Protestant Catholics

I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard it said that we call ourselves “Protestants” because the Reformers were “protesting” the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church.

However, not too long ago a professor pointed out to us that the Latin word protestare does not mean “to protest.” It actually means to confess, to testify, to profess. It’s an entirely positive term, meant to convey the affirmation of a certain stance rather than a negative term that quibbles and critiques.

Protestant Catholics are Confessing Catholics, Professing Catholics, Catholics who bear witness to the ancient faith found in the Scriptures and those faithful fathers down through the centuries who preserved and built upon it. To be a Protestant Catholic is to be committed to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, actively confessing the faith of that Church, celebrating the sacraments of that Church, following in the footsteps of the faithful who have come before us, while working towards establishing an even more glorious Christendom in the future.