By JOE SIX-PACK
When talking about religion, I find it sad when I hear people say things like “The only thing that matters is that we all believe in the same God” or “One Christian religion is just as good as another” or “Let’s just agree to disagree.”
These comments are saddening because they all demonstrate a scandal of Christianity. There are so many Christian religions to choose from that people have become indifferent to the whole idea of thinking about which church is the right one to belong to. But we Catholics can honestly and should assertively say, “Jesus established one Christian religion, and that religion is the Catholic Church!”
The ecumenical movement of the 70s did far more damage than good. We squandered a perfect opportunity to gather millions of converts to Jesus’ Church, but those leaders of the movement were terrified by the idea of offending non-Catholics. In reality, we should’ve demonstrated to non-Catholics the things we have in common with their Christian religions, then led them to the reality of the Church founded by Christ. And proving the Catholic Church is the only one established by Christ is the focus of this column.
There are a number of proofs that the Catholic Church was established by Christ. The first proof I always point to is history. John Henry Cardinal Newman, arguably the greatest Christian apologist of the nineteenth century, was a member of the Oxford Movement — a vehemently anti-Catholic organization in England.
Fellow members tasked the young Anglican scholar with writing a history of Christianity. On the day his new Christian history was rolling off the printing press, Newman was being received into the Catholic Church. When asked what caused him to turn from his vehement anti-Catholicism and convert to Catholicism, his response was quite simple. He said, “To know history is to be Catholic.” Why? Because history alone proves that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ. We should all read Church history, because nothing will instill pride more.
By the way, it was also Cardinal Newman who said the greatest tragedy in the Church is an ignorant laity. That’s just some food for thought.
That Jesus founded the Catholic Church can also be proven from Sacred Scripture. The establishment of the Church came in the very act when Jesus made St. Peter the first Pope.
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’” (Matt. 16:13-19).
This passage is incredibly pregnant! Indeed, so much is said in these few words that we can’t possibly cover it all in the limited space here. We will, however, spend a lot of time covering this passage thoroughly in later installments of this column. For now, though, let’s just deal with the elephant-in-the-middle-of-the-room.
Anti-Catholic Protestants who believe in sola Scriptura, the belief that all divine truth comes from the Bible alone, love to bring up the fact that the word Catholic is nowhere in the Bible. That’s most certainly true, but it’s a paper tiger argument. After all, neither “Trinity” nor “Bible” is anywhere in Sacred Scripture, yet all of Christianity believe in the Bible and the Trinity.
The earliest known use of the word Catholic comes from St. Ignatius of Antioch in the year AD 107. Writing to the other churches (called dioceses today) while on his way to martyrdom, St. Ignatius wrote: “Where the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be; even as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”
Notice that St. Ignatius didn’t write of the Catholic Church as if he were giving it a new name, but rather as though the name had long been in use. It’s reasonably safe to assume, then, that the Church was probably called Catholic during the latter part of the first century. Since John the Apostle probably knew Ignatius, it’s likely that St. John the Apostle knew the Church by the name of Catholic. Besides, Ignatius was martyred in AD 107, and John died around 100.
What’s the significance of the word Catholic? It comes from the Greek word, katholikos, which means “universal.” The Catholic Church is most certainly universal; that is, for all men of all times in all places.
St. Ignatius is the earliest recorded person to call the Church Catholic, but he most certainly isn’t the only one to do so. The patristic document Martyrdom of Polycarp mentions “The Catholic Church” (AD 155) in three passages (viii, 1; xvi, 2; xix, 2). Tertullian (AD 200) uses the word katholikos when he means the Catholic Church (Ad Marcion, iv, 4; De Praes., xxx). St. Augustine (AD 340) uses the same word as a synonym for the Church 240 times in his writings.
I’m concluding this first column installment proving that Jesus established the Catholic Church because space dictates that I have to stop here, but I want to take a moment to explain why I’ve decided to jump right in and begin with proving that Jesus established the Catholic Church.
Cafeteria Catholicism is a widespread disease in the Church these days. Even while a lot of very good Catholics bemoan Cafeteria Catholicism, I witness the hypocrisy of their actions all the time. When they hear something they don’t like, they’re inclined to say they don’t agree with the Church about that particular thing. When it comes to speculative theology or a doctrine that hasn’t been defined that’s acceptable, but when it’s not those things, to disagree with the Church on that teaching is to sinfully disagree with Jesus. After all, He said to the apostles, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). So I want to stop any tendency toward Cafeteria Catholicism from the beginning.
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