Product Description
Far From Rome Near To God contains the moving testimonies of fifty priests who found their way, by the grace of God, out of the labyrinth of Roman Catholic theology and practice into the light of the gospel of Christ. But this is not a narrowly polemical work, nor is its relevance limited to the ongoing controversy between Rome and the churches of the Reformation. The love and concern felt by the former priests for those they left behind, and their fervent desire that they too should experience the joy and peace of salvation in Christ are seen throughout. The wider relevance of the experiences described will also be felt in many contexts remote from Roman Catholicism where human pride and presumption have erected rival sources of authority between people and the Word of God, so obscuring the way of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.
Paperback, 360 pages
Publication Date: January 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Editorial Comment
Acknowledgements
1 Bob Bush: Once a Jesuit, Now a Child of God
2 Dominic Stockford: Life after the Catholic Priesthood
3 Cuthbert Dzingirai: Rescued by the Grace of God
4 Joseph Tremblay: Priest, but a Stranger to God
5 Charles Chiniquy: Fifty Years in the Church of Rome
6 Bartholomew F Brewer: Pilgrimage from Rome
7 Henry Gregory Adams: Christ Alone Is the Way
8 Alexander Carson: Free Indeed
9 Hugh Farrell: From Friar to Freedom in Christ
10 Robert V Julien: Saved by the Free Grace of God
11 Charles Berry: A Priest Asks God for Grace
12 Cipriano Valdes Jaimes: An Irresistible Call
13 Miguel Carvajal: Why I Left the Monastery
14 Victor J Affonso: To Follow Jesus without Compromise
15 Anibal Pereira dos Reis: If I Had Stayed in Roman Catholicism, I Would Not Have Found Jesus
16 Anthony Pezzotta: I Found Everything When I Found Christ
17 Simon Kottoor: There Is Power in Christ’s Atoning Blood
18 Vincent O’Shaughnessy: From Dead Religion to New Life in Christ
19 José Borras: From the Monastery to the Ministry
20 Edoardo Labanchi: I Received Mercy
21 J Ernest Fresques: A Priest Finds the Saviour
22 Francisco Lacueva: My ‘Damascus Road’
23 Juan T Sanz: ‘Thou Knowest That I Love Thee’
24 Nino Tirelli: God’s Grace in the Life of a Monk
25 Manuel Garrido Aldama: From Roman Priest to Radio Evangelist
26 Robert Champagne: Into His Marvellous Light
27 Bruno Bottesin: I Was Not Antagonistic to the Truth
28 Salvatore Gargiulo: I Was a Blind Leader of the Blind
29 Toon Vanhuysse: The Truth Set Me Free
30 Roman Mazierski: The Holy Spirit Brings His People from Darkness into Light
31 José A Fernandez: I Was Blind, Now I See
32 Joseph Cherucheril: The Way Made Clear
33 José Rico: New Life for a Jesuit Priest
34 Jacob Van der Velden: God’s Grace in New Guinea
35 Charles A Bolton: My Path into Christ’s Joy
36 John Preston: From Works to the Light of the Gospel
37 Gerald Walters: All Things Are Become New
38 Joseph Zacchello: I Could Not Serve Two Masters
39 Mariano Rughi: Living Water – Peace with God
40 John Zanon: I Found Christ the Only Mediator
41 Thoufic Khouri: The Gospel of Grace in Jesus Christ
42 Joseph Lulich: The Word of God Came to My Rescue
43 Dario A Santamaria: Yesterday, a Priest – Today, a Missionary
44 JMA Hendriksen: From Priest to Preacher
45 Leo Lehmann: The Soul of a Priest
46 Carlo Fumagalli: From Death to Life
47 Renato di Lorenzo: A Monk for Twenty Years, Then Born Again
48 Guido Scalzi: My Encounter with God
49 Benigno Zuniga: Transformed by Christ
50 Richard Peter Bennett: From Tradition to Truth
Epilogue
Author
Richard Bennett was born into a devout Roman Catholic home in Dublin Ireland. His early years were spent in Belvedere Jesuit School. Eight years of theological instruction for the priesthood followed under the instruction of the Dominican Order with his formal education culminating in 1964 at the Angelicum University of Rome.
As a young priest, Richard (Peter) was assigned to the West Indies. He spent the next twenty-one years in Trinidad, mostly serving as a parish priest applying Roman Catholic teaching to everyday life. After a serious accident in which he nearly lost his life, he began to seriously study the Scriptures. After fourteen years of contrasting the teachings of Rome with biblical truth, he was convicted by the Gospel message through God’s grace alone and in 1986 he formally left the Roman Catholic Church and its priesthood.
Richard has since founded an evangelistic ministry called ‘Berean Beacon’ which brings the truth of God’s plan of salvation to many worldwide.
Autobiographical accounts of Richard’s life can be found in his Catholicism: East of Eden – Insights into Catholicism for the 21st Century (Banner of Truth, 2010) and (with Martin Buckingham) Far from Rome, Near to God – Testimonies of Fifty Converted Roman Catholic Priests (Banner of Truth, 1997).
