In my last post, I wrote about the Amazonian Synod and the three main recommendations to come from it. In this post, I will continue the discussion.

The only objection I have to allowing married men to be ordained as priests and women as deacons is that this goes against the teachings of the Church. I believe the doctrine of the Church comes directly from Jesus aka God as written in the scriptures.

“So,” you say, “why can’t we change it? Other religious denominations have.”

Let me explain my feelings on this. Way back when I fell off the back of that truck I realized I needed to get my stuff together and decide what will happen when I die. I started to really think about death and dying and what happens after death. Is what I had always been told true? Is there life after death, is there heaven and hell, is God real?

I spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about this. I came to the conclusion that yes there is such a thing as heaven and hell, life after death, and God is definitely real. I could write a book about how I came to this conclusion but not right now.

This lead me to the next step. Which religion should I follow, if any? I was born and raised Catholic but is that the best? What do Catholics believe? What do other denominations believe? I read and listened to many different books and programs on all sides of this and decided that Catholicism is the one true religion. It was the first Christian religion, the one from which all others broke away.

Why did they break away? People like Calvin and Luther didn’t like certain things and wanted to change them. I know that is pretty simplistic, but it’s the simplest way to say it.

One of the first things I wondered about was how there are so many different Protestant groups? Every church you go by has a different name and a different affiliation. Why? Because whenever the members decide they don’t like something the church teaches they want to change it. If the rest of the members disagree, they form a separate church. Each time they do this they get a little further from the original teachings of Jesus. It’s like Democrats and the Constitution, it may not say something but the writers meant it that way. The same goes for scripture.

I like the line Pontius Pilate used when the Jews wanted him to change what he wrote in the cross. “What I have written I have written.” That pretty much sums it up. The Catholic Church has been the same church that Jesus Christ started two thousand years ago and it has worked fine for all that time. No need to change it now.

“What I have written I have written.”

The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), Jn 19:22.