Don’t you dare try to correct me! I’m a priest!!!

Although I left Catholicism and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior several decades ago, I like to listen to Catholic talk radio daily just to keep abreast of what’s going on within the RCC. The show I listen to regularly is “Calling All Catholics” on The Station of the Cross, WLOF (Our Lady of Fatima) 101.7 FM out of nearby Buffalo, New York. Catholic priest, Rick Poblocki, pastor of St. Josaphat’s in Cheektowaga, N.Y. (a Buffalo suburb), is featured on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he’s by far my favorite call-taker because he’s just so entertaining in a rough, gruff, unpolished, “youse guys” kind of way.

Rick is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense priest who sounds like he would have very much enjoyed the veneration given to the “alter Christus” clergy back in the pre-Vatican II, church-militant era, when the pious faithful used to kiss the hands of their parish priests, who claimed to change bread wafers and wine with their hands into the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. Back in those days, no Catholic would have even dreamt of standing up to their priest, which of course led to all kinds of abuses. On questions regarding evangelicals, Rick usually starts off in a very conciliatory tone but as things progress and he begins to get lathered up, he can be counted on to refer to evangelical ministers as “Reverend Billy Bob” and to evangelical Christians as “Bible thumpers” or “Bible bangers.” Yes, it’s all very entertaining when the polite facade comes down.

Today I was listening to the podcast of the 12/03/2013 show and a listener had the audacity to send in an email correcting the priest. In an earlier portion of the show, Rick had referred to the deceased mother Teresa (d. 1997) as being in Heaven. But the Catholic church wouldn’t actually canonize mother Teresa until September 4, 2016, almost three years after this show was broadcast. Let’s pick up on Rick’s reaction to the insolent listener:

Mike Denz, show moderator: We’re gonna go to one of those emails we got from Jim in Rochester (N.Y.). “Father Rick mentioned that mother Teresa is in Heaven. How does he know that?” And then he puts a Latin phrase in there that I believe…

Rick Poblocki, priest: Oremus Pro Invicem.

MD: “Let’s pray for each other,” is that right, or “Pray for one another”?

RP: Who knows.

MD: [Laughs]

RP: Anyway, here’s the thing. Well, Jim, I’d say this, nobody really knows until the church canonizes her but there’s a sure bet that she probably is. Probably because she never asked such a snotty question of a priest or tried to make him look stupid. And if you want to say something in Latin, why don’t you try the “Miserere,” Psalm 51, and see how that one works? Next question. Let’s do something real here.

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It became very popular among some compromising evangelical pastors to hold up Billy Graham and mother Teresa as exemplary Christians to their congregations. Unfortunately, Billy Graham drifted into ecumenism early in his career and then into universalism. Mother Teresa upheld the Catholic church’s false gospel of salvation by sacramental grace and merit and also championed universalism. Despite what Rick and the Catholic church claim, nobody really knows if mother Teresa is in Heaven. If she accepted Christ as her Savior by faith alone before she died then she is in Heaven. But if she held onto the Catholic church’s false gospel of sacramental grace and merit then she died in her sins and went to hell.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” – Matthew 7:13-14