text: Oh. So, you're not of the Catholic faith, but are a believer on a more enlightened level. See, Catholics have this ticky-tacky thing - the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (See CCC 124-127). In short, Catholics unhesitatingly affirm the historicity of the Gospels always in such a fashion that they have told us the honest truth about Jesus. I suspect that the "fashion" word means "genre." I took this from the Vatican's catechism pages today. I put this catechetical assessment of the Gospels in the same class as a "modern" argument of history. This makes room for a "super-modern" argument for holding a critical analysis of history. That super-modern genre would be open to asserting that the Transfiguration never actually happened, but Matthew's literary style sure helps provide the great unwashed masses with some darn good imagery about how the Son of God, The Law, and the Prophets sync up in the life and times of Jesus with his 3 key guys as witnesses, but without Matthew, the author.