James 2 RSV
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over
judgment.
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his
faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the
things needed for the body, what does it profit?
17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from
your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder.
20 Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the
altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works,
23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to
him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received
the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.

This is the only location in the Bible where the phrase “faith alone” is found. The Church teaches salvation by grace alone, received from Christ alone by merit of His passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. Both faith and works (faith in action, active and passive) are given to us by grace alone from Christ Himself alone as the source, that we are free to accept or reject according to the free will given to us by God. For even the demons have faith, yet have eternally chosen to reject the works. The fallen angels were eternally ejected from Heaven not because they no longer believed in God, but that they rejected what that belief required of them. Obedience, opposite of the sin of pride.

There is only one Church, one Faith, regardless of the number of wayward children. Since we are fallible, Christ provided a way to recognize this Church and Faith (of which Christ is the head) by granting the keys (symbol used in the OT for the tranfering of authority) to bind and loose through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, with the promise that the gates of Hades would never prevail against the Church. We all accept the inerrant Bible. If the Holy Spirit(Ghost) had the power, the ability, to enable human hands (of fallible human beings) to infallibly put the Word down onto paper and to discern the canon, then the Spirit certainly has that same power and ability to ensure the one Church infallibly maintains official (that which is to be held by all) matters of faith and morals regardless of the fallibility of human beings themselves and their sinful nature against the Truth the Holy Ghost guarantees. This requires absolute faith and trust in God that He could ensure that the infallible Truth remains with us fallible human beings. It is noteworthy that 7 whole books of the Bible and sections of 2 others were removed shortly after separation from this one Church (and thereby doctrinal infallibility) by those who unscripturally claim that the Bible is the only source of authority (which removing books from the Bible requires an authority outside of the Bible as it contains no list of canon), and who claim upmost reverence for the Bible. Even the early edition of the KJV included the full canon before the later removal of these books. Since the canon of the Bible is not in the Bible, Protestants do accept Holy Tradition in some form as well since it is the way they are aware of the Bible itself and the books to be included within, except the ones they threw out on personal authority. Protestants have not truly rejected the notion of infallibility as the Church defines it. They have merely transferred it from the Church itself in union with the keys of Peter, to each individual themselves where personal infallibility allows one to interpretation that may be used to twist and misuse Holy Scripture and Tradition (historicity) according to their own whims.

Christians are allowed to read the Bible for their own education and spiritual growth, but interpretations must be in union with the Church as instituted by Christ. This is the doctrinal unity that the ‘Catholic’ Church has that the Protestant churches will never attain while remaining separate from the Church. Peace in Christ.

Typical protestant unity is not based on any sort of hierarchy, so to assume that because two people aren’t under the same hierarchy that they aren’t “unified” misses the entire point. The RCC views it’self AS The Body, which contains it’s hierarchy which must be maintained or The Body is not unified. Protestants view themselves as PART of The Body, which contains the hierarchies of all Christian churches. So to “part ways” is not to destroy the unity, since the unity wasn’t based on an allegiance to a hierarchy to begin with.

A more succinct way to put it might be that Protestants believe they are in unity if they are living at peace with one another (on a personal as well as ecumenical level). They do not feel that different leadership structures invalidate that unity. Rather, they allow people to find where they fit, lessening the conflict and thereby increasing the unity.

It is not a unity achieved by being identical. It is a unity achieved by admitting that we are different.

For a very long time, it was depressingly common in North America to give kids their First Communion without requiring confession. In fact, I was received into the Church in the ’80’s as a college student, and was confirmed and received Communion without ever making a sacramental confession (yes, I’d already been baptized).

Fortunately these things are less common now. But Jason’s memories ring true.

Anyway, not that Jason cares (and there’s no reason he should), but a 12-year-old child who leaves the Church isn’t usually considered to have any culpability for so doing. (This question was discussed recently in the Catholic blogosphere regarding Sarah Palin, whose family likewise left the Church when she was an adolescent.)

My point is just that we Protestants could also make some claims to unity, but the kind of disunity that Headless Unicorn Guy mocks seems to be just as rampant within the RCC. It’s just a different flavor.

DLE, it may surprise you to know that indulgences never went away. There are many, many ways of gaining indulgences.

There are plenary and partial indulgences, and you get them through prayers, novenas, pious practices, and the likes. No payment changes hands.

The news story you quote about the local church announcing indulgences probably means that there is a novena. As you say, there is a “re-emphasizing” because of all the old devotions that were downgraded and neglected after Vatican II, but which were never done away with, and now the Church is re-discovering her heritage.