Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The People themselves become priests and kings

“Protestantism is a democratic-federative movement. The Christian Protestant world is a vast federation of churches, governed democratically in conformity with the model laid down by the primitive church. The life of the local congregation is intense and greatly contributing to the incorporation of evangelical ideals into the life of the community. It tends to the creation of a people who themselves become priests and kings. The people themselves exercise the ministry of the altar... Roman Catholicism, in its organization, follows the model of an absolute monarchy....”

Manuel Carlos Ferraz, distinguished Brazilian jurist and President of the Appellate Court of Brazil speaking in an interview in 1944.
cited in Penyak, Lee M., and Walter J Petry, eds. Religions in Latin America: A Documentary History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006: 227.