There's a lot of people who have trouble keeping their ego in check.  They are constantly doing one thing or another; bragging on themself, or criticising others.  Either causes people to feel superior to other people.  Anyone who does that habitually is demonstrating their ego problem.

At the religious level, this often manifests as criticism of other denominations, resulting in Baptists who criticize Methodists, Methodists who criticize Presbetyrians, and many protestants who vilify the Catholic Church as the whore of Babylon.  Sometimes honest disagreements of opinion exist, but often those disagreements are founded in the desire to feel better than the other denominations and the instead of criticism based on an opinion, the opinion is fit so it can be critical.

Perhaps one of the most easiest places to see that the criticism is subjective and not objective is when people refuse to accept that progress has been made.  On October 31, 1999, the Catholic Church signed an agreement with the Lutheran Church on the anniversary of Luther's 95 Thesis stating that both denominations agreed in salvation by faith.  For the Catholic Church, this was a reversal of doctrine. I remember when it happened, we discussed that even on this forum (many of you old-timers might remember it) and many were skeptical it would make a difference.

But fast forward 10 years and by 2010, polls had shown that the percentage of Catholics who called themselves "born again" had risen from 2% in 1999 when the agreement was signed to 10% in 2010.  That's a huge jump (500%), and it looks like the reversal of doctrine did indeed have an impact for the better.

This happened while John Paul II was pope, whom Malachy called a "laborer of the sun".  Did he help people see the light by reversing this doctrine?  Looks like he did.

Revival happened during that decade, but many protestants refuse to recognize it.  They will still attack the Church as if the doctrine was never changed, completely ignoring the events on Oct 31, 1999 and the rise in faith since then among those in the Church and attack Rome as promoting Salvation by Works, which is used to teach, but does not anymore.  We should rejoice at this set of events, not try to pretend it isn't real or didn't make a difference.  But you know, ego's prevail and as many teenagers would put it today, "Haters are gonna hate."

Granted, at 90% non-fundamentalist, the Catholic Church has a long way to go to get to par with where they should be.  But my point is that it is progress, and we should rejoice in that, not pretend it isn't real because we love that ego-based attack on Rome that makes us feel superior to them intellectually, when we should embrace them and care about our brothers and sisters as equals.

One reason many protestants have rejected the evidence of revival within the Catholic Church is that it doesn't fit their end times view.  They view the Catholic church was the great whore that will lead people into worshipping the beast.  After all, isn't the last pope the false prophet?  (There's really no evidence of that folks.)

But what if....this revival continues...or even gets better?  Would you rejoice in that?  Or get mad that it blows all the demonization you have made towards a denomination you are not part of for many decades?

Shalom, Joe