead of “sacraments”. That is, we do so in obedience to Christ’s command and in following His example. I have personally been taught that baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. If Catholics hold to sacrements as “an outward sign of an inward grace” (according to the wiki entry on Sacrements), I’m not sure how that is different. I would have to ask someone more knowledgeable about it.
I think, though I could be wrong, that the Baptist belief is more along the lines of “baptism is an expression of a change that has occurred within oneself,” whereas in Catholicism, it’s more like "baptism is an outward sign (water and the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”) accompanied by an inward change (remission of original sin, incorporation into the Body of Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit).
It’s also noteworthy that the Church teaches that the graces of baptism and the other sacraments are not necessarily received by the recipient of the sacrament. A proper disposition is required for this, and thus an infant who is baptized must be raised in the faith and accept it as their own in order to fully receive the graces of the sacrament.