It takes a fantastic will to unbelief to suppose that Jesus never really 'happened,' and more to suppose that he did not say the things recorded of him - so incapable of being 'invented' by anyone in the world at that time: such as 'before Abraham came to be I am (John viii). 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father' (John ix); or the promulgation of the Blessed Sacrament in John vi: 'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life.' We must therefore either believe in Him and in what he said and take the consequences; or reject him and take the consequences....
I myself am convinced by the Petrine claims [papacy], nor looking around the world does there seem much doubt which (if Christianity is true) is the True Church, the temple of the Spirit dying but living, corrupt but holy, self-reforming and rearising. But for me that Church of which the Pope is the acknowledged head on earth has as chief claim that it is the one that has (and still does) ever defended the Blessed Sacrament, and given it most honour, and put it (as Christ plainly intended) in the prime place.
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien