Okay, I skimmed (it’s long!) and I’m sure I’ve missed some finer points, but I get the gist of what he’s saying. And I guess all I have to offer is this: this is a key reason I became Catholic and not Orthodox. There’s the history of the Church and my conviction that Jesus founded the Catholic Church when he gave Peter the keys to the kingdom, but there’s also the real idea of authority and structure, which I believe Jesus established to further one of his greatest (if not greatest?) desire: that we all be one. The primacy of the Vatican solves this very human need, even when it’s run by fallible humans (there’s not nearly enough time or pixels to unpack that behemoth).

Further, this primacy has given us ONE Catechism, so anyone can go to one verified source and find for themselves what the Catholic Church actually teaches—a huge blessing because so many people, Catholics included, assume much about what’s actually dogma. And even further, the Catholic Church often gives what’s called an “imprimatur,” meaning “let it be written,” aka a stamp of approval that the Vatican says they’re cool with this thing being published for the public. There’s another stamp of approval named “nihil obstat,” basically shorthand to mean that this publication contains nothing contrary to Catholic doctrines, faith, or morals.

Now, do most Catholic YouTube channels, podcasts, Substacks, and the like have these stamps? No, not by a long shot. In fact, I'm not sure which ones, if any, do. But these stamps exist, and anything that has these stamps means anyone can read them and know that nothing in there contradicts the official Catechism of the Catholic Church. As a lifelong evangelical who eventually had to come to grips with the question, "Says who?" about every stinking thing related to the Christian life in the modern age... that's cool.

This doesn't really unpack whether it's good that there's a lot of Catholic content out there, and whether any ol' Jane or Joe can start a publication and say things. It does mean, like everyone, that we have to use discernment and wisdom to know whether Jane or Joe says true things. But at least if they're Catholic, someone can say to them, "Hey — what you say contradicts the Church because of X in the catechism," and that's at least something. Converts from Protestantism, and evangelicals in particular, should probably be extra careful because we're so often still used to being our own popes and deciding what Scripture and other means of theological revelation mean to us, forgetting that it's not for us to decide. You're definitely right on that point.

Okay, back to my work! This is interesting food for thought; thanks for sharing this,