Welcome to Catholic Bridge
My wife Kirsten and I come from very different backgrounds. For her, the Catholic Church was the fulfillment of her search which began in childhood as a young faithful Evangelical. For me, it was the antidote to a worldly ambitious life that began in a non-practising Presbyterian family. Jesus has touched each of us in a powerful way and drawn us into this life together.
We love praising Jesus with anyone who has had a personal encounter with him. Sometimes our Evangelical friends ask us sincere questions like: Are Catholics Christian?...Is the Catholic Church Bible based?...Why are you guys so into Mary?... Isn't Jesus about relationship and not religion?...Don't Catholics think they can work their way into heaven? ... and so on.
Some Evangelicals are surprised to learn that the Catholic Mass is all Bible, that the Rosary is a meditation on the life of Jesus, and that we have an Altar Call at every Mass (Communion). Our Evangelical friends see that we've surrendered to Jesus and say we are "born again." Some have trouble reconciling the life they see in us with what they've been told about the Catholic Church.
There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church, which is, of course, quite a different thing. (Bishop Fulton Sheen)
Never in Western civilization, have Christians faced such persecution for trying to defend the unborn, the sanctity of marriage, and protect our teens from the media's normalization of sex, drugs, and violence. We fear the worst is to come. Christians have got to cooperate like never before, and it will be easier if we understand each other.
Here we lay Catholicism at the feet of our Evangelical friends. We are not trying to gloss over differences but our hope is that all Christians will love one another as He has loved us (Jn 13:34). We are not apologists. We are simply a Catholic couple responding to Jesus' prayer "that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I am in you." (Jn 17:21) "Let us not give up meeting together... let us encourage one another." (Heb 10:25), "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Mat 18:20).
Fr. Bob Bedard, a modern day Saint - passed away Oct 6, 2011
We love you Father Bob, we always will, and can't wait to see you in Heaven. Fr. Bob was instrumental in my conversion, and I'll even say my salvation, because he pointed me toward a personal relationship with Christ. Here are 3 interviews with him on our Radio Show Bridging the Gap in 2006.
"I have a dream...when we let freedom ring... all of God's children... Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands."
(Martin Luther King, "I have a dream," Washington D.C., Aug. 28, 1963.)
Videos
Concert in India
Holy of Holies by David MacDonald