I like the part of the Bible where the people who were compiling it hundreds of years after the events depicted left out any letters or other records that make mention of Peter’s authority being passed on to a “second pope” or even implying that that was a thing that Christ wanted. And then also didn’t mention the dozens of other “popes“ that came after that and just told the people the pope is in charge because tradition. Sure the scriptures did establish two leadership positions for local congregations, being elders and deacons, and listed requirements for both positions including being married to one woman and having your children and household well managed, but we can just ignore the scriptures and have unmarried and childless bishops, cardinals, and popes because tradition. Jesus said call no man father but God, and that only God is worthy of being called good, so why not call the pope holy father, that’s completely different so it must be ok.

Sarcasm aside, catholic tradition has been all over the place over the last 1500 years and has frequently directly contradicted scripture. Nadab and Abihu tried to worship in a way that deviated from how they were told to by offering up “strange fire” and they died, Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it and was denied entry to the promised land, one of the prophets was eaten by a lion because he didn’t immediately leave the area like he was told, and scriptures say that let any who add to or take away from the gospel to be accursed even if it is an angel, but we think it’s okay to directly contradict scripture because it’s tradition to do so? If the Scriptures say if you believe and repent of your sins and be immersed in water to be baptized as a symbolic death, burial, and resurrection/ rebirth to receive the forgiveness of sins, how does that make it ok to sprinkle water onto babies who lack the mental maturity to believe in God, let alone commit any sins just because that became tradition because they didn’t want anyone getting baptized to catch a cold and die immediately afterwards (can’t have people die and go straight to heaven before having the opportunity to backslide).

The only way to God is through Jesus Christ his son, who intercedes on our behalf, but the catholic church teaches to pray to the dead in heaven because God and Jesus are too important and busy to listen to us directly, and if their prayers are answered they give credit to the saints for passing on the message. That is blasphemy. The Bible shows the dead 3 times: Samuel’s spirit being summoned by the witches to give Saul advice, Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, and the martyrs calling to god for justice. None of those times show the dead praying for us on our behalf like we can do for others (or vice versa) while we are alive. Samuel is annoyed, Abraham is indifferent, Lazarus is seemingly oblivious (the rich man is ineffectual), and the martyrs have other priorities. None of those examples look like Johnny Cochran asking for his guilty client to be acquitted to me. Jesus is our advocate, pray to him. If the answer to your prayer is yes or no, give God the Glory.

At The Last Supper, Jesus broke bread and said this is my body that will be broken for you and this wine is my blood, but that in no way means that the bread and wine they shared that night was supernaturally transformed into actual flesh and blood. He was telling the apostles that he was going to be given over to the Pharisees to be killed because that was God’s plan and was necessary to fulfill the Covenant God made with Abraham who offered up his own son to God, but like many other times, he had to explain himself afterward because they didn’t understand what he meant. He asked us to break bread and share the fruit of the vine like they did that night as an act of remembrance, but when we do so the bread and juice is not transformed into his flesh and blood. The only mystery involved here is why it became mainstream to believe in sudden cannibalism for no stated purpose. Christ’s body was broken and he shed his blood while being offered up as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins (that’s the miracle), but he never implies in any way that we have our sins forgiven when we eat his flesh and drink his blood during communion, because it is just bread and juice.