Regarding Myself & Conversion to the

Catholic Church (for my Maternal Family)

 

2 July 2008

 

My Dear Family,

 

How are you? This is Paul Doughton writing to everyone I can that is related through X & Y, who are my maternal grandparents. At least one of you I have seen recently; for others it has been more than a year. However, I’m sure that you all have heard about me once or twice during the past six or seven years, even if you haven’t seen me.

 

What you have heard is that I became Roman Catholic. And not just Roman Catholic, but a very ‘peculiar’ kind of Roman Catholic who doesn’t think that the man everybody says is a pope actually is a pope, who doesn’t think that any local ‘catholic’ churches actually are Catholic, and that nearly anybody still going by the name of Catholic during these days is actually fooling himself… not to mention the rest of the world, too. In short, I dare to believe & act like most people calling themselves Catholic have always believed & acted, prior to the last fifty years. It’s everybody else who’s come up with a ‘new kind’ of Catholicism. I’m merely loyal to what the Church of Rome taught to begin with.

 

Now, maybe some of you are curious as to why I have done this. After all, it is eleven years since I started converting and I show no signs of abandoning what I have become. Were it true, as some of you have claimed, that this is just the ‘latest phase’ in Paul’s life, then a decade should have been plenty of time for me to either ‘come to my senses’ or at least get on with the ‘next phase’. Instead, as you might put it, I have only gotten ‘worse’ --- I have only become more & more Roman Catholic in opposition to the world. Indeed, it is even more ‘ridiculous’ or ‘terrible’ than most of you could probably imagine --- because I am now living the life of a Roman Catholic missionary.

 

My dear family, I became a real Catholic for a single reason: to save my soul. The writings of earliest Christians --- from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th centuries, including men who knew the Apostles personally, or who knew the men who knew the Apostles face-to-face --- prove ancient Christianity to have been Roman Catholic and nothing less. The Bible also, when understood rightly as a complete & harmonious whole (and not ignoring all of those verses that don’t fit nicely into the ‘sinner’s prayer’ or ‘born again’ notions of contemporary times) proves Christianity to be Roman Catholicism. And, if that were not enough, reason itself proves these other versions of ‘christianity’ to be horribly wrong, their teachings both self-contradictory & incompatible with simple good sense. What’s more, they each prove Catholicism to be God’s one & only way to receive salvation.

 

Sound hard to believe? Then visit my website, www.TheEpistemologicWorks.com. Examine For Those Who Call Themselves Christian or Born Again in the First Things First section. Read carefully through the first 72 chapters of my book, Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus in the Books & Articles section, to see that I do not boast idly. Investigate Catholic Ritual Defended and The Dogma of Baptism Upheld & the Lie of ‘Faith Alone’ Cast Down, too. Each of these shows from publicly documented history, widely popular bibles & straightforward reasoning that this is most literally, in actual fact, the case.

 

Nor should you be put off by allegations that my wife & I have ‘shut out’ other family members, or have involved ourselves in a ‘cult’, or are ‘arrogant’ to think that only real Catholics are right when it comes to religion. You will find these charges amply refuted in The World Offended, which is also in the Books & Articles category. Or would you deny a man the right to speak for himself, defending his reputation? If not --- and if you have spoken or believed these accusations against us --- then please be so kind as to read what we have to say for ourselves in opposition to these charges. You would also do well to read both Roman Catholic Church and Salvation in the Questions & Answers section. The former title is already posted, the latter should come in another month or two.

 

In closing, my dear family, we love each & every one of you very deeply. Even those we haven’t seen for some time, or with whom we never developed a great bond of human affection, we still love very dearly. This is only to be expected since, aside from loving God by obeying His Commandments (John 14:15, 21, 23-24, 1 John 2:3-6) and doing His Will in our lives to preach His Roman Catholic Gospel (Matthew 10:27-42, 1 Corinthians 1:23, 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, 4:1-12, Ephesians 6:19-20), which is the highest love of all, He commands us as well to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:34-40), and even our foes. (Matthew 5:43-48) Therefore, we cannot help but love each of you profoundly. And, of course, the greatest love we can show to any of our neighbors or enemies is to tell them how to save their immortal souls, that they may enjoy the Reward of Heaven forever & ever. This goes, too, for those we have had to reprimand sternly or mostly avoid due to the intensity of their hatred for the Catholic Faith & unrelenting blasphemy toward its testimony. (Matthew 10:14-15, Luke 10:10-16, Acts 13:44-52, 18:5-11, Titus 3:10-11) These family members we love dearly, also, our love for them shown in that we love the Creator more than we do His creatures --- illustrating this love by obeying His command to worship Him rightly (Exodus 20:1-3, Deuteronomy 5:11-15, Ezra 3:10-4:5, John 4:7-10, 19-24, 1 Corinthians 11:20-34, 14:33-40) --- and in that we show the serious need to obey God in order to save our immortal souls… even to the point of losing the affection of loved ones on earth, if necessary. (Luke 12:51-53, 14:26-35) Seeing how serious is the need for obedience, such persons can then turn from their blasphemy & convert to a real Hope for Salvation in the Church of Roman Catholicism, which is Jesus’ Body.

 

Today in the Catholic Faith, as I complete this letter, is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Her cousin, St. Elizabeth. (Luke 1:39-56) May the Mother of God (for Her Son, Jesus, truly is a Divine Person) and Queen of Highest Heaven (for She truly is the Mother of the King Above All Other Kings) visit each of you, as well, giving to your hearts the graces necessary from Her Sovereign Offspring to incline you toward His One & Only Body, the Roman Catholic Church, outside of which there can be no possibility of salvation for anyone on earth. My website now has more than enough resources to prove this audacious-sounding claim. Please read them thoroughly.

 

Very sincerely your relative on earth in the love of Christ’s Cross for your souls,

 

                                                                   -Paul Doughton

 

+ + +

 

Pilate’s query met:

www.TheEpistemologicWorks.com

 

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