A Deo et Rege

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about Catholic
misconceptions, but given the large number of questions and assumptions about this subject from
people visiting my prayer page for the Pope, I wanted to briefly address it. First,
Catholics do NOT believe that the Pope is God. The Pope is a man, albeit one
that we Catholics believe has been called to the highest office in the Church
and when exercising that office has special gifts and prerogatives. So, why do we
call him holy father then?

Even the word pope comes from the Latin for papa, i.e. dad.
The pope functions as an earthly father to God’s family, much like St. Joseph functioned as
a foster father to Jesus while on earth, or a child has his own earthly father.
None of these take away from God’s ultimate and supreme position as Father. In
fact, especially if the earthly father is holy and has integrity, then God’s
role as Father is more clearly modeled and understood. In this way, John Paul
II especially has revealed God’s love to so many people.

So, why do we call him “holy” father? This is related to why
we call the Church “holy” in the creeds. In spite of a membership of sinners,
she is holy because her head, Christ, is holy. The catechism states:

"The Church . . . is held, as a matter of faith, to
be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with
the Father and the Spirit is hailed as ‘alone holy,’ loved the Church
as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he
joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the
Holy Spirit for the glory of God." The Church, then, is "the holy People of God," and her members are called "saints." (#823)

Also, in spite of a Pope’s human frailties, he can be called holy because of his office as Pope.
Once again, the holiness that comes from this office comes not from him or his actions, but only from the
holiness and grace of Christ, which we believe he gives to all in the Church
who seek him.

In conclusion, please do not confuse what we are saying. However,
we speak with affection towards John Paul II because to Catholics, he is our
spiritual earthly father, one who has graciously modeled the love of the Father
in heaven to us. And, like an earthly father, his sickness and nearing death are
heartbreaking. This little essay is NOT meant to start a debate, but to help people understand where we come from, whether agreed or not.

Sources and further reading:

Essay XI: Rev. George D. Smith
Is the Pope A Holy Father?
Andrew Apologetic Ministries
Catechism of the Catholic Church

It’s a common myth that Catholics aren’t supposed to read the Bible or that the Church actively works to keep Bibles out of the hands of the laity. This myth, of course, is false. Here is what the catechism says about the reading of Scripture:

“And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigour, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life.” Hence “access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful” (#131)

“Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture” (#132)

“The Church “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful… to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (#133)”

So, the Catholic Church not only doesn’t prohibit her members from reading the Bible, but she forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to read the Bible! Plus, unlike many Protestant Churches, a large amount of Scripture is read during the Sunday mass. Each service has an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a reading from an epistle, and a section of a Gospel. This works out to about 2-4 chapters from the Bible each week. Also, the whole liturgy of the mass is filled with references to the Scriptures.

I must add one thing, though. I thought of calling this post: “Catholics Don’t Read the Bible.” However, that would not be much of a myth, which is quite unfortunate. Statistically, 59% of Protestants read their Bibles weekly (86% of Evangelicals) vs. only 28% of Catholics. Given the pronouncement in the catechism, that number (even outside the weekly worship) should be 100%.

Photo of the Douay Rheims Bible from: FSSP

I’ve heard it said many times: The Catholic Church believes everyone else is going to hell.  Unfortunately many Protestants are more than happy to return this supposed favor.  However, the Catholic Church does not teach that all Protestants are going to hell.  Nor does she teach that all non-Christians are going to hell.  Regarding other Christians the Catechism says:

"However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers …. All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church." (#818).

and

"Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity." (#819).

So, the Catholic Church recognizes that many in other churches, by their baptism, are rightly called Christians.  These communities have elements of the Truth and God can use them as a means of salvation.

The Catholic Church even recognizes that non-Christians who have not heard the Gospel may be saved as well:

"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation" (847).

Of course, the Catholic Church has (fortunately) not embraced the heresy of the modernist ecumenical movement which seeks to blend religions and offend no one.  The Catholic Faith is the beginning and end of all interfaith and interchurch discussions and there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church.  The grace of non-Catholic communities is bound to their communion (however imperfect) and shared beliefs with the see of Rome.  Again the catechism says:

"For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God." (#816).

So, the Catholic Church doesn’t believe all non-Catholics are hellbound.  Those who legitimately don’t know the necessity of joining the Catholic Church and don’t reject her can be saved even while in their own communities.  Yet, this salvation and grace come from the Catholic Church and does not negate missionary activity towards Protestants and non-Christians.  Above all, we must remember that the Catholic Church often tells us who is in heaven (the Saints), but isn’t in the business of telling us who is in hell.  That’s God’s call.

Image from: CGFA (Obviously, I enhanced the photo).

This is another biggie, especially since many fundamentalist or evangelical Protestant groups say they “believe in the Bible.” So, anyone who doesn’t believe like they do automatically must “not believe in the Bible!” It’s not that simple of course. The Bible is a diverse collection of books full of diverse stories, concepts, and ideas. It is not a systematic theology. Thus, it must be interpreted. Catholics do believe the Bible and have the highest regard for it; we just interpret it differently than the evangelical Protestants. Here is what the catechism says about the Scriptures:

“In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, “but as what it really is, the word of God”. “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them”" (#104).

“For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself” (#106).

“The inspired books teach the truth. “Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures”" (#107).

So, according to the catechism, God is the author of Scripture, it is God’s word, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it teaches God’s truth without error. This sounds like Catholics have a pretty strong belief in the Bible to me! Of course, the Catholic Church believes that the Bible is interpreted by the Church, but this is not arbitrary. The Scriptures are interpreted by the Spirit working through Christ’s Church, the same Spirit who inspired the writers of Sacred Scripture, the same Advocate whom Jesus promised would guide us into all Truth (John 16:13). Catholics believe that promise was fulfilled and is still being fulfilled today.

For more information, check out: Objection: Catholics Don’t Believe the Bible!

I had to start with the biggie, a common charge: Catholics worship the Blessed Virgin Mary. And of course, we all know that worship is due to God alone! Catholics know that too and we emphatically do not worship Mary. The catechism says:

“This very special devotion [to Mary]…differs essentially from the adoration given to the Incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #971, emphasis mine).

So, we greatly honor the Blessed Virgin Mary but do not worship her. Adoration is due to God alone, but Mary may be honored. And, as the Mother of the Word Incarnate, she is accorded the highest honor due a creature. Yet, she is still a creature and cannot be worshipped as the Holy Trinity is worshipped. It seems like a fine line to many people, but it’s still a line the Church draws. I see many Protestant men and women who are totally devoted to their husbands or wives. Does this detract from their worship of God? It shouldn’t! In fact, many married people find that the deeper the devotion and unconditional love they give to their spouse, the deeper the love and adoration they develop for the Church’s Spouse. As the Church document Behold Your Mother states: “the more we know and love Mary, the more surely will we know and love Jesus and understand His mission in the world.”

Note: The photo is of an old church in Lifou, Loyalty islands, New Caledonia

Even as an Anglican, I heard all of the Catholic misconceptions. Sometimes they came from honest, charitable people who had simply uncritically believed all they had read on the internet. Many times they came from people whose hatred of the Catholic Church was thinly veiled. Unfortunately, anti-Catholicism has a long history (especially in the USA) and with that comes a long list of lies, half truths, and distortions. For the next few weeks I’m going to start posting some “Catholic Misconceptions” and tell what the Catholic Church really teaches. Although I may elaborate, I will largely post official documents and let them speak for themselves. If in doubt, just go to the source! This won’t be the sole purpose of this blog, but it should be interesting.