Word: frankly
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...Sunday, April 6, 2003, I was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Nervous but happy, I assembled with my sponsors, Frank and Gladden, and about twenty friends. Shortly after 4 p.m., the service started: Father greeted us with In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti and we began the prayers of the Mass. Our contemplation of the holy sacrifice was beautifully assisted by the performance of Josquin’s Missa Pange lingua and some other pieces of Renaissance polyphony by friends from school. After the homily, Father invited me forward...
...because of Elmbrook’s evenings of reflection and my time there that the chink in my Protestant armor was finally exposed last fall. In a bit of friendly Christian challenging, on Sept. 27, 2002, my friend Frank Altiere charged that “within two years” I would “feel the blessed chrism [of Catholic confirmation] drying on [my] forehead.” More than a tad annoyed, I countered that I would “never be Catholic,” and listed some specific Bible verses that I thought proved salvation...
...Frank responded with verses to the opposite effect, and went a step further to demonstrate my fundamental error. As a Protestant, I claimed to rely on scripture to the exclusion of tradition, but my reliance on scripture was a tradition—from Luther and the sixteenth century. “Show me where in the Bible it says that it [the Bible] is the only thing,” Frank challenged. Ultimately, I couldn’t respond. Nowhere does the Bible claim to be the only thing. I didn’t concede the point that night, though...
...asked more questions, Frank showed me where the seven sacraments, prayer to the saints and other Catholic doctrines could be found in the scriptures. By the end of January, most of my distinctly Lutheran beliefs were gone. Formerly I had attended First Lutheran Church near Boston Common and a traditional Latin Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church near Chinatown. At the start of Lent, I ceased attending Lutheran services and submitted myself to Fr. Higgins, who celebrated the High Latin Mass at Holy Trinity, for conversion preparation. Between Fr. Higgins, Elmbrook’s Fr. Bucciarelli, Frank and Gladden...
...commander of the Kurdish peshmerga forces, was more frank. "In other cities there was fighting and Saddam's men were either killed or ran away," said Omed Mohammed. The Americans and Kurds entered the city without a fight last Friday, but now are finding that their victory was hollow. "Here there was no war so the fedayeen [Saddam, Uday's paramilitary fighting force] and other members of the security are still here. They just don't go to their offices, but hide in their homes." The famously brave peshmerga won't go to many Arab neighborhoods. "We're afraid," Mohammed...