However, before starting this, we must deal with a Catholic favorite - a denial of sola scriptura. The plain fact is that unsaved people cannot understand a Christian's position regarding the Word of God. If we thought it was necessary to a Christian's salvation and growth to have an academic statement in the Bible about scriptural sufficiency we might find it necessary to give a newborn baby a map of his mother's body to show him where he can be fed. Or we might expect to go outside and be greeted by a huge neon sign in the sky saying "I am oxygen - breathe me." I hear my Shepherd's Voice and have never, in over 40 years of Catholic evangelism, been presented with any necessary addition to scripture. To deny its sufficiency and not provide an alternative infallible word would leave mankind in the same abyss of lack of authority that the Catholic finds himself in when trying to juggle scripture, tradition and magisterial teaching to come up with any plain way of salvation.

Modern apologists, a la Karl Keating are springing up all over the world. Some are connected with or have fellowship with Catholic Answers; others are either independent or antagonistic to Karl Keating's group. There is a pattern which we will try to uncover.

First, when the apologist says "Catholics do not believe this" what he is really saying "I do not believe I believe this, and I will not admit that other Catholics are encouraged by their Church to believe it." We will look at the initial statements of the apologist, usually denying something that others have said about Catholicism, and what some Catholics actually believe and are directly or indirectly encouraged by their church to believe.

But to get to the exchange I spoke about. Michael Kreidler wrote to Jerry Huffman and said, " I was just sent a copy of The Calvary Contender. It is a shame that are spending your valuable resources misinforming your readers about the Catholic Church. You will be in my prayers.

Jerry wrote back to say, "Thank you, but HOW did I misinform them?"

Michael starts off with something we have all heard (he might have been reading a copy of Evangelicals and Catholics Together.) He said, "There are so many fights to fight - for example the evil of Abortion and so many non-believers who need to come to know the Truth of the Gospel that it is a shame when we spend so much time and energy yelling at other believers.

(Now I know Jerry Huffman quite well, and those who have met him will find it rather ludicrous to imagine him yelling at anyone) Of course, Michael likes to assert from the beginning our oneness in Christian faith - he, apparently, is one of the "other believers."

Jerry had said to Michael, "YOU may not worship Mary, but many R.C.S. do."

Michael replied, "I read some research recently that many people who call themselves Christians do not believe that Jesus was God. Does the fact that some "believers" do not believe correctly mean that Christianity is a false faith? Just because there are those who call themselves Catholic but do not follow the tenets of the faith does not invalidate Catholicism."

This demonstrates Michael's total misunderstanding of what constitutes true Christianity.

But the point Jerry made was valid.

Michael probably does not believe he worships Mary. He has had his mind conditioned into believing that whatever devotion is given to her is not really worship. And since the statement, "You Catholics worship Mary" is often thrown at him, this thought is consolidated in his thinking.

But do some Catholics worship Mary? Let's look at the comparative type of devotion given to Mary and to Christ. Theologically, Mary is accorded a lesser type of veneration called "hyperdulia" while Jesus is accorded "latria." True worship comes from the heart not the head. Regardless of how much the head is told latria is not given to Mary, the heart-devotion of the Catholic at Fatima seen crawling on her knees to Mary's statue is of greater substance than any prayer the same devotee might say to Jesus. Mary has more prayers addressed to her; she has more feast days than Jesus; she has more bathtub shrines than Jesus. It is an absolute truth - understanding worship to be heart devotion in substance, some (we might say many) Catholics do worship Mary.

What does the Catholic Church encourage Catholics to believe? We have already noted the artificial contrast between forms of worship; what about authorized devotions of Catholicism? The "Christian" rosary has 10 prayers to Mary for every one to God; non-infallible but approved writings affirm that through the Rosary and the Scapular Mary will one day save the world. The supposed Vicar of Christ (we might call him the true vicar of a false christ) has a large "M" emblazoned on his coat of arms and his life's motto professes complete abandonment to Mary.

What could we further state? Any salvific ability given to Mary of necessity reduces the infinite salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is very easy to hide behind theologically-imbibed theories about worship but quite another thing to observed the dozens of Mary shrines we have seen over the years. There is Ladywell Shrine in Dundalk, where Mary causes miraculous water to appear for the physical and spiritual blessing of the people; there is Knock, Ireland and Conyers, Georgia where an unauthorized but highly popular shrine was imitating Fatima in Portugal, plus a hundred roadside and backyard shrines to Mary that give loud testimony to the reality of Marian worship in the Roman Catholic Church

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