Roman Catholicism
by Finbarr Corr
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Roman Catholicism |
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We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior, that he founded Christianity on the Twelve Apostles, as is recorded in the New Testament. We also believe that after Peter confessed to Jesus, “Thou are the Christ the Son of the Living God” [Mt 16 v 16] Jesus appointed him head of the church when he responded to Peter, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” We believe that Jesus died for our sins, rose again on the third day and ascended body and soul into heaven. Ten days later the third person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, descended on the Apostles on Pentecost Sunday and has being guiding the Christian Church from then until this very day.
The disciples of Jesus, who included the twelve, went two by two as the first missionaries teaching the fundamentals of the new religion all throughout the known world.
St Paul (originally called Saul) had for many years persecuted Christians until his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus became the Apostle to the Gentiles (Acts: Chapter 16). He wanted all converts to Christianity to be circumcised, as was the tradition for all male Jewish babies. Peter and Paul resolved the conflict with the decision being made by Peter that all that was necessary for salvation was being baptized and belief in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. (Acts: Chapter 15) From that point on, Peter became not just the titular head of the church but, according to the faith, the Vicar of Christ on earth. He ruled the faithful in Christ’s name. He established the headquarters of the new religion in Rome and henceforth it became known as the Roman Catholic Church. We believe that we are the descendants of that same church founded by Jesus.
We are taught that over the centuries, conflict and divisions occurred in the Church, which led to schisms and the formation of different Christian faiths. The first major conflict occurred between Eastern and Western Christians over the divinity of Jesus. The East claimed he was “like” God while the West proclaimed he was actually God, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. This schism resulted in the creation of the Orthodox Christian Church.
Martin Luther led another schism from the original Christian religion when he proclaimed that Roman Catholicism was selling indulgences, which meant in fact that a person could buy their way into heaven. King Henry VIII caused the Church of England to break away from Rome when the pope refused to allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragón and marry Ann Bolin. The Anglican Church, which resulted from that schism, is similar to Roman Catholicism in it beliefs and liturgy.
What makes the Catholic church unique among other faiths can be summarized in four basic beliefs or traditions:
1) Belief in the Blessed Trinity, three persons in one God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit
2) Devotion to the Eucharist and celebration of the Holy Mass
3) Devotion to the blessed Virgin Mary, as the mother of God (Jesus)
4) Loyalty to the Holy Father, bishop of Rome, who rules as Vicar of Christ.
The failures and mistakes in Roman Catholicism, both now and over the centuries, pales in comparison to the good achieved and supported by Roman Catholics over the centuries. The Catholic Church is unmatched in its devotion and care of the sick, exercised daily in the thousands of Catholic hospitals throughout the world. Secondly, the church’s preferential option for the poor, carried out through all the Catholic Charity agencies is an example and challenge to governments all over the world. In the United States, the Catholic Church created Catholic education and established Catholic schools in every state of the Union to guarantee that young Catholic students would get equal education with public school students that would include a formation and education in Catholic faith and morality.
Critics of our faith would claim that the Catholic Church created guilt, probably because we were the only church, Christian or other that, required all members to confess their sins to a priest a minimum of once a year. The sacrament of “Penance,” which the average Catholic received at least monthly up until the nineteen sixties, was a prerequisite to receiving the Body of Christ in “Holy Communion” if a person had committed a grave sin since their previous confession. Besides “Penance” and “Holy Communion,” the Church administered divine graces through five additional sacraments. “Baptism” was usually administered by a priest on babies to initiate them into membership in the church, while simultaneously wiping away Original sin, inherited from Adam’s sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. As a teenager, the young Catholic receives the gift of the Holy Spirit as the local bishop administers the sacrament of “Confirmation,” to make them an advocate of Christ. The candidate to the priesthood receives grace in the sacrament of “Ordination” when his bishop imposes his hands on the candidate’s head, making him a priest forever according to order of Melchizedek. The bride and groom are the ministers of the sacrament of “Marriage,” giving them the grace to grow in love and be faithful to each for the rest of their married life. The final sacrament, now called “Anointing of the Sick,” was traditionally given when adults were in proximate danger of death, preparing him or her for their final journey to Heaven.
Catholics believe in Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, where individual souls would go after death depending, on the state of their immortal souls at the time of death. At one point, there was also a place known as “Limbo,” where Roman Catholics believed the souls of the un-baptized rested without any pain or suffering. Purgatory is a temporary place of suffering where the souls of the departed go to make good on the temporary punishment due on sins before they enjoy the Beatific Vision of Heaven. Heaven and Hell are self-explanatory.
At various times in history, the Pope - serving as chief shepherd of billions of Catholics all over the world - calls an ecumenical council, either to correct some wrong, or to update the church, to make it more relevant to the current world. In the early sixties, Pope John XX111 called the cardinals, bishops and selected theologians to participate in the Second Vatican Council. The aging Holy Father said, “Let’s open the windows of the Church and let in some fresh air.” To traditional Catholics the shock of those changes reverberated in all the churches and cathedrals of the world. For a start, the Latin Mass was replaced with liturgies being celebrated in each country’s native language. The personnel at liturgies switched from being all male to having both women and men as lectors, mass servers and distributors of Holy Communion. These dramatic changes led to the ordination of married men as Deacons and the sharing of authority originally held by the pope being shared with the College of Cardinals. Unfortunately, this “aggiornamento,” as this renewal was called, was short lived in the minds of progressive Catholics. One major change that began and continues today is the dialogue that began with Christians, Jews and Muslims. There is now a respectful attitude toward other faiths and to individuals who choose Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam for their religious journey.
It is the belief of the average Roman Catholic that, just as the church survived the Crusades, the Reformation and other challenges, so it will also survive the latest tragedy of the harm done by pedophile priests and the bishops who moved them from parish to parish. “Why?” you may ask. The answer is simple for the faith-filled Catholic - the Holy Spirit still guides the Church, in spite of the human weaknesses of its leaders. Those outside the church and many inside ask, why the Vatican not considers ordaining married men or women as priests to cope with the vocation crisis. The answer to that is “when the Holy Spirit guides it to do so”.
The key to holiness in the Catholic Church is having a personal relationship with Jesus. To achieve this goal, the progressive Catholic is not shy in reaching out to Buddhism or Hinduism to learn how to meditate or do Centering Prayer. We look forward as Catholics to building bridges of friendship and tolerance with people of all faiths through dialogue and praying together.
I end with a prayer to Jesus I learned as a child,
“I give you my body that it may be chaste and pure.
I give you my soul that it may be free from sin.
I give you my heart that it may forever love you.
I give thee every breath that I may breathe,
especially my last.
I give myself in life and in death that I may
Be with you forever and ever.
Amen.”