Seeking the Truth In Love

A Catholic-Protestant Encounter in Dallas

by Kathryn Collmer

When I heard about a planned “Protestant-Catholic dialogue” in Dallas, I expected that no more than a handful of Dallasites would choose to spend a beautiful spring weekend afternoon sitting indoors in cramped seats to listen to six hours of heavy theological discussion.

Surprise! Some 4,000 people packed into Southern Methodist University’s Moody Coliseum on April 12 to hear three prestigious Protestant scholars and three equally renowned Catholic scholars face off on the issues of justification, the Eucharist, and doctrinal authority. Of the 4,000 people in attendance, probably no more than a hundred were clergy, including a Baptist pastor and an Orthodox priest. The vast majority were lay people. This was ecumenical dialogue for the masses, and evidently the masses were hungry for it.

The sponsoring organization was the Young Serra Community of Dallas, a group of enthusiastic young Catholic lay people devoted to Catholic evangelism, primarily among their fellow Catholics. The Young Serrans, mostly people in their twenties who had never been involved in organizing an event on this scale before, were the sole organizers. Though the local Catholic diocese had given its approval, it had not committed funding or leadership—nor had the Young Serrans asked for any. They had not, however, wished to be the only sponsors. The group had tried for nearly a year to recruit several large mainline Protestant churches in Dallas to co-sponsor the dialogue. Indeed, two of the largest Baptist churches in Dallas had agreed to co-sponsor it, only to drop out just weeks before the event. The audience turned out to be only about 20 percent Protestant.

The dialogues themselves were exceptionally balanced and fair to both sides. Instead of bringing in professional Catholic-vs.-Protestant debaters, the Young Serrans enlisted six individuals who spend most of their time explaining their respective faiths to their own co-religionists and who try to live out that faith in practice.

The dialogue on justification (“faith alone” vs. “faith and works”) matched Dr. Scott Hahn, director of the Institute of Applied Biblical Studies at Franciscan University, with Rob Bowman of Reflections Ministries and Luther Rice Seminary. The next dialogue, between Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, director of spiritual development for the Archdiocese of New York, and Dr. George Logan, of the Presbyterian Theological Hall in Brisbane, Australia, treated the subject of the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper. The final dialogue, on the subject of doctrinal authority (“scripture alone” vs. “scripture and tradition”) featured Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, professor of theology at the University of Dallas, and Ken Samples, founder of the Augustine Fellowship Study Center and professor of philosophy and religion at Cerritos College.

Each pair of speakers was well-matched in terms of each speaker’s knowledge of his subject and his ability to communicate that knowledge to the audience. This allowed listeners to focus on the theology itself rather than to be swayed by the strengths or weaknesses of one speaker relative to another.

All three of the Protestant speakers were raised as Catholics. Unlike many former Catholics, however, these men vented no bitter feelings against the church of their youth, rather they outdid each other in trying to give the Catholic Church credit where they felt credit was due. Avowed Calvinist Rob Bowman, for instance, quoted one of Calvin’s leading followers, Charles Hodge, as acknowledging that the key elements of the gospel are indeed preserved in the Catholic Church. Even George Logan, who compared Catholic views of the Eucharist to “idolatry” and “cannibalism,” was aware of how offensive his words must have sounded to Catholic ears, and couched his statements amidst gracious apologies and earnest avowals that he was not trying to offend but only to explain the Protestant point of view. In his closing comments, Logan’s voice choked with emotion as he thanked his Catholic hosts for their kindness.

I wish I could report on the content of the dialogues as a dispassionate observer. Instead, I was listening to them with a vested interest in the outcome, since I am a Sunday school teacher in an Anabaptist church who has been investigating Catholicism and Orthodoxy for over a year. So eloquent and persuasive were all the speakers, so substantive and well-reasoned their arguments, that my initial reaction upon leaving the conference was one of some dismay, as I realized I was now more ambivalent than ever. Both camps had, it seemed to me, so much truth on their side.

One reason that so many truths came to light was the deliberate decision of the organizers to exclude church history and politics from the discussion. Theology, and theology alone, was to be the subject. What emerged, among other things, from this singular focus was an awareness of just how much common ground is shared among all orthodox Christians, including both Protestants and Catholics, especially against “liberals” in their respective denominations.

Rob Bowman reminded the audience that most of the people in our churches today “do not have a firm, sound grasp of the Christian faith.” Those at this conference were, at least, in agreement on the core doctrines of Christianity, such as the Virgin Birth, the atonement for our sins by Jesus’ death on the cross, his physical Resurrection and his Ascension into heaven.

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