It will do you no good to think too deeply into things. There isn’t one church on the face of this earth which has it completely right. We are all looking in the glass darkly. The issue before us is, can we love one another. The Holy Spirit is bringing all kind of believers together today in love to show the world that Christianity is right.

Mind you, I don’t think Pastor Epop’s flock qualify as they have obviously just make up their doctrines as they go along. I can’t accept them as being a genuine church. As for Rome teaching the same thing, I very much doubt this. While I concede that in some of her older statements, they may have been a bit over the top, nowadays she is doing a fine job of bringing the gospel all over the world. Just look at what Mother Teresa did. She was splendid. And John Paul 2 talked all the time about loving Jesus. We are one in the Spirit. Many of my Catholic friends have had the same experience of being born again as we have had.

You, as always, raise great points. I showed your letter to Brother G Truth and he said that whereas he agreed there was no perfect Church he said there was one thing that we needed to be clear about and this was the matter of attaining right standing before God. We had to be crystal clear about it, there could be no room for error, he said.

Brother G Truth then said that I didn’t know and love the Gospel and it was for this very reason that I could possibly tolerate Rome and Epop.

That man G Truth is a trouble maker. Avoid him. He’s got a bad spirit. He’s much too dogmatic for his own good. The Pope says he loves Jesus and that’s good enough for me. Jesus is my mediator and I’m sure is the Pope’s mediator too. End of story.

Brother G truth says this will be his final word to you. He thanks you for saying he is dogmatic for it reminds Him that his savior was also dogmatic when He said, “I am the way the truth and the Life, no one comes unto the Father but by me. He also says that Paul was dogmatic when he said that there was only ONE mediator. Rome and pastor Epop have two mediators.

Here’s what he asked me to show you.

Leo XIII, in his ‘Jucunda Semper’, 1894, said, "When Mary offered herself completely to God together with her Son in the temple, she was already sharing with him the painful atonement on behalf of the human race ... (at the foot of cross) she willingly offered him up to the divine justice, dying with him in her heart, pierced by the sword of sorrow."

Pius X, Ad Diem Illum, 1904: "Owing to the union of suffering and purpose existing between Christ and Mary, she merited to become most worthily the reparatrix of the lost world, and for this reason, the dispenser of ALL favors which Jesus acquired for us by his death . . .

Benedict XV, Inter Sodalicia, 1918: "To such extent did Mary suffer and almost die with her suffering and dying Son; to such extent did she surrender her maternal rights over her Son for : man's salvation . . that we may rightly say she redeemed the human race together with Christ."

Plus XI, 1935, in a prayer to close a jubilee, we find Mary declared as a co redeemer with Christ: "O Mother of love and mercy who, when thy sweetest Son was consummating the Redemption of the human race on in the altar of the cross, didst stand next to him suffering with him as a Co-redemptrix."

Plus XII, in a radio broadcast in 1946: "Mary, for having been associated with the King of Martyrs in the ineffable work of human Redemption as Mother and cooperatrix, she remains forever associated with him, with an almost unlimited power, in the distribution of graces which flow from the Redemption."

Paul VI, Christi Matri. "The Church ... been accustomed to have recourse to that most ready intercessor, her Mother Mary ... For as St. Irenaeus says, she 'has become the cause of salvation for the whole human race."

Leo XIII, Supremi Apostolatus, 1883: "O Mary, the guardian of our peace and the dispenser of heavenly graces."

Plus X, Ad Diem Illum, 1904: "It was granted to the august Virgin to be together with her Only-begotten Son the most powerful Mediatrix and Conciliatrix of the whole world. So Christ is the source . . . Mary, however, as St. Bernard justly remarks, is the channel, or she is the neck by which the Body is united to the Head... through which ALL spiritual gifts are communicated to his Body."

Benedict XV, In a decree on Joan of Are: "In every miracle we must recognize the mediation of Mary, through whom, according to God's will, every grace and blessing comes to us."

Plus XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor, 1928: "Confiding in her intercession with Jesus, "the one Mediator of God and man, who wished to associate his own Mother with himself as the advocate of sinners, as the dispenser and mediatrix of grace."

Plus XII, Superiore Anno, 1940: "As St. Bernard declares, 'it is the will of God that we obtain favors through Mary, let everyone hasten to have recourse to Mary."

John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, 1980, "In fact, by being assumed into heaven she has not laid aside the office of salvation but by the manifold intercession she continues to obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation."

Second Vatican Council: "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," no. 56. “The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in bringing about death, so also a woman should contribute to life. . . . Rightly, therefore, the Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, she "being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race." Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert with him in their preaching: "the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith."

Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, “She it was who, immune from all sin, personal or inherited, and ever more closely united with her Son, offered him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and motherly love. . . . - - “

Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," no. 58. “Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim which was born of her. - -

Pope John Paul 2, Salvifici Doloris, “ . . . it was on Calvary that Mary's suffering, beside the suffering of Jesus, reached an intensity which can hardly be imagined from a human point of view but which was mysteriously and supernaturally fruitful for the Redemption of the world. - - “

Just to think, this all got started by running into the new preacher in town. He’s not having an easy time of it as people say it’s ridiculous that any man could be Christ’s visible representative and that Christ has delegated salvation to him to grant or to withdraw. He also, like Rome, believes that all grace is mediated through Mary and by sacraments. People are just not buying all his prayers for the dead and the like.

By the way we are having great meetings at St Bridget’s every other Sunday night. The priest there has such a sweet spirit and a great sense of humor. Try to make it over to see us all some time.