Mark Gilbert is the Sydneyanglicans.net correspondent at World Youth Day. This week, the Sydney Anglican minister shares his extraordinary story of what happened to him following the 1986 Papal visit to Sydney.
Being Catholic was always very important to me: it was my identity, my culture. Growing up, I can't remember a time when I didn't feel I had a relationship with God, though I was never sure exactly where I stood.
I knew God through religious activities: going to Mass, receiving the Sacraments and having spiritual experiences like retreats. If I'd just been away on a retreat I'd feel closer to God, but paradoxically I'd also feel worse about my sinfulness.
No solution was offered by church leaders other than "try harder'. Being a member of the Catholic Church gave me some confidence that I would get to heaven, but never certainty.
In 1986, when I was 17, I was part of a massive Catholic Youth Convention at the SCG. I was in the choir that sat just in front of the Pope.
The day was a buzz. The Pope in his pope-mobile. The SCG full of Catholics. My friend jumped the barrier and held the Pope's hand as he waved it above his head during a song. The photo made the TV news and the front page of the papers. I remember the Pope saying that we must evangelise! As he left I got to shake the Pope's hand " the softest I'd ever felt " and was given a set of rosary beads.
After the Youth Convention, I was convinced I needed to make God the priority in my life.
So when I started university and met Bible-believing Christians for the first time, it was confronting. I saw they lived good lives. When they asked what I believed, I had trouble answering because religion for me was more about experience and belonging.
When they asked why I believed what I did, I would usually say, "because the priest says so" " an unsatisfying answer for a first-year medical student!
A Bible-based revolution
I joined a Bible study to find out more, and it was there that I learnt that Jesus had done everything to pay for my sins. I finally knew where I stood with God! Even when I sinned, God was still close.
Being in a Bible study group was a revolution for me. I had read the Bible quite a bit before coming to university, but I read it differently and for different reasons. When I read the Bible as a Catholic, I would read it to have a religious experience, maybe to feel peace, or to read a verse and just see what thoughts came into my mind, completely unrelated to the context the verse was from. I hardly ever read it to learn something clearly about God.
Learning that God had a plan for the world from day one, and seeing how he worked it out through Jesus was amazing! Seeing how the Old Testament and the New Testament were consistent, learning about how faithful God was in keeping his promises built my confidence in being able to read the Bible for myself. I was able to trust what I learnt from the Bible even more than what the priests taught.
I kept going to the Catholic Church on Sundays and [an evangelical] Bible study during the week for a very long time " more than a decade actually!
Understanding the Bible was giving me the confidence to say the Catholic Church was wrong. For a young guy who had never met anyone else who had done such a thing " saying that such an august, historical and powerful institution was wrong was a pretty big deal.
Then one day I met a girl" so I went to her church and was amazed!
Over 600 young people all taking God seriously. Little things, like the fact that people said the creed like they meant it, people actually hung around after church for hours and talked to each other, and not only did they talk to each other, they talked to each other about God!
I couldn't take her out of a church that I could see was much more like the sort of church the Bible spoke of than mine was.
As a result, I met up with a mate from Uni who was now studying at Moore College. Over a month we looked at some of the official teachings of the Catholic Church and the book of Galatians.
I was now convinced the Catholic Church was teaching something different than the apostle Paul. Galatians 1:8 in particular really hit home. I had to leave. It was the worst day of my life and the best day.
My family took it very tough but we've survived. Making new Christian friends made it a lot easier. Today, my family are still close, even though I am now an Anglican minister.
I hope this upcoming Roman Catholic World Youth Day and the months that follow will be an opportunity for more Catholics to get serious about God, read their Bibles and come to know for themselves what Jesus has done for them " Maybe some of us can help them.
Resources for going further
The God who saves
By Mark Gilbert
Matthias Media, $4.95
Primarily written for Roman Catholics, these five studies explore what the Bible says on the foundational Christian salvation doctrines: the reason we need to be saved, how God saves us through Jesus and what faith has to do with us being saved.
Nothing in my hand I bring
By Ray Galea
Matthias Media, $16.95
Growing up Roman Catholic, Ray Galea began a quest to understand the respective teachings of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, and to weigh up what the Bible said. Today, many wonder why we can't just all be united together as "Christians'. In a gentle but clear way, Ray's book provides the answer.
Ideas that changed the world
By Dominic Steele
Christians in the Media Resources, DVD: $35.00; Workbook: $7.95
A four-part series exploring the four truths of the Reformation: "Grace Alone", "Faith Alone", "Bible Alone" and "Christ Alone". The pack comprises a DVD with short interviews of people who have converted to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism, sermons given by the author, and a booklet which includes historical notes and a Bible study for each Reformation idea.
