Many Christians who regard themselves as Evangelicals are happy and eager to seek fellowship and communion with the Roman Catholic Church. They claim that since the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the Church of Rome has removed many of those obstacles that had in the past divided them from Evangelical Protestants.

I am anxious to establish what doctrinal changes the Second Vatican Council has made, that enables these Evangelical Protestants to desert their previous position of separation and enter into dialogue and fellowship with the Church of Rome.

The prime source of my research is the Catechism of the Catholic Church published by Veritas in 1994, which is the Church’s official pronouncement of the Council’s declaration of Roman Catholic doctrine. I will compare this with the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent published by Herder in 1960, and with a Roman Catholic Church handbook, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin , by Louis Marie de Montfort, (1673-1716) who was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947, thus declaring his writings to be free from all error. Montfort Press reprinted this book in 2002.

The late Pope John Paul II, referring to this official Catechism , said, “For this reason we thank the Lord whole-heartedly on this day when we can offer the entire Church this ‘reference text’ entitled the Catechism of the Catholic Church …this catechism will make a very important contribution to that work of renewing the whole life of the Church, as desired and begun by the Second Vatican Council”.

On de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin , Pope Pius XII on July 20th 1947 said, “We hope you will draw from his writings, which constitute the basis of his Marian Devotion, his firm conviction of the powerful intercession of Mary”. So my aim is to establish what the Church of Rome teaches on those doctrines which constitute such a vital part of their understanding of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

Dermot Nash