I had an email conversation with an old friend recently. He had asked a few questions about my conversion to the Catholic faith, and I did my best to answer him. I do not think he "got it". As most of you have seen at times, there is a certain hurdle that many protestants have to get past before they will honestly listen to what the Church says; I have been there myself (for years) so I understand it completely and I pray for them.
This conversation, however, reminded me of another conversation I had with a protestant a long time ago. It was someone who knew that I had become Catholic and he called on the phone to convince me of my "mistake". We had quite a long conversation about many different theological subjects of difference between Catholic and protestant. As was typical, he kept making the standard "Enlightenment" kind of arguments (so common in Descartes, Rousseau and others) that show complete ignorance to the way the Christians thought and lived in the first few centuries of the Church.
At one point, I was able to encourage him to consider that he might have been taught wrong about the Catholic faith, and that he should read what the Church actually says, rather than merely accept what other protestants told him the Church says. His answer was one of the most clear admissions of his own error that I have ever heard. He said to me, "No, I'm not going to read anything by Catholics. My pastor made it clear to me that it was dangerous to do so, because everyone that reads that stuff gets sucked in and ends up becoming Catholic."
Do you see that? As I said, that is an admission of one's mistake (without actually saying so). If "everyone" who reads Catholic "stuff" ends up becoming Catholic, that is not actually saying that Catholic "stuff" is wrong, but rather that it is clearly reasonable and obvious once you see it for what it is. His refusal to read "anything by Catholics" was an acknowledgment that if he read it that he too would be convinced and end up converting. I am certain he did not see it that way, but it should be obvious to even the most casual listener.
It was truly my experience, I can that much. I had been taught in college and seminary about the Catholic faith, and everything I was taught was wrong. It was a "straw man" that had no real connection to actual Catholic theology. Then when I first started reading Catholic "stuff" I found it different than what I had been taught. At that point I stopped listening to what protestants said about the Catholic faith, and started (oh my gosh!!!) listening to what Catholics said. I even went so far as to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (woah!). Well, we all know where that got me (and I thank God for it every day).
No one likes to admit that he is in error, but sometimes they do so without knowing it. As our Lord said, the truth will set us free; we just have to be willing to hear that truth, and stop listening only to what we want to hear (the Pharisees were real skilled in that!). If we truly submit ourselves, unreservedly, to God, and ask Him to correct our errors and lead us to the truth, we will find grace and mercy.