Whither Catholics’ Beliefs?

In the late 1990s, I read a former Anglican’s conversion story. He said his journey to Catholicism began when he realized the person standing next to him during services, who he knew well, meant the exact opposite of what he did when they recited the Nicene Creed together. Yet both could be Anglicans in good standing.

For instance, his neighbor believed we say “the Father almighty” and not “the Mother almighty” because the Church is sexist and patriarchal.

But he understood God Himself had revealed Himself as Father, and knew we couldn’t dismiss the theological and philosophical reasons behind this as easily as his neighbor assumed.

For instance, last month I spent time with several diocesan communications directors.

From them I learned a scandal is brewing with a prominent Catholic agency. The agency does great work, so its proponents say ignore the fact that a prominent executive is openly flouting and publicly opposing Church teaching.

Others disagree, saying if we’re going to call teachers minister and hold them accountable to what is in the Catechism, why shouldn’t we do so with those whose ministerial role is much more explicit? One person called ignoring the situation a slap in Christ’s face.

Later over drinks with the aforementioned directors, one mentioned Congress had passed a bill outlawing abortion after 20 weeks. Since medical experts are considering lowering the official age at which a preemie can live outside the womb from 24 to 22 weeks, it seems like the natural progression.

Another colleague, however, was aghast. “Where will it end?!” she exclaimed, horrified lawmakers could do such a thing. In my mind, I thought, “Uh, hopefully with a more robust Culture of Life?”

Even the first woman indicated she didn’t necessarily favor this law and almost apologetically mentioned how she was the most moderate Republican possible. “I even voted for Obama!” she exclaimed.

As someone for whom reading Evangelium Vitae by John Paul II was a consciousness altering event, their comments really made me sad. Here are people who work for the Church, but in their personal lives they do not witness to the most fundamental right of all: life. After all if you don’t have that, the right—putative or otherwise—to education, clean water/air, health care, housing, etc., becomes absolutely moot, doesn’t it?

A Jesuit priest recently interviewed people about San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s new teachers contract. He said an opponent of the new contract, a man, spoke of “mercy.” A supporter of the archbishop’s efforts, a woman, spoke of “mercy.” Both of them understood the concept in completely different ways.

This May, Germany’s hierarchy said it had jettisoned all moral restrictions on its employees. The German bishops are now effectively saying the Fathers at next October’s Ordinary Synod on the Family should follow their lead.

As George Weigel recently wrote, though, Their Graces have essentially made a “confession of catechetical disaster and pastoral failure on a nationwide scale, to which [they have] no response save to urge others down the path that has led Catholicism in Germany into profound incoherence.”

Or as I would put it, the German episcopate has effectively said, “Our situation is hopeless, so we’ve given up on authentically proclaiming Tradition, Scripture, and Church teaching. You should, too.” It reminds me of those who say Marxism wasn’t bad, it was simply implemented by bad people. That is, they have missed the point and won’t admit where the real problems—or answers—lie.

Read the Second Vatican Council documents. Nowhere do they encourage giving into the spirit of the age. Rather they encourage the Church to engage the world but not be consumed by it. And the purpose of being in the world? To transform it in the image of the Church, the Bride of Christ, of Christ Himself.

Almost 50 years after Vatican II’s closing, we still don’t know what Catholics will choose: the Spirit of the Lord Who is Truth, or the spirit of the age. The Spirit of the Lord leads to faith and life. That of the world leads to catechetical chaos and death of faith. History makes this so evident. And yet as evidenced by a recent Pew survey, fewer and fewer people are choosing faith and life.

This puts Christ’s question in Luke 18:8 in an interesting light, doesn’t it? “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

Well, the Church is the Church is the Church, whatever stupid things priests, bishops, and popes get up to.

As it happens, I was born and bred an Anglican, and I got a lot from that Church. I converted to Catholicism in college, not because it was “better” than Anglicanism, but because I gradually came to the conclusion that if there is only ONE true Church, it must be the Catholic Church. None of the Protestant churches were around for the first fifteen hundred years since Jesus founded the Church. Cardinal Newman made the argument convincingly.

So, unless Satan manages to nab me, I shall remain a Catholic until I die, no matter how bad things get. It’s still the One, true, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and the sacraments are still the sacraments. Unless the priest goes too far overboard, in which case you just have to find another parish and another priest.

Christ founded the Church and promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against it. Bad things have happened in the Church from time to time in the past. But the worst thing about the current mess is that it has caused so many people to drop out and leave over the years. Their loss. Their terrible loss.

THE APOSTLES CREED

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord

At the words that follow up and including "the Virgin Mary," all bow.

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell;

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy Catholic Church,

the Communion of Saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting.
Amen.

Catholics profess only Christ. Are you familiar with the Creed?

Roman Missal - Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial

with the Father;

Through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate

of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

For our sake he was crucified

under Pontius Pilate,

he suffered death and was buried,

and rose again on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead

and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son

is adored and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic,

and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins

and I look forward to the resurrection

of the dead and the life of the world to come.

None of the Protestant churches were around for the first fifteen hundred years since Jesus founded the Church. Cardinal Newman made the argument convincingly.

Newman, among others, actually confirmed that the church of Rome is fundamentally contrary to the NT church, as it did not begin under the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility, which is the basis for RC assurance of Truth. Nor with the presuppositions RCs argue for it, which is that an infallible magisterium is essential for correctly discerning what writings (and men) are of God, and thus they are to be followed in all other things, and that being the historical magisterium and steward of Divine revelation men Rome is that infallible magisterium.

Nonetheless, God has always preserved a remnant, and no matter how callous, corrupt, controlling and even confused Catholicism became, there were always souls who saw Christ thru the religious trappings. And as God has always raised up men from without the magisterium to reprove it if needed, and thus the church began, so the Reformation was a judgment upon a recalcitrant institutionalized corrupt organization. And thus the gates of Hell, which Rome largely is, were prevailed against by the church as the body of Christ.

Which is the only one true church, as it alone 100% consists of true believers, while the visible church does not, but both wheat and tares express their faith in it.

And in addition to ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility, there are many other things which renders Rome to be the largest deformation of the NT church.

But the worst thing about the current mess is that it has caused so many people to drop out and leave over the years. Their loss. Their terrible loss.

Wrong. Very wrong, as Scripture actually commands,

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

At least SSPV and SSPX types see the contrast btwn modern Rome and its historical past and separate to different degrees, yet they actually separate into more strongly held errors. But multitudes of former RCs (as myself) become born again , by God's grace, and left mostly dead and largely liberal Rome and found spiritually alive evangelical churches, which most strongly hold to the authority of Scripture as literally being the wholly inspired and accurate word of God.

And which testify to the most unity in basic conservative beliefs, in stark contrast to the overall fruit of Catholicism.

And rather than that move being loss, it is a gain, while the terrible loss is to be as most Caths, yet dead in sins and never knowing their day of salvation, or regeneration with its profound changes in heart and life, as instead they are deceived into thinking they (most) became born again as infants via sprinkling of water, thus no conversion was needed, and got the questions and (usually perfunctory) professions correct as "Confirmation," and much trust that their own merits and those of Rome will eventually get them into glory. After become good enough thru purgatory.

The redeemed have come to God as souls damned for their works - not saved because of them - and destitute of any means or merit whereby they may escape their just and eternal punishment in Hell Fire and gain eternal life with God. And with contrite heart have cast their whole-hearted repentant faith upon the mercy of God in Christ, trusting the risen Divine Lord Jesus to save them by His sinless shed blood. (Rm. 3:9 - 5:1) And whose faith is thus counted as righteousness, but it is a faith that will follow Him.

May all join them, to the glory of God which enables and motivates man to faith.

What did you read of Cardinal Newman’s? If Iyou would

Here are some you will not get from RCs here.

In a later age the worship of images was introduced [Note 11]. {371} 4. The principle of the distinction, by which these observances were pious in Christianity and superstitious in paganism, is implied in such passages of Tertullian, Lactantius, and others, as speak of evil spirits lurking under the pagan statues. It is intimated also by Origen, who, after saying that Scripture so strongly “forbids temples, altars, and images,” that Christians are “ready to go to death, if necessary, rather than pollute their notion of the God of all by any such transgression,” assigns as a reason “that, as far as possible, they might not fall into the notion that images were gods.”

...the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class...

In the course of the fourth century two movements or developments spread over the face of Christendom, with a rapidity characteristic of the Church; the one ascetic, the other ritual or ceremonial. We are told in various ways by Eusebius [Note 16], that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own. It is not necessary to go into a subject which the diligence of Protestant writers has made familiar to most of us.

The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison [Note 17], are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church. {374}

The introduction of Images was still later, and met with more opposition in the West than in the East. John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Chapter 8. Application of the Third Note of a True Development—Assimilative Power; www.newmanreader.org/works/development/chapter8.html

“It never could be, that so large a portion of Christendom should have split off from the communion of Rome, and kept up a protest for 300 years for nothing. I think I shall never believe that so much piety and earnestness would be found among Protestants, if there were not some very grave errors on the side of Rome. To ” John Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua

“Christians have never gone to Scripture for proof of their doctrines until there was actual need, from the pressure of controversy...” — Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey" contained in Newman's "Difficulties of Anglicans" Volume II, Dignity of Mary; http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/newman-mary.asp

..in all cases the immediate motive in the mind of a Catholic for his reception of them is, not that they are proved to him by Reason or by History, but because Revelation has declared them by means of that high ecclesiastical Magisterium which is their legitimate exponent.” — John Henry Newman, “A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk on Occasion of Mr. Gladstone's Recent Expostulation.” 8. The Vatican Council lhttp://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/section8.html

It does not seem possible, then, to avoid the conclusion that, whatever be the proper key for harmonizing the records and documents of the early and later Church, and true as the dictum of Vincentius must be considered in the abstract, and possible as its application might be in his own age, when he might almost ask the primitive centuries for their testimony, it is hardly available now, or effective of any satisfactory result. The solution it offers is as difficult as the original problem. — John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., reprinted 1927), p. 27.

The dictum of Vincentius Newman mentions is the fantasy that Catholic doctrine was believed always by everyone, everywhere, which research renders unsustainable. Even Catholic researchers provide testimony against the propaganda that the early church looked to Peter as the first of a line of infallible supreme popes.

A Eastern Orthodox site states,

Roman Catholicism, unable to show a continuity of faith and in order to justify new doctrine, erected in the last century, a theory of "doctrinal development."

Following the philosophical spirit of the time (and the lead of Cardinal Henry Newman), Roman Catholic theologians began to define and teach the idea that Christ only gave us an "original deposit" of faith, a "seed," which grew and matured through the centuries. The Holy Spirit, they said, amplified the Christian Faith as the Church moved into new circumstances and acquired other needs.

Consequently, Roman Catholicism, pictures its theology as growing in stages, to higher and more clearly defined levels of knowledge. The teachings of the Fathers, as important as they are, belong to a stage or level below the theology of the Latin Middle Ages (Scholasticism), and that theology lower than the new ideas which have come after it, such as Vatican II.

All the stages are useful, all are resources; and the theologian may appeal to the Fathers, for example, but they may also be contradicted by something else, something higher or newer.

On this basis, theories such as the dogmas of "papal infallibility" and "the immaculate conception" of the Virgin Mary (about which we will say more) are justifiably presented to the Faithful as necessary to their salvation. http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/ortho_cath.html

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