@HandsomeDan
It wouldn't let me quote you directly so I had to tag you. Catholics aren't insecure like that when it comes to Protestants. We believe in extra ecclesiam nulla salus, so to be honest we see Martin Luther taking the things he liked about Catholicism and leaving the rest and creating some kind of Puff Daddy remix of Catholicism as more of an offshoot than a heresy.
The official stance of the Catholic Church has always been a symbiotic relationship with Protestants and we believe that you guys are still going to heaven even without the "mediators" as you put it.
So why would we do something that's mutually negative to both of our religions just to spite yours? Islam has half a billion more practicing members than the Catholic Church does. When you add Protestants to that number we beat Islam by 600 million. Apes together strong.
There is no way that we would ever do anything detrimental to other believers in Christ, especially when we need each other to stay on top despite our differences.
You say that proving unequivocally that Jesus is real would drive more people to be Protestant than Catholic? I don't see how Christ's bloody blankie is going to make people stop drinking the classic Coke of religion and switch to Pepsi. Catholics are gonna cath and Protestants are going to prot regardless.
The relationship between the Catholic Church and science is actually more amicable than most people think. We believe in the big bang, evolution, all that good shit. So as I said, my opinion of the shroud of Turin now that I've been updated has gone from forgery to skeptical, it doesn't mean that I'm going to start doing hail Marys over the thing just yet.
It is however back on the table of possibility for me.
