(1/)As a kid, my (pastor) dad lovingly gifted me with a Thompson Chain Study Bible, a Strong's concordance, and a Vine's word study companion, and exhorted me, "Never take my word for anything. You judge everything I say by the Word. Hold me accountable. I'm just your dad."

(2/) I remember holding my Bible and looking up at my passionately devout dad, and feeling such a heavy weight of responsibility- to study and interpret scripture well enough to challenge him (and everyone else). It was up to me to guard the Truth. We had no Magesterium.

(3/) One of the most frightening and vulnerable aspects of considering the implications of becoming Catholic was knowing I had to relinquish significant spiritual autonomy... of being my own guardian of Truth. (What if the Church gets it wrong?) It's more than losing "freedom."

(4/) Coming into full communion meant that the mantle I received from my father to never take his word for anything but "judge everything I say by the Word" sprang from a flawed understanding, an incomplete access to things that both he and I could KNOW, things that are settled

(5/) and passed down ... first by the apostolic fathers, then through the Magesterium. But releasing radical autonomy does not mean halting critical thought. We are called to question, but questions dialogical and conciliatory, and BOUNDED.

(6/) Letting go of that autonomy meant embracing the reality that even after a lifetime of study, I cannot know the full truth alone. I am a crappy pope. And even the Pope has the Magesterium. I need the Church and its collective memory to have and appropriately apply scripture.

(7/) Be patient with your Protestant evangelical friends. They love the Bible, but are scared to let go of being their own Magesterium. It feels like a betrayal to abdicate this responsibility, until/ unless they can see Jesus kept his promise to preserve His Church. Show them.